Kenneth Eklund | University of Jyväskylä (original) (raw)

Papers by Kenneth Eklund

Learning Disability Quarterly, Apr 2, 2022

Student–teacher relationships are crucial for adolescents’ adjustment in the school context. The ... more Student–teacher relationships are crucial for adolescents’ adjustment in the school context. The aim of the present study was to examine the role of teacher closeness in academic emotions and achievement among adolescents with and without learning difficulties during the first year in lower secondary school. Students’ learning difficulties (LDs) were identified based on tested reading and math skills. In addition, students evaluated their teacher relationships and rated academic emotions in literacy and math domains. The results indicated that higher teacher closeness was related to increasing positive emotions and increasing literacy achievement during seventh grade, whereas lower levels of teacher closeness were associated with increasing learning-related anger and boredom. The results were mostly similar for students with and without LDs, which indicates that students in general benefit from close teacher relationships during the first year in lower secondary school.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2019

Learning difficulties (LD) can significantly compromise students' academic learning and motivatio... more Learning difficulties (LD) can significantly compromise students' academic learning and motivation (Smart, Prior,

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2018

Acceptance and commitment therapy programs have rarely been used as preventive tools for alleviat... more Acceptance and commitment therapy programs have rarely been used as preventive tools for alleviating stress and enhancing coping skills among adolescents. This randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of a novel Finnish web-and mobile-delivered five-week intervention program called Youth COMPASS among a general sample of ninth-grade adolescents (n = 249, 49% females). The intervention group showed a small but significant decrease in overall stress (between-group Cohen's d = 0.22) and an increase in academic buoyancy (d = 0.27). Academic skills did not influence the intervention gains, but the intervention gains were largest among high-stressed participants. The results suggest that the acceptance and commitment based Youth COMPASS program may be well suited for promoting adolescents' well-being in the school context.

Dyslexia, 2018

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to all the research assistants and staff at the Clinic for Lear... more Acknowledgements: We are grateful to all the research assistants and staff at the Clinic for Learning Disabilities who contributed to the data collection, and to the study participants who generously gave their time to help with the research.

Books of Abstracts of the 16th World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP), 2004

Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 2021

Abstract Purpose Mental health problems affect 10-20% of adolescents worldwide. Prevention and ea... more Abstract Purpose Mental health problems affect 10-20% of adolescents worldwide. Prevention and early interventions for promoting adolescent mental health are therefore warranted. The aim of this randomized controlled trial was to examine the effects of a 5-week web-intervention (Youth COMPASS) based on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on adolescents’ depressive symptoms, life satisfaction and psychological flexibility. Methods The sample comprised 243 adolescents at the age of 15-16 years (51%females) from 15 lower secondary schools. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups of which two groups received an ACT-based online-intervention including support via WhatsApp. The two ACT interventions + WhatsApp contact differed from each other regarding the amount of personal support (iACT + two face-to-face sessions vs iACT with no face-to-face sessions). These two iACT interventions were compared to no intervention (control). Adolescents’ psychological wellbeing was measured pre and post intervention using the Depression Scale (DEPS), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), and Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (ATQ-Y). Results Adolescents showing more avoidance of unpleasant thoughts and feelings, and cognitive fusion reported more depressive symptoms and a lower level of satisfaction with life. This association was stronger among girls than boys. The iACT online-intervention + WhapApp contact with two face-to-face meeting or without them decreased adolescents’ depressive symptoms and increased life satisfaction among those who had completed more than half of the program (d = 0.20). No significant effect was obtained for avoidance (psychological flexibility). The iACT intervention including face-to-face contact showed different effects on girls and boys in regards to depression symptoms and psychological flexibility skills. Conclusions Findings showed that the ACT-based web-intervention for adolescents could be a viable early intervention for preventing mental health problems in adolescents and for promoting adolescent wellbeing. Our findings call for further studies investigation whether girls and boys benefit of different type online interventions.

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2022

This study aimed to gain better understanding of the associations between literacy activities at ... more This study aimed to gain better understanding of the associations between literacy activities at home and long-term language and literacy development. We extended the home literacy environment (HLE) model of Sénéchal and LeFevre (Child Development [2002], Vol. 73, pp. 445-460) by including repeated assessments of shared reading, oral language, and reading comprehension development, including examination of familial risk for dyslexia as a moderator, and following development over time from ages 2 to 15 years. Of the 198 Finnish participants, 106 have familial risk for dyslexia due to parental dyslexia. Our path models include development in vocabulary (2-5.5 years), emerging literacy (5.5 years), reading fluency (8 and 9 years), and reading comprehension (8, 9, and 15 years) as well as shared book reading with parents (2, 4, 5, 8, and 9 years), teaching literacy at home (4.5 years), and reading motivation (8-9 years). The results supported the HLE model in that teaching literacy at home predicted stronger emerging literacy skills, whereas shared book reading predicted vocabulary development and reading motivation. Both emerging literacy and vocabulary predicted reading development. Familial risk for dyslexia was a significant moderator regarding several paths; vocabulary, reading fluency, and shared reading were stronger predictors of reading comprehension among children with familial risk for dyslexia, whereas reading motivation was a stronger predictor of reading comprehension among adolescents with no familial risk. The findings underline the importance of shared reading and suggest a long-standing impact of shared reading on reading development both directly and through oral language development and reading motivation.

Reading and Writing

One of the aims for compulsory education is to diminish or alleviate differences in children’s sk... more One of the aims for compulsory education is to diminish or alleviate differences in children’s skills existing prior to school entry. However, a growing gender gap in reading development has increasingly been documented. Regrettably, there is scant evidence on whether differences between genders (favouring girls) have their roots in pre-reading skills or whether determining mechanisms are related to factors to do with schooling. We examined the extent to which pre-reading skills assessed in Kindergarten (age 6) predict reading comprehension in Grade 9 (age 15) and, whether the gender difference in reading comprehension can be explained by gender differences in the Kindergarten pre-reading skills. A sample of 1010 Finnish children were assessed on letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid naming, vocabulary, and listening comprehension in Kindergarten and on reading comprehension using PISA Reading tasks in Grade 9. Path models showed that gender as well as Kindergarten pre-rea...

Learning and Individual Differences

Abstract This study aimed to examine associations between motivation, emotion, and task performan... more Abstract This study aimed to examine associations between motivation, emotion, and task performance in simulated achievement situations. A group of sixth grade students (n = 190) completed an achievement task. Situational information on task value, success expectations, emotions, effort, task performance, and causal attributions was collected and information on subsequent academic achievement was obtained from school registers. The results showed, first, that high task value, high expectancy of success, and high positive emotions before a task contributed to a higher level of effort during the task. This, in turn, was related to better task performance. Second, high expectancy of success predicted increased positive emotions during the task, and these in turn, were related to better task performance. Conversely, high negative emotions during the task were related to poorer task performance. Third, high task performance was related to higher levels of effort, higher attributions of success to ability, and increased positive emotions after the task. Finally, both high task performance and attributions of success to ability were related to better subsequent academic achievement.

First Language, 2015

This study examined the extent to which receptive and productive vocabulary between ages 12 and 1... more This study examined the extent to which receptive and productive vocabulary between ages 12 and 18 months predicted language skills at age 24 months in children born with family risk for dyslexia (FR) and a control group born without that risk. The aim was to identify possible markers of early language delay. We monitored vocabulary growth in 32 FR children and 21 control children longitudinally by using the Norwegian adaption of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (Kristoffersen & Simonsen 2012). Our results show different patterns in the two groups: We found a stronger interdependence of early receptive and productive vocabulary and a stronger stability in vocabulary growth in the second year of life in FR children than in controls. The combination of poor receptive vocabulary at 12 months and poor productive vocabulary at 18 months appeared to be important markers of later language delay in the FR group.

Infant Behavior and Development, 1999

Children's early social interactional behaviors and symbolic play competence were studied at 14 m... more Children's early social interactional behaviors and symbolic play competence were studied at 14 months in a sample of 111 mother-infant pairs. The categories of social interactional behaviors, joint visual attention, socially coordinated and object oriented interactions were assessed via observations of mother-infant joint play. An index of symbolic play was derived from the child's solitary play, which was assessed independently. We examined both the interrelations of these two types of early language predictors, and their relation to children's language skills and maternal attention-directing strategies. Measures of children's language comprehension and production were obtained using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories at 14 months, and Reynell Developmental Language Scales at 18 and 30 months. We found that at 14 months, social interactional behaviors and symbolic play competence were not statistically significantly related to each other. In line with our hypotheses, social interactional skills were associated more strongly with language production, and symbolic play competence more strongly with language comprehension. Maternal attention-directing strategies were strongly related to both children's social interactional behaviors and symbolic play competence. Our findings indicated that maternal strategies that expanded the infant's level of functioning were more effective in stimulating the children's language development than were the other types of strategies. Social interactional behaviors symbolic play competence language development maternal attentiondirecting strategies Language, the most sophisticated human structure of symbols, has its roots both in the preverbal interaction embedded in the social context (Bloom, 1998; Bruner, 1975; Schaffer,

Dyslexia, 2004

We review the main findings of the Jyväskylä Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD) which follows t... more We review the main findings of the Jyväskylä Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD) which follows the development of children at familial risk for dyslexia (N = 107) and their controls (N = 93). We will illustrate the development of these two groups of children at ages from birth to school entry in the skill domains that have been connected to reading and reading disability in the prior literature. At school entry, the highest score on the decoding task among the poorer half (median) of the at risk children--i.e. of those presumably being most likely genetically affected--is 1 SD below the mean of the control group. Thus, the familial risk for dyslexia shows expected consequences. Among the earliest measures in which group differences as well as significant predictive associations with the first steps in reading have emerged, are indices of speech processing in infancy. Likewise, various measures of early language including pronunciation accuracy, phonological, and morphological skills (but not performance IQ) show both group differences and predictive correlations, the majority of which become stronger as the reliability of the measures increases by age. Predictive relationships tend to be strong in general but higher in the at risk group because of its larger variance in both the predictor variables and in the dependent measures, such as early acquisition of reading. The results are thus promising in increasing our understanding needed for early identification and prevention of dyslexia.

Laakso, Marja-Leena – Lajunen, Kaija – Aro, Tuija – Eklund, Kenneth – Poikkeus, Anna-Maija. 2011.... more Laakso, Marja-Leena – Lajunen, Kaija – Aro, Tuija – Eklund, Kenneth – Poikkeus, Anna-Maija. 2011. YLIVILKKAIDEN LASTEN VANHEMPIEN KOKEMUKSIA PERHEKOULUINTERVENTIOSTA. Kasvatus 42 (2), 118–130. Vanhemmille suunnatut tukiohjelmat ovat vakiintuneet merkittavaksi osaksi ylivilkkaiden lasten kuntoutusta. Tassa artikkelissa kuvataan ryhmamuotoista ylivilkkaille lapsille ja heidan perheilleen suunnattua Perhekoulu-ohjelmaa ja raportoidaan siihen osallistuneiden aitien ja isien kokemuksia ohjelman hyodyllisyydesta. Kaikkiaan 60 aitia ja 25 isaa vastasivat kyselylomakkeeseen. Aitien arvioinnit osoittivat isiakin suurempaa tyytyvaisyytta ohjelmaan, ja molemmat kokivat ryhmassa kaydyt keskustelut ja vertaisvuorovaikutuksen ohjelman parhaaksi anniksi. Erityisesti isat mainitsivat tunnetasolla tarkeaksi ohjelman piirteeksi vanhempien ryhman kanssa samanaikaisesti kokoontuvan ohjatun lastenryhman toiminnan. Tulokset nostivat vahvasti esille vertaisryhman merkityksen ylivilkkaiden lasten ja heidan...

Journal of Learning Disabilities

Our purpose was to study the frequency of behavioral-emotional problems among children identified... more Our purpose was to study the frequency of behavioral-emotional problems among children identified with a learning disability (LD). The data comprised 579 Finnish children (8–15 years) with reading disability (RD-only), math disability (MD-only), or both (RDMD) assessed at a specialized clinic between 1985 and 2017. We analyzed percentages of children with behavioral-emotional symptoms reaching clinical range (i.e., z score ≥1.5 SDs) and the effects of the LD type, gender, and context (home vs. school) on them. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect of the severity of LD and gender on the amount of behavioral-emotional symptoms reported by teachers and parents. Alarmingly high percentages of children, irrespective of LD type, demonstrated behavioral-emotional problems: more than 37% in Affective, Anxiety, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) problems. Contextual variation was large, as more problems were reported by teachers than by mothers. The unique effects of gender a...

Written Language & Literacy, 2019

This study examines the interplay between phonological awareness and orthography in Konso, a Cush... more This study examines the interplay between phonological awareness and orthography in Konso, a Cushitic language in Southwest Ethiopia. Thirty-two adults reading the Konso abugida but with minimal exposure to alphabetic literacy completed an orally administered phoneme deletion task. The responses were then examined using the minimal edit distance hypothesis (Wali, Sproat, Padakannaya & Bhuvaneshwari 2009) as a framework for the analysis. The results suggest that the difficulty of a deletion was related to the way the phoneme was represented in the Konso abugida. Content-based error analysis of the incorrect responses gave indications of how Konso abugida readers' processing of sounds is linked to Konso abugida sound-symbol relationships. The Konso language community is undergoing a change in their writing system from abugida to alphabetic writing. As abugida symbols primarily denote consonant-vowel sequences, the change requires learning new sound-symbol mappings. By examining Konso abugida readers' phonemic awareness the study contributes to developing transfer literacy teaching methods from abugida to alphabetic writing in Konso and elsewhere.

Educational Psychology

Abstract This paper examined if difficulty in reading comprehension (PISA) is distinct from diffi... more Abstract This paper examined if difficulty in reading comprehension (PISA) is distinct from difficulty in reading fluency and if the distinct types of reading difficulties are differently associated with learning motivation, school burnout, and school enjoyment. The participants were 1324 Finnish ninth graders. Findings suggested that difficulties in reading comprehension are often distinct from difficulties in reading fluency. Three reading difficulty groups were identified: (1) poor readers with both fluency and reading comprehension difficulties (n = 46, 3.5%), (2) slow readers with only fluency difficulties (n = 70, 5.3%), and (3) poor comprehenders with only reading comprehension difficulties (n = 88, 6.5%). The slow readers had low scores only in reading-related motivation. Poor comprehenders and poor readers reported low motivation also in math and science, as well as higher level of burnout and lower school enjoyment than typical readers. The findings were similar for boys and girls.

Educational Technology Research and Development

This study investigates the effectiveness of a digital game-GraphoLearn (GL)-in supporting second... more This study investigates the effectiveness of a digital game-GraphoLearn (GL)-in supporting second-grade students who have persistent difficulties with acquiring accurate and fluent reading skills. The participants (N = 37) were randomly assigned either to a 6-week intervention including sessions with GL, in addition to school-provided support, or a control group receiving only school-provided support. The intervention took place at the students' homes and schools under the supervision of their parents and teachers. The results showed that the children who received the GL intervention developed significantly faster in word reading than the control group. Moreover, their reading development was significantly faster during the GL intervention compared with that of the follow-up period, which included only typical school-provided support. No transfer effects on reading fluency, reading comprehension, or spelling were found. Furthermore, the children who, according to the observations of their parents and teachers, showed higher cognitive engagement during the intervention had higher gains in word reading and sentence reading fluency than the children who appeared less cognitively engaged. Higher emotional engagement was related to increased playing time but not to larger gains in reading. The study indicates that a short digital game-based intervention training of letter-sound correspondences and word-level reading can give a boost to the reading development of struggling readers. Inspecting the engagement and in-game performance during gameplay provides important information that can be used for further development of the game to respond to the needs of the learners with severe difficulties.

Jyväskylä studies in education, psychology and social research, 2017

Eklund, Kenneth School-aged reading skills of children with family history of dyslexia – predicto... more Eklund, Kenneth School-aged reading skills of children with family history of dyslexia – predictors, development and outcome Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2017, 66 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research ISSN 0075-4625; 574) ISBN 978-951-39-6962-2 ISBN 978-951-39-6963-9 (PDF) In this research I focused on reading skill development in school-age children with family history of dyslexia. I was interested in the effects of children’s cognitive skills (language, phonological awareness, rapid serial naming, verbal short term memory, and letter knowledge), and gender in addition to family risk for dyslexia as predictors of children’s reading development. In addition, I examined whether shared reading with parents, time spent reading alone, or task-focused behaviour could serve as potential protective factors against reading disability. One of my aims was to find out whether there exist subgroups of children who have different developmental trajectories, an...