The influence of age, schooling, literacy, and socioeconomic status on serial-order memory

Do developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia share underlying impairments?

Developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia have common characteristics. Yet, their possible association in some individuals has been addressed only scarcely. Recently, two converging studies reported a sizable comorbidity rate between these two neurodevelopmental disorders (Couvignou et al., Cognitive Neuropsychology 2019; Couvignou & Kolinsky, Neuropsychologia 2021). However, the reason for their association remains unclear. Here, we investigate the hypothesis of shared underlying impairments between dyslexia and amusia. Fifteen dyslexic children with amusia (DYS+A), 15 dyslexic children without amusia (DYS-A), and two groups of 25 typically developing children matched on either chronological age (CA) or reading level (RL) were assessed with a behavioral battery aiming to investigate phonological and pitch processing capacities at auditory memory, perceptual awareness, and attentional levels. Overall, our results suggest that poor auditory serial-order memory increases susceptibility to comorbidity between dyslexia and amusia and may play a role in the development of the comorbid phenotype. In contrast, the impairments observed in the DYS+A children for auditory item memory, perceptual awareness, and attention might be a consequence of their reduced reading experience combined with weaker musical skills. Comparing DYS+A and DYS-A children suggests that the latter are more resourceful and/or have more effective compensatory strategies, or that their phenotype results from a different developmental trajectory. We will discuss the relevance of these findings for delving into the etiology of these two developmental disorders and address their implications for future research and practice.

The multiple-level framework of developmental dyslexia: the long trace from a neurodevelopmental deficit to an impaired cultural technique

Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by an unexpected impairment in literacy acquisition leading to specific poor academic achievement and possible secondary symptoms. The multi-level framework of developmental dyslexia considers five levels of a causal pathway on which a given genotype is expressed and hierarchically transmitted from one level to the next under the increasing influence of individual learning-relevant traits and environmental factors moderated by cultural conditions. These levels are the neurobiological, the information processing and the skill level (prerequisites and acquisition of literacy skills), the academic achievement level and the level of secondary effects. Various risk factors are present at each level within the assumed causal pathway and can increase the likelihood of exhibiting developmental dyslexia. Transition from one level to the next is neither unidirectional nor inevitable. This fact has direct implications for prevention and intervention which can mitigate transitions from one level to the next. In this paper, various evidence-based theories and findings regarding deficits at different levels are placed in the proposed framework. In addition, the moderating effect of cultural impact at and between information processing and skill levels are further elaborated based on a review of findings regarding influences of different writing systems and orthographies. These differences impose culture-specific demands for literacy-specific cognitive procedures, influencing both literacy acquisition and the manifestation of developmental dyslexia.

Coping with Access Difficulties and Absenteeism through Data Visualization: A Case Study from a Rural Vocational School in Northern Greece

Absenteeism and early school leaving (ESL) constitute two main problems in education with a significant impact on adolescents’ life. Early leavers from education and training may face considerable difficulties in the labor market later as adults. Motivated by the necessity of minimizing this phenomenon, we developed a novel application that uses big data, generated from a student attendance management system in a vocational senior high school in Greece. This application first automatically conducts data preprocessing and data transformation and saves the processed data on a cloud data warehouse. Then, an online analytical processing (OLAP) analysis is performed, resulting in a real-time visualization that provides a variety of different graphs. In this study, we demonstrate the need for real-time visualization of the analyzed data. Such a type of presentation provides information on the spot regarding potential early leavers’ behavior, helping school administrators gain time for prompt and effective actions. Through the data processing and analysis, the application provides instructors with constant information, in addition to those acquired by the formal student attendance management systems. Our research provides indicative evidence in favor of the use of such applications, as by adequately reacting to the observed patterns in real-time, we observed a significant decrease in students’ unnecessary absences and a reduction of the ELS phenomenon in a three-year school period.