In 2007, the New Zealand Ministry of Education formally recognized the condition of dyslexia for the first time and has subsequently developed a working definition of the condition. The aim of this article is to draw on contemporary theory and research on ... (Source: SafetyLit: All (Unduplicated))MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Developmental dyslexia (reading disability) is a specific impairment in learning to read that affects 3–6% of school children in English-speaking countries. It is overrepresented in clinical populations referred to child and adolescent mental health services because of its high comorbidity with conduct disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other developmental disorders. Clinicians may fail to identify it unless they maintain a high degree of awareness and make specific inquiries. A three-stage approach (routine screening, in-depth examination and referral for further testing) is described. The features of dyslexia and the clues to its diagnosis are discussed. A number of simple tests for identifying it are available and familiarity with these should improve diagnosti...

Acta Ophthalmol. 2010: 88: 681–691 (Source: Acta Ophthalmologica)

Authors: Buonincontri R, Bache I, Silahtaroglu A, Elbro C, Nielsen AM, Ullmann R, Arkesteijn G, Tommerup N Dyslexia is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders where likely many genes are involved in the pathogenesis. So far six candidate dyslexia genes have been proposed, and two of these were identified by rare chromosomal translocations in affected individuals. By systematic re-examination of all translocation carriers in Denmark, we have identified 16 different translocations associated with dyslexia. In four families, where the translocation co-segregated with the phenotype, one of the breakpoints concurred (at the cytogenetic level) with either a known dyslexia linkage region-at 15q21 (DYX1), 2p13 (DYX3) and 1p36 (DYX8)-or an unpublished linkage region at 19q13. As a f...

This study synthesizes 79 standardized mean-change differences between control and treatment groups from 17 independent studies, investigating the effect of morphological interventions on literacy outcomes for students with literacy difficulties. Average total sample size ranged from 15 to 261 from a wide range of grade levels. Overall, morphological instruction showed a significant improvement on literacy achievement ([Formula: see text] = 0.33). Specifically, its effect was significant on several literacy outcomes such as phonological awareness ([Formula: see text] = 0.49), morphological awareness ([Formula: see text] = 0.40), vocabulary ([Formula: see text] = 0.40), reading comprehension ([Formula: see text] = 0.24), and spelling ([Formula: see text] = 0.20). Morphological instruction w...

Authors: Lack D Several medical organizations have published yet another joint statement trivializing vision therapy and vision disorders in the learning-disabled population. A review of the references in the joint statement as well as other references find that the joint statement is misleading because of inappropriate citations and selected references, as was the case with previous joint statements. The most current joint statement ignores the results of evidence-based research and makes recommendations regarding the treatment of convergence insufficiency that have no scientific validity. Ophthalmology should not allow professional rivalry to cloud its judgment regarding optometry's involvement in the diagnosis and treatment of learning-related vision problems. PMID: 20728412 [Pu...MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

(Source: Developmental Neuropsychology)

Authors: Vallar G, Burani C, Arduino LS Neglect dyslexia (ND) is reviewed, based on published single-patient and group studies. ND is frequently associated with right hemispheric damage and unilateral spatial neglect (USN), and typically involves the left side of the letter string. Left-brain-damaged patients showing ND, ipsilateral (left) or contralateral (right) to the side of the left-sided hemispheric lesion, have also been reported, as well as a few patients with bilateral damage, with more frequently left than right ND. As USN, ND is temporarily ameliorated by lateralized stimulations (vestibular caloric, visual prism adaptation). ND may occur independent of USN, suggesting the damage to specific visuospatial representational/attentional systems, supporting reading. ND errors com...

Authors: Poon MW, Tsang WH, Chan SO, Li HM, Ng HK, Waye MM To identify the putative interacting partners for Kiaa0319-like protein. KIAA0319-like, located near the dyslexia susceptibility locus, DYX8 in chromosome 1p34.3, has been suggested as a positional candidate for developmental dyslexia due to its homology with another gene, KIAA0319 which has been strongly established as a candidate gene for developmental dyslexia. Previous research has shown that a single marker, rs7523017 (P = 0.042) has been associated with developmental dyslexia by a Canadian group. There is little functional information about this gene and protein. In this article, we put forward further evidence that support Kiaa0319-like is a candidate for this disorder. A yeast-2-hybrid screen and co-immunopreciptiation ...

CONCLUSIONS: Results underscore the importance of central auditory assessment for children with dyslexia. Further, the BioMARK may be useful in identifying children with central auditory dysfunction who would not have been identified using behavioral methods of (C)APD assessment. PMID: 20689038 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Authors: Washburn EK, Joshi RM, Binks Cantrell E Reading disabilities such as dyslexia, a specific learning disability that affects an individual's ability to process written language, are estimated to affect 15-20% of the general population. Consequently, elementary school teachers encounter students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing difficulties. However, recent evidence may suggest that teacher preparation programs are not providing preservice teachers with information about basic language constructs and other components related to scientifically based reading instruction. As a consequence preservice teachers have not exhibited explicit knowledge of such concepts in previous studies. Few studies have sought to as...

(Source: J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci)

Pagnamenta et al. (pages 320–328) describe the genomic characterization of a family with two rare microdeletions disrupting the gene DOCK4, which codes for a protein called “dedicated to cytokines-4”, and CNTNAP5, a gene that codes for “contactin associated protein-like 5”. Consistent with prior reports, CNTNAP5 deletion segregated with autism. In contrast, the DOCK4 deletion was present in multiple individuals without autism, but this gene microdeletion co-segregated with reading difficulties. A survey of further autism and dyslexia cohorts suggests that rare variants in these genes may represent novel risk factors for these neurodevelopmental disorders. (Source: Biological Psychiatry)

A polygenic/threshold model of psychiatric disorder was first introduced more than 40 years ago by Gottesman and Shields (). They proposed, following on from the seminal work of Falconer (), that what is inherited is not so much a disorder as a liability to disorder contributed to by multiple genetic and environmental effects. What has emerged in recent studies is an even more complex pattern of polygenic heterogeneity whereby phenotypically different syndromes appear to result from overlapping liabilities () (). An article in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry by Pagnamenta et al. () provides another example of this phenomenon relating to autism and dyslexia. Furthermore, the article demonstrates another feature of polygenic inheritance. In addition to those individuals who defini...

Authors: Donfrancesco R, Iozzino R, Caruso B, Ferrante L, Mugnaini D, Talamo A, Miano S, Dimitri A, Masi G Different moderators/mediators of risk are involved in developmental dyslexia (DD), but data are inconsistent. We explored the prevalence of season of birth and its association with gender and age of school entry in an Italian sample of dyslexic children compared to an Italian normal control group. The clinical sample included 498 children (345 boys, mean age 10.3 +/- 2.1 years) with DD, the control sample 1,276 children (658 boys, mean age 10.8 +/- 2.2 years) from four elementary schools from the same urban area, and with the same socio-economic status level. A prevalence of birth in autumn was found among children with DD compared to controls (34% versus 24%, p

Authors: Le Jan G, Le Bouquin-Jeannès R, Costet N, Trolès N, Scalart P, Pichancourt D, Faucon G, Gombert JE Dyslexia is a specific disorder of language development that mainly affects reading. Etiological researches have led to multiple hypotheses which induced various diagnosis methods and rehabilitation treatments so that many different tests are used by practitioners to identify dyslexia symptoms. Our purpose is to determine a subset of the most efficient ones by integrating them into a multivariate predictive model. A set of screening tasks that are the most commonly used and representative of the different cognitive aspects of dyslexia was proposed to 78 children from elementary school (mean age = 9 years +/- 7 months) exempt from identified reading difficulties and to 35 dy...MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

(Source: Dyslexia)

(Source: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry)

(Source: Dyslexia)

(Source: Dyslexia)