Normal saccades but decreased fixation stability in a population of children with dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia affects around 5-15% of the population and has a heterogeneous aetiology. Optometric disorders are more prevalent in dyslexic populations but the relationship be- tween eye movement control and dyslexia is not well established. In this study, we investigated whether children with dyslexia show saccadic or fixation deficits and whether these deficits are related to deficits in visual acuity and/or accommodation. Thirty-four children with and without dyslexia were recruited for the project. All participants had an optometric examination and performed a saccade and fixation experiment. We used two eye movement paradigms: the step and the gap task. Eye movements were recorded by an infrared eye-tracker and saccade and fixation parameters were analysed separately. Saccadic latencies, premature saccades, and directional errors were similar between children with dyslexia and typically developing children. In contrast, fixations were significantly less stable in the dyslexic group. Neither saccades nor fixations were associated with deficits in accommodation or visual acuity. Children with dyslexia showed no difficulties in saccadic performance, but their fixation stability was reduced compared to the control group. The reduced fixation stability can be explained by general deficits in the cognitive processes that underpin eye movement control, that have also been found in other neuro-developmental disorders.

Mental health among students with neurodevelopment disorders: case of dyslexic children and adolescents

ABSTRACT Several research studies have been devoted to study the links between emotional disorders and learning disabilities. However, very minimal of this research has focused on dyslexic students. Objective: The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) to assess self-esteem, anxiety, and depression in dyslexic Arabic-speaking children and adolescents and (2) to describe psychiatric comorbidities in these subjects by comparing them to their non-dyslexic peers. Methods: In total, 205 students (56 dyslexics and 149 good readers), pursuing their education in ordinary schools in the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region of Morocco responded to Taylor’s Self-Assessment Scale of Anxiety, Beck’s Depression Questionnaire, and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI). Results: Overall, dyslexics were more anxious, more depressed, and had disturbed self-esteem compared to their non-dyslexic peers. The percentage of psychiatric comorbidity was higher in the dyslexic group. Conclusions: The results of this study highlight the need for a multidisciplinary approach that integrates emotional needs assessment into the rehabilitation care of dyslexic children and adolescents.

Self-Concept in Primary School Student with Dyslexia: The Relationship to Parental Rearing Styles

Dyslexic children may be more likely to form a negative self-concept, especially with poor educational experiences and negative parenting. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the self-concept of Chinese dyslexic children in primary school, and explore the influence factors of self-concept as well as its relationship with parenting style. A total of 50 children with dyslexia and 50 non-dyslexics matched for age, grade and gender participated in the study. We used the Piers-Harris children’s self-concept scale (PHCSS) and the Chinese version of Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran for Children (EMBU-C) to evaluate the self-concept and parenting styles of the study population. Our results indicated that the academic competence, popularity and general self-concept in the dyslexic group were significantly lower than those in the control group (p < 0.05). Based on the multivariate linear regression, we also found that residence (β = −0.32, p < 0.05) and physical activity (β = 0.36, p < 0.01) may influence factors self-concept in dyslexic children. In addition, a moderate and positive correlation was found between the self-concept of physical appearance and maternal emotional warmth (r = 0.36, p < 0.05) by using the Spearman correlation analysis. Our outcomes suggested that children with dyslexia have a poorer self-concept than typical developing children. The self-concept of dyslexic children should be improved in order to achieve better physical and mental development.

Flicker fusion thresholds as a clinical identifier of a magnocellular-deficit dyslexic subgroup

The magnocellular-dorsal system is well isolated by high temporal frequency. However, temporal processing thresholds have seldom been explored in developmental dyslexia nor its subtypes. Hence, performances on two, four-alternative forced-choice achromatic flicker fusion threshold tasks modulated at low (5%) and high (75%) temporal contrast were compared in dyslexic and neurotypical children individually matched for age and intelligence (8–12 years, n = 54 per group). As expected, the higher modulation resulted in higher flicker fusion thresholds in both groups. Compared to neurotypicals, the dyslexic group displayed significantly lower ability to detect flicker at high temporal frequencies, both at low and high temporal contrast. Yet, discriminant analysis did not adequately distinguish the dyslexics from neurotypicals, on the basis of flicker thresholds alone. Rather, two distinct dyslexic subgroups were identified by cluster analysis – one characterised by significantly lower temporal frequency thresholds than neurotypicals (referred to as ‘Magnocellular-Deficit’ dyslexics; 53.7%), while the other group (‘Magnocellular-Typical’ dyslexics; 46.3%) had comparable thresholds to neurotypicals. The two dyslexic subgroups were not differentially associated with phonological or naming speed subtypes and showed comparable mean reading rate impairments. However, correlations between low modulation flicker fusion threshold and reading rate for the two subgroups were significantly different (p = .0009). Flicker fusion threshold performances also showed strong classification accuracy (79.3%) in dissociating the Magnocellular-Deficit dyslexics and neurotypicals. We propose that temporal visual processing impairments characterize a previously unidentified subgroup of dyslexia and suggest that measurement of flicker fusion thresholds could be used clinically to assist early diagnosis and appropriate treatment recommendations for dyslexia.

Study strategies of first-year undergraduates with and without dyslexia and the effect of gender

For students to be successful in higher education, they need not only have motivation and sufficient intellectual ability, but also a wide range of study skills as well as the metacognitive ability to determine when a change in strategy is needed. We examined whether first-year undergraduates with dyslexia (N=100) differ from peers without learning disabilities (N=100) in the use of study strategies. The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory was used and potential gender differences were investigated. Matched for age, gender and field of study, fluid intelligence scores were comparable between groups. The self-reports showed that knowledge of test taking strategies was more limited in the dyslexic group. Also, ‘fear of failure’ was higher in the dyslexic students. Further analyses revealed group × gender interactions for motivation, time management and fear of failure, with female undergraduates outperforming their male counterparts. Implications for secondary education and university, as well as college student support services are discussed.

Pursuit eye movements in dyslexic children: evidence for an immaturity of brain oculomotor structures?

Background: Dyslexia is a disorder found in 5–10% of school-aged children. Several studies reported visual deficits and oculomotor abnormalities in dyslexic children. The objective of our study was to examine horizontal pursuit performance in dyslexic children, despite its poor involvement in reading. Methods: Eye movements were recorded by video-oculography in 92 children (46 dyslexic children, mean age: 9.77 ± 0.26 and 46 non dyslexic, IQ- and age-matched children). Both the number of catch-up saccades occurring during pursuit task and the gain of pursuit were measured. Results: Catch-up saccades were significantly more frequent in the dyslexic group than in the non-dyslexic group of children. Pursuit performance (in terms of the number of catch-up saccades and gain) significantly improved with increasing age in the non-dyslexic children group only. Conclusions: The atypical pursuit patterns observed in dyslexic children suggest a deficiency in the visual attentional processing and an immaturity of brain structures responsible for pursuit triggering. This finding needs to be validated by neuroimaging studies on dyslexia population.

Influence of Somesthesic Input on Subjective Visual Vertical in Dyslexic Children

Purpose: We explored the perception of subjective visual vertical (SVV) in dyslexic and non-dyslexic age, sex and QImatched.Method: The SVV was evaluated with a laser and with or without foam under the feet. We performed an analysis ofvariance. Post hoc comparisons were made with the Fisher’s least significant differences test (LSD).Results: Our results showed two significant effects for groups and for tilt condition: counterclockwise or clockwisedirection and a significant interaction between group, tilt and somesthesic condition: without and with foam underthe feet. More precisely, SVV response in the tilt counterclockwise condition with foam was found to be significantlyless accurate for the dyslexic group than for the non-dyslexic group. Also, SVV response in the tilt counterclockwisedirection was found to be significantly less accurate for both groups compared to clockwise direction. Moreover, inclockwise direction SVV process was found to be significantly less accurate in dyslexic than in non-dyslexic group.Conclusion: These results suggest that the somesthesic information from foot sole affect SVV perception; such poorSVV responses could be due to an immaturity for heteromodal sensory integration needed in SVV perception.

Staying rooted: Spelling performance in children with dyslexia

ABSTRACTSpelling is a key, and telling, component of children’s literacy development. An important aspect of spelling development lies in children’s sensitivity to morphological root constancy. This is the sensitivity to the fact that the spelling of roots typically remains constant across related words (e.g.,singinsingingandsinger). The present investigation examined the extent to which children with dyslexia and younger typically developing children are sensitive to this feature of the orthography. We did so with a spelling-level matched design (e.g., Bourassa & Treiman, 2008) and by further contrasting results with those for a sample of children of the same chronological age as the dyslexic group. Analyses revealed that the dyslexic children and their spelling-ability matched peers used the root constancy principle to a similar degree. However, neither group used this principle to its maximum extent; maximal use of root constancy did emerge for age matched peers. Overall, the findings support the idea that sensitivity to root constancy in children with dyslexia is characterized by delayed rather than atypical development.

Recently identified university students navigate dyslexia

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to capture students’ understandings of dyslexia as a component of identity. Specifically, the journey that students embarked on in order to contribute to self-understanding of learning and how dyslexia contributes to these experiences was examined. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative case study explored concepts of social identity theory, how students understood their dyslexia and whether or not labelling theory informed students’ identities through an arts-based phenomenological lens. Eight university students participated in a brief survey, a semi-structured interview and created artefacts representing their dyslexia, which facilitated dialogue about their individual experiences in a higher education context. Findings Interpretive phenomenological analysis revealed that student participants associated strongly with the identity of dyslexia; however they did not consider themselves to be part of a dyslexic group. They also discussed different routes that informed their decisions to undergo diagnostic assessments for dyslexia. Students did not report dyslexia identity as a label. Nonetheless, the students expressed that creating an artefact supported them to better understand and communicate their dyslexia. Originality/value Although visual methods are increasingly prevalent in educational research, they are not typical in the field of dyslexia in higher education. This research therefore engaged students in active self-reflection which provided valuable insight into the nature and diversity of the experiences that can emerge from identification of dyslexia at university.

Does dyslexia present barriers to information literacy in an online environment? A pilot study

The skills and attributes required to become information literate have not been analysed from the perspective of information users with cognitive disabilities, such as dyslexia and this research seeks to begin to address this gap in the literature. The results of a pilot study involving fourteen participants, seven dyslexic and seven non-dyslexic adults, are reported here. Participants were interviewed and their online information searching behaviour was observed through the collection of screen recording diaries over the completion period of one higher education assignment. Within the dyslexic group, difficulties were reported and observed in the areas of keyword creation, use of appropriate tools to refine and expand searches and the evaluation of sources. The dyslexics' group low self-efficacy in many of the skills associated with information literacy was discovered to be a notable barrier.