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\"Presents cutting-edge, evidence-based interventions for dealing with specific difficulties of reading comprehension in children aged 7-11. An in-depth introduction to the 'poor comprehender profile', which describes children who despite being fluent readers have difficulty extracting meaning from text. Sets out a range of practical interventions for improving reading skills in this group - along with comprehensive guidance on assessment and monitoring, and insightful accounts of professionals' experience in delivering the techniques described. Includes an overview of psychological theories of reading comprehension, evaluating their practical applicability. \"-- Provided by publisher.

Children with specific reading-comprehension difficulties can read accurately, but they have poor comprehension. In a randomized controlled trial, we examined the efficacy of three interventions designed to improve such children's reading comprehension: text-comprehension (TC) training, oral-language (OL) training, and TC and OL training combined (COM). Children were assessed preintervention, midintervention, postintervention, and at an 11-month follow-up. All intervention groups made significant improvements in reading comprehension relative to an untreated control group. Although these gains were maintained at follow-up in the TC and COM groups, the OL group made greater gains than the other groups did between the end of the intervention and follow-up. The OL and COM groups also demonstrated significant improvements in expressive vocabulary compared with the control group, and this was a mediator of the improved reading comprehension of the OL and COM groups. We conclude that specific reading-comprehension difficulties reflect (at least partly) underlying oral-language weaknesses that can be effectively ameliorated by suitable teaching.

Between 1360 and 1460 the Venetian government established a system of legalized prostitution under the supervision of government officials and confined, in theory, to a limited area of the city. The authorities also attempted to concentrate the management of licit brothels in the hands of women, who thereby emerged as the effective entrepreneurs of the sex trade. This article describes the organization of Venetian prostitution in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries and the relations among government officials, brothel-keepers, and prostitutes. It illustrates the mechanisms of debt and credit used in the sex trade, which often kept the prostitutes subservient to the brothel-keepers and to their other creditors. An effort is made to assess the degree to which sex workers might become integrated into local society and to suggest the general trends in Venetian policy toward prostitution into the sixteenth century.

Background National guidance recommends pregnant women are offered membrane sweeping at term to reduce induction of labour. Local audit suggested this was not being undertaken routinely across two maternity units in the West Midlands, UK between March and November 2012. Methods Bespoke training session for midwifery teams (nine community and one antenatal clinic) was developed to address identified barriers to encourage offer of membrane sweeping, together with an information leaflet for women and appointment of a champion within each team. The timing of training session on membrane sweeping to ten midwifery teams was randomly allocated using a stepped wedge cluster randomised design. All women who gave birth in the Trusts after 39 + 3/40 weeks gestation within the study time period were eligible. Relevant anonymised data were extracted from maternity notes for three months before and after training. Data were analysed using a generalised linear mixed model, allowing for clustering and adjusting for temporal effects. Primary outcomes were number of women offered and accepting membrane sweeping and average number of sweeps per woman. Sub-group comparisons were undertaken for adherence to Trust guidance and potential influence of pre-specified maternal characteristics. Data included whether sweeping was offered but declined and no record of membrane sweeping. Results Training was given to all teams as planned. Analyses included data from 2787 of the 2864 (97%) eligible low-risk women over 39 + 4 weeks pregnant. Characteristics of the women were similar before and after training. No evidence of difference in proportion of women being offered and accepting membrane sweeping (44.4% before training versus 46.8% after training (adjusted relative risk [aRR] = 0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.71–1.13), nor in average number of sweeps per woman (0.603 versus 0.627, aRR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.67–1.01). No differences in any secondary outcomes nor influence of maternal characteristics were demonstrated. The midwives evaluated training positively. Conclusions This stepped wedge cluster trial enabled randomised evaluation within a natural roll-out and demonstrates the importance of robust evaluation in circumstances in which it is rarely undertaken. While the midwives evaluated the training positively, it did not appear to change practice. Trials registration ISRCTN14300475 . Registered on 23 August 2016.

\"Presents cutting-edge, evidence-based interventions for dealing with specific difficulties of reading comprehension in children aged 7-11. An in-depth introduction to the 'poor comprehender profile', which describes children who despite being fluent readers have difficulty extracting meaning from text. Sets out a range of practical interventions for improving reading skills in this group - along with comprehensive guidance on assessment and monitoring, and insightful accounts of professionals' experience in delivering the techniques described. Includes an overview of psychological theories of reading comprehension, evaluating their practical applicability. \"--

This study investigated reading skills in 41 children with autism spectrum disorder. Four components of reading skill were assessed: word recognition, nonword decoding, text reading accuracy and text comprehension. Overall, levels of word and nonword reading and text reading accuracy fell within average range although reading comprehension was impaired. However, there was considerable variability across the sample with performance on most tests ranging from floor to ceiling levels. Some children read accurately but showed very poor comprehension, consistent with a hyperlexia reading profile; some children were poor at reading words and nonwords whereas others were unable to decode nonwords, despite a reasonable level of word reading skill. These findings demonstrate the heterogeneous nature of reading skills in children with ASD.

This study investigates the oral language skills of 8-year-old children with impaired reading comprehension. Despite fluent and accurate reading and normal nonverbal ability, these children are poor at understanding what they have read. Tasks tapping 3 domains of oral language, namely phonology, semantics, and morphosyntax, were administered, along with measures that reflect an interaction of language domains that we refer to as broader language skills. Relative to control children matched for age and decoding ability, poor comprehenders were impaired across all measures except those tapping phonological skills. In addition to low oral language ability characterizing the group as a whole, some individuals had marked language impairments; it is argued that a substantial minority can be classified as having specific language impairment. However, none of the children had been previously recognized as having a language or reading impairment. These findings demonstrate that serious reading and language impairments are not always obvious in children who have good phonological ability and appear, superficially at least, to read well.

\"Presents cutting-edge, evidence-based interventions for dealing with specific difficulties of reading comprehension in children aged 7-11. An in-depth introduction to the 'poor comprehender profile', which describes children who despite being fluent readers have difficulty extracting meaning from text. Sets out a range of practical interventions for improving reading skills in this group - along with comprehensive guidance on assessment and monitoring, and insightful accounts of professionals' experience in delivering the techniques described. Includes an overview of psychological theories of reading comprehension, evaluating their practical applicability.\"-- Provided by publisher.

Background: Children with specific reading comprehension difficulties read accurately and fluently but are poor at understanding what they read. Aims: This study investigated cognitive ability in children with poor reading comprehension with a view to determining the relationship between general cognitive ability and specific reading comprehension difficulty. Sample: Twenty‐five poor comprehenders and 24 control children, matched for chronological age and word reading ability, participated in this study. Methods: General conceptual ability (GCA) was assessed using the British Ability Scales (2nd edition; BAS‐II); good and poor comprehenders' performance on different subscales was compared and related to underlying skills in reading accuracy, reading comprehension and number. Results: There was a general tendency for poor comprehenders to achieve lower scores on verbal tasks than on non‐verbal and spatial tasks. Although the poor comprehenders scored significantly below the control children across most subtests, most obtained GCA scores within the normal range. For these children, reading comprehension was significantly below GCA‐expected levels. A subset of poor comprehenders with below average GCA showed a clear hyperlexic profile in which comprehension was not unexpectedly poor but rather, reading accuracy was surprisingly good. Conclusions: These findings highlight the heterogeneity of children presenting with poor reading comprehension. Although most poor comprehenders have weaknesses that appear to be restricted to the verbal domain, a minority have more general cognitive impairments.