No abstract

Developmental dyslexia is defined as an unexpected specific and persistent failure to acquire efficient reading skills despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and sociocultural opportunity. This article reports the outcomes of a study that evaluated the implementation of a 4-month intervention program. The intervention consisted of structured activities aiming at improving (a) the children's phonological awareness, (b) their visual and auditory memory, (c) their visual discrimination ability, and (d) their text comprehension. Participants were 12 children diagnosed as dyslexic matched with 12 typically achieving peers of similar age and gender. Baseline assessment consisted of a clinical neuropsychological battery of tests and Event Related Potentials (ERPs) and resulted in confirming the discrepancy between the dyslexic and the control group. Following the remediation program, the dyslexic group did not differ significantly from their control group in six out of eight neuropsychological tests. The electrophysiological results revealed that the two groups had similar P300 latencies in 12 out of the 15 electroencephalographic sites assessed. These findings suggest that children with dyslexia can improve their abilities through a remediation program which aims to strengthen their audio-visual and phonological processes along with their working memory capability.

Abstract-Computer programming can help children develop problem solving and analytical skills. Thus, many countries have included computer science in the curriculum of primary school. Given differences in culture, available infrastructures, as well as the age pupils are introduced to computer science, forming a computer science curriculum still remains a challenge. Towards this end, this study focuses on exploring the potential merits of introducing concurrent programming concepts early in the learning process. The basic premise is that although concurrent programming at its full details is a rather advanced topic even at university level, it is everyday practice to perform two or more tasks simultaneously that might need (or not) some sort of synchronization. Therefore, the tutor can capitalize on everyday experience to explain basic concepts on concurrency. Such correlation between life experience and concurrent programming challenges may expand the cognitive functions of the pupils and provide them with further background to improve analytical thinking. The proposed curriculum for fifth and sixth grade primary school was adopted in seven classes in Greece. Results indicate that uninitiated to programming pupils at the age of ten (fifth grade) were able to comprehend basic concurrency topics, while pupils at the age of eleven (sixth grade) with some programming familiarity were able to understand more advanced concepts.

Learning disabilities is a generic term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders. The aim of the present pilot study was to examine the efficacy of a new web neurocognitive screening tool, the "askisi" that was developed to provide a brief screening measure for learning difficulties. Participants were twenty children who had been initially identified with learning difficulties and a control group of twenty students' age-and sexmatched with the children with learning difficulties. Group members' ages range between 8 and 12 years old. The set of tasks which all children had to undergo included 10 test that examined children's rreading, spelling, arithmetic and cognitive skills. In our effort to enhance the aforementioned procedure we created a client-server web application that implements its core characteristics.The results indicated that children with learning difficulties had significantly less correct responses in eight of the ten tasks, of our web screening test, compared with the control group, suggesting that the difference between the two groups could be practically important. Although time latency of learning disabled children was larger than their typical developing schoolmates (see Table 2), this difference did not reach statistical significance in five of the nine tasks measured. Overall, these results of this pilot study revealed strong convergent and discriminant evidence for the eight tasks of the "askisi" screening measure, suggesting that this web application may provide a useful method to screen for learning difficulties in both research studies and clinical settings.

Abstract-Traditional definitions of Developmental Dyscalculia state that a child must substantially underachieve on mathematical abilities tests relative to the level expected for the given age, education and intelligence. However, current cognitive developmental neuropsychological studies suggest that not only the core numerical but also the cognitive skills of children with developmental dyscalculia present deficits. The main aim of the proposed research protocol was to construct a battery of six tests that can be delivered by computer in order to screen children's arithmetic and cognitive skills. The hypothesis of the study was that children that are already diagnosed by paper and pencil tests as dyscalculic will present lower scores and larger time latencies not only in mathematical but also in cognitive tasks. A total of 134 right handed children (74 male and 60 female, age range 8 -12 years) participated in this study. The students with disorders in mathematics (N= 67, 37 male and 30 female age range 8 -12 years M= 10.15 SD=1.10) had a statement of dyscalculia after assessment at a Centre of Diagnosis, Assessment and Support, as it is required by Greek Law. A comparison group without any learning disabilities was individually matched with the dyscalculic group according to age, sex and grade (N=67, 37 male and 30 female, age range 8 -12 years old, M=10.24 SD=1.12). Statistical analysis revealed that children with dyscalculia had statistically significant lower mean scores of correct answers and larger time latencies in all tasks compared to their average peers that participated in the comparison group. These findings suggest that children with dyscalculia present several deficits on cognitive systems apart from the core numerical ones. The results are discussed in relation to the use of computers as screening tools for children with learning disabilities.