Asko Tolvanen

Developmental Links of Very Early Phonological and Language Skills to Second Grade Reading Outcomes: Strong to Accuracy but Only Minor to Fluency

The authors examined second grade reading accuracy and fluency and their associations via letter knowledge to phonological and language predictors assessed at 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 years in children in the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. Structural equation modeling showed that a developmentally highly stable factor (early phonological and language processing [EPLP]) behind key dyslexia predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, short-term memory, rapid naming, vocabulary, and pseudoword repetition) could already be identified at 3.5 years. EPLP was significantly associated with reading and spelling accuracy and by age with letter knowledge. However, EPLP had only a minor link with reading fluency, which was additionally explained by early letter knowledge. The results show that reading accuracy is well predicted by early phonological and language skills. Variation in fluent reading skills is not well explained by early skills, suggesting factors other than phonological core skills. Future research is suggested to explore the factors behind the development of fast and accurate decoding skills.

Computer-Assisted Remedial Reading Intervention for School Beginners at Risk for Reading Disability

The aim of the longitudinal study was to investigate whether a computer application designed for remedial reading training can enhance letter knowledge, reading accuracy, fluency, and spelling of at-risk children. The participants, 7-year-old Finnish school beginners (N=166), were assigned to 1 of 3 groups: (a) regular remedial reading intervention (n=25), (b) computer-assessed reading intervention (n=25), and (c) mainstream reading instruction (n=116). Based on the results, computer-assisted remedial reading intervention was highly beneficial, whereas regular type of intervention was less successful. The results indicated that at-risk children require computer-based letter-name and letter-sound training to acquire adequate decoding and spelling skills, and to reach the level of their non-at-risk peers.

Sense of coherence and work characteristics: A cross-lagged structural equation model among managers

This study investigated the dominance of predictive relationships between Sense of Coherence (SOC) and work characteristics (organizational climate and job control) in cross-lagged longitudinal data with two measurement points and a time lag of 3 years. The sample consisted of 615 (587 men and 28 women) managers, aged between 27 and 64 years. The cross-lagged longitudinal analysis was done by the use of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) within the framework by LISREL. The results of the chi-square difference tests indicated that the model where SOC at Time 1 predicted work characteristics at Time 2 better accounted for the data than the competitive models. However, the only significant path in addition to test–retest stabilities was the path from SOC at Time 1 to organizational climate at Time 2 indicating that high SOC predicts good organizational climate over a 3-year follow-up period. The path from SOC at Time 1 to job control at Time 2 was not significant. Thus, it seems that SOC, as a relatively stable disposition, influences the ability to mobilize and generate social resources in the workplace but not the ability to produce job control.

Personal stigma and use of mental health services among people with depression in a general population in Finland

BackgroundA minority of people suffering from depression seek professional help for themselves. Stigmatizing attitudes are assumed to be one of the major barriers to help seeking but there is only limited evidence of this in large general population data sets. The aim of this study was to analyze the associations between mental health attitude statements and depression and their links to actual use of mental health services among those with depression.MethodsWe used a large cross-sectional data set from a Finnish population survey (N = 5160). Attitudes were measured by scales which measured the belief that people with depression are responsible for their illness and their recovery and attitudes towards antidepressants. Desire for social distance was measured by a scale and depression with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Short Form (CIDI-SF) instrument. Use of mental health services was measured by self-report.ResultsOn the social discrimination scale, people with depression showed more social tolerance towards people with mental problems. They also carried more positive views about antidepressants. Among those with depression, users of mental health services, as compared to non-users, carried less desire for social distance to people with mental health problems and more positive views about the effects of antidepressants. More severe depression predicted more active use of services.ConclusionsAlthough stronger discriminative intentions can reduce the use of mental health services, this does not necessarily prevent professional service use if depression is serious and views about antidepressant medication are realistic.

Shared genetic and environmental effects on strength and power in older female twins.

PURPOSE This study examined the relative contribution of genetic and environmental effects on maximal leg extensor power and also investigated whether leg extensor power and maximum voluntary isometric knee extensor strength share a genetic component. METHODS Muscle functions were measured as part of the Finnish Twin Study on Aging in 101 monozygotic (MZ) and 116 dizygotic (DZ) female twin pairs aged 63-76 yr. Leg extensor power was measured using the Nottingham Leg Extensor Power Rig and maximum voluntary isometric knee extensor strength using an adjustable dynamometer chair. The analyses were carried out using the maximum likelihood method in Mx-program on the raw data set. RESULTS A bivariate Cholesky decomposition model showed that leg extensor power and isometric knee extensor strength shared a genetic component in common, which accounted for 32% of the total variance in leg extensor power and 48% in isometric knee extensor strength. In addition, power and strength had a nonshared environmental effect in common accounting for four percent of the variance in power and 52% in strength. Remaining variance for leg extensor power was due to trait-specific shared and nonshared environmental effects. CONCLUSION Observed genetic effect in common for leg extensor power and maximum voluntary isometric knee extensor strength indicated that these two traits are regulated by the same genes. However, also environmental effects have a significant role in explaining the variability in power and strength.

Modeling the Early Paths of Phonological Awareness and Factors Supporting its Development in Children With and Without Familial Risk of Dyslexia

The development of phonological awareness (PA) before school age was modeled in association with the development of vocabulary and letter knowledge, home literacy environment (HLE), childrens reading interest, and beginning reading skill in children with and without familial risk of dyslexia. A total of 186 children were followed from birth to the age of 6.5 years. Of these children, about half had a familial background of reading difficulties (the at-risk group), and the other half came from families without such background (the control group). The data from several measures and assessment time points were analyzed within an SEM framework, and a latent analysis of growth curves was employed. Vocabulary and letter knowledge were found to predict PA development, and vice versa, PA predicted them. The effect of HLE on PA was mediated by vocabulary skills, and of the HLE variables, the only variable predicting vocabulary development was shared reading. In spite of the difference in level, favoring the controls, the pattern of effects of vocabulary and letter knowledge on PA development was highly similar in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. However, in the at-risk group, the HLE variables and childrens reading interest had stronger associations with each other and with skill development than in the control group, and vocabulary predicted parental reports on childrens reading interest in the at-risk group only.

The factor structure and factorial invariance of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) across time: evidence from two community-based samples.

This study provides new knowledge about the factor structure of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12; D. Goldberg, 1972) through the application of confirmatory factor analysis to longitudinal data, thereby enabling investigation of the factor structure, its invariance across time, and the rank-order stability of the factors. Two community-based longitudinal adult samples with 1-year (n = 640) and 6-year (n = 330) follow-up times were studied. As a result, the correlated 3-factor model (i.e., Anxiety/Depression, Social Dysfunction, and Loss of Confidence) showed a better fit with both samples than the alternative models. The correlated 3-factor structure was also relatively invariant across time in both samples, indicating that the scale has good construct validity. The rank-order stabilities of the factors were low across time, which suggests that the GHQ-12 measures temporal mental state.

Early motor development and later language and reading skills in children at risk of familial dyslexia

Relationships between early motor development and language and reading skills were studied in 154 children, of whom 75 had familial risk of dyslexia (37 females, 38 males; at‐risk group) and 79 constituted a control group (32 females, 47 males). Motor development was assessed by a structured parental questionnaire during the childs first year of life. Vocabulary and inflectional morphology skills were used as early indicators of language skills at 3 years 6 months and 5 years or 5 years 6 months of age, and reading speed was used as a later indicator of reading skills at 7 years of age. The same subgroups as in our earlier study (in which the cluster analysis was described) were used in this study. The three subgroups of the control group were ‘fast motor development’, ‘slow fine motor development’, and ‘slow gross motor development’, and the two subgroups of the at‐risk group were ‘slow motor development’ and ‘fast motor development’. A significant difference was found between the development of expressive language skills. Children with familial risk of dyslexia and slow motor development had a smaller vocabulary with poorer inflectional skills than the other children. They were also slower in their reading speed at the end of the first grade at the age of 7 years. Two different associations are discussed, namely the connection between early motor development and language development, and the connection between early motor development and reading speed.

Two Alternative Ways to Model the Relation between Reading Accuracy and Phonological Awareness at Preschool Age.

In this study, 91 Finnish-speaking preschoolers (ranging in age from 6.4 to 7.4 years) were tested by using 2 structural equation models. None of the participants had entered school at the time of the study because the age of school entry in Finland is 7 years. The structural equation models were built particularly to examine the connections between childrens reading abilities and their phonological skills. The main results of this study show that, in a very transparent language such as Finnish, the model that emphasized sensitivity to the phonological structure of the word as the prerequisite for learning to read fit our data well. The other model, which was likewise theoretically and statistically quite accessible, implied, by contrast, the reciprocity between learning to read and the emergence of phonemic awareness. The results of this study suggest that skills related to reading at preschool age are in many respects the same and have the same relations in a transparent language such as Finnish as they do in English. However, there also seem to be differences, especially in the relations between phonemic awareness skills and reading that may be language specific and require further investigation.

Event-related potentials in newborns with and without familial risk for dyslexia: principal component analysis reveals differences between the groups

Summary. Differences revealed by factor scores extracted by principal component analysis (PCA) from event-related potential (ERP) data of newborns with and without familial risk for dyslexia were examined and compared to results obtained by using original averaged ERPs. ERPs to consonant-vowel syllables (synthetic /ba/, /da/, /ga/; and natural /paa/, /taa/, /kaa/) were recorded from 26 at-risk and 23 control 1–7 day-old infants. The stimuli were presented equiprobably and with interstimulus intervals varying at random from 3,910 to 7,285 ms. Statistically significant between-group differences were found to be relatively similar irrespective of the methods of analysis (original ERPs vs. factor scores from PCA). Responses to /ga/ differed from those to /ba/ and /da/ between the groups in the right hemisphere at the latencies of 50–170 ms (Factor 4) and 540–630 ms (Factor 3). The groups differed also in their responses to /da/ in the posterior electrode sites at 740–940 ms (Factor 2). There were no group differences in the natural stimulus set. These results demonstrate that brain activation differences may be implicated in risk for dyslexia immediately after birth. The results also show that the PCA-ANOVA procedure is an effective way of identifying the group-related variance in the ERP-data when the component structure, such as those of infants, is not well-known in advance.