Am I dyslexic? Parental self-report of literacy difficulties

In the absence of criteria for the diagnosis of dyslexia, considerable weight is given to self-report, in particular in studies of children at family risk of dyslexia. The present paper uses secondary data from a previous study to compare parents who self-report as dyslexic and those who do not, in relation to objectively determined levels of ability. In general, adults are more likely to self-report as 'dyslexic' if they have poorer reading and spelling skills and also if there is a discrepancy between IQ and measured literacy. However, parents of higher social status who have mild literacy difficulties are more likely to self-report as dyslexic than parents who have weaker literacy skills but are less socially advantaged. Together the findings suggest that the judgement as to whether or not a parent considers themselves 'dyslexic' is made relative to others in the same social sphere. Those who are socially disadvantaged may, in turn, be less likely to seek support for their children

Language, literacy and cognitive skills of young adults with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

Background and aims: There is limited evidence concerning the longer-term language, literacy and cognitive skills of young adults with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Studies that exist suggest continuing difficulties with language and reading, but abilities may change over time. Methods & procedures: In this paper, data was used from the [deleted for anonymity] dataset which was collected from a group of young adults with DLD (recruited originally at 7-years of age from language units - specialist educational resource bases). Participants were assessed on their language, literacy and cognitive functioning when they were aged 24. A comparison group of age matched peers (AMPs; also 24 years old) were also assessed. For language and cognition, change in scores between 16 and 24 years was also available for analysis. Finally, self-rated measures of literacy difficulties were taken at 24 years for functional reading and writing. Outcome & results: The results indicate that the young people with DLD in this sample continue to perform more poorly as a group on formal oral and written language tests. A small but significant minority of young adults with DLD also report functional reading and writing difficulties compared to AMPs despite reporting reading as often as their peer group. Compared to scores at 16 years of age, this subsample now appears to show slightly less risk of non-verbal IQ difficulties, showing small but significant ‘catch-up’ to AMPs. Conclusions & implications: These preliminary data suggest that at least some individuals with DLD experience marked linguistic difficulties in adulthood, and that the pathways of language, literacy and cognition are not entirely parallel for this group. Continued support and awareness of challenges for young adults with DLD may be useful

Reading acceleration training changes brain circuitry in children with reading difficulties

Introduction: Dyslexia is characterized by slow, inaccurate reading. Previous studies have shown that the Reading Acceleration Program (RAP) improves reading speed and accuracy in children and adults with dyslexia and in typical readers across different orthographies. However, the effect of the RAP on the neural circuitry of reading has not been established. In the current study, we examined the effect of the RAP training on regions of interest in the neural circuitry for reading using a lexical decision task during fMRI in children with reading difficulties and typical readers. Methods: Children (8–12 years old) with reading difficulties and typical readers were studied before and after 4 weeks of training with the RAP in both groups. Results: In addition to improvements in oral and silent contextual reading speed, training-related gains were associated with increased activation of the left hemisphere in both children with reading difficulties and typical readers. However, only children with reading difficulties showed improvements in reading comprehension, which were associated with significant increases in right frontal lobe activation. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate differential effects of the RAP on neural circuits supporting reading in both children with reading difficulties and typical readers and suggest that the intervention may stimulate use of typical neural circuits for reading and engage compensatory pathways to support reading in the developing brain of children with reading difficulties

Validity of a Protocol for Adult Self-Report of Dyslexia and Related Difficulties

Background: There is an increased prevalence of reading and related difficulties in children of dyslexic parents. In order to understand the causes of these difficulties, it is important to quantify the risk factors passed from parents to their offspring. Method: 417 adults completed a protocol comprising a 15-item questionnaire rating reading and related skills and a scale assessing ADHD symptoms; 344 completed reading, nonword reading and spelling tests. Results: A confirmatory factor analysis with four factors (Reading, Word Finding, Attention and Hyperactivity) provided a reasonable fit to the data. The Reading Factor showed robust correlations with measured literacy skills. Adults who reported as dyslexic, or rated their reading difficulties as more severe, gained lower scores on objective measures of literacy skills. Although the sensitivity of the new scale was acceptable, it tended to miss some cases of low literacy. Conclusions: Self-report scales of reading and of attention difficulties are useful for identifying adults with reading and attention difficulties which may confer risks on their children of related problems. It is important for research following children at family risk of dyslexia to be aware of these effects

Education and employment outcomes of young adults with a history of developmental language disorder

Background: Developmental language disorder (DLD) presents a considerable barrier for young adults to engage in further education and training. Early studies with young adults with DLD revealed poor educational achievement and lack of opportunities to progress in education. More recent studies have provided more positive findings. Relatively sparse data exist, however, on current cohorts and the factors that predict outcomes. Aims: To examine educational and employment outcomes in young adulthood in a sample of people with histories of DLD, compared with an age-matched peer group without DLD. We ask: How do educational pathways and early jobs compare between those with and without DLD? Are young adults with DLD receiving similar levels of income as their peers? To what extent are language and literacy abilities associated with outcomes? Methods & Procedures: Participants included 84 individuals with DLD (67% males) and 88 age-matched peers without DLD (56% males). Participants were on average 24 years of age. They completed a battery of psycholinguistic, literacy and nonverbal skills assessments. Data were also collected on educational qualifications, current educational status, extent of educational support received, employment status, history and support, as well as current income. Outcomes & Results: Those with DLD obtained lower academic and vocational qualifications. Higher educational/vocational qualifications were associated with better language, better reading and higher PIQ. There were few differences between the two groups in terms of engagement with education but the mean age at leaving education was significantly earlier in the participants with DLD. Substantially more participants with DLD reported receiving support or dispensation from their educational institution. There was no significant difference between groups in the proportion of young people currently employed, though a higher proportion of the age-matched peers was in work full-time. Participants with DLD were much more likely to be in non-professional occupations. However, when examining pay in relation to types of occupation, the groups’ incomes were broadly comparable. Conclusions & Implications: At the group level, young people with a history of DLD more commonly have less skilled employment and more rarely achieve professional roles. At the individual level, there is considerable variation with smaller but not trivial proportions of young adults with a history of DLD showing good educational and employment outcomes. There are positive aspects to early adult outcomes for some young people with a history of DLD

Orthographic facilitation in oral vocabulary acquisition

An experiment investigated whether exposure to orthography facilitates oral vocabulary learning. A total of 58 typically developing children aged 8-9 years were taught 12 nonwords. Children were trained to associate novel phonological forms with pictures of novel objects. Pictures were used as referents to represent novel word meanings. For half of the nonwords children were additionally exposed to orthography, although they were not alerted to its presence, nor were they instructed to use it. After this training phase a nonword-picture matching posttest was used to assess learning of nonword meaning, and a spelling posttest was used to assess learning of nonword orthography. Children showed robust learning for novel spelling patterns after incidental exposure to orthography. Further, we observed stronger learning for nonword-referent pairings trained with orthography. The degree of orthographic facilitation observed in posttests was related to children's reading levels, with more advanced readers showing more benefit from the presence of orthography

The relationship between socioeconomic status and white matter microstructure in pre-reading children: A longitudinal investigation

Reading is a learned skill crucial for educational attainment. Children from families of lower socioeconomic status (SES) tend to have poorer reading performance and this gap widens across years of schooling. Reading relies on the orchestration of multiple neural systems integrated via specific white-matter pathways, but there is limited understanding about whether these pathways relate differentially to reading performance depending on SES background. Kindergarten white-matter FA and second-grade reading outcomes were investigated in an SES-diverse sample of 125 children. The three left-hemisphere white-matter tracts most associated with reading, and their right-hemisphere homologs, were examined: arcuate fasciculus (AF), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), and inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF). There was a significant and positive association between SES and fractional anisotropy (FA) in the bilateral ILF in kindergarten. SES moderated the association between kindergarten ILF and second grade reading performance, such that it was positive in lower-SES children, but not significant in higher-SES children. These results have implications for understanding the role of the environment in the development of the neural pathways that support reading