Ian Smythe

An eye for the unusual: creative thinking in dyslexics

This article describes a series of studies investigating the relationship between developmental dyslexia and creative talents. Tasks performed by the subjects included: finding alternative uses for objects, producing drawn objects from basic shapes, completing a self-report inventory which assessed innovative styles of thinking, and the solving of problems which required some form of insightful thinking. The data indicated both differences between dyslexics and non-dyslexics and differences across age groups. Compared with non-dyslexics, dyslexic adults presented consistent evidence of greater creativity in tasks requiring novelty or insight and more innovative styles of thinking; in contrast, dyslexic primary and secondary school children performed on a level with their non-dyslexic peers on a test which involved making drawings from a number of different shapes (figural creativity). Little evidence was found for an association between creativity and enhanced visuo-spatial skills or between creativity and handedness. Despite evidence being provided for the hypothesized creative talents of dyslexics, it was not possible to confirm that these talents were constitutional in nature or that they were associated with enhanced functioning of the right hemisphere. Copyright

Predictors of word-level literacy amongst Grade 3 children in five diverse languages

Groups of Grade 3 children were tested on measures of word-level literacy and undertook tasks that required the ability to associate sounds with letter sequences and that involved visual, auditory and phonological-processing skills. These groups came from different language backgrounds in which the language of instruction was Arabic, Chinese, English, Hungarian or Portuguese. Similar measures were used across the groups, with tests being adapted to be appropriate for the language of the children. Findings indicated that measures of decoding and phonological-processing skills were good predictors of word reading and spelling among Arabic- and English-speaking children, but were less able to predict variability in these same early literacy skills among Chinese- and Hungarian-speaking children, and were better at predicting variability in Portuguese word reading than spelling. Results were discussed with reference to the relative transparency of the script and issues of dyslexia assessment across languages. Overall, the findings argue for the need to take account of features of the orthography used to represent a language when developing assessment procedures for a particular language and that assessment of word-level literacy skills and a phonological perspective of dyslexia may not be universally applicable across all language contexts.

Dyslexia screening measures and bilingualism

A series of measures used in a number of dyslexia screening tests was administered to groups of 7-8-year old English monolinguals and Sylheti/English bilinguals. Within these groups a subgroup of children was distinguished by poor spelling and reading in the absence of general ability, sensory, emotional or behavioural problems, i.e. specific literacy difficulties (SpLD). General ability (assessed by Ravens matrices), chronological age, male/female ratio and mono/bilingualism were controlled between SpLD and control groups. Screening measures assessed phonological skills, rapid naming, the ability to recite or repeat sequences of verbal and non-verbal stimuli, and visual and motor skills. Sample sizes were small owing to the selection criteria used and the small number of bilingual SpLD children identified. However, the results were encouraging in differentiating SpLD bilinguals from their peers, with the phonological measures in particular presenting consistent findings across bilingual and monolingual groupings. Those differences found between bilinguals and monolinguals are discussed in terms of a bilingual influence on the skills assessed or the reduced reliability of the measure.

Eficácia terapêutica do programa de remediação fonológica em escolares com dislexia do desenvolvimento

PURPOSES: to compare the findings of pre-test and post-test evaluation in students with developmental dyslexia and good readers submitted to phonological remediation program and to check the therapeutic effectiveness of phonological remediation program in students with developmental dyslexia. METHODS: 40 students of the 2nd to 4th grades of public schools of Marilia-SP, both genders, from to 8 to 12-year old took part in this study; distributed in GI: 20 students with the interdisciplinary diagnosis of developmental dyslexia and GII: 20 good readers paired according to gender, age and school level. All students were submitted to the Cognitive-Linguistic Performance Test in the collective and individual version, oral reading and text comprehension. RESULTS: the results showed statistically significant differences indicating that the GI and GII students submitted to phonological remediation program showed higher performance in post-test when compared to pre-test in the most evaluated cognitive-linguistic skills, including reading and text comprehension. CONCLUSION: the phonological remediation program was effective for students with or without developmental dyslexia, suggesting that the sound-letter relation skill should be used in the classroom context in order to improve the reading skills for these students.

Dyslexia and the Multilingual Child: Policy into Practice.

This article discusses some of the issues related to the provision of appropriate support for the dyslexic multilingual child. Such issues concern the development of international (governmental) and local (school/institution-based) policies that set out, within a human rights framework, the requirements for support. Specific international issues discussed include differences in terminology that may accompany provision, particularly for the child within a mobile family or parents from different language or cultural backgrounds. Appropriate support requires the identification of needs and this article highlights some of the factors that need to be considered when developing an assessment package that can be used with children from different language backgrounds. The conclusion drawn is that the underlying framework for the provision of support services to these individuals is present, but at best is variable in practice.

Dyslexia Assessment of the Biscriptal Reader.

This article discusses issues related to the assessment (and hence support) of the individual who shows difficulties in learning to read and write in different languages. Findings from studies performed in several countries and language contexts will be briefly reported as part of the discussion of literacy difficulties and to highlight some factors that must be considered in the development of appropriate assessment procedures. A framework for the assessment procedures used in these studies is presented, including limitations of the procedures. The article ends with a discussion of how such procedures can inform research as well as practice.

Cross language learning disabilities and verbal versus spatial memory

The research reported in this talk involves comparisons of verbal and spatial memory tasks across groups of children (and adults) with different types of learning difficulties. The research focuses on children with literacy acquisition problems and investigates whether such problems are related to specific areas of deficit. In the first piece of research, children with dyslexia (literacy learning problems) and dyspraxia (motor deficits) were contrasted on measures of memory (for example, tasks that required the retention of sequences of verbal material or spatial movements) and additional measures of literacy (reading and spelling), phonological (awareness of sounds within words) and motor (fine and gross motor tasks) functioning. The data were consistent with a dissociation between tasks/groups such that dyslexics showed weak phonological processing but intact visuo-spatial processing, whereas children with dyspraxia showed weaknesses on task involving visuo-spatial information, but average levels of performance on tasks that required phonological processing. Similar results were identified amongst adult groups, consistent with a deviant level of functioning rather than a developmental delay. A second line of research contrasted children with or without literacy problems across language backgrounds (English, Arabic, Chinese and bilingual children). Consistent with the dyslexia data, children with poor English literacy skills showed weaknesses in verbal/phonological memory tasks but not in visuo-spatial memory. However, for Chinese-language children, visuo-spatial memory differed between good and poor literacy learners, but there was little evidence for verbal memory differences. In contrast, the Arabic and bilingual children showed differences in both verbal and visuo-spatial areas, although the evidence was consistent with enhanced visual/spatial skills amongst the good literacy groups, rather than poor literacy children showing weaknesses in those tasks. These data suggest that the influence of memory skills on learning may vary with the language of instruction. A final line of enquiry considers whether teaching strategies to children with learning difficulties may overcome some of the identified memory deficits and lead to better levels of learning. English language children with learning difficulties were taught visual and verbal strategies to support retention of materials in short-term memory tasks. In the majority of cases, learning was improved when it focused on visuo-spatial strategies but not when verbal strategies were used. These data support the relationship between learning difficulties and different aspects of short-term memory that may lead to poor levels of learning. It also presents evidence that memory (particularly those related to visuo-spatial) processes are influenced by the context within which learning is taking place, both in terms of the language of instruction and the strategies used to support learning. For some children with educational difficulties based around language-related deficits, visuo-spatial strategies may support acquisition.