Online Screening and Empowerment Program for Children With SLD
Condition: Learning Disorder
MeSH terms: Learning Disabilities; Specific Learning Disorder
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      One of the problems faced by health services that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of
      Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dysorthography and Dyscalculia,
      is the long waiting lists for first visits to possible confirm the diagnosis. One of the
      reasons explaining the long waiting times is that the school refers a large number of
      children to the hospital services who do not actually have SLD but a simple school
      difficulty. These two are very different conditions:

        -  SLD is a neurobiological and genetic-based disorder that, with various degrees of
           severity, lasts a lifetime. Epidemiological data of the FVG region report a prevalence
           of dyslexia of 3.1%. Therefore, a prevalence of SLD between 4 and 5% can be assumed.
           This is a condition whose expressiveness cannot be modified by an enhancement
           intervention;

        -  The school difficulties are not innate and are characterized by an initial slowdown in
           bed-writing learning. The prevalence of low-performance school difficulties is between
           10 and 15%. This type of problem improves significantly following specific enhancement.

      Resistance to enhancement intervention is precisely one of the criteria that is still used to
      distinguish a school difficulty from a SLD: students with SLD would be those who show
      resistance to specific educational interventions. This criterion is based on the assumption
      that SLD has a precise neurofunctional basis in contrast to school difficulties. These are a
      transitional condition, which can be modified by didactic adaptations and enhancement
      activities (Law 170/2010; regional resolution 933/2014 FVG).

      The application of enhancement tools in the school environment would therefore make it
      possible to distinguish, on the basis of the response, subjects with simple school
      difficulties from those with suspected SLD and, therefore, to report just those one, to the
      health services for diagnostic confirmation, contributing to the reduction of the workload of
      the hospital services and the reduction of waiting lists. These results are very important
      for children with SLD who could be identified and treated in an early and timely manner. The
      aim of this project is to apply an online screening and further school enhancement process
      using the "InTempo software" to distinguish children with SLD from those with school
      difficulties, thus also obtaining data on the real incidence of SLD and school difficulties
      in The Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.
    


Intervention name(s): Online enhancement training
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): Online enhancement training lasting 3 months, using the "InTempo" app system (Gea-Metaphonology-Athena-reading/Ermes-writing) three times a week for twenty minutes. The training will include: Metaphonological Enhancement; Reading Enhancement; Writing Enhancement.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Diagnostic
Keywords: Specific Learning Disorders; Screening; Online enhancement