Background: As a group, autistic children with high support needs (with adaptive functioning in the range of an intellectual disability) are at risk of significant literacy difficulties. We investigated the parent-reported home literacy environment of this group of children. Method: Sixty-two parents of autistic children (4.5 to 18.25 years)…

Prior studies have shown the efficacy of computer-based cognitive training programs in improving cognitive and academic functions in children diagnosed with a specific learning disorder (SLD). However, these studies often focused on center-based approaches without considering the involvement of parents or the inclusion of home-based tasks in…

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate and compare alternative modalities and stimuli used to measure receptive vocabulary skills in autistic children who are minimally verbal. This study systematically compared participants' outcomes on three different receptive vocabulary assessment conditions: a low-tech assessment that used a stimulus…

Introduction: This paper describes the exploratory case and initial evaluation of the computer-based testing (CBT) prototype. The advantage of CBT over paper-based testing (PBT) is that it allows us to control the order of questions and provides test takers with continuous tasks capturing their thought processes. Additionally, their response…

The aim of the present study was to test environmental and cognitive variables as possible cross-domain predictors of early literacy and numeracy skills. One hundred forty-eight preschool children (mean age = 64.36 months ± 3.33) were enrolled in the study. The battery included a home literacy and home numeracy questionnaire, measures and…

Formal language hierarchy describes levels of increasing syntactic complexity (adjacent dependencies, nonadjacent nested, nonadjacent crossed) of which the transcription into a hierarchy of cognitive complexity remains under debate. The cognitive foundations of formal language hierarchy have been contradicted by two types of evidence: First,…

Background: Individuals with intellectual disabilities are amongst the groups most vulnerable to sexual crimes. However, their limited cognitive abilities can make it challenging to obtain detailed statements from victims during investigative interviews. This study examined whether practising answering open-ended questions early in the interview…

Purpose: This registered report aimed to replicate previous findings showing that years of music training predicts speech-perception-in-noise (SPIN) skills in children. In addition, it aimed to investigate whether the musician SPIN advantage is influenced by cognitive factors such as general intelligence or working memory. Method: Following…

While international research has demonstrated that ability grouping is inequitable, Australian research has often overlooked equity concerns, predominantly focusing on studying the benefits of grouping for students perceived to have high ability, especially in mathematics. This paper investigates the effect that mathematics ability grouping has on…

We examined the role of visuo-spatial working memory in different types of arithmetic ability in children. Previous research had suggested that arithmetic is not a single entity (Dowker, 2005, 2015), and also that visuo-spatial working memory is specifically involved in mathematical cognition (McKenzie et al., 2003) There has, however, been little…

By innovatively applying positioning theory with reference to a framework of willingness, capability and power, this study explored how pre-service teachers' professional identities dynamically change through the negotiation of various positions. A qualitative approach was adopted using data from six Hong Kong pre-service teachers in a teacher…

Exams have traditionally dominated assessment in higher education. Yet, we still do not know if they are authentic assessment, especially in an environment of rapid demographic changes within higher education and evolving perceptions of authenticity. This work offers a method to measure exam authenticity, defined as the overlap between exams and…

Attention to programming education from K-12 to higher education has been growing with the aim of fostering students' programming ability. This ability involves employing appropriate algorithms and computer codes to solve problems and can be enhanced through practical learning. However, in a formal educational setting, it is challenging to provide…

In order to have a better understanding of the nature of reading behavior, it is quite essential to scrutinize the underlying assumptions of the two competing theories: the componential approach and unitary hypothesis and see how this is reflected on testing the reading skills. As a result, the current study was aimed at broadening the existing…

Purpose: Oral narrative, or storytelling, skills may constitute a linguistic strength for African American children, with implications for academic and social well-being. Despite this possibility, few studies have examined individual differences in oral narrative skill among African American children. To address this gap in the literature, this…