Reading Difficulties Research Articles

ORASIS-MAE Harnesses the Potential of Self-Learning from Partially Annotated Clinical Eye Movement Records

Self-supervised learning (SSL) has gained significant attention in the past decade for its capacity to utilize non-annotated datasets to learn meaningful data representations. In the medical domain, the challenge of constructing large annotated datasets presents a significant limitation, rendering SSL an ideal approach to address this constraint. In this study, we introduce a novel pretext task tailored to stimulus-driven eye movement data, along with a denoising task to improve the robustness against simulated eye tracking failures. Our proposed task aims to capture both the characteristics of the pilot (brain) and the motor (eye) by learning to reconstruct the eye movement position signal using up to 12.5% of the unmasked eye movement signal patches, along with the entire REMOBI target signal. Thus, the encoder learns a high-dimensional representation using a multivariate time series of length 8192 points, corresponding to approximately 40 s. We evaluate the learned representation on screening eight distinct groups of pathologies, including dyslexia, reading disorder, and attention deficit disorder, across four datasets of varying complexity and size. Furthermore, we explore various head architecture designs along with different transfer learning methods, demonstrating promising results with improvements of up to approximately 15%, leading to an overall macro F1 score of 61% and 61.5% on the Saccade and the Vergence datasets, respectively. Notably, our method achieves macro F1 scores of 64.7%, 66.1%, and 61.1% for screening dyslexia, reading disorder, and attention deficit disorder, respectively, on clinical data. These findings underscore the potential of self-learning algorithms in pathology screening, particularly in domains involving complex data such as stimulus-driven eye movement analysis.

Abnormal brain activation during speech perception and production in children and adults with reading difficulty

Reading difficulty (RD) is associated with phonological deficits; however, it remains unknown whether the phonological deficits are different in children and adults with RD as reflected in foreign speech perception and production. In the current study, using functional Near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), we found less difference between Chinese adults and Chinese children in the RD groups than the control groups in the activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) during Spanish speech perception, suggesting slowed development in these regions associated with RD. Furthermore, using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), we found that activation patterns in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG), premotor, supplementary motor area (SMA), and IFG could serve as reliable markers of RD. We provide both behavioral and neurological evidence for impaired speech perception and production in RD readers which can serve as markers of RD.

Teacher’s Perception of Driving Factors to EFL Students’ Reading Difficulties and Coping Strategies

Teacher’s Perception of Driving Factors to EFL Students’ Reading Difficulties and Coping Strategies

Identifying Reading Difficulties and Strategies Among EFL Learners in Intensive Reading

Identifying Reading Difficulties and Strategies Among EFL Learners in Intensive Reading

Predictors of Multiple-Document Comprehension Among Third-Grade Children With Reading Difficulties and Disabilities

Facility with learning from multiple text documents is critical for college and career readiness. However, children with reading difficulties and disabilities have been largely excluded from research on multiple document comprehension. Accordingly, little is known about how children with reading difficulties and disabilities perform on multiple-document tasks, the factors that predict their performance, and how best to foster their development of this skill. To begin to fill these gaps, we examined concurrent predictors of one dimension of multiple-document comprehension, intertextual integration (ie, the ability to integrate information presented across two or more text documents), among third-grade children with reading difficulties and disabilities ( N = 70). Correlational analyses revealed that children's intertextual integration performance was significantly and positively associated with single-document comprehension (SDC) but not with word-level reading (WLR) or passage-reading fluency (PRF). Multiple-regression analyses indicated that SDC significantly predicted intertextual integration but that WLR and PRF did not.

Cognitive Predictors of Two Distinct Reading Comprehension Tasks in Lower and Upper Grades

Reading disorders, including reading comprehension disorders, are among the most common referrals for evaluation in schools. If that evaluation involves individually administered tests of reading, the examiner is faced with selecting at least one reading comprehension subtest that is inherently associated with specific task demands, such as a cloze procedure or a story retell procedure. This study explored the correlates of performance of these two types of reading comprehension measures in lower grades (i.e., grades 1–5) and upper grades (i.e., grades 6–12). Results revealed a moderate correlation between these two tasks and evidence that students with reading disorders may perform poorer on cloze reading comprehension measures than story retell measures in both grade groupings. Regression analyses revealed that variance in each reading comprehension task is associated with a unique grouping of predictor variables that are associated with the Big Five of Reading and short-term/working memory. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for the evaluation of students with suspected disabilities and research.

Development of Audio Visual Basic Big Book Media to Overcome Dyslexia Students in SDN 034788 Panji Dabutar

This research aims to find out whether the Big Book for dealing with dyslexic students is feasible, practical and effective in the learning process. This research uses the Research and Development (RnD) research method with a 4D model (Define, Design, Develop, Dessiminate). The instruments used in this research were interview sheets, validation sheets for media experts, material experts, language experts, questionnaires for homeroom teacher responses and student responses as well as tests conducted pretest-posttest to see the effectiveness of the Big Book in overcoming dyslexic students. The results of this research show that what has been developed received a percentage of 84.16% (media experts), 93.3% (material experts), as well as 100% (homeroom teacher response) and 93% (student response) with very practical criteria. Big Book was also declared effective as seen from the achievement of N-Gain results by getting an N-gain score of 16.44 with an average N-Gain score of 0.782857 with an N-Gain score percentage of 78.28%. Based on the presentation of the results above, it is stated that the Big Book for overcoming dyslexia that has been developed is feasible, practical and effective for use in the learning process. The Big Book developed can help students who have difficulty reading and teachers can use the Big Book as teaching material in the classroom.

Improving the Reading Skills of Grade 5 Struggling Readers Through the Use of Interactive Learning Resources

Notably, the use of technology in teaching and reading instruction was found to have various effects on learners' attitudes towards engagement with the text and meaning-making. As a result, online sources as authentic materials can be an ideal resource for reading instruction. Given the context in which instruction is carried out in the new normal and the kind of intervention needed for the different learner groups where their reading skills is concerned, learning resources in interactive formats are optimized for maximum results. Specifically, the use of interactive learning resources such as the digital learning objects has become a valuable for teachers with regards to reading instruction. Its use in the different phases of instruction proved to be a valuable tool in addressing the reading difficulties of the elementary learners. Using the content-validated test as research instruments, results of the study showed how the Grade 5 struggling readers of Baquioen Elementary School benefitted from the use of interactive learning resources in reading instruction during the school year 2021-2022. Moreover, the results of the study reveal that there was significant difference in the levels of reading skills of the Grade 5 struggling readers after they were taught in English using digital learning objects. Thus, teachers are recommended to scaffold the reading instruction with the use of tools that target the best ways in which the students learn best.

Changes in Visual Parameters during Paramenstruum in a Rural Population of Eastern India: A Pilot Study

Aim This study aims to analyze a set of symptoms of visual difficulties due to accommodative changes before and during the period of menstruation.  Methods This cross-sectional study includes 60 females of the rural population having an accommodative facility of 14 cycles/min with ±2.00D flippers. All subjects have undergone a comprehensive ocular examination which also includes investigation of different parameters of accommodation and convergence before and during menstruation. This Statistical analysis was done with the help of paired T test and the result was shown as significant if P< 0.05.  Results Pre-menstruation no accommodative changes were found. During menstruation, all the subjects were found with a significant change in NPA (OD, OS), AA (OD, OS), NRA, PRA, PFV (Break-Near) and AF (OU) during menstruation. 66.7% of subjects were found with symptoms of headache, backache, difficulty in reading and blurring of vision during menstruation. After prolong near work 16.7% of subjects were found with the blurring of near vision 16.7% were found with the blurring of distance vision.  Conclusion Accommodative insufficiency along with its associated symptoms may induce during the menstruation cycle. The clinician should consider accommodative changes during eye examination of an adult female.

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Challenges and Strategies in Supporting Students with Reading Difficulties

Teachers’ Perceptions of the Challenges and Strategies in Supporting Students with Reading Difficulties

Academic Readiness among Young Children Treated for Brain Tumors: A Multisite, Prospective, Longitudinal Trial.

Young children treated for central nervous system (CNS) malignancies are at high risk for difficulties with academic functioning due to increased vulnerability of the developing brain and missed early developmental opportunities. Extant literature examining academics in this population is limited. We investigated academic readiness, its clinical and demographic predictors, and its relationship with distal academic outcomes among patients treated for CNS tumors during early childhood. Seventy patients with newly diagnosed CNS tumors were treated on a prospective, longitudinal, multisite study with chemotherapy, with or without photon or proton irradiation. Patients underwent assessments of academic skills at baseline, six months, one year, and then annually for five years. Assessments measured academic readiness and academic achievement in reading and math. Mixed linear models revealed slowed development of academic readiness skills over time. Socioeconomic status (SES) was predictive of academic readiness at all time points. Other demographic (eg, age at treatment) and clinical (eg, shunt status, treatment exposure) variables were not predictive of academic readiness. Distal reading difficulties were proportionally greater than normative expectations while math difficulties did not differ. Academic readiness was predictive of distal academic outcomes in reading and math. Treatment for CNS malignancies in early childhood appears to slow development of academic readiness skills, with SES predictive of risk. Academic readiness skills were predictive of subsequent academic achievement. A disproportionate number of long-term survivors performed below age-based expectations in reading. These findings suggest the need for monitoring and interventions targeting early academic skills in this population.

Transliteration in the Translation of The Classic of Tea: Problems and Solutions

The Classic of Tea, authored by the Tea Sage Lu Yu, encompasses over 400 entries related to tea names, names of tea utensils, personal names, place names, dynastic titles, titles of literary works, Chinese units of measurement, and other uniquely Chinese terms such as the Five Elements and the Bagua. During translation, it is often challenging to find exact lexical equivalents for these names in the target language, necessitating the use of phonetic transliteration. Phonetic transliteration is a common method in the translation of Chinese classics. However, improper use of phonetic transliteration can present reading difficulties for readers, impede subsequent cultural exchange, and is particularly problematic in works like The Classic of Tea, which require extensive use of this method. This paper examines the application of phonetic transliteration in the English translation of The Classic of Tea from the perspective of reader comprehension. It identifies issues such as excessive use of transliteration, difficulties for Western readers in pronunciation, and ambiguity in reference. To address these issues, strategies such as reducing transliteration, adjusting information layout, re-annotating phonetically, adding Chinese characters, and inserting hyperlinked audio files are proposed. These strategies aim to alleviate the reading burden and enhance the effectiveness of phonetic transliteration.

GuidanceaAnd Counseling Services for Learning Difficulties for Samborejo Students (ABK) Pekalongan District

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>Every child has the right to receive a decent education in every school regardless of the child's abnormalities. From here a problem arises called learning difficulty. Special needs counseling services are special services and special practices rather than in general. The aim of this research is to determine the characteristics of ABK with specific learning difficulties and remedial services. The method used is descriptive qualitative, the technique is through observation and interviews. The results of the MI Samborejo School research showed that three children had learning difficulties. Service results The remedial service program is only for children with special needs, namely children who have difficulty reading, writing, and cannot understand questions. This service program is carried out after the children come home from school and only lasts for one hour. Learning to read starts from recognizing letters, reading two syllables to reading short sentences. Learning media uses reading books that contain pictures to encourage students with special needs to understand reading more easily because there are pictures. The remedial service program is carried out three times a week. </span></p><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p> </p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>

Advancing Dyslexia Assessment in Children through Computerized Testing.

The acquisition of reading skills is an intricate process that demands the cultivation of various domain-general and domain-specific abilities. Consequently, it is unsurprising that many children grapple with maintaining proficiency at the grade level, particularly when confronted with challenges spanning multiple abilities across both domains, as observed in individuals with reading difficulties. Strikingly, despite reading difficulties being among the most prevalent neurodevelopmental disorders affecting school-aged children, the majority of available diagnostic tools lack a comprehensive framework for assessing the full spectrum of cognitive skills linked to dyslexia, with minimal computerized options. Notably, there are currently limited tools with these features available for Spanish-speaking children. The aim of this study was to delineate the protocol for diagnosing Spanish-speaking children with reading difficulties using the Sicole-R multimedia battery. This tool for elementary grades focuses on evaluating cognitive skills that are associated with dyslexia as prescribed by the scientific literature. Specifically, it concentrates on assessing a range of cognitive abilities that studies have demonstrated to be linked to dyslexia. This focus is based on the observation that individuals with dyslexia typically exhibit deficits in several of the cognitive areas evaluated by this digital tool. The robust internal consistency and multidimensional internal structure of the battery were demonstrated. This multimedia battery has proven to be a fitting tool for diagnosing children with reading difficulties in primary education, offering a comprehensive cognitive profile that is valuable not only for diagnostic purposes but also for tailoring individualized instructional plans.

Dyslexia: Implications for Chemistry Teaching

Dyslexia is probably the best-known specific learning difficulty. For many people it is simply known as a reading disorder, even though it is a much more complex problem. It usually has a noticeable negative impact on pupils' school performance, although many dyslexics can have excellent space imagination and ability to solve complex problems. Many publications have been written about dyslexia. The most of them deal with its medical and psychological aspects or they are trying to help dyslexics to read. A significantly smaller number of scientific papers is focused on help with specific school subjects. Among them, the predominant effort is to help the pupils with foreign languages study. Only extremely small number of studies is focused on dyslexia and science subjects (for instance chemistry). The aim of our article was to create an overview of information published in scientific literature, focused on dyslexia and teaching chemistry. Our hypothesis, based on our study of scientific articles on dyslexia and on our experience with a very limited number of cooperating pupils/students with dyslexia, or with their teachers, is as follows: dyslexia is usually found during the initial reading practice. However, reading can usually be gradually practiced to an acceptable level. That is why some teachers think incorrectly that 14 years old pupils have already "overcome dyslexia" and that they can work within science subjects in the same way as the other pupils. However, dyslexics might differ from the population in the way how they work with their memory. They might need much longer time to memorize. For example, a "simple" memorizing the symbols and names of chemical elements can be an extremely difficult and time-consuming task for them. The dyslexics might greatly appreciate visualizations (experiments, pictures, showing real chemical substances, models, videos). The reason might be not the reading problem itself, but the way of thinking (the need of a "translation" from words into reality). They might profit from a clearly structured explanation including clear output requirements. On the other hand, many of them are creative and have a good (even above average) ability to solve complex problems. Techniques that help dyslexics help all pupils/students.

Augmented reality books: in-depth insights into children's reading engagement.

Children's reading engagement is associated with the quality of their reading experiences and outcomes; however, research to date has only examined children's reading engagement within the context of traditional print books or digital texts. Augmented Reality represents a hybrid reading experience, where traditional paper books are augmented with digital features (e.g., animations, sounds, comprehension questions). This is the first study to examine children's perspectives and experiences of AR books, within the context of reading engagement. In total, 38 demographically diverse children (aged 8-10, 21 male, 17 English as an Additional Language, 14 ethnicities, nine with teacher-reported reading difficulties) from the UK participated. After reading an AR book, children participated in interviews about their reading engagement. Deductive (themes) and inductive (subthemes) approaches to thematic analysis were used, examining children's AR reading experiences within the context of their behavioral, cognitive, affective and social engagement. The majority of children found AR books easy to use, and provided examples of how AR books supported their behavioral engagement (e.g., desire to read more/extend reading practices), altered their cognitive engagement (e.g., reading strategies, visual representation/use of imagination, comprehension monitoring), influenced their affective engagement: (e.g., diverse positive feelings), and social engagement (e.g., prompted interaction and discussion), providing examples suggesting similarities and differences with traditional print books. This paper provides novel in-depth insights into children's perspectives and experiences of AR books, and provides a foundation for researchers, educators, and AR book designers interested in better supporting children's reading experiences and outcomes with AR books.

Assessment of silent reading ability among glaucoma patients using an eye tracking system with horizontally scrolling text.

There have been many reports suggesting that glaucoma patients with visual field defects may have decreased silent reading ability compared with individuals without glaucoma. This study used an eye tracking system to assess the ability of glaucoma patients to silently read horizontally scrolling text. Glaucoma patients who met the following criteria were recruited: age of ≤ 70 years, at least one eye with a 10 - 2 threshold on standard automated perimetry, a mean deviation value of n 4.0 dB or less, and corrected decimal visual acuity of 0.7 or better in both eyes. Using heat map images created from data from an eye tracking system operating during presentation of a video in which a sentence scrolled horizontally from right to left, reading time, average gaze position, and average fixation time (AFT) were compared between normal eyes (23 individuals, 46 eyes) and glaucomatous eyes (25 patients, 45 eyes). Four styles of sentences (large slow, large fast, small slow, and small fast) were scrolled in the top or bottom sections of the screen. Primary open-angle glaucoma was the most common type of glaucoma in 34 eyes (75.6%), followed by secondary glaucoma in six eyes (13.3%). In comparison with normal eyes, the reading time among right eyes was significantly longer in glaucomatous eyes when reading large fast text that was shown in the bottom area and left glaucomatous eyes showed a leftward shift in gaze position in the top, bottom, or both sections with all four sentence types. There was no significant difference in AFT between glaucomatous and normal eyes across the four sentence styles. In the left eye with inferior visual field loss, text presented at the top consistently showed a correlation with leftward shift of the gaze position across all scenarios. Glaucoma patients with central visual field defects in their left eyes may experience greater difficulty reading horizontally scrolling text than individuals with normal eyes.

Orthographic influences on phonological processing in children with and without reading difficulties: an eye-tracking study

AbstractPhonological processing is an important contributor to decoding and spelling difficulties, but it does not fully explain word reading outcomes for all children. As orthographic knowledge is acquired, it influences phonological processing in typical readers. In the present study, we examined whether orthography affects phonological processing differently for children with current reading difficulties (RD), children with a history of reading difficulties who are currently presenting with typical word reading skills (Hx), and children with typical development and no history of reading difficulties (TD). School-aged children completed a phonological awareness task containing spoken words and pictures while eye movements were recorded. In this task, children had to pair a spoken stimulus word with one of four pictures that ended with the same sound. Within the task, stimulus-target picture pairs varied in the congruency and consistency of the orthographic and phonological mappings of their final consonant sounds. Eye movements revealed that children with typical word reading (the Hx and TD groups) showed better discrimination of the target from the foils compared to peers with underdeveloped word reading skills. All children were more accurate when stimulus-target pairs were congruent and consistent than when they were incongruent or inconsistent. Orthography plays an important role in the completion of phonological awareness tasks, even in the absence of written words and for children with a wide range of reading abilities. Results highlight the importance of considering orthography during interventions for phonological awareness and word reading.

IDENTIFICATION OF BEGINNING READING DIFFICULTIES IN CLASS II PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

This research aims to determine: 1) the difficulties faced by students in beginning reading, 2) teachers' efforts to overcome students' beginning reading difficulties, and 3) factors that cause difficulties in beginning reading. This research uses a qualitative approach with a phenomenological design. The research subjects were 14 students in class II of SD Inpres Bumi Sagu. Data was collected using observation, interviews and document study techniques. The data analysis used is data condensation, data presentation and drawing conclusions/verification. The results of this research show that the difficulties experienced by students in beginning reading are that they do not know letters, are slow in reading, students cannot yet read, letters and words are often confused, and have difficulty spelling. The factors that cause students to experience difficulty in reading at the beginning are internal factors which include the child's psychology and external factors, namely the family environment and the learning environment at school. The teacher's efforts to overcome this problem are by applying the EGRA teaching method, spelling method, sound method (phonic), syllabic method (silabel) and the method of the word institution.

Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension By Using the Orthographic Method for Elementary Students’

Unfortunately, many people experience reading difficulties, affecting their educational attainment and overall quality of life. Addressing this challenge has been a focus of researchers, educators and policymakers for decades. This research aims to determine the impact of the orthographic method on the development of reading comprehension in grade 4 students. The research design used was a pre-experimental method with a pre-test and post-test research design. Researchers used quantitative research methods with a pre-experimental planning strategy to determine the influence of the Orthographic Method on students' inspiration to learn English comprehension. A total of 40 sample students were selected as the sample for this research. The main components of data collection techniques are tests that are used to evaluate students' progress towards learning goals and their abilities can be seen as an evaluation tool in this context. The researchers used a research method called one-group pre-tested posttest design and compared the differences between the pretest and posttest. The results of this research there is a significant improvement in teaching using the orthographic method on students' reading comprehension in test subjects. This means that the Orthographic method activates students' existing knowledge about the topic, provides opportunities for the topic and gives students the opportunity to engage with the topic