Phonological Intervention in Students at Risk for Dyslexia with/without Additional Writing Difficulties

Do interventions for dyslexia have neurological effects in children?

Previous research (Richards & Berninger, 2008; Shaywitz et al., 2004; Simos et al., 2002) has repeatedly shown that atypical cerebral laterality for reading can shift towards more typical patterns after phonological interventions in children with dyslexia. We aim to investigate whether this cortical reorganization after phonological interventions is coupled with a shift in cerebral laterality for writing.

This study has been pre-registered in OSF with the title “Effect of phonological intervention on the cerebral lateralization for written language in children at risk for dyslexia”. This study is interlinked and depends on the study “Cerebral lateralization of writing in students at risk for dyslexia using functional Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography.” (Study 5), as the same participants investigated for the risk for dyslexia and language lateralization are being included, upon informed consent and assent, in the current study (Study 6) and they are being administered the educational interventions. Unfortunately, the number of children included in the current study 6 is smaller than the sample size of children at risk for dyslexia in Study 5 (up to now), mainly because guardians did not provide their consent for administering interventions to their children, potentially in doubt of the effects of something experimental.

Nevertheless, parents and teachers of children administered the educational interventions have recognized the improvement of children through these sessions both in language skills and in confidence and behavior. In particular, when asked, the mother of one of the participants said: “…Results became apparent after the first sessions! The little one became more organized, focused, and methodical in her thinking.(…) If someone asked me, or rather asked P. if she would do it again, the answer would surely be YES!”. Preliminary data agree with this mother, as most of the children notably advance their skills in just 2,5 months. Some of the preliminary findings were presented in the 30th Meeting of the Hellenic Society for Neuroscience in Athens (24-26/11/2023).

Richards, T. L., & Berninger, V. W. (2008). Abnormal fMRI connectivity in children with dyslexia during a phoneme task: Before but not after treatment. Journal Of Neurolinguistics, 21(4), 294-304.
Shaywitz, B. A., Shaywitz, S. E., Blachman, B. A., Pugh, K. R., Fulbright, R. K., Skudlarski, P., . . . Marchione, K. E. (2004). Development of left occipitotemporal systems for skilled reading in children after a phonologically-based intervention. Biological Psychiatry, 55(9), 926-933.
Simos, P. G., Fletcher, J. M., Bergman, E., Breier, J., Foorman, B., Castillo, E., . . . Papanicolaou, A. (2002). Dyslexia-specific brain activation profile becomes normal following successful remedial training. Neurology, 58(8), 1203-1213.