Background Studies have reported a strong association between children's early literacy skills at preschool and their reading and writing skills at primary school. However, it is unclear whether this association is affected by language and curriculum practices. Objective The study investigates (i) whether early literacy skills are influenced by orthographic consistency and by preschool curriculum, and (ii) how early skills are related to later literacy skills across countries. Method Three countries, Italy (n = 73), Romania (n = 65), and Belgium (n = 109) were involved in the study, for a total of 247 children. Language and early literacy in preschool were assessed using a novel assessment tool (the ‘Talk’). Early visual-phonological and manual aspects integration were investigated using rapid automatized naming and grapho-motor tasks. The children’s reading and writing skills nine months later were assessed using standardized tests. Results Results showed higher early literacy scores for the groups of children speaking languages with more transparent orthographic systems and for the group taking part in preschool activities designed to enhance literacy acquisition. Later reading and writing skills were predicted by early competences, albeit with differences across countries. Conclusions Findings suggest that literacy acquisition trajectories are not only associated with early skills but are also influenced by language characteristics and curriculum practices. The study also presents preliminary findings relative to the ‘Talk’, an assessment tool that may have important implications for early identification and intervention of language and literacy difficulties, as well as for improving cross-country curriculum practices.

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<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The purpose of this study was to establish reading fluency norms for first grade students at the end of the school year in Romanian language using PEAFC (Proba de evaluare şi antrenare a fluenţei în citire/ The Assessment and Training of Reading Fluency Instrument, Bodea Haţegan &amp; Talaş, 2014). A representative sample of 1977 first grade students (with ages between 7 and 8 years old) was assessed, girls (N_g=954) and boys (N_b=1023), from different counties from Romania (N_c=11), attending rural (N_r= 385) and urban (N<em>u</em>=1592) elementary schools. Oral reading fluency norms were established on the linguistic structure of the words (monosyllabic, disyllabic, three syllable words and text words). The results of this study offer a new perspective on the reading fluency levels at the end of the first grade</p><p>and will help the teachers and the specialists to identify students at risk for dyslexia and to start effective early intervention programs to improve reading fluency.</p><p> </p>

This article describes a research study developed during the webinar organized in order to celebrate 6 th of March as European Day of Speech & Language Therapy. In this research participated Romanian SLTs (N=150). The research was based on the following objectives: to identify the typology of the present used resources in the Romanian SLT field; to implement the Padlet as a tool for collecting and sharing data and to identify the area of resources that has to be developed. Results demonstrated that SLTs mainly use virtual resources (VR=106) in their present work and that material resources that can be used online is the less detailed and mentioned category (MRV=17). The third category of resources is the category of material resources (MR), those that are to be used mainly during face-to-face SLT therapy. This category is represented by a relatively low number of units, compared with VR (MR=61). Regarding the use of Padlet, we consider that this focused-group based research was enhanced with success, participants in the research, even if they were a numerous group, and the research was developed online, had the chance to express their points of view, without difficulties.