Cognitive Profile of Students Who Enter Higher Education with an Indication of Dyslexia

For languages other than English there is a lack of empirical evidence about the cognitive profile of students entering higher education with a diagnosis of dyslexia. To obtain such evidence, we compared a group of 100 Dutch-speaking students diagnosed with dyslexia with a control group of 100 students without learning disabilities. Our study showed selective deficits in reading and writing (effect sizes for accuracy between d = 1 and d = 2), arithmetic (d≈1), and phonological processing (d>0.7). Except for spelling, these deficits were larger for speed related measures than for accuracy related measures. Students with dyslexia also performed slightly inferior on the KAIT tests of crystallized intelligence, due to the retrieval of verbal information from long-term memory. No significant differences were observed in the KAIT tests of fluid intelligence. The profile we obtained agrees with a recent meta-analysis of English findings suggesting that it generalizes to all alphabetic languages. Implications for special arrangements for students with dyslexia in higher education are outlined

Cognitive skills and literacy performance of Chinese adolescents with and without dyslexia

The present study sought to identify cognitive abilities that might distinguish Hong Kong Chinese adolescents with dyslexia and to assess how these abilities were associated with Chinese word reading, word dictation, and reading comprehension. The cognitive skills of interest were morphological awareness, visual-orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, and verbal working memory. A total of 90 junior secondary school students, 30 dyslexic, 30 chronological age controls, and 30 reading level controls was tested on a range of cognitive and literacy tasks. Dyslexic students were less competent than the control students in all cognitive and literacy measures. The regression analyses also showed that verbal working memory, rapid naming, morphological awareness, and visual-orthographic knowledge were significantly associated with literacy performance. Findings underscore the importance of these cognitive skills for Chinese literacy acquisition. Overall, this study highlights the persistent difficulties of Chinese dyslexic adolescents who seem to have multiple causes for reading and spelling difficulties

Management of primary cicatricial alopecias: Options for treatment

Primary cicatricial alopecias (PCAs) are a poorly understood group of disorders that result in permanent hair loss. Clinically, they are characterized not only by permanent loss of hair shafts but also of visible follicular ostia along with other visible changes in skin surface morphology, while their histopathological hallmark usually (although not always) is the replacement of follicular structures with scar-like fibrous tissue. As hair follicle neogenesis in adult human scalp skin is not yet a readily available treatment option for patients with cicatricial alopecias, the aim of treatment, currently, remains to reduce symptoms and to slow or stop PCA progression, namely the scarring process. Early treatment is the key to minimizing the extent of permanent alopecia. However, inconsistent terminology, poorly defined clinical end-points and a lack of good quality clinical trials have long made management of these conditions very challenging. As one important step towards improving the management of this under-investigated and under-serviced group of dermatoses, the current review presents evidence-based guidance for treatment, with identification of the strength of evidence, and a brief overview of clinical features of each condition. Wherever only insufficient evidence-based advice on PCA management can be given at present, this is indicated so as to highlight important gaps in our clinical knowledge that call for concerted efforts to close these in the near future.</p