Despite receiving adequate instruction not all learners achieve sufficient levels of reading and mathematical proficiency. Poor foundational skills exert a profound negative impact on both individual lives and society as a whole.
Daria Khanolainen is set to unveil important insights into the role family-related factors play in the development of foundational academic skills. Based on her work with three longitudinal datasets encompassing data from thousands of Finnish families, Daria have completed a dissertation titled "Parental Factors in the Development of Foundational Academic Skills from Childhood to Adolescence".
Identifying children at risk for difficulties
“It is a well-known fact that providing support for learning difficulties should start as early as possible. For this reason, in my research, I examined how various information collected from parents could be used to identify children at risk for learning difficulties well before any academic failure occurs,” says Daria Khanolainen. “Recognizing children’s predisposition for learning difficulties early on facilitates timely support and intervention needed for better outcomes.”
Reading and mathematical difficulties often co-occur
In addition, according to the researcher, co-occurring difficulties in reading and math were much more common than difficulties in a single domain and that many learners with single difficulties underperformed in the other domain, most noticeably in early grades. This indicates that comprehensive support targeting more than just one type of difficulties is needed.
Reading together makes a difference
Daria Khanolainen also investigated if home activities organized by parents (e.g. child-parent shared reading, literacy and numeracy teaching, homework support) were related to children’s skill development. It turned out that out of all home learning activities organized with pre-school children, shared reading specifically predicted better reading comprehension at school age, whereas at-home teaching activities were not predictive. Moreover, parents of school children were found to provide regular weekly homework support in early grades, especially when children had learning difficulties, however parental support steadily decreased over time. All in all, Khanolainen's dissertation highlights the important role of family in reading and mathematical development.
Public defense information
Daria Khanolainen defends her doctoral dissertation “Parental Factors in the Development of Foundational Academic Skills from Childhood to Adolescence” on February the 2nd at 12:00. The event takes place in S212 (Vanha juhlasali), Seminarium building (Seminaarinkatu 15, Jyväskylä, Ģֱ, 40014 Finland).
The opponent is Professor Eliane Segers (Radbound University) and the custos is Professor Minna Torppa (Ģֱ). The language of the dissertation is English. The dissertation event is open to public and can be followed in the lecture hall or online.
Read Daria Khanolainen’s Dissertation in the JYX Digital Repository:
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