Effective instruction is shaped by four interrelated components: instructional Quality, Appropriate levels of instruction, Incentives to motivate students, and sufficient Time for practice and feedback (QAIT). As many schools have adopted educational technology to provide reading instruction, this review examined the extent to which instructional technologies targeting reading comprehension align with Slavin’s effective instruction framework, evaluated their overall effects, and identified which components differentiate intervention effectiveness. We identified 25 articles (26 studies) published from 2000 to 2025 examining technology-based reading comprehension interventions. Only nine studies included all four QAIT components. Using a random-effects correlated and hierarchical effects model, we estimated both main and moderation effects. The overall effect of technology-based programs on reading comprehension was small-to-medium (Hedges’ g = 0.13, 95% CI [0.03, 0.23]) according to contemporary perspectives on effect size magnitude in education intervention research. Meta-regression analyses revealed that interventions incorporating extrinsic incentives (e.g., points and badges) were associated with smaller effect sizes. No significant moderation effects were observed for the other QAIT components or for the presence of all four components simultaneously. Implications for educational practice and directions for future research are discussed.
Children with language and learning disorders (LLDs)—including developmental language disorder (DLD), dyslexia, and dyscalculia—often experience emotional difficulties, yet no previous synthesis has quantified these challenges across all the dimensions of emotional competence. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine whether children with LLDs differ from their typically developing (TD) peers in emotional identification, understanding, regulation, and expression. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines, 855 studies were initially screened by two researchers. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 42 studies were finally included, with 33 contributing to a meta-analysis. Multilevel random-effects meta-analytic models were used to calculate standardized mean differences between children with LLDs and TD peers across each emotional competence dimension. Moderator analyses explored the effects of diagnostic subtype, non-verbal IQ (NVIQ), age, and sex. Children with LLDs showed significant deficits in emotional identification, understanding, and expression, and a tendency toward poorer emotion regulation compared to TD peers. Moderator analyses revealed that NVIQ significantly influenced only emotional understanding. Overall, emotional competence is compromised in children with LLDs, which has implications for educational and clinical practice. These findings support the integration of emotion-focused interventions in evaluations and treatments for children with learning and language difficulties.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether there are differences in internalizing problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, somatic complaints, and social withdrawal) and academic-related anxieties (i.e., school anxiety and mathematics anxiety) between children with and without mathematics difficulties (MD) in Canada and China. Participants included 71 children with MD and 86 typically developing (TD) children (ages 8–12) from Shanghai, China (32 MD, 46 TD) and Alberta, Canada (39 MD, 40 TD). Teachers rated their students’ internalizing problems using the Behavior Assessment System for Children–Third Edition (including anxiety, depression, somatic complaints, and social withdrawal subscales), while students self-reported on their mathematics and school anxiety. Results indicated first that children with MD experienced significantly higher levels of both internalizing problems and mathematics anxiety than their TD peers. Second, Canadian children with MD were rated as having more mathematics anxiety than their Chinese counterparts and Chinese children with MD had more somatic complaints than their Canadian counterparts. No significant interaction was found between country and difficulty group status. Taken together, these findings suggest that having MD confers emotional vulnerability in both countries, but culture may shape the form in which distress is expressed.
Dyslexia affects 5%–15% of children, yet only 32% of U.S. fourth graders read proficiently. Early intervention is crucial for addressing reading difficulty (RD) risk. While most states require early dyslexia screening, there is a need for better tools and approaches for identifying students who may benefit from further evaluation, especially for students from Spanish language backgrounds. This study investigates the integration of teacher reports and direct assessments to enhance the accuracy of early identification. We evaluated the psychometric properties and concurrent validity of the Dyslexia Referral Checklist (DRC) across English and Spanish versions in kindergarten (KG), its predictive validity in first grade (G1), and the potential of the DRC to enhance early identification of RD when combined with validated screening measures in large samples of English-speaking (KG n = 56,681, G1 n = 30,534) and Spanish-speaking (KG n = 9,097, G1 n = 4,341) students. The DRC demonstrated strong internal consistency (α = 0.97–0.99), strong concurrent validity with dyslexia screeners ( r = .|72|–.|79|), and significant incremental prediction of G1 outcomes ( d = |0.01|–|0.28|; area under the curve [AUC] = .83–.94). Classification accuracy against literacy measures aligned with ranges reported for existing dyslexia checklists. These findings support the DRC as a promising, no-cost supplement to universal screening with utility for English- and Spanish-speaking populations.
Mathematics writing occurs regularly in classroom instruction, on state assessments, and as part of research. Yet, little research measures how student outcomes may differ across mathematics-writing prompt structures and scoring methods. We examined how students with and without mathematics difficulty (MD) performed across mathematics-writing prompt structures (i.e., problem-solving steps and problem-solving response method) and scoring methods (i.e., holistic and elements rubrics). We sampled 375 Grade 4 students with and without MD. Each student completed one of four mathematics-writing prompts. These prompts differed by problem-solving steps and problem-solving response method. Students without MD significantly outperformed students with MD on prompts with pseudo-student work for the elements rubric. In addition, students’ measured performance differed across holistic and elements rubrics. In conclusion, performance trends for all students differed across the prompts and rubrics, demonstrating a need for careful consideration when selecting mathematics-writing prompts and rubrics.
