During reading, adults and children independently parafoveally encode letter identity and letter position information using a flexible letter position encoding mechanism. The current study examined parafoveal encoding of letter position and letter identity for dyslexic children. Eye movements were recorded during a boundary-change paradigm. Parafoveal previews were either an identity preview (e.g., nearly), a transposed-letter preview (e.g., enarly) or a substituted-letter preview (e.g., acarly). Dyslexic readers showed a preview benefit for identity previews, indicating that orthographic information was encoded parafoveally. Furthermore, dyslexic readers benefitted from transposed-letter previews more than substituted-letters previews, demonstrating that letter identity was encoded independently to letter position during parafoveal processing. Although a transposed-letter effect was found for dyslexic readers, they demonstrated a reduced sensitivity to detect transposed-letters in later measures of reading, that is, go-past times, relative to that found for typically developing readers. We conclude that dyslexic readers, with less rich and fully specified lexical representations, have a reduced sensitivity to transpositions of the first two letters of the upcoming word in preview. These findings are compatible with the view that orthographic representations of dyslexic children are not sufficiently specified.

There is great value and significance to pay attention to the mental health status of children, especially those with special needs. This study examined the effects of self-confidence and campus bullying on anxiety in students, both with and without dyslexia. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 92 students in grades 3-5, half of whom had developmental dyslexia (DD). The results showed a significant positive moderating effect of self-confidence on the relationship between campus bullying and anxiety in students with DD. Specifically, the effect of campus bullying on anxiety was more pronounced in DD students with higher levels of self-confidence than in those with lower levels. For typically developing (TD) students, this moderating effect was not significant. Further analysis showed no significant differences in this moderating effect between DD and TD students. These findings highlight the need for educators and parents to closely monitor and address campus bullying and anxiety issues in students, especially in DD students with a high level of self-confidence and to implement timely interventions.

Despite the persistent difficulties of people with dyslexia concerning writing, few studies examine the impact of dyslexia on the dynamic aspects of written text production. Our objective is to examine the written productions of students with dyslexia (N = 21), compared with matched control students (N = 22), taking into consideration online indicators. They were asked to produce spontaneous narrative and expository texts. The written texts (N = 86) were collected using the Eye and Pen software with digitising tablets. Results show significant differences between the two groups concerning bursts and some pause locations and durations. While previous works conclude that the spelling difficulties of university students do not impact the transcription process anymore, which means that they no longer have effects on the dynamics of writing, and thus on writing fluency, our study qualifies these conclusions. Indeed, our results show that students with dyslexia's word transcription is atypical and problematic in terms of online indicators: they display shorter bursts (number of units written without a pause) and make longer pauses, especially inside and before words and before punctuation signs. The way in which they allocate cognitive resources is still partially altered by cognitive obstacles; their transcription process is also slowed down and disorganises other high-level cognitive operations.

Developmental dyslexic (DD) children encounter challenges in sublexical orthographic, phonological, and semantic processing. However, there exists limited knowledge about the predominance of these three types of sublexical processing in visual word recognition among DD children. To investigate this issue, we screened 50 DD and 47 typically developing (TD) third-grade native Chinese-speaking children, and employed a picture-novel character mapping task. We constructed four types of options: semantic radical-legal position pseudo characters (e.g., ), phonetic radical-legal position pseudo characters (e.g., ), semantic radical-illegal position false characters (e.g., ), and phonetic radical-illegal position false characters (e.g., ). Results in the multilevel logistic mixed-effects regression analysis revealed that semantic radical-legal position pseudo characters were more predictive for the trial-level participants' response of TD children, whereas phonetic radical-legal position pseudo characters were more predictive for the trial-level participants' response of DD children. Consistently, semantic radical-legal position pseudo characters were poorer predictors, while phonetic radical-legal position pseudo characters were stronger predictors for the trial-level participants' response of DD children than for that of TD children. These findings collectively suggest the predominance of sublexical orthographic and phonological processing in DD children's visual word recognition, and DD children may rely more on the sublexical phonological processing relative to TD children.

Implicit statistical learning (ISL) is non-conscious learning where participants identify patterns in their environment after repeated exposures. This study verified whether Brazilian children with DD present disturbances in the ISL mechanism and if these disturbances may be related to the difficulties associated with DD through artificial grammar learning (AGL) and reaction time in serial tasks (SRT Task). It also intended to verify which of the paradigms proves to be the most sensitive to assess ISL and which is most associated with participants' learning to read and write. Two groups of children with and without DD from the end of the first cycle and the beginning of the second cycle of the elementary school participated in this study, paired according to socioeconomic level, education network, schooling, gender and age. Children with DD showed no disturbances in the ISL process; the AGL paradigm exhibited the most significant association with performance on reading/writing tasks. When compared to the SRT Task, the AGL paradigm proved to be more sensitive in assessing implicit processes and effectively distinguishing between the groups with and without DD. The results of the SRT Task emphasise the importance of task practice and structure for implicit learning in children with developmental dyslexia. These findings have important implications for understanding ISL and its relevance to reading and writing skills in children with developmental dyslexia.

French law requires children with disabilities to receive schooling, wherever possible in ordinary schools. To achieve this goal, schools must create a truly inclusive environment that meets every child's specific needs. Ensuring other students accept peers with disabilities is an essential part of providing an inclusive environment. We postulated that reading children's books featuring characters with disabilities can foster this acceptance by enabling students to understand and empathise with peers with disabilities. Indeed, readers' tendency to attribute emotions, beliefs, intentions and perceptions to characters helps them better appreciate characters' feelings, mental states and experiences. The present study analysed the impact that reading a children's book about a young boy with dyslexia had on children without dyslexia. We read Les mots d'Enzo to 25 fourth- and fifth-grade students (13 girls and 12 boys) and then conducted semi-structured interviews with each student. Reading Les mots d'Enzo taught participants a lot about dyslexia, the difficulties it causes, its consequences for children with dyslexia and the help these children need. In addition to gaining a relatively accurate understanding of dyslexia, participants grasped the story's moral, attributed emotions, beliefs and intentions to the character with dyslexia, appreciated how he felt, and showed empathy towards him. They were also capable of generalising these aspects to real students with dyslexia or other disorders.

The expanded Simple View of Reading model suggests language processing and word reading as contributors to reading comprehension and points at the participation of executive functions as supporting these abilities. Switching and inhibition are both executive functions (EF) contributing to reading, especially in languages with two writing systems-shallow and deep, such as Hebrew. Here, we aimed to determine the specific role of switching/inhibition both cognitively and neurobiologically in the Simple View of Reading model among 49 eight- to 12-year-old Hebrew-speaking children. Children underwent reading and cognitive behavioural testing as well as a five-min resting-state fMRI scan. Functional connectivity of the fronto-parietal network related to switching/inhibition was determined and included in a moderation model. Results suggest that both switching/inhibition abilities and functional connectivity within the fronto-parietal network moderate the relations between word reading and reading comprehension. This strengthens the contribution of switching/inhibition to facilitating reading comprehension and supports the need to include it as part of the expanded SVR model.

Dyslexia is a language-based neurobiological and developmental learning disability marked by inaccurate and disfluent word recognition, poor decoding, and difficulty spelling. Individuals can be diagnosed with and experience symptoms of dyslexia throughout their lifespan. Screening tools such as the Dyslexia Adult Checklist allow individuals to self-evaluate common risk factors of dyslexia prior to or in lieu of obtaining costly and timely psychoeducational assessments. Although widely available online, the Dyslexia Adult Checklist has yet to be validated. The purpose of this study was to validate this Checklist in a sample of adults with and without dyslexia using both univariate and multivariate statistical approaches. We hypothesised that the Dyslexia Adult Checklist would accurately distinguish between individuals with a self-reported diagnosis of dyslexia (n = 200) and a control group (n = 200), as measured by total scores on the screening tool. Results from our sample found the Dyslexia Adult Checklist to be valid (Cronbach's α = 0.86), and reliable (sensitivity = 76%-91.5%, specificity = 80%-88%). Compared to the originally proposed cut-off score of 45, given the higher sensitivity rate and negative predictive value, we recommend researchers and clinicians use a cut-off score of 40 to indicate possible mild to severe symptoms of dyslexia when using the Dyslexia Adult Checklist.

Through a reflexive thematic analysis of a large online support group for dyslexia and a sensemaking lens, this study investigated how mothers made sense of their child's dyslexia through metaphors. Mothers used metaphors to characterise their feelings surrounding dyslexia, their school-based interactions and their identity as advocates. The language mothers use offers a generative, textured way to understand the lived experiences of supporting a child with learning differences. Whilst mothers articulated much frustration and anger, they also voiced encouragement, advice-giving, empathy and hope, illustrating how their sense of agency was both threatened and empowered by the experience of having a child with dyslexia. There is much mothers must process, understand and navigate surrounding their child's dyslexia and the findings underscore the need for early school-based screening, support and intervention.

Many studies have attempted to identify the root cause of dyslexia. Different theories of dyslexia have proposed either a phonological, attentional, or visual deficit. While research has used eye-tracking to study dyslexia, only two previous studies have used the moving-window paradigm to explore the perceptual span in dyslexic reading, and none have done so in visual search. The present study analysed the perceptual span using both reading and visual search tasks to identify language-independent attentional impairments in dyslexics. We found equivocal evidence that the perceptual span was impaired in dyslexic reading and no evidence of impairment in visual search. However, dyslexic participants did show deficits in the visual search task, with lower search accuracy and shorter saccades compared with controls. These results lend support for a visual, rather than attentional or phonological, account of dyslexia.

Writing skills, crucial for various forms of expression, depend on effective planning and self-regulation. Competent writers emphasise pre-writing activities and self-regulation nevertheless students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) often struggle with writing, impacting their academic achievement. This study explored the efficacy of the STOP and DARE strategy, grounded in the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model, for teaching persuasive writing to four high school students diagnosed with SLD. The study employed a multiple probe across subjects design to assess the impact of STOP and DARE on various persuasive writing skills. The intervention involved rigorous implementation of the strategy over 12-21 sessions, occurring 3 days a week for 80-90 min each day. The results indicated a functional relation between the strategy's implementation and improvements in persuasive essay elements, text length, use of linking words and holistic quality. Moreover, participants expressed a high level of satisfaction with the intervention. Future research could consider investigating functional text elements in addition to basic persuasive text elements. Furthermore, the adaptability of the STOP and DARE strategy to different languages and its applicability in diverse writing types, as well as its effectiveness in varied linguistic and cultural contexts, should be explored.

This study aimed to examine the effects of a visual praxis-based occupational therapy (VPOT) programme on reading and motor skills for children with developmental dyslexia (DD). Forty-two children were included in the study. Additionally, before VPOT, the Reading-Aloud and Reading-Comprehension Test 2 (ORSRC-2) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Motor-Proficiency-Test-2-Brief Form (BOT2-BF) were applied to the participants. According to the study design, VPOT was applied to two sessions per week for 8 weeks to group A. During this period, group B was accepted as the control group. At the end of these 8 weeks, evaluation tests were applied to both groups. Then, group A was defined as the control group and Group B as the intervention group, and VPOT was applied to Group B. At the end of another 8 weeks, evaluation tests were applied to both groups for the third time. When the final ORSRC-2 results were examined, VPOT was found to be an effective programme for improving reading skills. Additionally, when the final BOT2-BF results were examined, VPOT was determined to be effective in improving motor skills (p < 0.05). We believe that it is important to carry out comprehensive studies such as the VPOT programme to solve problems in the physical and learning activities of children with DD.

Different studies have tried to establish a relationship between dyslexia and the vestibular system function. Subjective Visual Vertical/Horizontal (SVV and SVH) and Video Head Impulse Test (VHIT) are useful for studying the vestibular system and can be easily performed in children. Our aim was to evaluate the vestibular function in dyslexic children by SVV/SVH and VHIT. We enrolled 18 dyslexic children (10M/8F; mean age 10.7 ± 2.3 years; range 7-14 years) and 18 age-matched children with typical development of learning abilities. All children performed VHIT, SVV and SVH. We found normal gain and symmetry of vestibulo-ocular-reflex both in dyslexic and typically developing children. Fifteen out of 18 dyslexic children (83.3%) showed a difference of at least one amongst SVV or SVH. The mean value of SVV was 2.3° and the mean value of SVH was 2.6°. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between typically developing and dyslexic children for both SVV and SVH. We confirm a relationship between dyslexia and the alteration of SVV and SVH. Our results could be related to the pathogenetic hypothesis of a visual processing impairment related to a dysfunction of the magnocellular pathway or to a general deficit related to a multimodal cortical network.

Presentation features such as spelling, punctuation and handwriting can influence the evaluation of general text quality. High school students with dyslexia might therefore be at a disadvantage, as at least their spelling performance is typically poor(er). Furthermore, these students might show less sophisticated linguistic features of texts, such as word length and sentence complexity, that might also be related to text quality. We compared narratives written by Dutch high school students (mean age 13.7 years) with (n = 28) and without (n = 29) dyslexia. Students with dyslexia's texts contained more spelling errors and poorer handwriting quality, but not more punctuation errors. Teacher-rated general text quality was lower for the texts of students with dyslexia in uncorrected versions. When spelling and punctuation errors were corrected, no teacher-rated text quality differences emerged. No differences in linguistic text features were found. Furthermore, spelling, punctuation and, to a lesser extent, number of words per sentence clause were related to ratings of text quality across participants. These results confirm the influence of presentation features on text quality rating. They encourage teachers to be aware of this effect and emphasize the importance of spelling and writing support and interventions for students with dyslexia throughout education.

This study aimed to examine the effect of visual pre-cueing presented at different time intervals in the response time of dyslexic and non-dyslexic children. Fifteen dyslexic and 15 non-dyslexic children performed a computerised four-choice reaction time task across four conditions: no pre-cue and a 43-ms time interval (or duration) of a centralised dot appearing in the stimulus circle at 43, 86 or 129 ms prior to the stimulus. Each condition was repeated eight times, totaling 32 trials, and presented in a random order. Response correctness and response times were recorded for each trial, and z-scores were obtained by standardising performance in the three pre-cued conditions relative to the no pre-cue condition. Dyslexic children took longer to respond in the task than non-dyslexic children. Both dyslexic and non-dyslexic children had faster response times in the pre-cued conditions than in the conditions without the pre-cue. These lower response times were inversely correlated with the length of the pre-cueing interval. These results suggest that dyslexic children use visual pre-cueing to improve decision-making. The ability of dyslexic children to use pre-cues may offer an interesting avenue for the exploration of interventions aimed at minimising behavioural and cognitive difficulties resulting from dyslexia.

We report a small study in which we explored the effects of manipulating narrative text on levels of comprehension for students with and without dyslexia. Using two pieces of standardised narrative text deemed to be of similar difficulty and length, we manipulated the texts such that we could present two texts to each participant, one in each condition. The first condition was text using standard inter-word spacing; the second condition used increased inter-word spacing. Scores on standardised comprehension questions were significantly improved for participants with dyslexia. Additionally, given that there is evidence of delayed visual attention disengagement in individuals with specific forms of dyslexia, we hypothesised that the phenomena of migration of letters and words for some readers might be mitigated by increasing inter-word spacing. We did indeed find that incidence of migration was significantly reduced in this condition for all participants.

Working memory (WM) has been consistently linked to reading. However, the mechanism(s) linking WM to reading remain unclear. WM may indirectly exert an effect onto reading through mediators such as phonemic awareness (PA) and/or rapid automatized naming (RAN). In a sample of children with reading difficulty (n = 117), separate mediation analyses tested direct and indirect (through PA and RAN) effects of WM on untimed word decoding and recognition (i.e., basic reading skills) and timed word decoding and recognition (i.e., reading fluency). WM exerted a direct effect on basic reading skills and reading fluency. For basic reading skills, there was a significant indirect effect of WM on reading through the mediation of PA (but not through RAN). By contrast, for reading fluency, there was a significant indirect effect of WM on reading through the mediation of RAN (but not through PA). Findings reinforce the importance of WM, PA, and RAN for broad reading skills, while offering a mechanistic explanation for why poor PA and/or RAN may differentially lead to reading difficulty.

Dyslexia, a neurocognitive difference characterised by poor word-reading, is associated with elevated risk for internalising (e.g., anxiety) and externalising (e.g., aggression) mental health concerns, the reasons are largely unknown. We took a neurodiversity perspective and explored whether school-connectedness mediated these associations. A total of 283 primary school children (87 with dyslexia) and their caregivers (95.4% mothers) completed a battery of well-validated connectedness and mental health measures. Two mediation models (one for child-report and one for caregiver-report) tested direct and indirect effects of dyslexia on anxiety, depression and conduct problems via several domains of school-connectedness. After controlling for gender and neurodevelopmental conditions other than dyslexia, there were no direct effects of dyslexia on child- or caregiver-reported internalising symptoms or child-reported conduct problems. Dyslexia was associated with child and caregiver reported anxiety, depression and conduct problems via low levels of school (but not teacher, friend or peer) connectedness. Findings highlight school-connectedness as an important intervention target for the mental health of children with dyslexia. Future research is needed to test associations between dyslexia, school-connectedness and mental health over time.

This study aimed to examine the effects of a visual praxis-based occupational therapy (VPOT) program on reading and motor skills for children with developmental dyslexia (DD). Forty-two children were included in the study. Additionally, before VPOT, the Reading-Aloud and Reading-Comprehension Test 2 (ORSRC-2) and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Motor-Proficiency-Test-2-Brief Form (BOT2-BF) were applied to the participants. According to the study design, VPOT was applied to two sessions per week for 8 weeks to group A. During this period, group B was accepted as the control group. At the end of these 8 weeks, evaluation tests were applied to both groups. Then, group A was defined as the control group and Group B as the intervention group, and VPOT was applied to Group B. At the end of another 8 weeks, evaluation tests were applied to both groups for the third time. When the final ORSRC-2 results were examined, VPOT was found to be an effective program for improving reading skills. Additionally, when the final BOT2-BF results were examined, VPOT was determined to be effective in improving motor skills (p < 0.05). We believe that it is important to carry out comprehensive studies such as the VPOT program to solve problems in the physical and learning activities of children with DD.

This article aims to assist practitioners in understanding dyslexia and other reading difficulties and assessing students' learning needs. We describe the essential components of language and literacy, universal screening, diagnostic assessments, curriculum-based measurement and eligibility determination. We then introduce four diagnostic assessments as examples, including norm-referenced assessments (i.e. the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing second edition and the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement) and criterion-referenced assessments (i.e. the Gallistel-Ellis Test of Coding Skills and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). Finally, We use a makeup case as a concrete example to illustrate how multiple diagnostic assessments are recorded and how the results can be used to inform intervention and eligibility for special education services.

A systematic literature review (SLR) of seven papers written between 2015 and 2021 explored the educational experiences of learners with dyslexia in mainstream schools in England from an ecosystemic perspective and how to improve the situation. The analysis employed keywords for database searches and followed the PRISMA flow protocol. It synthesised evidence using thematic analysis and identified seven themes: dyslexia challenges; differential treatment; negative stereotypes; early intervention; teachers' training; power dynamics; and collaboration. The results suggest that several factors can influence the learning experiences of learners with dyslexia in English mainstream schools. Similarly, such factors can, in turn, be dependent on education policies. On that premise, this systematic literature review recommends that to promote positive learning experiences for learners with dyslexia, classroom strategies targeting interventions should be supported with broader environmental strategies shaping individuals' learning experience and offer support from different perspectives. A whole-school approach to providing intervention, teachers' training, parents and school partnerships, and professional collaboration can improve learners' educational experiences. A further recommendation is for learning interventions to target all learners, to prevent differential treatment of learners with dyslexia and to avoid them standing out from their peers and creating a negative experience.

People with dyslexia, a neurodevelopmental disorder of reading, are highly attuned to the emotional world. Compared with their typically developing peers, children with dyslexia exhibit greater autonomic nervous system reactivity and facial behaviour to emotion- and empathy-inducing film clips. Affective symptoms, such as anxiety, are also more common in children with dyslexia than in those without. Here, we investigated whether the startle response, an automatic reaction that lies at the interface of emotion and reflex, is elevated in dyslexia. We measured facial behaviour, electrodermal reactivity (a sympathetic nervous system measure) and emotional experience in response to a 100 ms, 105 dB unanticipated acoustic startle task in 30 children with dyslexia and 20 comparison children without dyslexia (aged 7-13) who were matched on age, sex and nonverbal reasoning. Our results indicated that the children with dyslexia had greater total facial behaviour and electrodermal reactivity to the acoustic startle task than the children without dyslexia. Across the sample, greater electrodermal reactivity during the startle predicted greater parent-reported anxiety symptoms. These findings contribute to an emerging picture of heightened emotional reactivity in dyslexia and suggest accentuated sympathetic nervous system reactivity may contribute to the elevated anxiety that is often seen in this population.

Children with dyslexia (CwD) often report poor psychological well-being. We examined (i) whether anxiety, self-concept and reading motivation in CwD differed from those of typically developing children (TDC; case-control design, Study 1a) and (ii) whether these differences mirrored the linear relationships that these variables present with reading ability in the TDC group (dimensional approach, Study 1b). In Study 1a, 34 CwD were compared with 191 TDC in grades 4-8 on anxiety, self-concept, reading motivation and reading strategy using self-reports (controlling for sex, intelligence and math ability scores). In Study 1b, the differences that emerged in Study 1a were compared with the results obtained from a simulation procedure that generated dyslexia observations under the assumptions of a dimensional hypothesis. The CwD group presented small-to-moderate difficulties, which partially mirrored the predictions in the TDC group. However, violations of predictions based on the population without dyslexia were found for reading self-concept, social anxiety and reading competitiveness. In sum, children's diagnoses affect their self-perception as readers and social anxiety in a way that cannot be inferred from linear relationships. CwD need support to preserve an adequate image of themselves as readers and cope with social anxiety.

In the present study, we aimed to investigate the different impacts of temporal processing on reading by Chinese children with and without dyslexia. In total, 27 children with dyslexia who had a deficit in rapid automatized naming (RAN) (D_R), 37 children with dyslexia who had deficits in both RAN and phonological awareness (PA) (D_RP), and 40 typically developing children (TD) were recruited in Taiwan. The children were asked to complete non-verbal intelligence, PA, RAN, Chinese character reading tasks and an auditory temporal order judgement (ATOJ) task. Our results of a multiple regression model showed that the ATOJ accounted for unique variances in the reading differences between the children in the D_R and TD groups; performance was controlled for non-verbal intelligence, PA and RAN tasks. Theoretically, we provide possible explanations for the controversial findings in the field of Chinese children with dyslexia and, practically, suggest different interventions should be provided for children with dyslexia with different underlying impairments.

A topic of recent debate is the hypothesis that deficits associated with developmental disorders of language, such as reading disability, can be explained by a selective weakness in procedural memory. Adults with (n = 29; RD) and without (n = 29; TD) reading disability completed a weather prediction task under immediate and delayed feedback conditions, that rely on the striatal (procedural) and hippocampal (declarative) circuits, respectively. We examined trial-by-trial accuracy by feedback condition (immediate vs. delayed) and group (RD vs. TD). In the immediate feedback condition, we found the TD group to have a higher learning rate than the RD group. In the delayed feedback condition, we found the TD group reach a high level of accuracy early, and outperform the RD group for the duration of the task. The TD group also made gains in reaction time under both conditions, while the RD group slowed in their responses. Taken together, it appears that while procedural memory is indeed impaired in adults with reading disability, to a lesser extent, declarative memory is also affected. This lends partial support to the PDH, and more broadly to the position that reading disability is associated with general (non-linguistic) difficulties in learning.

This study investigates the reading performance of younger students with intellectual disabilities to gain insight into their needs in reading education. Participants were 428 students in Grades 1 to 3 in Sweden. They performed LegiLexi tests measuring pre-reading skills, decoding and reading comprehension based on the model of Simple View of Reading. Results demonstrate a great variation in reading acquisition among students. Some students are able to decode single words and read shorter texts with comprehension already in Grade 1. Other students still struggle with learning letters and developing phonological awareness in Grade 3. According to their longitudinal data over grades, results show that most students progress in pre-reading skills, decoding, and reading comprehension. Hence, assessing reading skills among students with intellectual disabilities in Grades 1-3 using tools aligned with the Simple View of Reading seems applicable and informative for teachers. This study underscores the significance of informed instructional practices for empowering these students in reading education.

This study aimed to test the efficacy of a newly developed computer-based game naming computerized executive functions (CEF) task on the reading ability of children suffering from dyslexia. Forty dyslexic school students from the fourth and fifth grades were randomized to one of the experimental and control groups. Subjects of the experimental group received 12 sessions of Computerized Executive Functions Training (CEFT), while subjects of the control group played a neutral computer game throughout the 12 sessions. All participants responded to the Reading and Dyslexia Test (NEMA) as the pre- and post-test measure. Results revealed a significant improvement in the reading ability of subjects of the experimental group compared to the control group. Subjects of the experimental group indicated a greater improvement in some components of the NEMA scale including word reading, word chains reading, picture naming, text comprehension, word comprehension and letter fluency relative to the control group. CEFT had no significant effect in modifying the category fluency, phoneme elimination and rhyming components of the NEMA scale. Applying CEFT improves the reading performance of children with dyslexia by enforcing their cognitive abilities like working memory, inhibition control and cognitive flexibility which are necessary for normal reading ability.

Given the rapid growth in educational policies targeting educators' knowledge of dyslexia, this study explored the technical adequacy of a common instrument for measuring that knowledge. The responses of 1141 preservice teachers were scored in three ways: polytomously with the original 4-point Likert scale, dichotomously as true-false, and dichotomously as though the options were multiple choice. An exploratory factor analysis suggested at least one-third of the items needed to be removed. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested a one-factor model with polytomous scoring had the best fit to the data, but only six items loaded. All models demonstrated unacceptable internal consistency reliability (<0.70). Because no technically adequate version of the measure was identified, questions remain about basing policy on scores from these instruments. However, the findings indicated ways this type of measure might be improved.

Several studies have shown that children with dyslexia (DYS), in addition to their reading and spelling deficits, encounter handwriting difficulties that are still poorly understood in terms of their nature and origin. The present study aimed to better understand the handwriting difficulties of children with DYS by comparing their handwriting quality and speed in two tasks, a dictation task and an alphabet task, which required fewer spelling skills than the dictation task. Twenty-nine French-speaking children (M = 9.5 years) participated in the study, including 18 children with DYS and nine typically developing (TD) children matched on chronological age. The children performed control tasks, a dictation task with words varying in graphic and orthographic complexity and an alphabet writing task. Accuracy, handwriting quality (legibility), and fluency (speed, writing and pause time) were carefully measured using a digital tablet. GLMM analysis and t tests showed that children with DYS made more aesthetic errors (handwriting quality) in both the dictation and alphabet task than TD children. They also wrote more slowly than TD children in the alphabet task (speed, pause time). These findings suggest that children with DYS present handwriting difficulties, even in a simple alphabet task. In dictation, they seem to favour speed at the expense of handwriting quality.

Stereotype threat (ST) is a phenomenon that leads to decreased test performance and occurs when one deals with added pressure of being judged on the basis of stereotyped group membership. The ST effect has been previously investigated in many contexts but not in individuals with dyslexia who are often stereotyped as less intelligent. Prevalent use of intelligence tests in job selection processes and employment gap between people with dyslexia and those without warrants this investigation. Sixty-three participants (30 with dyslexia and 33 without dyslexia; mean age = 33.7; SD = 13.7; 47 F, 13 M, three non-binary) were asked to complete intelligence test typically used in selection processes. All participants were randomly assigned to one of three test instruction conditions: (1) they were told the test was diagnostic of their intelligence (ST triggering instruction); (2) test was a measure of their problem-solving skills (reduced threat); (3) or they were simply asked to take the test (control). Results showed that participants with dyslexia in ST condition performed poorer than those in other conditions and those in the same condition who did not have dyslexia. This study provides preliminary evidence for diminishing effects of ST in individuals with dyslexia.