School classrooms within the EU are multilingual learning environments. The diversity of pupils in classrooms raises significant challenges for teachers, but to date, there are no data from large-scale surveys that compare views within and across European countries. A bespoke questionnaire was designed to examine views of current classroom learning environments with respect to the multilingualism. The questionnaire was piloted and subsequently completed by 2792 teachers across different European countries. Eleven countries provided sufficient data for analyses. Results from structural equation modelling showed that teachers’ attitudes could be reliably measured across Europe with the use of carefully devised questionnaire, whose loading and factor structure remained invariant across countries. Teachers’ views about multilingualism were most challenged by the numbers of children in their classes, not the percentage of multilingual pupils in the class. Countries differed in how they perceived multilingualism, with their differences leading to distinctive country clusters. Gender and education level (elementary vs. secondary) differences were also observed irrespective of country. These findings enhance our understanding of the role that the characteristics of teachers and their classrooms play in a multilingual setting across diverse European settings. The practical relevance of the results and new opportunities for teacher training are discussed.

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is often associated with impairments in working memory (WM), executive functions (EF), and verbal fluency. Moreover, increasing evidence shows poorer performance of children with DLD on non-verbal intelligence tests relative to their typically developing (TD) peers. Yet, the degree and generality of relevant difficulties remain unclear. The present study aimed at investigating WM capacity, key EFs and verbal fluency in relation to non-verbal intelligence in Greek-speaking school-age children with DLD, compared to TD peers (8–9 years). To our knowledge, the present study is the first to attempt a systematic relevant assessment with Greek-speaking school-age children, complementing previous studies mostly involving English-speaking participants. The results showed that children with DLD scored lower than TD peers on the non-verbal intelligence measure. Groups did not differ in the inhibition measures obtained (tapping resistance to either distractor or proactive interference), but children with DLD were outperformed by TD peers in the WM capacity, updating, monitoring (mixing cost), and verbal fluency (phonological and semantic) measures. The effects showed limited (in the case of backward digit recall) or no dependence on non-verbal intelligence. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications as well as in relation to future lines of research.

Understanding and regulating emotions influence children’s friendships. Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) have difficulties in understanding emotions and in controlling themselves. Τhe present study examines how children’s friendships and their quality may be affected by emotion understanding and regulation skills. Participants were 64 children with ADHD, 64 children with SLD, and 64 typically developing (TD) children (M_age = 9.77 years, SD = 1.22) who answered questionnaires about their friendships, and their emotion understanding and regulation. Results showed that ADHD children had less friends, lower friendship qualities, worse understanding of emotions and control of their impulsivity, and used less cognitive reappraisals to regulate emotions, followed by SLD children and finally by TD children. Children with SLD reported using more expressive suppressions for regulating emotions. For all children, emotion understanding and regulation predicted higher friendship quality. The results support the significance of understanding and regulating emotions upon the quality of children’s best friendships.

Within a modern school that follows the international rules of inclusive education is very important for teachers to be able to understand and meet the needs of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The present study explores for the first time in Greece, the views of 122 Greek Kindergarten Teachers (KTs) and Primary school teachers (PSTs) about DLD, through an online survey that elaborated both categorical and Likert scale responses. According to the results half of the participants were not familiar with the term. Both groups of professionals reported that children with DLD have many vocabulary and syntactic difficulties in the receptive language. In the expressive language KTs identified more articulation and phonological difficulties, while PSTs referred mainly vocabulary and grammatical difficulties. The majority of professionals mentioned additional difficulties such as emotional and behavioral problems. Both groups identified a variety of challenges while working with children with DLD. KTs focused mostly on children’s emotional difficulties, while PSTs reported mostly their learning difficulties. The participants also recognized their own limitations regarding background knowledge and the need for further training. Furthermore, the educators mentioned that it is difficult for them to identify and support a child with DLD while, at the same time they acknowledged the need to collaborate with other professionals in order to meet children’s needs. The results are discussed in terms of their importance for raising awareness for DLD as well as for teachers’ better training, in order to efficiently identify and support children with DLD.