Biomedical subjects

Kenneth Eklund

Publications and source records attributed to Kenneth Eklund.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Predicting delayed letter knowledge development and its relation to grade 1 reading achievement among children with and without familial risk for dyslexia.

The authors examined the developmental trajectories of children's early letter knowledge in relation to measures spanning and encompassing their prior language-related and cognitive measures and environmental factors and their subsequent Grade 1 reading achievement. Letter knowledge was assessed longitudinally at ages 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, and 6.5 years; earlier language skills and environmental factors were assessed at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years; and reading achievement was assessed at the beginning and end of Grade 1. The analyses were conducted on a longitudinal data set involving children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Emerging from the trajectory analysis of letter knowledge were 3 separate clusters: delayed (n = 63), linearly growing (n = 73), and precocious (n = 51). The members of the delayed cluster were predominantly children with familial risk for dyslexia, and the members of the precocious cluster were predominantly control group children. Phonological sensitivity, phonological memory, and rapid naming skills predicted delayed letter knowledge. Environmental predictors included level of maternal education and the amount of letter name teaching. Familial risk for dyslexia made a significant contribution to the predictive relations. Membership in the delayed cluster predicted poor reading performance at Grade 1.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2004

The development of children at familial risk for dyslexia: birth to early school age.

Children at risk for familial dyslexia (n = 107) and their controls (n = 93) have been followed from birth to school entry in the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD) on developmental factors linked to reading and dyslexia. At the point of school entry, the majority of the at-risk children displayed decoding ability that fell at least 1 SD below the mean of the control group. Measures of speech processing were the earliest indices to show both group differences in infancy and also significant predictive associations with reading acquisition. A number of measures of language, including phonological and morphological skill collected repeatedly from age three, revealed group differences and predictive correlations. Both the group differences and the predictive associations to later language and reading ability strengthened as a function of increasing age. The predictions, however, tend to be stronger and the spectrum of significant correlations wider in the at-risk group. These results are crucial to early identification and intervention of dyslexia in at-risk children.

Case-Control Studies↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cry characteristics of 172 healthy 1-to 7-day-old infants.

A total of 1,836 cry signals from 172 healthy babies, 1-7 days old, were analysed with sound spectrography. The mean values for the 8-15 cries from each infant were calculated and used for the statistical analyses. The mean duration of the cry signals was 1.4 +/- 0.6 s. The mean fundamental frequency was 496 +/- 95 cps (Hz). Fifty percent of the mean fundamental frequencies in the 8-15 cries analysed from each baby varied between 450 and 520 Hz. Of the children, 93% had cries with a mean fundamental frequency below 600 Hz. The mean value of the highest point of the fundamental frequency was 583 +/- 151 Hz and of the lowest point 398 +/- 75 Hz. The melody type had mainly a rising-falling contour, though the difference between the highest and the lowest point was often rather small. There were no significant differences noted in the cry characteristics according to gender, the age of the infants or the gestational age when they were born.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The play and language behavior of mothers with and without dyslexia and its association to their toddlers' language development.

The play and language behavior of mothers with (n = 49) and without (n = 49) specific reading disabilities (RD) was investigated during play with their 14-month-old children. The contribution of maternal behavior to the language development of their children was examined. The children's receptive and expressive language skills were assessed longitudinally at 14, 18, and 30 months, using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories and the Reynell Developmental Language Scales. Children with and without familial risk for RD did not differ from each other in any play or language measures at these ages. No group differences were found for mothers' manifestations of nonsymbolic play and language. However, the typically reading (TR) mothers produced significantly more symbolic play and language in play interactions with their child than did the mothers with RD. The correspondence between mother-child symbolic play and maternal play-related language was also higher for the TR group than it was for the RD group. The mothers' symbolic play did not show any relation to their children's language development, but their expressions of symbolic language did show a relationship. The mothers' child-directed symbolic language contributed significantly toward the comprehension skills of 14- and 18-month-olds in the RD group. This association, however, was lower at 30 months, at which point it was reliably present for the first time in the TR group.

Child Language↗