A number of studies suggest that dyslexia is associated with enhanced visuospatial ability but the empirical evidence is inconsistent and there are numerous methodological issues. This study examined visuospatial ability among dyslexic and asymptomatic (non-dyslexic) adolescent boys aged 12 years. Thirty-six Maltese participants constituted the research and comparison groups. All participants were assessed on the age-appropriate section of the Spatial Reasoning Test and they were matched by age, ability measured by Ravens Progressive Matrices, socio-economic status and the type of school attended. Overall, the degree of visuospatial ability of the two groups was similar. A statistically significant advantage for the asymptomatic over the dyslexic group was evident on one task only, Hidden Shapes. In contrast, dyslexics outperformed nondyslexics on the other three tasks constituting the battery including Jigsaws, Wallpaper and Right Angles subscales but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Although these findings did not support the notion that dyslexic individuals were more visuospatially endowed than a comparable, asymptomatic group of peers, the possibility of an underlying difference could not be discounted altogether. A number of reasons for the results obtained were examined including the relatively small sample size, participants' age, verbal mediation strategies and the nature of the visuospatial tasks. However, the findings that both groups had similar average results, with the dyslexic group having greater variation on the Hidden Shapes scale, smaller variation on Sections, Jigsaws and Wallpaper scales and the small tendency of this group to outperform the non-dyslexics group on a number of subscales warrants additional exploration of dyslexia and visuospatial ability.
Dyslexia in Malta constitutes a significant share of the work load of most educational psychologists. This difficulty is often compounded by the use of English and Maltese that are taught side by side. Against a backdrop of learners battling against their difficulties with variable rates of success, optimistic voices make a case for such learners’ other skills to be recognised. There is some anecdotal evidence which suggests that dyslexia may be associated with enhanced creativity but in reality there are few empirical studies which support this notion and results are sometime inconsistent, in part due to the difficulty in recruiting the right participants in large enough numbers. Vic Martinelli and Josef Schembri try their hand at throwing some more light on the issue through a study which if no different from others before it, claims to be tightly controlled and is embedded in a bilingual context.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that dyslexia may be associated with enhanced visual-spatial ability and creativity. This study set out to explore the possibility of superior visual-spatial skills and creativity in matched research and comparison groups of 24 students each at age 12 years 10 months. All 24 participants with formally diagnosed dyslexia were closely matched for age, socio-economic status, type of school attended and a measure of ability with 24 non-dyslexic peers. They were assessed on all the sections of the Spatial Reasoning Test (12-year-old section) and the Torrance Test for Creativity. No differences were found between the two groups on the Torrance Test for Creativity, but the comparison group registered a statistically significant advantage over the dyslexic group on one spatial task: Recognition of Hidden Shapes.
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