Preventive remediation programs of visual spatial attention

The researchers studied Italian-speaking children for a period of three years, from the time they were prereading kindergarteners until they entered second grade. Andrea Facoetti of the University of Padua in Italy, and a team including Sandro Franceschini, Simone Gori, Milena Ruffino, and Katia Pedrolli, assessed prereaders for visual spatial attention—the ability to filter relevant versus irrelevant information—through tests that asked them to pick out specific symbols amid distractions.

The children also took tests on syllable identification, verbal short-term memory, and rapid color naming, followed over the next two years by measures of reading. Those test results showed that kids who initially had trouble with visual attention were also the ones to later struggle in reading. It forces us to rewrite what is known about the disorder and to change rehabilitation treatments in order to reduce its impact.

News Articles. The authors argue that screening for visual attention problems could be an effective approach for the early identification of dyslexia. However, based on the results presented, it is very unlikely that such a screening procedure would identify children with dyslexia with an acceptable level of accuracy.

First, the reported correlations between visual attention and later reading abilities were much lower than what is necessary for a single measure to be an accurate predictor. Furthermore, the results show that only slightly more than half of the children who became poor readers had visual attention deficits as kindergarteners. Also, it appears from the data presented that many good readers had visual problems in kindergarten as well. These results are not surprising because a large body of research on the early identification of dyslexia has shown that no single measure is likely to be accurate in identifying dyslexia in pre-reading children.

It appears that a combination of variables like family history, early language development, phonological awareness, emergent literacy, and perhaps visual abilities will be necessary to accurately identify dyslexia prior to formal reading instruction. Whereas such an approach is novel and of scientific interest, the evidence to support it is presently quite weak. By no means should we alter our recommendations for intervention based on these preliminary findings.

Stronger and more converging evidence is necessary before we move away from what we know works to a novel intervention. Readers should be cautious of attempts to take advantage of the research on visual attention to promote unsupported visual training programs for dyslexia. Writing in their report, the researchers said that new treatments can be followed to help children deal with dyslexia. Source: Medindia. News A-Z. More News. What's New on Medindia. Medindia Newsletters Subscribe to our Free Newsletters!

Some therapists may use computer tools in cognitive remediation programs. This association of the practitioner and new technologies allows us to offer the patient a personalized accompaniment , which takes into account the specificities of his or her needs. In order for the effects of the cognitive remediation program to be transferred to daily life, a network work allowing the involvement of close people caregivers or professionals is essential. Some psychiatric diseases and disorders lead to cognitive difficulties affecting memory, attention, concentration, organization or planning abilities of the subject.