Public misconceptions about dyslexia: The role of intuitive psychology

Despite advances in its scientific understanding, dyslexia is still associated with rampant public misconceptions. Here, we trace these misconceptions to the interaction between two intuitive psychological principles: Dualism and Essentialism. We hypothesize that people essentialize dyslexia symptoms that they anchor in the body. Experiment 1 shows that, when dyslexia is associated with visual confusions (b/d reversals)—symptoms that are naturally viewed as embodied (in the eyes), laypeople consider dyslexia as more severe, immutable, biological, and heritable, compared to when dyslexia is linked to difficulties with phonological decoding (a symptom seen as less strongly embodied). Experiments 2–3 show that the embodiment of symptoms plays a causal role in promoting essentialist thinking. Experiment 2 shows that, when participants are provided evidence that the symptoms of dyslexia are embodied (i.e., they “show up” in a brain scan), people are more likely to consider dyslexia as heritable compared to when the same symptoms are diagnosed behaviorally (without any explicit evidence for the body). Finally, Experiment 3 shows that reasoning about the severity of dyslexia symptoms can be modulated by manipulating people’s attitudes about the mind/body links, generally. These results show how public attitudes towards psychological disorders arise from the very principles that make the mind tick.

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.

Action Video Games Enhance Attentional Control and Phonological Decoding in Children with Developmental Dyslexia

Reading acquisition is extremely difficult for about 5% of children because they are affected by a heritable neurobiological disorder called developmental dyslexia (DD). Intervention studies can be used to investigate the causal role of neurocognitive deficits in DD. Recently, it has been proposed that action video games (AVGs)—enhancing attentional control—could improve perception and working memory as well as reading skills. In a partial crossover intervention study, we investigated the effect of AVG and non-AVG training on attentional control using a conjunction visual search task in children with DD. We also measured the non-alphanumeric rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonological decoding and word reading before and after AVG and non-AVG training. After both video game training sessions no effect was found in non-alphanumeric RAN and in word reading performance. However, after only 12 h of AVG training the attentional control was improved (i.e., the set-size slopes were flatter in visual search) and phonological decoding speed was accelerated. Crucially, attentional control and phonological decoding speed were increased only in DD children whose video game score was highly efficient after the AVG training. We demonstrated that only an efficient AVG training induces a plasticity of the fronto-parietal attentional control linked to a selective phonological decoding improvement in children with DD.

Differentiation of radical processing strategies in character decoding by L2 learners of Chinese according to L1-type

This study investigates the productive use of semantic and phonetic radicals for Chinese character decoding by Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners at different levels of L2 proficiency, focusing on the application of radical knowledge according to the learners’ L1 language families. Using a pseudo-word test developed by Williams, Clay. 2014. The development of intra-character radical awareness in L1 Chinese children: Changing strategies. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 49(2). 1–26 to measure subject preference for semantic versus phonological decoding processes, subjects are asked to match a provided definition and pronunciation with a character in a multiple choice format which included two pseudo characters designed with radicals which corresponded with the provided definition or pronunciation, respectively. The results demonstrate that reliance on semantic or phonological radicals for character identification varies according to the L1 of the CFL learners; subjects whose L1 is relatively orthographically transparent predominantly make use of phonological processing strategies at all levels of proficiency, whereas those whose L1 are more orthographically opaque demonstrate more malleable processing preferences, with relatively strong semantic radical reliance in the early stage of their language learning, and considerable variability between semantic and phonological processing at intermediate and advanced proficiency levels. The findings suggest that developmental trends of using radical decoding strategies differ among CFL learner groups with varying L1 literacy strategy preferences.

Exposure to dialect variation in an artificial language prior to literacy training impairs reading of words with competing variants but does not affect decoding skills

Dialect exposure in children has been associated with reduced literacy outcomes but it is unclear to what extent these impairments are due to interference from competing lexical variants or reflect extralinguistic factors. Previous computational studies and artificial literacy learning experiments with adults confirmed a deficit for reading of words with dialect variants (contrastive words) but did not find detrimental effects of dialect exposure on phonological decoding of untrained words; in fact, sufficiently long periods of literacy training resulted in a dialect benefit that could arise from greater reliance on phonological decoding when dialect and standard variants increased variability in the input. However, those artificial language learning experiments interleaved word learning and reading/spelling training, yet child learners typically have well-entrenched phonological and semantic representations of most words before they start literacy training. Here we examine whether a contrastive deficit alongside unimpaired phonological decoding can be replicated when word learning precedes literacy training. We also manipulated training conditions to explore effects of interventions thought to be beneficial for literacy acquisition in naturalistic situations such as explicit social cues for variety use and literacy training in both varieties. The findings replicate the contrastive deficit which was most pronounced when literacy training in the dialect increased variability. Without such variability, only learners who successfully learned the dialect variants prior to literacy training showed the contrastive deficit. Although no benefits from the interventions were found dialect exposure per se had neither a beneficial nor a detrimental effect on phonological decoding skills.

Misunderstandings about developmental dyslexia: a historical overview

History of the reading disorder not due to an intellectual disability, inadequate teaching systems or poor motivation to study, referred to as developmental dyslexia, has very remote origins. The first attempts explain the disorder as a primary ‘visual defect’. Since then, several models have been developed until autopsy and histo-pathological studies on the brains of developmental dyslexics provided neuroanatomical evidence on the structural and morphologic differences between normal and dyslexic brains. In addition, the new neuroimaging technologies have allowed to understand the neural systems of reading and dyslexia. According to recent studies, developmental dyslexia appears as a neurodevelopmental multicomponent language-related disorder with a deficit in phonological decoding and in visuospatial organization of linguistic code. As a result, rehabilitation must be focused on the recovery of language and visuo-spatial and attentional processes underlying the complex and multi-component developmental dyslexia. This brief overview should be a valid tool for a deeper understanding of the dyslexic disorder. Literature searches in Medline, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science identified one hundred articles focusing attention on how this disorder has been considered over the years.