Abstract
The COVID-19 outbreak necessitated a reorganization of the rehabilitation practices for Learning Disorders (LDs). During the lockdown phase, telerehabilitation offered the possibility to continue training interventions while enabling social distancing. Given such an advantage of telerehabilitation methods for LDs, clinical research is still needed to test the effectiveness of diverse teletraining approaches by comparing their outcomes with those of face-to-face interventions. To compare the effectiveness of telerehabilitation vs. in-presence rehabilitation of dyslexia, a rhythm-based intervention for reading, called Rhythmic Reading Training (RRT), was tested in a small-scale clinical trial during the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thirty children aged 8–13 with a diagnosis of developmental dyslexia were assigned to either a telerehabilitation or an in-presence rehabilitation setting and received RRT for 10 biweekly sessions of 45 min, supervised by a trained practitioner. The results showed that both telerehabilitation and in-presence rehabilitation were effective in improving reading and rapid automatized naming in children with dyslexia and that the effects were comparable between settings. Therefore, RRT was found to be effective in spite of the administration method (remote or in-presence). These results confirm the potential of telemedicine for the rehabilitation of LDs. Clinical Trial ID: NCT04995471.
Highlights
Telemedicine [1] has made it possible to treat patients in their own environment
During the unprecedented events associated with the spread of the COVID-19 disease, telemedicine constituted a chance to treat neurodevelopmental disorders through tailored and goal-oriented interventions, while maintaining social distancing
Given the evident advantages of telerehabilitation methods, clinical research is needed to test their effectiveness in the intervention of Learning Disorders (LDs), such as developmental dyslexia (DD), by comparing the outcomes with those of traditional face-to-face interventions
Summary
Telemedicine [1] has made it possible to treat patients in their own environment. Since it started and spread, telemedicine has been proven to be a great asset where no easy access to healthcare was possible. A great number of studies have been conducted in the last decade to explore possibilities given by tech tools in adult/older neuropsychological rehabilitation [2,3,4,5,6]. Technology has been proven to be a great potential resource for developmental age and attention to tech tools in neurodevelopmental disorder rehabilitation has grown fast. Telerehabilitation represents a great advantage when it comes to developmental age. Several studies investigated the effectiveness of brain computer interfaces, virtual reality tools, and computer-based training for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) [7,8], Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) [9], Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) [10,11], anxiety disorders [12,13], and eating disorders [14,15]
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