Identifying the patients who are likely to be non-responders to a certain treatment may allow clinicians to provide alternative strategies and avoid frustration and unrealistic expectations for the patients and their families. A retrospective study on 145 children treated with visual hemisphere-specific stimulation examined the specific profiles (reading, writing, metaphonology, memory, callosal functions) of non-responders, and identified predictors of response to intervention (reading, reading and writing) through linear regression models. The effects of additional variables such as rapid automatized naming (RAN) and Visual Search were investigated in a subsample of 48 participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Tachidino is a web-based platform for remote treatment of reading and spelling disorders. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the possible impact of different clinical conditions on the efficacy of treatment. The focus was on possible ADHD comorbidity-related effects on the outcomes of the Tachidino treatment, and the impact of previous treatments, such as speech and language therapy or the repetition of the same Tachidino program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTelemedicine approaches have proved to be valuable solutions for the delivery of treatment for many health-related issues, and crucial during the pandemics. Nonetheless, the efficacy of such Web-based practices in developmental dyslexia needs to be thoroughly evaluated. To this aim, the effects of a multi-componential program for neuropsychological intervention in dyslexia delivered as an outpatient program were compared with those obtained with a remotely delivered, Web-based treatment, based on the same methodological principles and delivered with the same duration and intensity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLower levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been described in individuals with reading difficulties, but the degree and the nature of such deficiencies as well as the role of nutrition are a matter of debate. The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between PUFA blood levels, nutritional status, and reading/writing/phonological awareness performances in 42 school-age children with varying levels of reading ability. Significant correlations were found between PUFA levels (specific omega-6/omega-3 ratios), the ratio of omega-6-derived calories to the total amount of calories and reading scores.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there are associations between polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) blood levels, reading/writing performance and performance in neuropsychological tasks. Moderate to strong correlations were found between PUFA levels (specific omega-6/omega-3 ratios) and reading/writing abilities, and the former and neuropsychological test scores. Mediation models analyzing the direct and indirect effects of PUFA on reading and writing scores showed that the effects of fatty acids on learning measures appear to be direct rather than mediated by the investigated visual and auditory neuropsychological mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTachidino is a web-platform for remote treatment of reading and writing disorders. A total of 91 children with developmental dyslexia and/or dysorthographia participated in the present study and received Tachidino treatment. The purpose of the study was to compare results obtained after four weeks treatment and a six-month follow-up in older versus younger children and in more versus less severely impaired children (separately subdividing them according to reading speed, reading accuracy, and writing accuracy).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of new technologies for intervention in developmental dyslexia is steadily growing. In order to better understand the needs, the expectations, and the attitudes of Italian expert health professionals concerning such technologies, a national survey was conducted applying the Delphi methodology. Ad-hoc questionnaires were sent out to a group of eighteen experts over three successive rounds, and anonymously collected responses were aggregated and shared with the group after each round, aiming to reach a consensus on the proposed response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the current study was to analyze the role of affective engagement during social interaction on the emergence of a temporally extended self (TES). A Delayed Self Recognition task was administered in two different social contexts: in presence of the mother ("Mother condition") or in presence of an unfamiliar person ("Experimenter condition"). The same sample of 71 tree-year-olds was tested twice in these two treatment conditions.
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