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Annals of Dyslexia Jul 2023This study investigates the reading profiles of rural Grade 5 and 6 students (N = 262), a sample with a high proportion of English language learners. We administered...
This study investigates the reading profiles of rural Grade 5 and 6 students (N = 262), a sample with a high proportion of English language learners. We administered a battery of reading and cognitive assessments to classify students' reading profiles and evaluate if performance on cognitive measures predicted membership in particular profiles. Data were analyzed using latent profile analysis. Latent profile analysis showed four distinct reading profiles in our sample: students with severe reading disabilities (< 2%), students at high risk of reading disability (14%), students at some-risk of reading disability (46%), and students who are typical readers (38%). Lower performance on cognitive measures was associated with group membership in the severe reading profile group compared to the group of students at some-risk of reading failure. In contrast, higher performance on cognitive measures was associated with group membership in the typical reader group compared to students at some-risk of reading failure. In keeping with the findings from past studies documenting reader profiles, we found heterogeneity in the reading profiles of rural upper-elementary grade students. We discuss the need for multicomponent interventions that target all areas of reading with some flexibility in the dosage of each reading component dependent on the reader profiles established prior to intervention.
Topics: Humans; Dyslexia; Reading; Students; Language; Schools; Learning Disabilities
PubMed: 36630027
DOI: 10.1007/s11881-022-00276-y -
Dyslexia (Chichester, England) Feb 2021Dyslexia is a prevalent condition, and a significant percentage of students in higher education are dyslexic. Despite this, few studies have investigated dyslexia in...
Dyslexia is a prevalent condition, and a significant percentage of students in higher education are dyslexic. Despite this, few studies have investigated dyslexia in university students and what personality dispositions may predict how students feel about help-seeking for dyslexia and how they cope with dyslexia. Against this background, the present study investigated perfectionism, self-stigma, and coping in 115 university students with dyslexia, examining the relationships between dispositional perfectionism (self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism) and perfectionistic self-presentation with self-stigma of seeking help and adaptive versus maladaptive coping with dyslexia. Results from regression and mediation analyses showed that perfectionistic self-presentation predicted higher levels of self-stigma and maladaptive coping, and lower levels of adaptive coping. Furthermore, both forms of dispositional perfectionism predicted higher levels of self-stigma and maladaptive coping, and lower levels of adaptive coping, via perfectionistic self-presentation (dispositional perfectionism→perfectionistic self-presentation → self-stigma and coping). The findings suggest that perfectionistic self-presentation plays a central role in the relationships of perfectionism, self-stigma, and coping in students with dyslexia, and that impression management, aimed at presenting a perfect self-image (and hiding imperfections), represents a significant risk for students seeking help for, and successful coping with, dyslexia.
Topics: Achievement; Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Dyslexia; Female; Help-Seeking Behavior; Humans; Male; Mediation Analysis; Perfectionism; Personality; Regression Analysis; Self Concept; Social Stigma; Students; Young Adult
PubMed: 32803909
DOI: 10.1002/dys.1666 -
Annals of Dyslexia Oct 2020An individual diagnosed with dyslexia in childhood typically remains dyslexic throughout his/her life. However, the cognitive profile of adults with dyslexia has been... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
An individual diagnosed with dyslexia in childhood typically remains dyslexic throughout his/her life. However, the cognitive profile of adults with dyslexia has been less explored than that of children. This meta-analytic study is intended to clarify three questions: (1) To what extent, and in what manner, do adults with reading difficulties (dyslexia) differ from typical adult readers in measures of reading and writing competence and related cognitive skills?; (2) To what extent do speed measures pose a greater challenge than accuracy measures in an adult population that has already had years of print exposure?; and (3) To what extent does orthographic transparency modulate the reading profile of adults with dyslexia? A total of 178 studies comparing adults with dyslexia and matched controls were reviewed. The results showed that adults with dyslexia exhibited poor performance on almost all reading and writing tasks expressed by very large effect sizes (range 1.735 ≤ d ≤ 2.034), except for reading comprehension (d = 0.729). Deficits in reading- and writing-related variables are also present but with a lower expression (range 0.591 ≤ d ≤ 1.295). These difficulties are exacerbated for speed measures, especially for word and pseudoword reading, phonological awareness and orthographic knowledge. Orthographic transparency proved to be a significant moderator of dyslexic deficits in word and pseudoword reading, reading comprehension, spelling and phonological awareness, with the expression of the deficits being weaker on transparent-as opposed to intermediate and opaque-orthographies. Overall, the meta-analysis shows that reading and writing difficulties persist in adulthood and are more pronounced in speed measures. Moreover, symptoms are more severe for reading and writing than they are for measures tapping into the cognitive processes underlying reading skills. Orthographic transparency has a significant effect on the manifestation of dyslexia, with dyslexia symptoms being less marked on transparent orthographies. In addition, phonological awareness seems to be a minor problem in adulthood, especially for transparent orthographies.
Topics: Adult; Attention; Awareness; Child; Cognition; Comprehension; Dyslexia; Female; Humans; Language; Male; Phonetics; Reading; Writing
PubMed: 32918699
DOI: 10.1007/s11881-020-00205-x -
International Journal of Environmental... Jan 2023Children with dyslexia are at elevated risk of internalising and externalising mental health concerns. Our aim was to scope the extent and nature of the literature...
Children with dyslexia are at elevated risk of internalising and externalising mental health concerns. Our aim was to scope the extent and nature of the literature investigating factors which may influence this association. We systematically searched the peer-reviewed and grey literature with no restrictions on the date. We included both qualitative and quantitative studies. Inclusion criteria included: (1) a focus on childhood (≤18 years) reading/learning difficulties; (2) internalising and/or externalising symptoms; and (3) a potentially modifiable third factor (e.g., self-esteem). Ninety-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. We organised the studies according to individual, family, and community-level third factors. Whilst a range of third factors were identified, relatively few researchers tested associations between the third factor and mental health in the context of dyslexia. Furthermore, there was a focus on primary rather than secondary school experience and a reliance, in many cases, on teacher/parent perspectives on children's mental health. Future researchers are encouraged to explore links between socio-emotional skills, coping strategies, school connectedness, and mental health in the context of dyslexia. Research of this nature is important to assist with the identification of children who are more (or less) at risk of mental health concerns and to inform tailored mental health programs for children with dyslexia.
Topics: Child; Humans; Adaptation, Psychological; Cognition; Dyslexia; Emotions; Mental Health
PubMed: 36674408
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20021653 -
Brain Structure & Function May 2024Stress and learning co-evolved in parallel, with their interdependence critical to the survival of the species. Even today, the regulation of moderate levels of stress... (Review)
Review
Stress and learning co-evolved in parallel, with their interdependence critical to the survival of the species. Even today, the regulation of moderate levels of stress by the central autonomic network (CAN), especially during pre- and post-natal periods, facilitates biological adaptability and is an essential precursor for the cognitive requisites of learning to read. Reading is a remarkable evolutionary achievement of the human brain, mysteriously unusual, because it is not pre-wired with a genetic address to facilitate its acquisition. There is no gene for reading. The review suggests that reading co-opts a brain circuit centered in the left hemisphere ventral occipital cortex that evolved as a domain-general visual processor. Its adoption by reading depends on the CAN's coordination of the learning and emotional requirements of learning to read at the metabolic, cellular, synaptic, and network levels. By stabilizing a child's self-control and modulating the attention network's inhibitory controls over the reading circuit, the CAN plays a key role in school readiness and learning to read. In addition, the review revealed two beneficial CAN evolutionary adjustments to early-life stress "overloads" that come with incidental costs of school under-performance and dyslexia. A short-term adaptation involving methylation of the FKBP5 and NR3C1 genes is a liability for academic achievement in primary school. The adaptation leading to dyslexia induces alterations in BDNF trafficking, promoting long-term adaptive fitness by protecting against excessive glucocorticoid toxicity but risks reading difficulties by disruptive signaling from the CAN to the attention networks and the reading circuit.
Topics: Child; Humans; Literacy; Adverse Childhood Experiences; Dyslexia; Reading; Learning
PubMed: 38436668
DOI: 10.1007/s00429-024-02766-8 -
BMC Pediatrics Dec 2022Developmental dyslexia, a specific and long-lasting learning disorder that prevents children from becoming efficient and fluent readers, has a severe impact on academic...
BACKGROUND
Developmental dyslexia, a specific and long-lasting learning disorder that prevents children from becoming efficient and fluent readers, has a severe impact on academic learning and behavior and may compromise professional and social development. Most remediation studies are based on the explicit or implicit assumption that dyslexia results from a single cause related to either impaired phonological or visual-attentional processing or impaired cross-modal integration. Yet, recent studies show that dyslexia is multifactorial and that many dyslexics have underlying deficits in several domains. The originality of the current study is to test a remediation approach that trains skills in all three domains using different training methods that are tailored to an individual's cognitive profile as part of a longitudinal intervention study.
METHODS
This multicenter randomized crossover study will be conducted in three phases and will involve 120 dyslexic children between the ages of 8 and 13 years. The first phase serves as within-subject baseline period that lasts for 2 months. In this phase, all children undergo weekly speech-language therapy sessions without additional training at home (business-as-usual). During the second phase, all dyslexics receive three types of intensive interventions that last 2 month each: Phonological, visual-attentional, and cross-modal. The order of the first two interventions (phonological and visual-attentional) is swapped in two randomly assigned groups of 60 dyslexics each. This allows one to test the efficacy and additivity of each intervention (against baseline) and find out whether the order of delivery matters. During the third phase, the follow-up period, the intensive interventions are stopped, and all dyslexics will be tested after 2 months. Implementation fidelity will be assessed from the user data of the computerized intervention program and an "intention-to-treat" analysis will be performed on the children who quit the trial before the end.
DISCUSSION
The main objective of this study is to assess whether the three types of intensive intervention (phase 2) improve reading skills compared to baseline (i.e., non-intensive intervention, phase 1). The secondary objectives are to evaluate the effectiveness of each intervention and to test the effects of order of delivery on reading intervention outcomes. Reading comprehension, spelling performance and reading disorder impact of dyslexic readers are assessed immediately before and after the multimodal intervention and 2 months post-intervention.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT04028310. Registered on July 18, 2019.
Topics: Child; Humans; Adolescent; Cross-Over Studies; Dyslexia; Language; Attention; Longitudinal Studies; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Multicenter Studies as Topic
PubMed: 36578007
DOI: 10.1186/s12887-022-03701-8 -
Dyslexia (Chichester, England) May 2021Low education and unemployment are common adult-age outcomes associated with childhood RD (c-RD). However, adult-age cognitive and non-cognitive factors associated with...
Low education and unemployment are common adult-age outcomes associated with childhood RD (c-RD). However, adult-age cognitive and non-cognitive factors associated with different outcomes remain unknown. We studied whether these outcomes are equally common among individuals with c-RD and controls and whether these outcomes are related to adult-age literacy skills or cognitive and non-cognitive factors or their interaction with c-RD. We examined adult participants with c-RD (n = 48) and their matched controls (n = 37). Low education was more common among c-RD than the controls, whereas long-term unemployment was equally common in both groups. Moreover, adult-age literacy skills, cognitive skills and non-cognitive factors were related to both low education and long-term unemployment. Only a few c-RD-specific associations emerged: c-RD, especially in interaction with low verbal or reading comprehension, was associated with low education, and c-RD in interaction with slow adult-age reading was associated with long-term unemployment. Avoidant coping style, emotional wellbeing and social functioning were related to education, and life-satisfaction to unemployment irrespective of c-RD. Thus, the non-cognitive factors associated with education and employment are similar in individuals with and without c-RD. Special attention should be paid to training c-RD individuals in basic academic, social and emotional skills.
Topics: Adaptation, Psychological; Adult; Child; Cognition; Disabled Persons; Dyslexia; Educational Status; Emotions; Employment; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Learning Disabilities; Literacy; Male; Personal Satisfaction; Resilience, Psychological; Self Concept; Unemployment
PubMed: 33241620
DOI: 10.1002/dys.1673 -
International Journal of Environmental... Feb 2020Dyslexia is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders. Children with dyslexia usually suffer from negative, behavior personality problems, and impacted life...
Dyslexia is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders. Children with dyslexia usually suffer from negative, behavior personality problems, and impacted life quality. We aimed to identify family environment factors for dyslexia, and to evaluate the personality, behavior characteristics and life quality of children with dyslexia. A total of 60 children diagnosed with dyslexia and 180 normal children that were aged 7-12 who speak Chinese were recruited from four primary schools in Shantou City, China. Self-designed questionnaire, children's edition of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Conners' Parent Rating Scale (CPRS), and Quality of Life scale for children and adolescents (QLSCA) were employed for investigation. Multiple logistic regressions show that antenatal training ( = 0.36), higher household income, higher parents' educational levels, and parents engaging in white-collar jobs were negatively associated with dyslexia; while, family members also suffering from dyslexia ( = 12.17), lower frequency of communication between parents and children, and worse parent-child relationship were positively associated with dyslexia. Children with dyslexia scored higher in psychoticism and neuroticism ( = 0.040, 0.008), but lower in extroversion and dissimulation than normal children ( = 0.025, 0.007) in the EPQ test. They tended to be more introversion (68.3% vs. 43.0%), psychoticism (25.0% vs. 13.3%), and neuroticism (46.7% vs. 18.8%) than the controls. In addition, children with dyslexia had higher scores in conduct problem, learning problem, hyperactivity, and Conners' index of hyperactivity (CIH) in CPRS test; and, lower scores of psychosocial function, physical and mental health, and satisfaction of living quality in QLSCA test (all < 0.05). Several family environment and parenting factors were associated with children's dyslexia significantly. Children with dyslexia had the personality of psychoticism, neuroticism, introversion, and more behavioral problems. Dyslexia significantly impacted the children's quality of life. Our findings provide multiple perspectives for early intervention of dyslexia in children, particularly in family factors and the parenting environment.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Child, Preschool; China; Dyslexia; Educational Status; Female; Humans; Male; Parent-Child Relations; Personality; Pregnancy; Quality of Life; Socioeconomic Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 32098297
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17041415 -
Dyslexia (Chichester, England) Nov 2023Many studies have highlighted short-term memory (STM) impairment in dyslexic individuals. Several studies showed deficits for both item and serial order aspects of...
Many studies have highlighted short-term memory (STM) impairment in dyslexic individuals. Several studies showed deficits for both item and serial order aspects of verbal STM in dyslexic individuals. These group-based studies, however, do not inform us about the prevalence of these deficits and, importantly, their potential heterogeneity at the individual level. The present study examined both group-level and individual STM profiles in dyslexic and age-matched non-dyslexic children. While confirming previous group-based results of both item and serial order STM deficits, individual analyses indicated two distinct profiles: one profile was associated with verbal item STM and phonological impairment while another profile showed selective serial STM deficits in both verbal and visual domains. Our results highlight the need for practitioners to consider the heterogeneous nature of STM impairment in dyslexia and to adapt STM and reading treatment strategies accordingly.
Topics: Humans; Child; Memory, Short-Term; Dyslexia; Memory Disorders; Reading; Articulation Disorders; Phonetics
PubMed: 37519030
DOI: 10.1002/dys.1749 -
Zhurnal Nevrologii I Psikhiatrii Imeni... 2021To study the severity of disorders of executive functions in children with dyslexia and to assess the effectiveness of treatment of this pathology with cortexin.
OBJECTIVE
To study the severity of disorders of executive functions in children with dyslexia and to assess the effectiveness of treatment of this pathology with cortexin.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The main study group included 60 children, aged 8-11 years, with a specific reading disorder (F.81.0). Reading skills were assessed using methods of T.A. Fotekova, T.V. Akhutina. Diagnostic examination included neurological examination with dyspraxia test, electroencephalography with visual and quantitative analysis. To objectify the severity of memory impairments, the «Working memory» technique was used. Attention and impulsivity disorders were quantified using SNAP-IY and the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA). The control group consisted of 60 children of the same age without symptoms of dyslexia. Cortexin was used to treat 30 patients from the study group, 30 patients received encephabol. A control study to analyze the effectiveness of the therapy was carried out one month after the end of therapy.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
Children with dyslexia are characterized by a higher level of inattention and impulsivity, as well as significantly lower indicators of working memory compared to children from the control group. The decrease in attention and working memory as well as an increased level of impulsivity are manifestations of impaired executive functions in children with dyslexia. The results of the control study after treatment showed a significant increase in reading skills in both groups. In addition, there was an improvement in indicators of attention and working memory. However, the effectiveness of treatment with cortexin was slightly higher compared to encephabol (improvement was noted in 73.3% and 60.0%of patients, respectively). According to a comparative analysis of EEG results, after a course of treatment with cortexin, children with dyslexia have significant neurophysiological changes that indicate the activation of the brain regulatory systems.
Topics: Attention; Child; Cognitive Dysfunction; Dyslexia; Executive Function; Humans; Memory, Short-Term
PubMed: 33728849
DOI: 10.17116/jnevro202112102138