Decoding and comprehension skills mediate the link between a small-group reading programme and English national literacy assessments

ABRACADABRA literacy instruction for children with Down syndrome via telepractice during COVID-19: A pilot study

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 has resulted in some educators and allied health practitioners transitioning to online delivery of literacy instruction. As far as we are aware, no studies have investigated online delivery of comprehensive literacy instruction for children with Down syndrome.

AIMS

In this pilot study, we explore the efficacy of online delivery of ABRACADABRA (a free literacy web application) for children with Down syndrome, alongside supplementary parent-led shared book reading, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SAMPLE

Six children with Down syndrome, aged 8-12 years, participated in this within-participants design study.

METHODS

Participants acted as their own controls with outcome variables measured at three timepoints: baseline, pre-instruction and post-instruction. Children participated in 16-18 hrs of one-to-one literacy instruction online over a 6-week instruction phase, along with twice weekly parent-led shared book reading activities.

RESULTS

Outcomes from standardized assessments revealed statistically significant improvements in word- and passage-level reading accuracy skills over the instruction phase (pre-instruction to post-instruction) compared with the no-instruction control phase (baseline to pre-instruction). Improvements in reading comprehension skills were inconsistent across assessment measures and statistical analyses.

CONCLUSION

Children with Down syndrome can benefit from comprehensive literacy instruction delivered via telepractice. Our study provides critical initial evidence of successful service delivery during a global pandemic and beyond.

Humanistic Spirit Training of Medical Students Based on Multisource Medical Data Fusion

Medical colleges need to strengthen the cultivation of medical students' humanistic and spiritual literacy. First of all, schools need to change the current educational concept and the cultivation mode of humanistic quality. In educational work, schools should pay attention to the social cognitive skills of medical students, and at the same time pay attention to the cultivation of students' basic qualities. Schools need to find problems in time, and schools need to take corresponding measures to deal with these problems. Medical colleges need to strengthen the training of medical students' comprehensive quality and incorporate humanistic education into the goal of all-round development of medical students. Specifically, schools need to adopt a work method of distributed implementation and distributed guidance to fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of school leaders, teachers, and students themselves. Schools need to strengthen inspection and supervision and summarize the experiences and lessons that students have learned in their learning. On this basis, schools need to improve the quality and efficiency of students' humanities education work. Through the analysis of multisource medical data, this paper conducts research on the working mode of humanistic quality cultivation in medical colleges. Specifically, school education will be people-centered. Schools need to cultivate the humanistic spirit of medical students in the ideological and political education work. This paper conducts mathematical statistical analysis based on multisource medical data and analyzes the differences in the effect of different teaching modes and training methods on the cultivation of medical students' humanistic spiritual literacy. Based on this, the research proposes recommendations for the future development of medical schools. First of all, schools need to build a humanized classroom, combine skills education with moral education, and improve the learning efficiency of student groups. In addition, schools need to teach students to feel respected and valued. Secondly, schools need to implement human-oriented teaching work to give full play to students' own talents and personalities. During school education work, schools need to organically combine classroom education and social practice. Schools need to link teaching and real society and link students' learning process with real life. Schools need to organically combine reading and learning with life, so as to promote the all-round development of students' humanistic quality.