Maja Roch
Biographic Data
| ID | 6212906 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maja Roch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maja |
| FAMILY NAME | Roch |
| SIGNATURE | ROCH M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Padua |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5604-9557 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Is Narrative Comprehension Embodied? An Exploratory Study on the Relationship Between Narrative and Motor Skills in Preschoolers
Background/Objectives: According to Embodied Cognition theories, motor skills in early childhood are closely interconnected with various cognitive abilities, including working memory, cognitive flexibility, and theory of mind. These processes are integral components of the multicomponent model of narrative comprehension, which posits that higher-order cognitive functions support the construction of coherent mental representations of narrative mea…
Inhibitory Control, Social Cognition, and Peer Social Competence among Children with and without a Migration Background in Italy
Executive functions and social cognition (i.e., the mental operations that underlie social interaction) are essential for children’s successful interactions, yet their role in peer social competence among children with and without a migration background is still underexplored. This study investigated the influence of inhibitory control and two domains of social cognition (theory of mind and facial emotion recognition) on children’s peer social co…
Receptive Vocabulary and Listening Narrative Comprehension of Italian–English Bilingual Children between 5 to 7 Years
Vocabulary is the key component of listening narrative comprehension, but its contribution has been scarcely investigated in bilingual children. This study aimed to examine (a) listening narrative comprehension and receptive vocabulary in L1 (Italian) and L2 (English) in preschool and first grade children; (b) the specific contribution of receptive vocabulary to listening narrative comprehension in both languages. Participants were 30 preschooler…
Comprehension of explicit and implicit information in prereaders
Listening narrative comprehension is a complex process that requires the processing of explicit (i.e., information presented in the text) and implicit information (i.e., information inferable from the text) and involves several linguistic and cognitive skills. However, the specific role of these skills in children's comprehension remains unclear. This study investigated the contribution of maternal education, receptive vocabulary, executive funct…
Parental experiences of homeschooling during the Covid-19 pandemic
The aim of the present study was to examine parental experiences of homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic in families with or without a child with a mental health condition across Europe. The study included 6720 parents recruited through schools, patient organizations and social media platforms (2002 parents with a child with a mental health condition and 4718 without) from seven European countries: the UK ( n = 508), Sweden ( n = 1436), Spa…
Let’s Read Together”
Many children are at risk for reading difficulties because of inadequate emergent literacy skills. It is widely accepted that development of emergent literacy skills is strictly related to children's early literacy experiences at home and school. Dialogic reading is an evidence-based intervention to promote the language skills of preschool children. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a parent-focused dialogic book reading interve…
A Non-Randomized Pilot Study on the Benefits of Baby Swimming on Motor Development
According to the concept of “embodied cognition”, motor development should not be considered distant from cognitive and language processes. Motor development is essential in the first 1000 days of life, as the child explores and learns new information from the environment. Among motor activities, baby swimming allows infants to make movements that they are not able to perform on solid ground. Since movements become slower in water, the sensory pe…
How Does Toddlers’ Engagement in Literacy Activities Influence Their Language Abilities
The most intensive period of language development is during the first years of life, during which the brain is developing rapidly. Research has shown that children from disadvantaged households who received high-quality stimulation at a young age grew into adults who earned an average of 25% more than those who did not receive these interventions. In addition, it has been suggested that children who show a greater interest in literacy-related act…
Back to School
During the COVID-19 pandemic, continuous closing and reopening of schools may have had an impact on teachers' perception of the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and of the effectiveness of health measures introduced to limit the spread of the virus, with consequences on teaching methods and relational bonds within schools. By means of an online survey, we measured: teachers' stress, job-satisfaction, self-efficacy and emotions at work, risk-percept…
Parental stress during Covid-19
Direct and Indirect Pathways of Variation in Length of Exposure to the Majority Language, Cognitive and Language Skills in Preschoolers’ Listening Narrative Comprehension
Listening narrative comprehension, according to the theoretical framework of the multicomponent model for comprehension, involves numerous skills that interact dynamically between each other and have the potential to give rise to individual differences in comprehension. The purpose of the current work was to define a comprehensive and complete multicomponent model of listening narrative comprehension in preschool age. We investigated how variatio…
Distance Learning Effects Among Italian Children and Parents During Covid-19 Related School Lockdown
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, both children and their parents experienced consequences related to distance learning (DL). However, positive and negative effects have varied greatly among families, and the specific factors explaining these differences in experiences are still underexplored. In this study, we examined children's executive functions (EF) and parents' psychological well-being in relation to negative and positive effects o…
Italian adaptation of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives
This paper presents the Italian version of the Multilingual Assessment tool for Narratives (MAIN), describes how it was developed and reports on some recent uses of MAIN within the Italian context. The Italian MAIN has been used in different research projects and for clinical purposes; results have been presented at conferences and in peer reviewed papers. The results indicate that MAIN is an appropriate assessment tool for evaluating children’s …
Fostering Broad Oral Language Skills in Preschoolers from Low SES Background
Socioeconomic disparities increase the probability that children will enter school behind their more advantaged peers. Early intervention on language skills may enhance language and literacy outcomes, reduce the gap and, eventually, promote school readiness of low-SES (Socioeconomic Status) children. This study aimed to analyze the feasibility and effectiveness of a brief narrative-based intervention (treatment vs. control group) aimed to foster …
Are the Effects of Variation in Quantity of Daily Bilingual Exposure and Socioeconomic Status on Language and Cognitive Abilities Independent in Preschool Children
Bilingual exposure (BE) and socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with children's development, but their specific and unique effects are still unclear. This study analyzed the influence of these environmental factors on a set of cognitive and linguistic abilities in preschoolers to disentangle their effects. One hundred-eleven Italian-speaking preschool children (mean age = 61 months; SD = 6.8) growing in a monolingual or multilingual context…
In few words
The aim of this study was to compare linguistic and narrative skills of monolingual and bilingual preschoolers and to estimate linguistic predictors of the macro-structural level of narratives. A battery of linguistic measures in Italian was administered to sixty-four Monolinguals and sixty-four Early Bilinguals; it included Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness, Morphosyntactic Comprehension, Phonological Memory, Letter Knowledge, and Story Sequenc…
Listening Text Comprehension of Explicit and Implicit Information in Preschoolers
According to multicomponent models (Oakhill & Cain, 2007a Oakhill, J. V. and Cain, K. 2007a. “Introduction to comprehension development.”. In Children's comprehension problems in oral and written language: A cognitive perspective Edited by: Cain, K. and Oakhill, J. V. 41–73. New York: Guilford.. [Google Scholar]), text comprehension is a complex process that requires the processing of explicit (i.e., information presented in the text) and implici…
A longitudinal study of idiom and text comprehension
The relation between text and idiom comprehension in children with poor text comprehension skills was investigated longitudinally. In the first phase of the study, six-year-old first graders with different levels of text comprehension were compared in an idiom and sentence comprehension task. Text comprehension was shown to be more closely related to idiom comprehension than sentence comprehension. The follow-up study, carried out eight months la…
Listening Text Comprehension of Explicit and Implicit Information in Preschoolers
According to multicomponent models (Oakhill & Cain, 2007a Oakhill, J. V. and Cain, K. 2007a. “Introduction to comprehension development.”. In Children's comprehension problems in oral and written language: A cognitive perspective Edited by: Cain, K. and Oakhill, J. V. 41–73. New York: Guilford.. [Google Scholar]), text comprehension is a complex process that requires the processing of explicit (i.e., information presented in the text) and implici…
A longitudinal study of idiom and text comprehension
The relation between text and idiom comprehension in children with poor text comprehension skills was investigated longitudinally. In the first phase of the study, six-year-old first graders with different levels of text comprehension were compared in an idiom and sentence comprehension task. Text comprehension was shown to be more closely related to idiom comprehension than sentence comprehension. The follow-up study, carried out eight months la…
Listening Text Comprehension of Explicit and Implicit Information in Preschoolers
According to multicomponent models (Oakhill & Cain, 2007a Oakhill, J. V. and Cain, K. 2007a. “Introduction to comprehension development.”. In Children's comprehension problems in oral and written language: A cognitive perspective Edited by: Cain, K. and Oakhill, J. V. 41–73. New York: Guilford.. [Google Scholar]), text comprehension is a complex process that requires the processing of explicit (i.e., information presented in the text) and implici…
In few words
The aim of this study was to compare linguistic and narrative skills of monolingual and bilingual preschoolers and to estimate linguistic predictors of the macro-structural level of narratives. A battery of linguistic measures in Italian was administered to sixty-four Monolinguals and sixty-four Early Bilinguals; it included Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness, Morphosyntactic Comprehension, Phonological Memory, Letter Knowledge, and Story Sequenc…
Italian adaptation of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives
This paper presents the Italian version of the Multilingual Assessment tool for Narratives (MAIN), describes how it was developed and reports on some recent uses of MAIN within the Italian context. The Italian MAIN has been used in different research projects and for clinical purposes; results have been presented at conferences and in peer reviewed papers. The results indicate that MAIN is an appropriate assessment tool for evaluating children’s …
Fostering Broad Oral Language Skills in Preschoolers from Low SES Background
Socioeconomic disparities increase the probability that children will enter school behind their more advantaged peers. Early intervention on language skills may enhance language and literacy outcomes, reduce the gap and, eventually, promote school readiness of low-SES (Socioeconomic Status) children. This study aimed to analyze the feasibility and effectiveness of a brief narrative-based intervention (treatment vs. control group) aimed to foster …
Are the Effects of Variation in Quantity of Daily Bilingual Exposure and Socioeconomic Status on Language and Cognitive Abilities Independent in Preschool Children
Bilingual exposure (BE) and socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with children's development, but their specific and unique effects are still unclear. This study analyzed the influence of these environmental factors on a set of cognitive and linguistic abilities in preschoolers to disentangle their effects. One hundred-eleven Italian-speaking preschool children (mean age = 61 months; SD = 6.8) growing in a monolingual or multilingual context…
Parental stress during Covid-19
Direct and Indirect Pathways of Variation in Length of Exposure to the Majority Language, Cognitive and Language Skills in Preschoolers’ Listening Narrative Comprehension
Listening narrative comprehension, according to the theoretical framework of the multicomponent model for comprehension, involves numerous skills that interact dynamically between each other and have the potential to give rise to individual differences in comprehension. The purpose of the current work was to define a comprehensive and complete multicomponent model of listening narrative comprehension in preschool age. We investigated how variatio…
Distance Learning Effects Among Italian Children and Parents During Covid-19 Related School Lockdown
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, both children and their parents experienced consequences related to distance learning (DL). However, positive and negative effects have varied greatly among families, and the specific factors explaining these differences in experiences are still underexplored. In this study, we examined children's executive functions (EF) and parents' psychological well-being in relation to negative and positive effects o…
Parental experiences of homeschooling during the Covid-19 pandemic
The aim of the present study was to examine parental experiences of homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic in families with or without a child with a mental health condition across Europe. The study included 6720 parents recruited through schools, patient organizations and social media platforms (2002 parents with a child with a mental health condition and 4718 without) from seven European countries: the UK ( n = 508), Sweden ( n = 1436), Spa…
Let’s Read Together”
Many children are at risk for reading difficulties because of inadequate emergent literacy skills. It is widely accepted that development of emergent literacy skills is strictly related to children's early literacy experiences at home and school. Dialogic reading is an evidence-based intervention to promote the language skills of preschool children. This study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a parent-focused dialogic book reading interve…
A Non-Randomized Pilot Study on the Benefits of Baby Swimming on Motor Development
According to the concept of “embodied cognition”, motor development should not be considered distant from cognitive and language processes. Motor development is essential in the first 1000 days of life, as the child explores and learns new information from the environment. Among motor activities, baby swimming allows infants to make movements that they are not able to perform on solid ground. Since movements become slower in water, the sensory pe…
How Does Toddlers’ Engagement in Literacy Activities Influence Their Language Abilities
The most intensive period of language development is during the first years of life, during which the brain is developing rapidly. Research has shown that children from disadvantaged households who received high-quality stimulation at a young age grew into adults who earned an average of 25% more than those who did not receive these interventions. In addition, it has been suggested that children who show a greater interest in literacy-related act…
Back to School
During the COVID-19 pandemic, continuous closing and reopening of schools may have had an impact on teachers' perception of the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 and of the effectiveness of health measures introduced to limit the spread of the virus, with consequences on teaching methods and relational bonds within schools. By means of an online survey, we measured: teachers' stress, job-satisfaction, self-efficacy and emotions at work, risk-percept…
Inhibitory Control, Social Cognition, and Peer Social Competence among Children with and without a Migration Background in Italy
Executive functions and social cognition (i.e., the mental operations that underlie social interaction) are essential for children’s successful interactions, yet their role in peer social competence among children with and without a migration background is still underexplored. This study investigated the influence of inhibitory control and two domains of social cognition (theory of mind and facial emotion recognition) on children’s peer social co…
Receptive Vocabulary and Listening Narrative Comprehension of Italian–English Bilingual Children between 5 to 7 Years
Vocabulary is the key component of listening narrative comprehension, but its contribution has been scarcely investigated in bilingual children. This study aimed to examine (a) listening narrative comprehension and receptive vocabulary in L1 (Italian) and L2 (English) in preschool and first grade children; (b) the specific contribution of receptive vocabulary to listening narrative comprehension in both languages. Participants were 30 preschooler…
Comprehension of explicit and implicit information in prereaders
Listening narrative comprehension is a complex process that requires the processing of explicit (i.e., information presented in the text) and implicit information (i.e., information inferable from the text) and involves several linguistic and cognitive skills. However, the specific role of these skills in children's comprehension remains unclear. This study investigated the contribution of maternal education, receptive vocabulary, executive funct…
Is Narrative Comprehension Embodied? An Exploratory Study on the Relationship Between Narrative and Motor Skills in Preschoolers
Background/Objectives: According to Embodied Cognition theories, motor skills in early childhood are closely interconnected with various cognitive abilities, including working memory, cognitive flexibility, and theory of mind. These processes are integral components of the multicomponent model of narrative comprehension, which posits that higher-order cognitive functions support the construction of coherent mental representations of narrative mea…
Psychology (18 works) · Developmental psychology (12 works) · Linguistics (11 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (11 works) · Comprehension (9 works) · Language Development and Disorders (8 works) · Cognition (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Vocabulary (6 works)