Associations Between Physical Activity and Gross Motor Skills with Social Development in Children with Learning Disabilities

Background: Social development is a fundamental aspect of motor development in children. It has been shown that children with learning disorders have different gross motor skills and physical activity compared to typically developing peers. Objectives: Since developmental domains interact with each other and children with learning disabilities often have difficulties that go far beyond those in school homework, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between physical activity and gross motor skills with social development for children with learning disabilities. Methods: In children with learning disorder (n = 82; 49 boys, 33 girls), gross motor skills and physical activity were assessed respectively with the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 and Past Year Physical Activity Questionnaire. Vineland Social Maturity Scale was used to evaluate the social development of participants. The Pearson correlation coefficient is used to association between variables. The significance for test was set at P < 0.05. Results: Locomotor and object-control were significantly associated with social development (r = 0.60, P < 0.001) and (r = 0.44, P = 0.003), respectively. Organized activities were significantly associated with social development (r = 0.69, P = 0.001). Also, gross motor skills and organized activities were able to predict the social development of children with learning disorder (R2 = 0.29, F = 15.78). Conclusions: Children with higher levels of organized activities and motor skills had higher social development. As a result, gross motor skills and organized physical activity are especially important for children with learning disabilities.

Passive Suicidal Ideation in Childhood

Background: A growing body of empirical research shows that suicidal behaviors are prevalent in childhood. Yet, few studies have examined risk factors related to suicidal ideation (SI) among children aged 12 and younger. Aims: The current study addresses this gap. Method: A questionnaire was filled out by 1,350 Flemish primary caregivers (94.7% mothers) of 9-year-old children (50.4% boys, Mage = 9.45). Their responses were analyzed using logistic regression and independent samples t tests. Results: The presence of passive SI was reported in 10.5% of the children. A psychiatric, developmental, or behavioral condition (or multiple conditions), a learning disorder, impulsivity, aggression, and experiencing multiple stressful family life events were discovered as potential risk factors of passive SI in childhood. Limitations: The cross-sectional nature of this study meant that causality could not be inferred. In addition, it was based on reports of primary caregivers, rather than on reports from the children themselves. Conclusion: These new empirical findings can be used for the development of prevention programs and be taken into account in risk assessments of SI in clinical practice. Confirmation of our findings in a longitudinal child-reported study is needed.

Educational Insights into Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder characterized by difficulties in reading, writing, and spelling due to compromised phonological processing skills. Treatment of dyslexia solely with medical support is far-fetched. However, it can be surmounted by the combination of special education interventions and supportive psychosocial care. Suitable approaches coupled with beneficial learning strategies enable dyslexic learners with consummate linguistic achievement. Although dyslexia research offers an increased understanding from a biological standpoint, the knowledge gap on the educational front is unfortunately persistent. To this end, this paper revisits the teaching-learning aspects of dyslexia. Teaching principles and approaches, strategies to support learning, and personalized educational plans are discussed in detail. Acknowledging the difficulty, familiarizing with the approaches, and attaining successful outcomes via essential practices emphasize the inclusiveness of dyslexic learners in the curriculum. We contend that the educational insights into dyslexia will provide informed teaching and learning solutions.

Comparison of visual aids for improving reading performance in children with dyslexia

Background: Dyslexia is a key learning disorder associated with reading difficulties in children. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of simple visual devices in improving the reading performance of children with dyslexia. Methods: A case?control study was conducted by selecting 80 school children with dyslexia, aged 8?11 years, from the Special Dyslexic School Program of the Ministry of Education (MOE) Malaysia. Subjects were randomly assigned to four groups: the typoscope, magnifier, visual tracking magnifier (VTM), and control groups. Reading performance was measured based on reading speed and reading error rate. The time taken to complete reading of text was measured, and reading errors were recorded. The reading performance of each group was assessed at baseline, week 2, week 6, and week 12. Results: Reading performance was significantly different (P < 0.05) for both Level 1 and Level 2, before and after intervention only in children with dyslexia using magnifiers and VTM. Reading performance for children with dyslexia using a magnifier or a VTM increased significantly (P < 0.05) from baseline to week 2, week 6, and week 12. The improvement in reading speed was 2.5 times faster for children in the VTM group than in the other groups. Conclusions: Simple visual aids, such as a VTM and magnifying glass, improved reading performance in children with dyslexia. The VTM intervention yielded the greatest improvement after 12 weeks of intervention. Hence, it is suggested that a VTM be used as part of a rehabilitation program for all children with dyslexia in Malaysia, particularly those in dyslexia programs in schools under the MOE Malaysia. However, future studies with longer follow-up periods are needed to confirm the sustainability of this improved reading performance after discontinuation of the intervention.

Comparison of Theta Beta Ratio in children with Attention deficit/hyperactive disorder and specific Learning Disorder during active EEG

Introduction: Theta-Beta Ratio (TBR) has been claimed as a biomarker to diagnose Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, the effectiveness of this index to differentiate between different groups of disorders is still under discussion. The primary purpose was to determine to what extent active TRB can differentiate between children with ADHD and specific Learning Disorder (sLD) as the most common comorbid disorder. Methods: Two groups of school-aged children with sLD (N=15) and ADHD (N=15) were diagnosed through a process of clinical interview and observation. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in both groups during active condition. The implemented cognitive task was the visual continuous performance task (VCPT). TBR in sites of CZ and Fz, and cognitive measures of VCPT were calculated in the aforementioned groups. Results: There was no significant differences in cognitive measures (containing Commission, Omission, Reaction Time, and Variability of Reaction Times) shown in two matched groups of children with sLD and ADHD. According to TBR, two groups demonstrated no significant results in comparison. Conclusion: TBR cannot be considered as a reliable biomarker to differentiate between those groups of psychological disorders that contain primary cognitive deficits and require the allocation of attention and working memory loads.

Learning Disorder (Dyslexia): An Overview Description of the Entity through Available Researches

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability can be explained with number of biological and neuropsychological theories. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. The available research in this field show that there is impairment in processing the sensory input that enters the nervous system. It also indicate that there are problem in phonological decoding. There are various educational interventions and programs to address dyslexia which includes regular teaching in small group, a learning support assistant like a specialist teacher, policy interventions etc. The basic strategies of intervention focus on phonemic skill such as the ability to identify and process word sounds.

Distress Levels of Parents of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison between Italy and Australia

Parents of children with a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) report higher levels of distress compared to those of typically developing children. Distress levels may be heightened by the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is unclear whether distress levels of parents varied by the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorder in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate whether parental distress was influenced by the type of NDD. Participants were from Australia (N = 196) and Italy (N = 200); the parents of children aged 3–18 were invited to complete an online self-reported survey which included the 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) to determine parental distress. The results show that intellectual or learning disorder (ILD) is a major contributor to parental distress compared to other NDDs in both Australia and Italy. Moreover, the worsening of symptomatic changes in children with NDDs was significantly associated with parental distress. The differences between the two countries in terms of the pandemic impact, however, were not statistically significant. The results suggest that intervention strategies need to be tailored for individual clinical information and factor in the society’s stringency level of anti-contagion policies to improve parental wellbeing.

Eye Movement Feature Set and Predictive Model for Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that can cause difficulties in reading or writing. Dyslexia is not a visual problem but many dyslexics have impaired magnocellular system which causes poor eye control. Eye-trackers are used to track eye movements. This research work proposes a set of significant eye movement features that are used to build a predictive model for dyslexia. Fixation and saccade eye events are detected using the dispersion-threshold and velocity-threshold algorithms. Various machine learning models are experimented. Validation is done on 185 subjects using 10-fold cross-validation. Velocity based features gave high accuracy compared to statistical and dispersion features. Highest accuracy of 96% was achieved using the Hybrid Kernel Support Vector Machine- Particle Swarm Optimization model followed by the Xtreme Gradient Boosting model with an accuracy of 95%. The best set of features are the first fixation start time, average fixation saccade duration, the total number of fixations, total number of saccades and ratio between saccades and fixations.

Eye Movement Feature Set and Predictive Model for Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that can cause difficulties in reading or writing. Dyslexia is not a visual problem but many dyslexics have impaired magnocellular system which causes poor eye control. Eye-trackers are used to track eye movements. This research work proposes a set of significant eye movement features that are used to build a predictive model for dyslexia. Fixation and saccade eye events are detected using the dispersion-threshold and velocity-threshold algorithms. Various machine learning models are experimented. Validation is done on 185 subjects using 10-fold cross-validation. Velocity based features gave high accuracy compared to statistical and dispersion features. Highest accuracy of 96% was achieved using the Hybrid Kernel Support Vector Machine- Particle Swarm Optimization model followed by the Xtreme Gradient Boosting model with an accuracy of 95%. The best set of features are the first fixation start time, average fixation saccade duration, the total number of fixations, total number of saccades and ratio between saccades and fixations.