Preventing the Development of Dyslexia: A Reply to Mather.

Because reading/writing is a fundamental tool for children's development, the main failure in its learning-developmental dyslexia-gives rise to many attempts to remediate. A recent remedy proposed by Mather (2022), published in Perceptual and Motor Skills [129(3), p. 468], is impressive through its radical nature and the extent of its consequences. It consists of delaying the teaching of writing to the age of 7-8 years, whereas, at present, most children in Western or comparable cultures learn to write even before compulsory school (generally at age six). In this article, I present a set of arguments whose addition and possible interaction lead, if not to reject, at least to restrict Mather's proposal. My arguments show both the inefficiency of Mather's proposal through two observational studies, its practical inapplicability in contemporary society, the importance of learning to write at least in the first year of elementary school, and the stinging past failure of a math reform of similar scope (i.e., learning to count). I also question the neurological theory underlying Mather's proposal, and, finally, I point out that, even if delaying learning to write were limited to students who Mather expects (at age six) to experience future dyslexia, this remedy would be inapplicable and probably ineffective.

PRODISCAT Pediàtric: un qüestionari útil per detectar la dislèxia en pediatria / Prodiscat Pediàtric: un cuestionario útil para la detección dela dislexia en pediatría / Pediatric PRODISCAT: A useful questionnaire for the detection of dyslexia in children

Fonament. La dislèxia és el trastorn del neurodesenvolupament més prevalent entre els escolars. Es caracteritza perdificultats en la precisió i/o la fluïdesa lectores, en el reconeixement de paraules i en les capacitats de lletrejar i descodificar. Aquestes dificultats comporten problemes en lacomprensió lectora i en l’adquisició de vocabulari i coneixements, de manera que la competència finalment adquiridaés inferior a l’esperada per l’edat, les capacitats intel·lectuals, la motivació o el mètode educatiu rebut durant l’escolarització. El dèficit persisteix en l’edat adulta i provocaproblemes acadèmics, emocionals, socials i econòmics. Hiha tractaments efectius per pal·liar-ne els efectes.Objectiu. L’objectiu d’aquest estudi és determinar si elqüestionari PRODISCAT Pediàtric és una eina útil de cribratge per detectar dislèxia.Mètode. El qüestionari s’ha administrat a escolars d’entre 4i 11 anys amb diagnòstic de dislèxia, així com a infantssense el trastorn (grup control), en una mostra de 236 escolars als quals també s’ha fet una valoració neuropsicològica exhaustiva. S’ha calculat la sensibilitat i l’especificitatdel qüestionari com a eina de cribratge de dislèxia.Resultats. Les anàlisis mostren alts nivells de sensibilitat(94,2% en els infants de 4-7 anys i 96% en els de 8-11anys) i d’especificitat (77,8% en els infants de 4-7 anys i73,8% en els de 8-11 anys). (AU)

Fundamento. La dislexia es el trastorno del neurodesarrollo másprevalente entre los escolares. Se caracteriza por dificultades en laprecisión y/o la fluidez lectora, en el reconocimiento de palabras yen las capacidades de deletreo y descodificación. Estas dificultades comportan problemas en la comprensión lectora y en la sición de vocabulario y de conocimientos, siendo la competenciafinalmente adquirida inferior a la esperada por edad, capacidadesintelectuales, motivación o método educativo recibido durante laescolarización. El déficit persiste en la edad adulta y provoca problemas académicos, emocionales, sociales y económicos. Existentratamientos efectivos para paliar sus efectos.Objetivo. El objetivo del presente estudio es determinar si el cuestionario PRODISCAT Pediàtric es una herramienta útil de cribadode dislexia.Método. El cuestionario se ha administrado a escolares de entre 4y 11 años con diagnóstico de dislexia, así como a niños y niñas sinel trastorno (grupo control) en una muestra total de 236 escolaresa los que se les ha realizado también una valoración neuropsicológica exhaustiva. Se ha calculado la sensibilidad y especificidad delcuestionario como herramienta de cribado de dislexia.Resultados. Los análisis muestran altos niveles de sensibilidad(94,2% en los niños y niñas de 4-7 años y 96% los de 8-11 años)y de especificidad (77,8% en los niños y niñas de 4-7 años y73,8% en los de 8-11 años).Conclusiones. Los resultados indican que el PRODISCAT Pediàtricpuede ser una herramienta útil de cribado para detectar dislexiaen esta franja de edad. (AU)

Background. Dyslexia is the most frequent neurodevelopmental disorder among school-aged children. It is characterized by difficulties in reading accuracy, fluency, word recognition, spelling, anddecoding skills. These difficulties cause problems in reading comprehension and in the acquisition of vocabulary and knowledge.The competence finally acquired by dyslexics is lower than expected for their age, intellectual capacity, motivation, or the quality ofthe education received. This deficit persists into adulthood, and itcauses academic, emotional, social, and economic problems.There are effective treatments to palliate the effects of dyslexia.Objective. The aim of this study is to determine the usefulness of thescreening questionnaire PRODISCAT Pediàtric to detect dyslexia.Method. We administered the questionnaire to dyslexic school children between 4 and 11 years of age and to a control group in a sample of 236 children. Both groups had received neuropsychological assessments. Sensitivity and specificity of the questionnairewas calculated with the aim of validating the questionnaire as ascreening tool.Results. The analysis shows high levels of sensitivity (94.2% in4- to 7-year-old children and 96% in 8- to 11-year-old children)and of specificity (77.8% in 4- to 7-year-old children and 73.8%in 8- to 11-year-old children).Conclusions. The results indicate that the screening questionnairePRODISCAT Pediàtric can be a useful tool to detect dyslexia. (AU)

Exploring How Initial Response to Instruction Predicts Morphology Outcomes Among Students With Decoding Difficulties.

Children with weak decoding skills often struggle to learn multisyllabic words during reading instruction. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which initial response to morphological awareness instruction, along with specific language and cognitive variables (i.e., phonological awareness, rapid naming, orthographic knowledge/awareness, verbal comprehension, working memory), predicts responsiveness to morphological awareness instruction for third-grade students who were at risk for reading disabilities. Thirty-nine third-grade students with decoding deficits were assessed on five independent variables identified as critical predictors of future performance on morphological tasks. A series of regression analyses showed that initial response to instruction, compared to other cognitive and language variables, predicted the most variance in students' morphological skills with prefixes. Furthermore, two cognitive variables, verbal working memory and comprehension, were predictive of performance on morphological tasks after accounting for initial response to instruction. Findings from this study suggest that students with decoding deficits may benefit from morphological instruction and those who demonstrate low response to initial morphological instruction or have weak verbal comprehension and verbal working memory abilities could be risk for failing to acquire morphological instruction as expected.

Kindergarten Training in Phonological Awareness: Fluency and Comprehension Gains Are Greatest for Readers at Risk in Grades 1 Through 9.

Training in phonological awareness has brought about well-documented positive effects on learning to read in lower-primary grades. Less is known about long-term gains extending to upper-primary and junior high school. The few longitudinal studies covering at least 5 years suggest that gains in decoding are sustained, whereas effects on reading comprehension have either not been studied or produced equivocal results. The present study followed up the reading development of 209 Finland Swedish students from kindergarten until Grade 9, half of whom participated in an 8-month phonological intervention in kindergarten. The intervention group outperformed the control group in both word reading and reading comprehension in Grades 1 through 9. However, albeit statistically significant, the differences at the group level were small. The main result was a clear-cut difference in both skills among readers at risk belonging to the lowest 25% in foundational skills at the beginning of kindergarten. In Grade 6, altogether 60% of the nontrained readers at risk still belonged to the lowest quartile in reading comprehension as opposed to 24% of their peers in the intervention group. The pattern was repeated in Grade 9, with trained readers at risk performing at the level of nontrained mainstream readers.

Differences in Growth Reading Patterns for at-Risk Spanish-Monolingual Children as a Function of a Tier 2 Intervention.

The present study compares the patterns of growth of beginning reading skills (i.e., phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension) of Spanish speaking monolingual students who received a Tier 2 reading intervention with students who did not receive the intervention. All the students in grades K-2 were screened at the beginning of the year to confirm their risk status. A quasi-experimental longitudinal design was used: the treatment group received a supplemental program in small groups of 3 to 5 students, for 30 minutes daily from November to June. The control group did not receive it. All students were assessed three times during the academic year. A hierarchical linear growth modeling was conducted and differences on growth rate were found in vocabulary in kindergarten (p < .001; variance explained = 77.0%), phonemic awareness in kindergarten (p < .001; variance explained = 43.7%) and first grade (p < .01; variance explained = 15.2%), and finally we also find significant growth differences for second grade in oral reading fluency (p < .05; variance explained = 15.1%) and retell task (p < .05; variance explained = 14.5%). Children at risk for reading disabilities in Spanish can improve their skills when they receive explicit instruction in the context of Response to Intervention (RtI). Findings are discussed for each skill in the context of implementing a Tier 2 small group intervention within an RtI approach. Implications for practice in the Spanish educational context are also discussed for children who are struggling with reading.

Efficacy of a Supplemental Phonemic Awareness Curriculum to Instruct Preschoolers With Delays in Early Literacy Development.

Purpose: Children who do not develop early literacy skills, especially phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge, prior to kindergarten are at risk for reading difficulties. We investigated a supplemental curriculum with children demonstrating delays in these skills. Method: A cluster randomized design with 104 preschool-age children in 39 classrooms was used to determine the efficacy of a supplemental PA curriculum, PAth to Literacy. The curriculum consists of 36 daily scripted 10-min lessons with interactive games designed to teach PA and alphabet skills. A vocabulary intervention (Story Friends), which also uses a small-group format, served as the comparison condition. Results: Multilevel modeling indicated that children in the experimental condition demonstrated significantly greater gains on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) First Sound Fluency (Dynamic Measurement Group, 2006) and Word Parts Fluency (Kaminski & Powell-Smith, 2011) measures. Educational relevance was evident: 82% of the children in the experimental condition met the kindergarten benchmark for First Sound Fluency compared with 34% of the children in the comparison condition. Teachers reported overall satisfaction with the lessons. Conclusions: Results indicated that the vast majority of children demonstrating early literacy delays in preschool may benefit from a supplemental PA curriculum that has the potential to prevent reading difficulties as children transition to kindergarten.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Challenges and Solutions to Implementing Effective Reading Intervention in Schools.

This special issue focuses on challenges and solutions to implementing effective reading intervention in schools in the United States. Researchers often develop interventions that prove effective in efficacy studies but then show no impact when implemented at scale in public school settings. The authors of the intervention studies presented here describe a number of common implementation problems stemming from research in primary grades, middle grades, and high schools. Solutions to these implementation problems include establishing researcher-practitioner partnerships to address the systems-level challenges, suggestions for how to obtain buy-in from teachers, and recommendations for reforming preservice and in-service teacher education.

Delving Into the Details: Implementing Multitiered K-3 Reading Supports in High-Priority Schools.

Although there is widespread agreement about the practices associated with multitiered systems of support (MTSS) frameworks in beginning reading, we often underestimate the systems and infrastructure that schools need to implement and sustain these practices. The real work of developing these systems often happens in the detailed-oriented and often messy world of schedules, routines, meetings, and materials. The purpose of this article is to describe a K-3 reading initiative where school teams serving high percentages of students at risk for reading difficulties "delved into the details" to work to overcome the complexities inherent in implementing multitiered reading supports in high priority schools.

De la teoría fonológica a la identificación temprana de las dificultades específicas de aprendizaje de la lectura / From phonological theory to the early detection of specific learning difficulties in reading

Se revisa el marco teórico de investigación generado en torno a la teoría fonológica de la dislexia evolutiva. Este marco ha habilitado la posibilidad de realizar una identificación temprana de las dificultades específicas de aprendizaje de la lectura y ha justificado su necesidad práctica. Cuatro son las aportaciones fundamentales. Primero, la teoría fonológica defiende que la dislexia evolutiva se produce como consecuencia de un déficit fonológico general que afecta a diversos componentes del sistema fonológico, entre los que destacan la conciencia fonológica, la velocidad de los procesos léxicos y la memoria verbal a corto plazo. Segundo, la teoría fonológica ha puesto de manifiesto que la causa primaria de la dislexia está presente desde el periodo embrionario y produce consecuencias sobre el desarrollo del lenguaje oral durante todo el periodo previo al aprendizaje de la lectura. Tercero, la teoría fonológica ha defendido la tesis del lenguaje oral como causa primaria del déficit, y con ello ha revelado las relaciones entre los trastornos específicos del lenguaje y la dislexia evolutiva. Cuarto, la investigación ha mostrado el significativo impacto de los programas de prevención e intervención temprana, lo que obliga a complementar las estrategias reactivas y tardías de diagnóstico, con estrategias proactivas de prevención y/o identificación e intervención temprana. Finalmente, se argumenta que si las causas primeras y los sistemas de prevención e intervención de estas dificultades están directamente vinculados con el desarrollo del lenguaje, entonces la logopedia debería tener un papel protagonista en la implementación de las estrategias proactivas en el contexto escolar (AU)

This paper presents a review of the research issued from the frame of the Phonological Theory of developmental dyslexia. This theory has set up the means to make an early identification of specific learning difficulties in reading, and has provided theoretical support for its implementation. There are four fundamental contributions. First, the Phonological Theory argues that developmental dyslexia is a consequence of a general phonological deficit that affects different components of the phonological system being phonological awareness, lexical processing speed and verbal short-term memory the most relevant. Second, the Phonological Theory has pointed out that the primary cause of dyslexia is present from the embryonic period and that it affects oral language development before learning to read. Third, the Phonological Theory has considered oral language as the main cause of the deficit, and consequently, has highlighted the relations between Specific Language Impairment and Developmental Dyslexia. Fourth, since research has proved the significant impact of Programs for prevention and early intervention, a clear need for adding proactive strategies of early prevention and/or identification to the late reactive diagnosis strategies has arisen. Finally, it is argued that if primary causes as well as prevention and intervention resources are directly attached to language development, then, speech therapists should play a main role in the implementation of proactive strategies in the school context (AU)

Corregistro de la actividad eléctrica cerebral y oculomotora: una alternativa para la investigación en dislexia / Simultaneous recording of electrical brain activity and eye movements: an alternative for research into dyslexia

La dislexia es uno de los trastornos del desarrollo más comunes en la etapa escolar y afecta aproximadamente del 5 a 15% de la población. La comprensión en «tiempo real» de un texto requiere del procesamiento de la información visual entrante a través de una compleja serie de fijaciones cortas de la mirada y movimientos sacádicos de los ojos, así como de la recuperación, actualización e integración de los elementos almacenados en la memoria. Esto ha provocado que numerosas investigaciones hayan hecho un gran uso de 2 métodos en particular para su estudio: los potenciales cerebrales relacionados a eventos (PRE) y el rastreo ocular (RO). Sin embargo, los resultados todavía son muy variables y, por tanto, el origen de la dislexia, desde el punto de vista neurobiológico, continúa siendo aún un tema muy debatido. En este trabajo se realiza una revisión exhaustiva de la literatura donde se abordan los hallazgos de los diferentes estudios neurofisiológicos publicados en el tema, así como sus limitaciones. Luego se analiza la factibilidad del registro simultáneo de la actividad eléctrica cerebral y los movimientos oculares mediante la revisión detallada de los aspectos metodológicos a considerar. Por último, se fundamentan las posibles ventajas de este enfoque para los estudios de la lectura, así como sus aplicaciones potenciales en la investigación en dislexia (AU)

Dyslexia is one of the most common developmental disorders at school age and affects approximately 5-15% of the population. Reading is a complex cognitive task and its comprehension requires the processing of visual input across a complex series of brief fixation pauses and saccadic eye movements, as well as retrieving, updating, and integrating contents of memory. This has led to current research making heavy use of two methods: recording eye movement (EMs) and event-related brain potentials (ERPs). However, results are still equivocal, and therefore, the neurobiology of dyslexia remains hotly debated. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the literature in which the findings of different neurophysiological studies published on the subject are addressed, as well as their limitations. The feasibility of simultaneously recording electrical brain activity and eye movements is then analysed by a detailed review of methodological challenges to consider. Finally, the possible benefits of this approach to reading studies and its potential applications in research into dyslexia are described (AU)

[Prevention of dyslexia ­ short-term and intermediate effects of promoting phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence with at-risk preschool children]. / Prävention von Lese-Rechtschreibstörungen: Kurz- und mittelfristige Effekte einer Förderung der phonologischen Bewusstheit und der Buchstaben-Laut-Verknüpfung bei Risikokindern im Vorschulalter.

Objective: This study assesses the short-term and intermediate effects of preschool training stimulating phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence for children at risk of developing dyslexia. Moreover, we examined whether training reduced the frequency of subsequent dyslexic problems. Method: 25 children at risk of developing dyslexia were trained with Hören, Lauschen, Lernen 1 und 2 (Küspert & Schneider, 2008; Plume & Schneider, 2004) by their kindergarten teachers and were compared with 60 untrained at-risk children. Results: The training revealed a significant short-term effect: The phonological awareness of trained at-risk children increased significantly over that of untrained at-risk children. However, there were no differences in phonological awareness, spelling, and reading ability between the first-graders in the training and control group. Furthermore, reading problems were reduced in the training group. Conclusions: In the future, phonological awareness as well as additional predictors should be included when identifying children vulnerable to developing dyslexia. Moreover, in order to prevent dyslexia, additional prerequisite deficits need to be identified, alleviated, and their effects evaluated.

Functional MRI in medulloblastoma survivors supports prophylactic reading intervention during tumor treatment.

Development of reading skills is vulnerable to disruption in children treated for brain tumors. Interventions, remedial and prophylactic, are needed to mitigate reading and other learning difficulties faced by survivors. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was conducted to investigate long-term effects of a prophylactic reading intervention administered during radiation therapy in children treated for medulloblastoma. The fMRI study included 19 reading-intervention (age 11.7 ± 0.6 years) and 21 standard-of-care (age 12.1 ± 0.6 years) medulloblastoma survivors, and 21 typically developing children (age 12.3 ± 0.6 years). The survivors were 2.5 [1.2, 5.4] years after completion of tumor therapies and reading-intervention survivors were 2.9 [1.6, 5.9] years after intervention. Five fMRI tasks (Rapid Automatized Naming, Continuous Performance Test using faces and letters, orthographic and phonological processing of letter pairs, implicit word reading, and story reading) were used to probe reading-related neural activation. Woodcock-Johnson Reading Fluency, Word Attack, and Sound Awareness subtests were used to evaluate reading abilities. At the time of fMRI, Sound Awareness scores were significantly higher in the reading-intervention group than in the standard-of-care group (p = 0.046). Brain activation during the fMRI tasks was detected in left inferior frontal, temporal, ventral occipitotemporal, and subcortical regions, and differed among the groups (p < 0.05, FWE). The pattern of group activation differences, across brain areas and tasks, was a normative trend in the reading-intervention group. Standardized reading scores and patterns of brain activation provide evidence of long-term effects of prophylactic reading intervention in children treated for medulloblastoma.

Test para la detección temprana de las dificultades en el aprendizaje de la lectura y escritura / Test for the early detection of learning difficulties in reading and writing

Introducción: el diagnóstico de la dislexia se suele producir varios años después de que se inicie el aprendizaje de la lectoescritura. Para entonces muchos niños disléxicos ya saben lo que es el fracaso escolar y la pérdida de autoestima. Con un diagnóstico temprano se pueden evitar muchos de esos problemas. Además los programas de intervención son mucho más eficaces cuanto más tempranamente se apliquen. Objetivos: el objetivo de este estudio fue elaborar una prueba de diagnóstico precoz de la dislexia, basada en los déficits de procesamiento fonológico que presentan estos niños, aplicable a los cuatro años de edad, antes de que se enfrenten a la lectura. Material y métodos: la prueba consta de seis subtareas con cinco ítems cada una que se puede pasar entre seis y diez minutos. Las seis subtareas evalúan los principales componentes del procesamiento fonológico: discriminación de fonemas, segmentación de sílabas, identificación de fonemas, repetición de pseudopalabras, memoria verbal a corto plazo y fluidez verbal. Resultados: los datos obtenidos de una muestra de 298 niños de cuatro años muestran una buena fiabilidad y una alta validez de constructo de la prueba. Se proporcionan valores normativos en percentiles y puntos de corte por debajo de los cuales se consideran niños de riesgo de sufrir una dislexia. Conclusiones: la aplicación de esta sencilla prueba en las consultas pediátricas y en las clases de Educación infantil a los niños de cuatro años de edad permitirá detectar aquellos con riesgo de sufrir dislexia para poder intervenir lo más tempranamente posible, antes de se enfrenten al aprendizaje de la lectorescritura (AU)

Introduction: the diagnosis of dyslexia usually occurs several years after the literacy learning begins. By then, many dyslexic children have faced academic failure and loss of self-esteem. An early diagnosis could avoid many of these problems. Furthermore, intervention programs are more effective when applied early. Objectives: the aim of this study was to develop a test for the early diagnosis of dyslexia, based on phonological processing deficits presented by these children, and applicable to four years old children, before they face reading. Material and methods: the test consists of six subtasks with five items each, which can be passed between six and ten minutes. The six subtasks evaluate the main components of phonological processing: discrimination of phonemes, syllable segmentation, phoneme identification, repetition of pseudowords, verbal short-term memory and verbal fluency. Results: the data, obtained from a sample of 298 four years old children, show a good reliability and high construct validity of the test. Normative values are given in percentiles and cutoffs, below of which children are considered at risk of suffering dyslexia. Conclusions: the application of this simple test to children in pediatric clinics and early childhood education schools, will allow the detection of children at risk for dyslexia, in order to intervene as early as possible, before they face the literacy learning (AU)

Prevalencia de las patologías del habla, del lenguaje y de la comunicación. Un estudio a lo largo del ciclo vital / Prevalence of speech, language and comunication disorders. A study throughout the life cycle

Se presenta un estudio epidemiológico de las patologías en el ámbito de la comunicación oral y escrita —trastornos del lenguaje, habla, audición y voz— mediante el análisis de 911 historias clínicas. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que las categorías diagnósticas que se dan con mayor prevalencia son: retrasos en la adquisición del lenguaje oral, dificultades de aprendizaje del lenguaje escrito, dificultades articulatorias y alteraciones de la voz. La demanda asistencial se produce fundamentalmente hasta los 15 años, confirmándose la variación de diagnósticos en función de la edad, así como un claro predominio del sexo masculino frente al femenino en todas las patologías, a excepción de los trastornos de la voz. Así mismo, se observa que el motivo de consulta está relacionado tanto con exigencias escolares como de carácter social y/o laboral. Se destaca la importancia de realizar este tipo de investigaciones epidemiológicas, dado que permiten conocer las necesidades específicas, tanto de la población infantil como adulta, con el fin de facilitar un mejor ajuste académico y psicosocial. Además, es de esperar que pueda orientar la toma de decisiones de las diferentes Administraciones dirigida a hacer más acorde la respuesta asistencial a la demanda real (AU)

We carried out an epidemiological study of language, speech, hearing and voice disorders by means of an analysis of 911 clinical histories. Both written and oral language were included. The most frequent diagnostic categories were as follows: Delays in Oral Language Acquisition, Difficulties in Learning Written Language, Delays in Speech and Voice Disorders (Dysphonia). Healthcare demand is produced mainly up to the age of 15 years. Diagnoses varies according to age. All disorders except voice disorders affect males more than females. Consultations are motivated as much by school requirements as by social and/or workplace requirements. The evidence highlights the importance of conducting epidemiological research on prevalence, which would allow specific needs to be determined during both childhood and adulthood. In turn, this would facilitate better academic and psychosocial adjustment. In addition, such knowledge could guide government decisions aimed at bringing healthcare response into line with current demand (AU)

[From brain imaging to good teaching? implicating from neuroscience for research on learning and instruction]. / Vom Hirnbild zum guten Unterricht. Implikationen von neuropsychologischen und Bildgebungsbefuden für die Lehr-Lern-Forschung.

Psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence, in particular attention deficit disorder or specific learning disorders like developmental dyslexia and developmental dyscalculia, affect academic performance and learning at school. Recent advances in neuroscientific research have incited an intensive debate both in the general public and in the field of educational and instructional science as well as to whether and to what extent these new findings in the field of neuroscience might be of importance for school-related learning and instruction. In this review, we first summarize neuroscientific findings related to the development of attention, working memory and executive functions in typically developing children and then evaluate their relevance for school-related learning. We present an overview of neuroimaging studies of specific learning disabilities such as developmental dyslexia and developmental dyscalculia, and critically discuss their practical implications for educational and teaching practice, teacher training, early diagnosis as well as prevention and disorder-specific therapy. We conclude that the new interdisciplinary field of neuroeducation cannot be expected to provide direct innovative educational applications (e.g., teaching methods). Rather, the future potential of neuroscience lies in creating a deeper understanding of the underlying cognitive mechanisms and pathomechanisms of learning processes and learning disorders.

Reading and language intervention for children at risk of dyslexia: a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Intervention studies for children at risk of dyslexia have typically been delivered preschool, and show short-term effects on letter knowledge and phoneme awareness, with little transfer to literacy. METHODS: This randomised controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of a reading and language intervention for 6-year-old children identified by research criteria as being at risk of dyslexia (n = 56), and their school-identified peers (n = 89). An Experimental group received two 9-week blocks of daily intervention delivered by trained teaching assistants; the Control group received 9 weeks of typical classroom instruction, followed by 9 weeks of intervention. RESULTS: Following mixed effects regression models and path analyses, small-to-moderate effects were shown on letter knowledge, phoneme awareness and taught vocabulary. However, these were fragile and short lived, and there was no reliable effect on the primary outcome of word-level reading. CONCLUSIONS: This new intervention was theoretically motivated and based on previous successful interventions, yet failed to show reliable effects on language and literacy measures following a rigorous evaluation. We suggest that the intervention may have been too short to yield improvements in oral language; and that literacy instruction in and beyond the classroom may have weakened training effects. We argue that reporting of null results makes an important contribution in terms of raising standards both of trial reporting and educational practice.

Predictors of reading in Urdu: does deep orthography have an impact?

The aim of this study was to establish the extent to which rapid automatized naming (RAN) and non-word repetition (NWR) tasks predict reading fluency and reading accuracy in Urdu. One hundred sixty (8-9 years) children attending two types of schools (Urdu and English medium schools) were distributed into two groups, a control and a reading disability group on the basis of teacher's report. The results confirmed the role of RAN in predicting reading fluency in both groups. The role of NWR as a predictor of accuracy was also confirmed, although the strength of the relationship was modulated by RAN in the reading disability group. There are no tests available to identify children with reading problems in Urdu. Our study supports the validity of NWR and RAN tasks for the purposes of screening for reading deficits. The performance results also confirm the original grouping based on teacher reports. The study further highlights the importance of medium of instruction and increased oral language input in learning to read.

Perceptual learning as a possible new approach for remediation and prevention of developmental dyslexia.

Learning to read is extremely difficult for about 10% of children across cultures because they are affected by developmental dyslexia (DD). According to the dominant view, DD is considered an auditory-phonological processing deficit. However, accumulating evidence from developmental and clinical vision science, suggests that the basic cross-modal letter-to-speech sound integration deficit in DD might arise from a mild atypical development of the magnocellular-dorsal pathway which also contains the main fronto-parietal attentional network. Letters have to be precisely selected from irrelevant and cluttering letters by rapid orienting of visual attention before the correct letter-to-speech sound integration applies. Our aim is to review the literature supporting a possible role of perceptual learning (PL) in helping to solve the puzzle called DD. PL is defined as improvement of perceptual skills with practice. Based on the previous literature showing how PL is able to selectively change visual abilities, we here propose to use PL to improve the impaired visual functions characterizing DD and, in particular, the visual deficits that could be developmentally related to an early magnocellular-dorsal pathway and selective attention dysfunction. The crucial visual attention deficits that are causally linked to DD could be, indeed, strongly reduced by training the magnocellular-dorsal pathway with the PL, and learning to read for children with DD would not be anymore such a difficult task. This new remediation approach - not involving any phonological or orthographic training - could be also used to develop new prevention programs for pre-reading children at DD risk.

Precursors of developmental dyslexia: an overview of the longitudinal Dutch Dyslexia Programme study.

Converging evidence suggests that developmental dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder, characterized by deficits in the auditory, visual, and linguistic domains. In the longitudinal project of the Dutch Dyslexia Programme, 180 children with a familial risk of dyslexia (FR) and a comparison group of 120 children without FR (noFR) were followed from the age of 2 months up to 9 years. Children were assessed on (1) auditory, speech, and visual event-related potentials every half year between 2 and 41 months; (2) expressive and receptive language, motor development, behaviour problems, and home-literacy environment by questionnaires at the age of 2 and 3; (3) speech-language and cognitive development from 47 months onwards; and (4) preliteracy and subskills of reading, and reading development during kindergarten and Grades 2 and 3. With regard to precursors of reading disability, first analyses showed specific differences between FR and noFR children in neurophysiological, cognitive, and early language measures. Once reading tests administered from age 7 to 9 years were available, the children were divided into three groups: FR children with and without dyslexia, and controls. Analyses of the differences between reading groups yielded distinct profiles and developmental trajectories. On early speech and visual processing, and several cognitive measures, performance of the non-dyslexic FR group differed from the dyslexic FR group and controls, indicating continuity of the influence of familial risk. Parental reading and rapid naming skills appeared to indicate their offspring's degree of familial risk. Furthermore, on rapid naming and nonverbal IQ, the non-dyslexic FR group performed similarly to the controls, suggesting protective factors. There are indications of differences between the FR and control groups, irrespective of reading outcome. These results contribute to the distinction between the deficits correlated to dyslexia as a manifest reading disorder and deficits correlated to familial risk only.

Predicting reading disability: early cognitive risk and protective factors.

This longitudinal study examined early cognitive risk and protective factors for Grade 2 reading disability (RD). We first examined the reading outcome of 198 children in four developmental cognitive subgroups that were identified in our previous analysis: dysfluent trajectory, declining trajectory, unexpected trajectory and typical trajectory. We found that RD was unevenly distributed among the subgroups, although children with RD were found in all subgroups. A majority of the children with RD had familial risk for dyslexia. Second, we examined in what respect children with similar early cognitive development but different RD outcome differ from each other in cognitive skills, task-focused behaviour and print exposure. The comparison of the groups with high cognitive risk but different RD outcome showed significant differences in phonological skills, in the amount of shared reading and in task-focused behaviour. Children who ended up with RD despite low early cognitive risk had poorer cognitive skills, more task avoidance and they were reading less than children without RD and low cognitive risk. In summary, lack of task avoidance seemed to act as a protective factor, which underlines the importance of keeping children interested in school work and reading.