Behavioural Difficulties That Co-occur With Specific Word Reading Difficulties: A UK Population-Based Cohort Study

Evaluation of the multiple-deficit hypothesis among dyslexic Arabic-speaking children

This study examined the multiple-deficit hypothesis among Arabic-speaking elementary school students. A total of 90 students, divided into three main groups based on their performance on an Arabic word-reading task: dyslexic (n = 30), regular age-matched (n = 30), and 3rd-grade regular students, who were matched to the dyslexic group in regard to their reading proficiency level (n = 30). Participants underwent a nine-domain Arabic reading experiment that measured accuracy and fluency to evaluate general reading proficiency. The performance of Arabic dyslexic students was significantly worse than age-matched controls, but similar to young matched controls based on the reading level of each cognitive task. Moreover, dyslexic students showed deficits in three or more cognitive functions, depending on severity. This study adds to the limited empirical research on the double-deficit hypothesis and its extension to the multiple-domain model among young Arabic students.

"I struggle at times to see her struggle": Mothers' perspectives on dyslexia-related school struggles and the inter-connected nature of mother and child well-being

INTRODUCTION

Parents of children with dyslexia may be at elevated risk for parenting stress and mental health concerns. Our aim was to explore the emotional experience of growing up with dyslexia in Australia from parents' perspectives. In so doing, we also developed an understanding of parents' own mental health and support needs informed by their lived experience.

METHODOLOGY

Seventeen interviews with mothers of children (9-14 years; 16 with a diagnosis of dyslexia) were analysed using Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis approach.

ANALYSIS

Five themes were developed to address our aim: Theme 1: Years in the wilderness: Life before diagnosis; 2: "I struggle at times to see her struggle"; 3. School struggles: Advocating for our children and managing distress; 4. "It's a full-time job" and a "long slog"; 5: Care for the carer: Social support and coping strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analysis suggests that mothers of children with dyslexia may be at elevated risk for mental health concerns. Specifically, chronic worry and stress, secondary distress, challenges to parenting self-efficacy, and lack of support and understanding (feeling isolated) were highlighted as plausible risk factors. Mothers described coping strategies at the community level (e.g., school connectedness) and at the individual level (e.g., "acceptance") as protective.

Growing up with dyslexia: Child and parent perspectives on school struggles, self-esteem, and mental health

Children with dyslexia, compared with typically reading peers, are at increased risk of internalising (e.g., anxiety) and externalising (e.g., aggression) mental health concerns; why this is the case is largely unknown. Our aim was to explore the socio-emotional experience of growing up with dyslexia from both child and parent perspectives. In so doing, we aimed to gain a better understanding of self-esteem and mental health in the context of dyslexia. One-to-one semi-structured interviews with 17 children with reading difficulties (aged 9-14 years; 16 with a diagnosis of dyslexia) and their mothers (interviewed separately) were analysed using Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis approach with a neurodiversity lens. We developed three themes to address the research aim: (1) Different in a good/bad way; (2) Exhausted and overwhelmed; and (3) It takes a community: Family school connections. Children discussed having "worries" and experiencing school-related stress and embarrassment. Mothers perceived children's internalising and externalising behaviour (meltdowns), school refusal, and homework resistance as emotional responses to children's school struggles due to poor "person-environment fit." Our analysis highlights the particular importance of parent support, friendship, and school-connectedness for the wellbeing of children with dyslexia.

Understanding Mental Health in Developmental Dyslexia: A Scoping Review

Children with dyslexia are at elevated risk of internalising and externalising mental health concerns. Our aim was to scope the extent and nature of the literature investigating factors which may influence this association. We systematically searched the peer-reviewed and grey literature with no restrictions on the date. We included both qualitative and quantitative studies. Inclusion criteria included: (1) a focus on childhood (≤18 years) reading/learning difficulties; (2) internalising and/or externalising symptoms; and (3) a potentially modifiable third factor (e.g., self-esteem). Ninety-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. We organised the studies according to individual, family, and community-level third factors. Whilst a range of third factors were identified, relatively few researchers tested associations between the third factor and mental health in the context of dyslexia. Furthermore, there was a focus on primary rather than secondary school experience and a reliance, in many cases, on teacher/parent perspectives on children's mental health. Future researchers are encouraged to explore links between socio-emotional skills, coping strategies, school connectedness, and mental health in the context of dyslexia. Research of this nature is important to assist with the identification of children who are more (or less) at risk of mental health concerns and to inform tailored mental health programs for children with dyslexia.

Face Processing in School Children with Dyslexia: Neuropsychological and Eye-tracking Findings

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental difficulty affecting reading, but recent data in adults suggest that difficulties also extend to face processing. Here, we tested face processing in school children with and without dyslexia, using eye-tracking and neuropsychological tests. Children with dyslexia didn't differ significantly from controls in face gaze patterns, face memory, or face identification accuracy. However, they were slower and more heterogeneous, with larger within-group variance than controls. Increased gaze patterns toward the eyes were associated with better face memory in controls. We discuss the possible role of experiential factors in prior research linking dyslexia and face processing differences.

Facial speech processing in children with and without dyslexia

What role does the presence of facial speech play for children with dyslexia? Current literature proposes two distinctive claims. One claim states that children with dyslexia make less use of visual information from the mouth during speech processing due to a deficit in recruitment of audiovisual areas. An opposing claim suggests that children with dyslexia are in fact reliant on such information in order to compensate for auditory/phonological impairments. The current paper aims at directly testing these contrasting hypotheses (here referred to as "mouth insensitivity" versus "mouth reliance") in school-age children with and without dyslexia, matched on age and listening comprehension. Using eye tracking, in Study 1, we examined how children look at the mouth across conditions varying in speech processing demands. The results did not indicate significant group differences in looking at the mouth. However, correlation analyses suggest potentially important distinctions within the dyslexia group: those children with dyslexia who are better readers attended more to the mouth while presented with a person's face in a phonologically demanding condition. In Study 2, we examined whether the presence of facial speech cues is functionally beneficial when a child is encoding written words. The results indicated lack of overall group differences on the task, although those with less severe reading problems in the dyslexia group were more accurate when reading words that were presented with articulatory facial speech cues. Collectively, our results suggest that children with dyslexia differ in their "mouth reliance" versus "mouth insensitivity," a profile that seems to be related to the severity of their reading problems.

The co-occurrence of neurodevelopmental problems in dyslexia

The primary aim of this study was to explore the overlaps between dyslexia and a range of neurodevelopmental disorders and problems (NDPs), specifically symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, atypical sensory perception and developmental coordination disorder. Capitalizing on a population-based sample of twins, secondary aims included estimating the heritability of dyslexia and reporting on the measurement characteristics of the scale used to assess dyslexia. A telephone interview regarding symptoms of dyslexia and other NDPs was conducted with parents of 1,688 nine-year-old twins. The prevalence and the heritability of dyslexia were estimated at 8 and 52%, respectively. The boy: girl ratio was 1.5:1. Results revealed that there was more than an eight-fold increase in (diagnostic proxy) NDPs prevalence in the dyslexia group as compared to typical readers. Quantitatively measured symptoms of inattention, oral language problems and atypical sensory perception significantly predicted dyslexia status in a multivariate analysis. By contrast, ASD-related inflexibility was inversely associated with dyslexia in the multivariate model. In sum, dyslexia often overlaps with other NDPs. The current study provides new knowledge supporting the position to move beyond isolated diagnostic categories into behavioural profiles of co-occurring problems when trying to understand the pattern of strengths and needs in individuals with dyslexia.

Genome-wide association study of word reading: Overlap with risk genes for neurodevelopmental disorders

Reading disabilities (RD) are the most common neurocognitive disorder, affecting 5% to 17% of children in North America. These children often have comorbid neurodevelopmental/psychiatric disorders, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The genetics of RD and their overlap with other disorders is incompletely understood. To contribute to this, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for word reading. Then, using summary statistics from neurodevelopmental/psychiatric disorders, we computed polygenic risk scores (PRS) and used them to predict reading ability in our samples. This enabled us to test the shared aetiology between RD and other disorders. The GWAS consisted of 5.3 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and two samples; a family-based sample recruited for reading difficulties in Toronto (n = 624) and a population-based sample recruited in Philadelphia [Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC)] (n = 4430). The Toronto sample SNP-based analysis identified suggestive SNPs (P ~ 5 × 10^-7 ) in the ARHGAP23 gene, which is implicated in neuronal migration/axon pathfinding. The PNC gene-based analysis identified significant associations (P < 2.72 × 10^-6 ) for LINC00935 and CCNT1, located in the region of the KANSL2/CCNT1/LINC00935/SNORA2B/SNORA34/MIR4701/ADCY6 genes on chromosome 12q, with near significant SNP-based analysis. PRS identified significant overlap between word reading and intelligence (R²  = 0.18, P = 7.25  × 10^-181 ), word reading and educational attainment (R²  = 0.07, P = 4.91 × 10^-48 ) and word reading and ADHD (R²  = 0.02, P = 8.70 × 10^-6 ; threshold for significance = 7.14 × 10^-3 ). Overlap was also found between RD and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as top-ranked genes were previously implicated in autism by rare and copy number variant analyses. These findings support shared risk between word reading, cognitive measures, educational outcomes and neurodevelopmental disorders, including ASD.

Word reading, vocabulary, and mental health problems in adolescent girls and boys with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Reading difficulties are linked to several disadvantages in the general population. Less is known about correlates of reading difficulties in individuals with intellectual and severe developmental disabilities (IDD). Vocabulary and word reading were assessed in 112 adolescents with IDD, recruited from Special needs comprehensive schools in Sweden (grundsärskolor in Swedish). Proxy-ratings of mental health were collected from teachers and parents for a subset of the participants. Relationships between all measures were investigated. Reading and vocabulary were poorly developed in both groups and significantly associated. While mental health problems were common, there were no significant associations with word reading or with vocabulary knowledge. Thus, the study did not confirm an association between reading difficulties and mental health problems in adolescents with IDD. Still, the frequency of mental health problems and the low reading abilities point to the need for further intervention for adolescents with IDD.

Behavioral-Social Adjustment of Adolescents with Craniofacial Microsomia

OBJECTIVE

The objective was to assess differences in psychosocial adjustment between adolescents with and without craniofacial microsomia (CFM).

DESIGN

This is a case-control follow-up study in adolescents with and without CFM.

SETTING

Participants were originally recruited as infants from 26 cities across the United States and Canada.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants included 142 adolescents with CFM (cases) and 316 peers without CFM (controls), their caregivers, and their teachers.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Social and behavior measures from the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessments (ASEBA), the PedsQL: Core Version, and the Children's Communication Checklist-2nd edition (CCC-2) were used. Linear regression was used to estimate case-control differences and corresponding standardized effect sizes (ES) and 95% confidence intervals after adjustment for sociodemographic confounds. We also examined case-control differences by facial phenotype and hearing status.

RESULTS

The magnitude and direction of case-control differences varied across assessment and respondent, but were generally modest (ES = -0.4 to 0.02, P values ranged from .003 to .85). There was little evidence for variation in case-control differences across different facial phenotypes or as a function of hearing status.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that in spite of multiple risk factors, adolescents with CFM exhibit behavior problems no more frequently than their peers without CFM. Future studies of individuals with CFM should focus on resilience and social coping mechanisms, in addition to maladjustment.

Recognizing Psychiatric Comorbidity With Reading Disorders

Reading disorder (RD), a specific learning disorder (SLD) of reading that includes impairment in word reading, reading fluency, and/or reading comprehension, is common in the general population but often is not comprehensively understood or assessed in mental health settings. In education settings, comorbid mental and associated disorders may be inadequately integrated into intervention plans. Assessment and intervention for RD may be delayed or absent in children with frequently co-occurring mental disorders not fully responding to treatment in both school and mental health settings. To address this oversight, this review summarizes current knowledge regarding RDs and common comorbid or co-occurring disorders that are important for mental health and school settings. We chose to highlight RD because it is the most common SLD, and connections to other often comorbid disorders have been more thoroughly described in the literature. Much of the literature we describe is on decoding-based RD (or developmental dyslexia) as it is the most common form of RD. In addition to risk for academic struggle and social, emotional, and behavioral problems, those with RD often show early evidence of combined or intertwined Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition childhood disorders. These include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and other SLDs. The present review highlights issues and areas of controversy within these comorbidities, as well as directions for future research. An interdisciplinary, integrated approach between mental health professionals and educators can lead to comprehensive and targeted treatments encompassing both academic and mental health interventions. Such targeted treatments may contribute to improved educational and health-related outcomes in vulnerable youth. While there is a growing research literature on this association, more studies are needed of when to intervene and of the early and long-term benefits of comprehensive intervention.

Psychological Well-being Trajectories of Individuals with Dyslexia Aged 3-11 Years

Dyslexia has been associated with a range of psychological well-being issues in childhood. However, it is unclear if these difficulties stem from coping with academic struggles at school, or from other pre-existing diagnoses that sometimes co-occur with dyslexia. Using UK Millennium Cohort Study data (n = 7224) from 2003 to 2011, the present study compared psychological well-being development from ages 3-11 years for children with (1) dyslexia only; (2) special educational needs excluding dyslexia; (3) comorbid dyslexia and other special educational needs; and (4) no special educational needs. Growth curve modelling results controlling for race, gender, age and family income suggested that with the exception of conduct difficulties, psychological well-being issues related to dyslexia do not occur preschool; rather, they commence upon starting school. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Executive Function Variation in Children With Conduct Problems: Influences of Coexisting Reading Difficulties

It is unknown whether children with conduct problems (CP) and poor reading (PR) skills exhibit more profound executive function impairments than children with CP only and whether such impairments are explained by coexisting PR. Executive functions were compared in four groups of 7- to 8-year-old children: 26 CP only, 35 PR only, 27 CP-PR, and 31 comparison (COM) children with neither CP nor PR. The Conners' Teacher Rating Scale-28 and a sentence completion reading test were used to assess CP and PR skills. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition Backward Digit Span, the Conners' Continuous Performance Test, and the Tower of London were used to assess three aspects of executive function: verbal working memory, response inhibition, and planning, respectively. The CP-PR group had lower verbal working memory than the CP-only and COM groups, but the difference was not significant after intellectual ability, inattention, and hyperactivity were controlled. The CP-PR group made more errors in the planning task (rule violations) than the COM and CP-only groups, but the difference was not significant after intellectual ability was controlled. No significant group differences were found in response inhibition. A specific PR group effect was found for verbal working memory. Children with CP-PR have more prominent executive function impairments that cannot be attributed to coexisting PR.