Search Results (11)

Dyslexia is not easily observed from outward appearance alone; differences typically emerge through learning performance and certain behavioral indicators. This study introduces the Direction Game, a computer-based task that uses mouse-tracking to capture behavioral signals related to directional perception, a common challenge among children at risk for dyslexia. The prototype consists of language-independent mini-games targeting three main types of directional confusion and was piloted with 102 primary school students. Analyses showed that concentration-related variables, particularly attentional control and visuo-motor planning, may provide more informative indicators of risk than simple accuracy scores. Machine learning models demonstrated promising classification performance relative to standardized school screening protocols. Additionally, an exploratory analysis of mouse trajectories revealed five tentative interaction profiles: hesitation, impulsivity, deliberate processing, fluent performance, and disengagement. Together, these findings highlight the potential of a simple, game-based mouse-tracking tool to support accessible and preliminary dyslexia risk assessment in classroom environments. Full article

Background/Objectives: The Seeds of Literacy project has followed infants at family risk for dyslexia (FR group) and infants not at family risk (NFR group) since the age of 5 months, exploring whether infant measures of auditory sensitivity and phonological skills are related to later reading achievement. Here, we retrospectively assessed relations between infant performance on a rise time discrimination task with new pre-reading behavioural measures administered at 60 months. In addition, we re-classified dyslexia risk at 60 months and again assessed relations to rise time sensitivity. Participants were re-grouped using the pre-reading behavioural measures as either dyslexia risk at 60 months (60mDR) or no dyslexia risk (60mNDR). Methods: FR and NFR children (44 English-learning children) completed assessments of rise time discrimination at 10 and/or 60 months, phonological awareness, phonological memory, rapid automatised naming (RAN), letter knowledge, and language skills (receptive vocabulary and grammatical awareness). Results: Longitudinal analyses showed significant time-lagged correlations between rise time sensitivity at 10 months and both RAN and letter knowledge at 60 months. Rise time sensitivity at 60 months was significantly poorer in those children re-grouped as 60mDR, and rise time sensitivity was significantly related to concurrent phonological awareness, RAN, letter knowledge, and receptive vocabulary, but not to tests of grammatical awareness. Conclusions: The data support the view that children’s rise time sensitivity is significantly related to their pre-reading phonological abilities. These findings are discussed in terms of Temporal Sampling theory. Full article

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Dyslexia frequently co-occur. Many studies suggest that children with Dyslexia may also struggle with oral language skills, while those with DLD may also face challenges in word decoding. Both groups of children typically exhibit deficits in phonological processing [phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short-term memory (VSTM)] and verbal working memory (VWM). Despite the increasing number of comparative studies, few have systematically examined these overlaps in children at the early stages of literacy acquisition, and few studies have systematically assessed all oral language subsystems. This study investigates: (a) differences and similarities among children with DLD, children at Risk of Dyslexia (RfD), and typically developing children (TD) in phonological processing (phonological awareness—implicit and explicit—VSTM, RAN), VWM, oral language, and word decoding; (b) patterns of performance across groups; and (c) correlations between phonological processing and VWM skills with oral language and word decoding. The participants were 45 first graders (Mage = 6.8), equally divided into three groups (DLD, RfD, and TD children). Both special groups (DLD, RfD) performed significantly worse than the TD group across nearly all measurements. DLD children showed pronounced oral language and VSTM deficits, while RfD children primarily struggled with decoding and explicit phonological awareness. Group-specific correlations emerged. The findings are discussed in light of the theoretical models of the relationship between DLD and Dyslexia taking into account the specific developmental stage. Full article

Background/Objectives: Dyslexia and dysgraphia are common childhood neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by persistent reading and writing difficulties, despite normal intelligence and access to education. While typically described as cognitive–linguistic deficits, emerging research suggests potential links to orofacial dysfunction and emotional regulation issues. This study examines associations between stomatognathic anomalies, emotional dysregulation, and early indicators of dyslexia-dysgraphia risk in preschool children, aiming to strengthen early screening and intervention strategies. Methods: A cross-sectional case–control study included 689 Romanian children aged 5–7 from 11 kindergartens. Screening involved the ACTIV-BURLEA psychometric battery to evaluate language, motor, and cognitive abilities. Clinical assessments targeted dental arch form, occlusal balance, and tongue and lip function. Emotional regulation was evaluated using a standardized child behavior scale. Thirty-two children were identified as at risk for dyslexia-dysgraphia and followed longitudinally, and then compared to matched controls. Statistical analysis employed chi-square tests, Pearson correlations, t-tests, and logistic regression. Results: At follow-up, 74.19% of at-risk children received confirmed diagnoses. Tongue dysfunction (TD) (OR = 4.81, p = 0.06) and emotional dysregulation (ED) (OR = 3.94, p = 0.09) emerged as key risk indicators, though not statistically significant. Tongue dysfunction (TD) correlated with school avoidance (r = 0.76, p < 0.01), while occlusal anomalies (OAs) correlated with emotional distress (ED) (r = 0.64, p < 0.05). Conclusions: The findings suggest that early dyslexia-dysgraphia risk involves orofacial and emotional components. Tongue dysfunction (TD), occlusal disturbances (OA), and emotional dysregulation (ED) may offer important clinical markers. Integrating dental and emotional assessments into preschool screening may improve early identification and enable personalized intervention. Full article

Background/Objectives: While artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming education, its specific effectiveness for students with learning disabilities (LD) requires rigorous evaluation. This systematic review aims to assess the efficacy of AI-based educational interventions for students with LD, with a specific focus on the methodological quality and risk of bias of the available evidence. Methods: A systematic search was conducted across seven major databases (Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, APA PsycInfo, ERIC, Scopus, PubMed) for experimental studies published between 2022 and 2025. This review followed PRISMA guidelines, using the PICOS framework for inclusion criteria. A formal risk of bias assessment was performed using the ROBINS-I and JBI critical appraisal tools. Results: Eleven studies (representing 10 independent experiments), encompassing 3033 participants, met the inclusion criteria. The most studied disabilities were dyslexia (six studies) and other specific learning disorders (three studies). Personalized/adaptive learning systems and game-based learning were the most common AI interventions. All 11 studies reported positive outcomes. However, the risk of bias assessment revealed significant methodological limitations: no studies were rated as having a low risk of bias, with most presenting a moderate (70%) to high/serious (30%) risk. Despite these limitations, quantitative results from the stronger studies showed large effect sizes, such as in arithmetic fluency (d = 1.63) and reading comprehension (d = −1.66). Conclusions: AI-based interventions demonstrate significant potential for supporting students with learning disabilities, with unanimously positive reported outcomes. However, this conclusion must be tempered by the considerable risk of bias and methodological weaknesses prevalent in the current literature. The limited and potentially biased evidence base warrants cautious interpretation. Future research must prioritize high-quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and longitudinal assessments to establish a definitive evidence base and investigate long-term effects, including the risk of cognitive offloading. Full article

Background/Objectives: Dyslexia, a prevalent reading disorder, substantially affects children’s educational and social development. Early diagnosis is essential for timely intervention; however, Serbia lacks a standardized instrument for assessing dyslexia in primary school children. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and predictive validity of the Dyslexia Screening Test-Junior (DST-J), which was adapted for the Serbian language and cultural context. Methods: The study sample comprised 647 children from the general population, aged 6 years and 6 months to 11 years and 5 months, along with 30 children of comparable age exhibiting reading difficulties. The assessment of validity was based on the at-risk quotient, predictive validity, and test–retest reliability. Results: Significant differences in at-risk quotient (ARQ) scores were found between children with and without dyslexia (t = 14.90, p < 0.001), with boys, particularly those aged 9.6 to 10.5 years, having higher risk scores than girls. Internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach’s α = 0.704), and construct validity was confirmed by correlations with external measures, which explained 44% of the variance (R² = 0.44; p < 0.01). Predictive validity was high for key subtests such as rapid naming and phonemic segmentation, reaching maximum accuracy (sensitivity and specificity = 1). Conclusions: The findings indicate that the adapted DST-J is effective in identifying dyslexia risk among Serbian primary school children. The innovation of this study lies in the cultural adaptation of the DST-J, with future research directed towards refining this instrument and exploring additional diagnostic criteria to enhance its accuracy and inclusivity. Full article

While genetic and environmental factors have been shown as predictors of children’s reading ability, the interaction effects of identified genetic risk susceptibility and the specified environment for reading ability have rarely been investigated. The current study assessed potential gene–environment (G×E) interactions on reading ability in 1477 school-aged children. The gene–environment interactions on character recognition were investigated by an exploratory analysis between the risk single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which were discovered by previous genome-wide association studies of developmental dyslexia (DD), and parental education (PE). The re-parameterized regression analysis suggested that this G×E interaction conformed to the strong differential susceptibility model. The results showed that rs281238 exhibits a significant interaction with PE on character recognition. Children with the “T” genotype profited from high PE, whereas they performed worse in low PE environments, but “CC” genotype children were not malleable in different PE environments. This study provided initial evidence for how the significant SNPs in developmental dyslexia GWA studies affect children’s reading performance by interacting with the environmental factor of parental education. Full article

Developmental dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) co-occur in 15–40% of individuals diagnosed with one disorder. Despite substantial research on the cognitive profiles of preschoolers at risk for either dyslexia or ADHD, studies have neglected children at risk for co-occurring dyslexia and ADHD. Thus, our study compared the cognitive profile of preschoolers at risk for dyslexia with the profile of children at risk for co-occurring dyslexia and ADHD. We assessed 50 preschoolers at dyslexia risk (DR), 50 at dyslexia + ADHD risk (DAR), and 48 without risk (NR) (M_age = 67 months). Our assessment encompassed phonological processing, executive functioning (EF), receptive vocabulary, and processing speed. Principal component analysis revealed two distinct components within the measures of EF, a verbal short-term memory and an EF component. ANOVA revealed that the NR group outperformed risk groups across measures, except for cognitive flexibility and delay of gratification. Notably, the DR and DAR groups did not differ in most measures but showed near-significant differences on the EF component, with the DR group having higher composite scores than the DAR group. In conclusion, ADHD risk did not impact the cognitive performance of children at risk for dyslexia but might amplify EF problems that at-risk preschoolers encounter. Full article

In this literature review, we address the use of cognitive tests, including intelligence tests, in the assessment and diagnosis of dyslexia, from both historic and present-day perspectives. We discuss the role of cognitive tests in the operationalization of the concepts of specificity and unexpectedness, two constructs considered essential to the characterization of dyslexia since the publication of early case reports in the late nineteenth century. We review the advantages and disadvantages of several approaches to specific learning disabilities’ identification that are used in schools. We also discuss contemporary debates around the use of standardized cognitive testing in dyslexia evaluations, in particular, the arguments of those who favor an approach to diagnosis based on prior history and the results of a comprehensive evaluation and those who favor an approach based on an individual’s response to intervention. We attempt to explain both perspectives by examining clinical observations and research findings. We then provide an argument for how cognitive tests can contribute to an accurate and informed diagnosis of dyslexia. Full article

Background: Good screening tools can be of immense value in educational counselling for adults. We report two studies where we explored the factor structure and discriminative power of the Adult Reading Questionnaire (ARQ) in different samples of young adults at risk for reading impairments. Method: The ARQ was designed to screen for literacy skills with low resource requirement. The instrument includes 11 questions regarding reading and writing skills and 6 questions regarding attention deficits and hyperactivity. The first study included of 246 undergraduate students. One-third of the sample were under assessment of specific learning impairments/dyslexia. The second study included 1475 incarcerated adults, where 1 in 4 reported specific reading impairments. Results: Principal Component Analyses (PCA) with varimax rotation returned four components for the participants in Study 1: Reading skills, Reading habits, Attention, and Hyperactivity. For the incarcerated sample in Study 2, the analysis returned three components, as the Attention and Hyperactivity items were combined. Conclusion: The ARQ is useful for identifying individuals at risk for dyslexia with acceptable measures of sensitivity and specificity, as well as for identifying those who report difficulties with reading and writing but have not been assessed for their difficulties earlier. The increased prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) seen among incarcerated adults must be considered when screening for reading problems as it may confound the scores on reading questionnaires. Full article

Whereas the clinical manifestations and the neuropsychological predictors of Developmental Dyslexia (DD) are already well documented in Italian-speaking children, empirical evidence on DD in Italian adults is in contrast rather scarce. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of a subset of neuropsychological skills, which have been identified by previous literature to be related to reading, in the decoding abilities of a group of Italian undergraduates with and without DD. For this purpose, 39 university students aged between 19 and 27 years, 19 of whom with a diagnosis of DD, underwent an assessment battery including standardized reading tests, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal working memory, and rhythmic pattern discrimination tests. Cross-group differences confirmed significantly lower performances of undergraduates with DD in all measures but rhythm discrimination, compared to typical readers, thus showing a non-compensated neuropsychological profile. Regression analyses showed that, while reading speed was strongly and uniquely predicted by RAN speed, reading accuracy was concurrently predicted by RAN and rhythmic abilities. Finally, RAN speed emerged as a strong predictor of reading performance and risk of receiving a diagnosis of DD. Full article