Modeling the influence of motor skills on literacy in third grade: Contributions of executive functions and handwriting

Working Memory and Manual Dexterity in Dyslexic Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Dyslexic children have impairments in working memory and manual dexterity. Studies have shown that when cognitive development has deficits, motor development is often impaired, indicating a strong interconnection between both domains, and the possibility of interference with each other's proper functioning. Thus, a new literature review is necessary to understand which components of working memory and manual dexterity are affected in dyslexic children and the possible relationship between them. This review aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to analyze both skills in dyslexic children. The protocol was carried out according to the criteria established by PRISMA being registered at PROSPERO under number CRD 42021238901. Six literature databases were searched to locate studies published between 2001 and 2021: EMBASE, ERIC, ISI Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus. 21 studies met the inclusion criteria. The findings suggest that dyslexic children have significantly poorer visuospatial and verbal working memory with more impairments in the phonological loop. No significant differences were found in manual dexterity.

Anticipatory Awareness and Actual Handwriting Performance Measures among Adolescents with Deficient Executive Functions

This secondary analysis explores differences and correlations between handwriting anticipatory awareness (time estimation, expected performance, and expected difficulty) before a paragraph copying task and actual performance time and legibility among adolescents with executive function deficits (EFD) versus neurotypical adolescents. Eighty-one adolescents (10–18 years old; 41 with EFD and daily functioning difficulties as per parent reports) estimated their time, expected performance, and expected difficulty before the paragraph copying task using the Self-Awareness of Performance Questionnaire (SAP-Q). Time duration was assessed using the Computerized Penmanship Evaluation Tool (ComPET) software, and legibility was scored using the Handwriting Legibility Scale (HLS). Significant between-group differences were found in actual time duration (ComPET), HLS total score and legibility components, and three SAP-Q questions. Both groups estimated significantly more performance time than their actual performance duration. The adolescents with EFD underestimated their performance before the handwriting task. Significant correlations were found between actual performance, anticipatory awareness, and Executive Function (EF) in both groups. Their performance predictions were significantly correlated with their EF and product’s legibility. The results highlight the potential relationships between anticipatory awareness and actual handwriting performance (time duration and legibility) of adolescents with and without EFD. Further studies may analyze the benefits of focusing on both EF and anticipatory awareness for handwriting improvement among populations with EF deficits.

Visuo-spatial attention deficit in children with reading difficulties

Although developmental reading disorders (developmental dyslexia) have been mainly associated with auditory-phonological deficits, recent longitudinal and training studies have shown a possible causal role of visuo-attentional skills in reading acquisition. Indeed, visuo-attentional mechanisms could be involved in the orthographic processing of the letter string and the graphemic parsing that precede the grapheme-to-phoneme mapping. Here, we used a simple paper-and-pencil task composed of three labyrinths to measure visuo-spatial attention in a large sample of primary school children (n = 398). In comparison to visual search tasks requiring visual working memory, our labyrinth task mainly measures distributed and focused visuo-spatial attention, also controlling for sensorimotor learning. Compared to typical readers (n = 340), children with reading difficulties (n = 58) showed clear visuo-spatial attention impairments that appear not linked to motor coordination and procedural learning skills implicated in this paper and pencil task. Since visual attention is dysfunctional in about 40% of the children with reading difficulties, an efficient reading remediation program should integrate both auditory-phonological and visuo-attentional interventions.