Stavroula Stavrakaki & Maria Voulgaraki
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
svoula@itl.auth.gr, marigakivou@gmail.com

Recent findings indicate that autistic symptoms can be manifested in other neurodevelopmental disorders and do not exclusively appear in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Bishop & Norbury, 2002). On the one hand, it has been found that children with Williams Syndrome (WS), described as unusually social and empathetic in the past, show deficits in social awareness and communication skills. On the other hand, it has been shown that children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), considered specifically language impaired in the past, show impairments in the domain of social interaction.

Taking into account the above background, this study provides further investigation into the detection and description of autistic symptomatology in other neurodevelopmental disorders, specifically in WS and DLD, by employing innovative experimentation and applying it in Greek speaking samples. More specifically, three clinical groups and one group of typically developing children (TDC), which did not differ in chronological age (CA), participated in this study: 20 with ASD (Mean CA:10.4), 25 with DLD (Mean CA:9.6), 3 children with WS (Mean CA:10.8) and 120 TDC (Mean CA:10.2). In addition to the official reports for the diagnosis of the clinical groups, we performed further clinical assessment for their linguistic and cognitive abilities with standardized tests (e.g. Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test^GR and Action Picture Test^GR). To detect autistic symptomatology, we developed experimental tasks assessing deception, faux pas, and irony comprehension. All tasks included simple, everyday life stories (32 in total), visualized and supported by video presentation. We also used a non-verbal Theory of Mind (ToM) task, supported by pictures, to assess further the children's socio-cognitive skills (Giannakou, 2008). All participants were tested individually.

Non parametric between group statistics (Kruskal-Wallis test) indicated that all clinical groups performed significantly lower than the TDC group. Further individual data analysis was carried out according to which performances 1.5 standard deviation (SD) below typical mean were considered impaired. We found that there were participants with ASD or DLD that performed within the typical range, while all children with WS performed 1.5 SD below typical mean.

We conclude, thus, that the participants with WS suffered from severe impairment in the tested domains. With respect to ASD and DLD, based on further correlation analysis, we suggest that different factors contributed to typical performance. While for ASD typical performance is related to high linguistic and cognitive skills, for DLD typical performance is related to CA. As DLD performance improves with age, we assume a developmental delay in socio-cognitive skills in DLD, which mature over time. In sum, our results indicate the presence of autistic symptomatology in other neurodevelopmental disorders in addition to ASD, which is, nevertheless, related to specific developmental factors.

References

Bishop, D., & Norbury, C. F. (2002). Exploring the borderlands of autistic disorder and specific language impairment: A study using standardized diagnostic instruments. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 4, 917–929.

Giannakou, Μ. (2008). Theory of mind in schizophrenia [Doctoral thesis]. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Georgia Andreou, & Vassilliki Lymperopoulou
University of Thessaly
andreou@uth.gr, lymperopoulouv@gmail.com

Pragmatic language (PL) has been considered strength for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) compared to other linguistic levels in which difficulties are severe and obvious. However, there are studies that provide evidence for several deficits in the pragmatic domain of language (e.g. Davies et al., 2016). Some of the difficulties faced by children with DLD include social cognitive understanding, lower ratings of PL competence, and difficulty in the analysis of the linguistic context in pragmatic tasks. More specifically, they have difficulty in initiating speech, whilst undergoing a passive role and they have limited social interaction and poor conversational skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate pragmatic abilities on the part of children with DLD. The participants of the study were 25 children with DLD and 25 typically developing (TD) children, aged 6-8 years, matched for age and gender. The Test of Language Perception and Expression (Vogindroukas & Grigoriadou, 2009) and the Greek version of the Children Communication Checklist-2 (Bishop 2003; Georgiou & Spanoudis, 2021) were administered to the participants. The results showed that the DLD group performed weaker than the TD group in almost all measures and especially in the tasks related to general communicative competence, giving support to previous research claiming difficulties in the pragmatic language in DLD. The findings of this study provide useful information on the pragmatic abilities of DLD children in the Greek language. This information can be used for the design of educational practices that will strengthen the pragmatic language of children with DLD and thus contribute to the improvement of their interaction and the development of social relationships in the context of inclusive education.

References

Bishop, D. (2003). The children’s communication checklist—2. London: Psychological Corporation.

Davies, C., Andres-Roqueta, C., & Norbury, C. F. (2016). Referring expressions and structural language abilities in children with specific language impairment: a pragmatic tolerance account. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 144, 98–113.

Georgiou, N., & Spanoudis, G. (2021). Developmental language disorder and autism: commonalities and differences on Language. Brain Sciences, 11(5), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050589

Vogindroukas, I., & Grigoriadou, E. (2009). Test of language perception and expression. Chania: Glafki.

Athanasiadou Panagiota
University of Thessaly
yiotathan@gmail.com

In the past few years, the number of students with specific reading disability (SRD) has been steadily increasing. One of the most challenging courses for Greek students is the English language course because English is a phonologically non-transparent language. Therefore, decoding, fluency and comprehension are severely affected resulting in the underperformance of students with SRD. Assessing reading comprehension uniformly for all students leads to non-representative results, thus several accommodations have been suggested to remedy the situation. However, not all of them are extensively investigated while some present ambivalent results regarding their effectiveness (Sireci & Scarpati, 2003). The accommodation discussed in the present study refers to the alteration of the structure of the questions assessing reading comprehension. Despite the wide use of horizontal structure in the Greek educational system, vertical presentation is promoted since SRD learners can more accurately and quickly read shorter sentences with adequate spacing (Caldani et al., 2020), as they present saccadic movements of lower duration and cannot easily focus on all words carrying important information (de Avelar et al., 2015). Horizontal structure creates the impression of longer sentences with no proper spacing, leading SRD learners to finding difficulties even in understanding where each item ends. In the current study, it is investigated whether vertical structure leads to improvement in the performance of SRD and typical learners. An additional aim is the examination of accommodation validity in the light of the Interaction Theory. 92 students have completed a placement test with the aim of level homogeneity (B2 according to the Common European Framework for Languages scale) as well as WISC-III and A-test aiming at the specification of their profile. Two forms of a reading comprehension test were administered to four groups. The two forms included reading texts of similar difficulty and length. The two conditions (standard and accommodated) were compared in a design of repeated measures type, which controls the effect of order, where all students were measured in all conditions. The results of the study showed that the SRD group presented lower performance compared to the typical group; however, their performance improved under the accommodated format. The typical group did not present any significant change in performance. Furthermore, the effect of fatigue and the interaction between group, accommodation and form sequence was not statistically significant.

References

Caldani, S., Gerard, C. L., Peyre, H., & Bucci, M. P. (2020). Visual attentional training improves reading capabilities in children with dyslexia: An eye tracker study during a reading task. Brain sciences, 10(8), 558.

de Avelar, L. O., Rezende, G. C., & Freire, A. P. (2015). WebHelpDyslexia: A browser extension to adapt web content for people with dyslexia. Procedia Computer Science, 67, 150–159.

Sireci, S. G., Li, S. & Scarpati, S. (2003). The effects of test accommodations on test performance: A review of the literature. Center for Educational Assessment Research Report No. 485. Amherst, MA: School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Faye Antoniou & Athanasios Papakostas
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
fayeantoniou@eds.uoa.gr, thpapakostas@gmail.com

The importance of teaching English in the Greek educational system has grown over time, as seen by the introduction of the pertinent school topic at younger and younger ages (Anastasiadou, 2010). However, at the moment, the most systematic instruction of primary school students in English as a Foreign Language starts from the third grade through the selective approach. In Greece, the pilot implementation of teaching from the first grade began in 2010 (Alexiou & Mattheoudakis, 2013). Apart from mentions of differentiation in the school textbook, the Greek educational system has neither developed a differentiated curriculum for English as a foreign language for students with learning disabilities nor proposed any didactic modifications. There aren't many studies on teaching literacy to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students who struggle with learning. In fact, most of the available recommendations in the literature regarding effective teaching programs for this category of students come from research conducted on students of EFL without difficulties or on native English speakers who face MD (Correa & Miller, 2014).

The aim of this study was the effectiveness evaluation of an instructional program for the enhancement of vocabulary and reading comprehension skills in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) beginner students with and without Learning Disabilities (LD) in the Greek public school. Participants were 3rd graders from public elementary schools in Attica. All students were administered standardized screening tests for LD before the intervention onset, and nonstandardized tests of vocabulary and reading comprehension before and after the intervention period. The ‘Word-O-Saurs’ instructional program was taught by the regular EFL school teachers that comprised the experimental group by implementing structured instructional materials and handbook, while teachers in the control group implemented regular lesson as defined in the regular teacher’s book. Students in the experimental group worked in groups and teachers employed the Direct and Explicit Instruction of cognitive and metacognitive strategies for phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and reading comprehension skills. The results showed statistically significant differences in favour of the experimental group in reading comprehension. The ‘Word-O-Saurs’ program was more effective than regular EFL instruction in reading comprehension for students with and without LD, in spite of the control group’s advantage in vocabulary skills after the end of the interventional program.

References

Alexiou, T., & Mattheoudakis, M. (2013). Introducing a foreign language at primary level: Benefits or lost opportunities? The case of Greece. Research Papers in Language Teaching and Learning, 4(1), 99–119.

Anastasiadou, A. (2010). Implementing the process writing approach in the English language classroom: an innovation for the development of young learners' writing skills in the Greek state primary school [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Correa, V. I., & Miller, R. (2014). What is high quality instruction for English language learners in inclusive schools. In J. McLeskey, N. L. Waldron, F. Spooner, & B. Algozzine (Eds.), Handbook of effective inclusive schools: Research and practice (pp. 136–154). New York: Routledge.

Polyxeni Konstantinopoulou, Savvas Anastasiadis, Vasiliki Kalfa, & Stavroula Stavrakaki
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
polykon@plandevel.auth.gr, sanastas@auth.gr, vasilikik@auth.gr, svoula@itl.auth.gr

Foreign Language (FL) teachers play a critical role in the formation of a supportive learning and teaching environment in the school unit for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) (Kormos, 2020). However, research in this area remains relatively limited, and there is a lack of feedback on the role of FL teachers themselves in designing and implementing appropriate teaching inclusion approaches.

The main aim of the present study is to investigate educational materials, teaching methods and FL teachers’ attitudes towards SEN in their classes in Greece. More specifically, the research questions are: whether general and special education FL teachers (1) identify students with SEN and how they are addressed/managed, (2) have SEN materials and what teaching methods they use, and (3) investigating the needs of FL teachers regarding the adequacy of FL teaching to students with SEN. 151 preschool, primary and secondary FL teachers (English, French, German) working in general and special education in public and private schools in Greece participated in this study. An online questionnaire was used for data collection. In more details, the questionnaire included four steps (step 1-Information note, step 2-Declaration of consent, step 3-Participant details, step 4-Questionnaire) with 31 questions in total (mainly closed-ended questions) and the data collection was made through the Lime Survey platform.

The findings indicated that while half of the teachers believe that SEN difficulties become more visible in the FL than in their mother tongue, they are not always able to identify the type/category of the SEN of their students. Strikingly, only 59% of the teachers have received their students’ diagnosis, which apparently does not help them in developing a proper teaching approach to meet their students’ needs. In addition, while the majority of the teachers (67% of the teachers) use the material of the mainstream school they work, they do not feel completely satisfied with these materials. Specifically, only 6% of them feel completely satisfied with these mainstream school materials. As a consequence, 66% of the teachers design their own or buy specialized material. However, they still feel relatively satisfied with it. The overwhelming majority of the teachers try to differentiate their way of teaching and, in addition, they are willing to seek help and advice from a qualified professional about how they can adapt or approach teaching and assessment. However, only 30% of the schools provide cooperation with other professions such as psychologists and SEN teachers. Most importantly, less than 4% of the teachers report that they are totally ready and effective in teaching students with SEN and the majority of the teachers report that access to SEN material for FL is the most needed.

We suggest that the findings highlight that FL teachers are aware that they need further support in terms of teaching materials, collaboration with qualified professionals as well as with parents to meet successfully the SEN challenges in their class. Overall, this study provides information about the FL education system in Greece and therefore its possibilities of further upgrade.

References

Kormos, J. (2020). Specific learning difficulties in second language learning and teaching. Language Teaching, 53(2), 129–143.