چکیده:
Objectives: The aim of this research is to design a neuro-cognitive program, based on
dysfunctions and alterations of some neural circuits in dyslexics. The visual and auditory
working memories in pre-schoolers were evaluated with this program in order to early
screening for dyslexia.
Methods: This study is a longitudinal descriptive research. A total of 259 randomly selected
pre-schoolers, with an average age of 6 years, participated in the study and the unskilled data
of these students were gathered. These subjects were followed for two years. Thereafter, the
remaining subjects were assessed accurately for dyslexia using different reading diagnostic
tests. Then, the preschool unskilled data and the diagnosis were applied to automate the
designed program. The program was designed in a game format and consisted of separate
tasks measuring visual and auditory working memories and rapid naming.
Results: From the calculation of content validity rate as the first step of content validity
process, 3 out of 5 components, including visual and auditory working memories, and rapid
naming were selected. The process and the results of content validity showed that the designed
program has an appropriate and acceptable level of content validity. The amount of reliability
of the program for visual and auditory working memories, and rapid naming were obtained
as 0.89, 0.92 and 0.88, respectively. Moreover, the discriminative validity for auditory and
visual working memories and rapid naming, between children with dyslexia, Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (a disorder having high similarity with dyslexia) and normal
ones were obtained as 0.87, 0.67 and 0.8, respectively. It is worthy to say that the prediction
accuracy of this neuro-cognitive program for dyslexia achieved 90.65%.
Discussion: This program has an acceptable validity and reliability. It could be useful as an
accurate assessment tool in predicting dyslexia before the occurrence of psychological scars
and can be used as a quick screening tool for children at risk for dyslexia.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Research Paper: Designing a Computerized Neuro-Cognitive Program for Early Diagnosing Children at Risk for Dyslexia Mona Delavarian1*, Ali Afrooz1, Farzad Towhidkhah2, Kazem Rasoolzadeh Tabatabaei3 1.
2. 103 Article info: Received: 16 Nov. 2016 Accepted: 25 Feb. 2017 Keywords: Neuro-cognitive program, Computer-based task, Working memory, At risk children, Reading disorder (Dyslexia) A B S T R A C T Objectives: The aim of this research is to design a neuro-cognitive program, based on dysfunctions and alterations of some neural circuits in dyslexics.
The visual and auditory working memories in pre-schoolers were evaluated with this program in order to early screening for dyslexia.
The design is focused on neuro-cognitive impairments due to mentioned neural circuits’ dysfunc- tions and alterations in dyslexia; therefore, this program is able to screen or predict dyslexia regardless of reading skills; separate tasks were designed to evaluate visual and auditory working memory.
5. Conclusion A neuro-cognitive program considering significant dif- ferences in working memory and rapid naming tasks [16, 21, 32] was designed in order to screen or some- how predict subjects at risk for dyslexia and the program was further investigated for validity and reliability.
Another important element that was considered in this study, according to the importance of reading ability and many social, educational and psychological side effects of defeats in this field, was screening or somehow predic- tion of children at risk for dyslexia as soon as possible, even before elementary school.