Luque, J. L., López-Zamora, M., Álvarez, C. J., & Bordoy, S.

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This study explores whether activation and inhibition word processes contribute to the characteristic speed deficits found in transparent orthographies (Wimmer, Appl Psycholinguist 14:1–33, 1993). A second and fourth grade sample of normal school readers and dyslexic school readers participated in a lexical decision task. Words were manipulated according to two factors: word frequency (high vs. low) and syllable frequency (high vs. low). It has been repeatedly found that words with high-frequency syllables require extra time for deactivating the lexical syllabic neighbors: the so-called inhibitory effect of positional frequency syllable (Carreiras et al., J Mem Lang 32:766–780, 1993). We hypothesized that dyslexic readers would show a stronger inhibitory effect than normal readers because they are slower decoders and they may also be slower at the activation and inhibition of word representations that are competing (i.e., syllabic candidates). Results indicated an interaction between word and syllable frequency (i.e., a strong inhibitory effect was found in the low-frequency word condition). According to our hypothesis, the inhibitory effect size was almost three times bigger in dyslexics than in the normal readers. This difference shows an alteration, not a developmental lag. Interestingly, the inhibitory effect size did not interact with school grade. Thus, reading experience did not impact the lexical processes involved on the inhibitory effect. Our outcomes showed how activation and/or inhibition of lexical processes can contribute to the lack of speed beyond decoding deficit.

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López-Zamora, M., Luque, J. L., Álvarez, C. J., & Cobos, P. L.

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This article examines the relationship between individual differences in speech perception and sublexical/phonological processing in reading. We used an auditory phoneme identification task in which a /ba/-/pa/ syllable continuum measured sensitivity to classify participants into three performance groups: poor, medium, and good categorizers. A lexical decision task manipulated syllable and word frequency. We found that the two tasks were associated. Poor categorizers did not present the typical syllable frequency effect; however, the other groups were sensitive to phonological information to differing degrees and showed the inhibitory syllable frequency effect only for low-frequency words. These results suggest that auditory phoneme identification efficiency may be related to the sublexical processes involved in reading words.
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Formoso, M.A., Ortiz, A., Martinez-Murcia, F.J., Gallego, N., Luque, J.L.” Detecting Phase-synchrony Connectivity Anomalies in EEG signals. Application to Dyslexia Diagnosis”. Sensors, 2021(7061), pp.1-20.
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Objective Dyslexia diagnosis is a challenging task, since traditional diagnosis methods are not based on biological markers but on behavioural tests. Although dyslexia diagnosis has been addressed by these tests in clinical practice, it is difficult to extract information about the brain processes involved in the different tasks and, then, to go deeper into its biological basis. Thus, the use of biomarkers can contribute not only to the diagnosis but also to a better understanding of specific learning disorders such as dyslexia. In this work, we use Electroencephalography (EEG) signals to discover differences among controls and dyslexic subjects using signal processing and artificial intelligence techniques. Specifically, we measure phase synchronization among channels, to reveal the functional brain network activated during auditory processing. On the other hand, to explore synchronicity patterns risen by low-level auditory processing, we used specific stimuli consisting in band-limited white noise, modulated in amplitude at different frequencies. The differential information contained in the functional (i.e., synchronization) network has been processed by an anomaly detection system that addresses the problem of subjects variability by an outlier-detection method based on vector quantization. The results, obtained for 7 years-old children, show that the proposed method constitutes an useful tool for clinical use, with the area under ROC curve (AUC) values up to 0.95 in differential diagnosis tasks.

Serniclaes, W., López-Zamora, M., Bordoy, S y Luque, J.L. (2021). Allophonic perception of VOT contrasts in Spanish children with dyslexia. Brain & Behaviour. DOI:10.1002/brb3.2194.
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Introduction Previous studies have evidenced a different mode of speech perception in dyslexia, characterized by the use of allophonic rather than phonemic units. People with dyslexia perceive phonemic features (such as voicing) less accurately than typical readers, but they perceive allophonic features (i.e., language‐independent differences between speech sounds) more accurately. Method In this study, we investigated the perception of voicing contrasts in a sample of 204 Spanish children with or without dyslexia. Identification and discrimination data were collected for synthetic sounds varying along three different voice onset time (VOT) continua (ba/pa, de/te, and di/ti). Empirical data will be contrasted with a mathematical model of allophonic perception building up from neural oscillations and auditory temporal processing. Results Children with dyslexia exhibited a general deficit in categorical precision; that is, they discriminated among phonemically contrastive pairs (around 0‐ms VOT) less accurately than did chronological age controls, irrespective of the stimulus continuum. Children with dyslexia also exhibited a higher sensitivity in the discrimination of allophonic features (around ±30‐ms VOT), but only for the stimulus continuum that was based on a nonlexical contrast (ba/pa). Conclusion Fitting the neural network model to the data collected for this continuum suggests that allophonic perception is due to a deficit in “subharmonic coupling” between high‐frequency oscillations. Relationships with “temporal sampling framework” theory are discussed. Spanish children with dyslexia exhibit a general deficit in the perception of the voicing feature on three different VOT continua (ba/pa, de/te, and di/ti). These children also exhibit a higher sensitivity in the discrimination of allophonic features, but only for the stimulus continuum that was based on a nonlexical contrast (ba/pa). Fitting a neural network model to the data suggests that allophonic perception is due to a deficit in “subharmonic coupling” between high‐frequency networks.

Thorell, L. B., Skoglund, Ch., Giménez, A., Baeyens, D., Fuermaier, A., Groom, M., Mammarella, I., Van der Oord, S., van den Hoofdakker, B., Luman, M., de Miranda, D. Siu, A., Steinmayr, R., Idrees, I., Soares, L., Sörlin, M., Luque, J. L., Moscardino, U., Roch, M., Grisci, G. & Chistiansen, H. (2021). Parental experiences of homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic: Differences between seven European countries and between children with and without mental health conditions. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/68pfx.

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The aim of the present study was to examine parental experiences of homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic in families with or without a child with a mental health condition across Europe. The study included 6720 parents recruited through schools, patient organizations and social media platforms (2002 parents with a child with a mental health condition and 4718 without) from seven European countries: the UK (n = 508), Sweden (n = 1436), Spain (n = 1491), Belgium (n = 508), the Netherlands (n = 324), Germany (n = 1662) and Italy (n = 794). Many parents reported negative effects of homeschooling for themselves and their child, and many found homeschooling to be of poor quality, with insufficient support from schools. In most countries, contact with teachers was limited, leaving parents with primary responsibility for managing homeschooling. Parents also reported increased levels of stress, worry, social isolation, and domestic conflict. A small number of parents reported increased parental alcohol/drug use. Some differences were found between countries and some negative experiences were more common in families with a child with a mental health condition. However, differences between countries and between families with and without a mental health condition were generally small, indicating that many parents across countries reported negative experiences. Some parents also reported positive experiences of homeschooling. The adverse effects of homeschooling will likely have a long-term impact and contribute to increased inequalities. Given that school closures may be less effective than other interventions, policymakers need to carefully consider the negative consequences of homeschooling during additional waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics.

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Luque, J. L., Álvarez, C. J., Bordoy, S., Giménez, A., López-Pérez, P. J. y López-Zamora, M. (2021). Inhibitory effect of positional syllable frequency in Spanish 2nd and 4th grade readers. Applied Psycholinguistics. doi:10.1017/S0142716420000508

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The inhibitory effect of positional syllable frequency is a well-known phenomenon in visual word recognition: words with high-frequency syllables require extra time for deactivating the lexical syllabic neighbors. The inhibitory effect implies that a connection exists between graphemes, phonemes, the first syllable, and the phonological lexicon. However, experimental results of the first developmental stages of occurrence are scarce and inconclusive. A second- and fourth-grade sample of typical school readers participated in a lexical decision task containing high/low frequency words and high/low syllable frequency words. Our primary hypothesis was that the inhibitory effect would be found on both school grade groups. We did not predict significant differences in magnitude of effect between second- and fourth-grade participants. A general inhibitory effect was found, and separate analyses by school grade groups also indicated significant inhibitory effects. Furthermore, second- and fourth-grade children showed small sizes of the inhibitory effect, resembling the sizes found in adult normal readers. Our results suggest that Spanish readers reach a functional connection between syllables and words at an early stage. The straightforward theoretical implication is that the inhibitory effect relies heavily on the structural properties of the lexical access system that are acquired at an early age.

Giménez, A., Bordoy, S., Sánchez, A., López-Zamora, M., Sopena, J. M., y Luque, J. L. (2020). A supplemental computer‐assisted intervention programme to prevent early reading difficulties in Spanish learners: A stratified random control trial. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12504

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Difficulties in implementing effective instruction for at‐risk students arise from two challenges: the transfer of evidence‐based knowledge and the lack of economic resources. Computer‐assisted programmes offer a suitable solution, providing quality instruction using low‐cost resources. Thirty‐two first‐grade students with early learning difficulties were identified and paired based on at least three of the pre‐intervention reading measures (reading efficiency of monosyllabic and disyllabic items, words, pseudowords and text reading speed). Each pair was assigned to one of two different intervention programmes: a computer‐assisted intervention programme (CAIP) focused on syllables or the programme provided by the Spanish State School Assistance Services (SSAS). Every week, the CAIP participants received in pairs four 15‐min training sessions on syllable decoding plus one 30‐min group comprehension session. The CAIP was delivered by trainee students. The SSAS programme typically consisted of a 1‐hr individual or in small groups sessions per week delivered by trained practitioners. Both programmes were administered for 11 weeks. The CAIP intervention showed better results than the SSAS intervention for both decoding and comprehension, with moderate to large effect sizes. Lay Description What is already known about this topic Implementing effective instruction for at‐risk students presents two challenges: evidence‐based knowledge transfer and lack of economic resources. The use of computer‐assisted programmes to provide quality instruction for at‐risk students is not a common practise in the Spanish context. What this paper adds A comparison between a computer‐assisted instructional programme (CAIP) and a programme provided by the Spanish State School Assistance Services (SSAS). A programme designed to be applied by professionals or non‐professionals with minor guidance. The CAIP intervention showed better results after 11 weeks of application, replicating the positive effects of computer programmes in other languages. Implications for practise and/or policy Findings showed that computer programmes represent an effective tool for the transfer of scientific knowledge to educational practise with little economic cost, minor teaching training and short time.

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Martínez-Murcia, F., Ortiz, A., Gorriz, J. M., Ramírez, J., Lopez-Pérez, J., López-Zamora, M. y Luque, J. L. (2020). EEG Connectivity Analysis Using Denoising Autoencoders for the Detection of Dyslexia. International Journal of Neural Systems, Vol. 30, No. 7. DOI: 10.1142/S0129065720500379

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The Temporal Sampling Framework (TSF) theorizes that the characteristic phonological difficulties of dyslexia are caused by an atypical oscillatory sampling at one or more temporal rates. The LEEDUCA study conducted a series of Electroencephalography (EEG) experiments on children listening to amplitude modulated (AM) noise with slow-rythmic prosodic (0.5–1 Hz), syllabic (4–8 Hz) or the phoneme (12–40 Hz) rates, aimed at detecting differences in perception of oscillatory sampling that could be associated with dyslexia. The purpose of this work is to check whether these differences exist and how they are related to children’s performance in different language and cognitive tasks commonly used to detect dyslexia. To this purpose, temporal and spectral inter-channel EEG connectivity was estimated, and a denoising autoencoder (DAE) was trained to learn a low-dimensional representation of the connectivity matrices. This representation was studied via correlation and classification analysis, which revealed ability in detecting dyslexic subjects with an accuracy higher than 0.8, and balanced accuracy around 0.7. Some features of the DAE representation were significantly correlated ( p < 0 . 0 0 5 ) with children’s performance in language and cognitive tasks of the phonological hypothesis category such as phonological awareness and rapid symbolic naming, as well as reading efficiency and reading comprehension. Finally, a deeper analysis of the adjacency matrix revealed a reduced bilateral connection between electrodes of the temporal lobe (roughly the primary auditory cortex) in DD subjects, as well as an increased connectivity of the F7 electrode, placed roughly on Broca’s area. These results pave the way for a complementary assessment of dyslexia using more objective methodologies such as EEG.

Ortiz, A., Martínez-Murcia, F., Luque, J. L., Giménez, A., Morales-Ortega, R. y Ortega, J. (2020). Dyslexia Diagnosis by EEG Temporal and Spectral Descriptors: An Anomaly Detection Approach. International Journal of Neural Systems, Vol. 30, No. 7. DOI: 10.1142/S012906572050029X

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Diagnosis of learning difficulties is a challenging goal. There are huge number of factors involved in the evaluation procedure that present high variance among the population with the same difficulty. Diagnosis is usually performed by scoring subjects according to results obtained in different neuropsychological (performance-based) tests specifically designed to this end. One of the most frequent disorders is developmental dyslexia (DD), a specific difficulty in the acquisition of reading skills not related to mental age or inadequate schooling. Its prevalence is estimated between 5% and 12% of the population. Traditional tests for DD diagnosis aim to measure different behavioral variables involved in the reading process. In this paper, we propose a diagnostic method not based on behavioral variables but on involuntary neurophysiological responses to different auditory stimuli. The experiments performed use electroencephalography (EEG) signals to analyze the temporal behavior and the spectral content of the signal acquired from each electrode to extract relevant (temporal and spectral) features. Moreover, the relationship of the features extracted among electrodes allows to infer a connectivity-like model showing brain areas that process auditory stimuli in a synchronized way. Then an anomaly detection system based on the reconstruction residuals of an autoencoder using these features has been proposed. Hence, classification is performed by the proposed system based on the differences in the resulting connectivity models that have demonstrated to be a useful tool for differential diagnosis of DD as well as a method to step towards gaining a better knowledge of the brain processes involved in DD. The results corroborate that nonspeech stimulus modulated at specific frequencies related to the sampling processes developed in the brain to capture rhymes, syllables and phonemes produces effects in specific frequency bands that differentiate between controls and DD subjects. The proposed method showed relatively high sensitivity above 0.6, and up to 0.9 in some of the experiments.

Giménez, A., López-Zamora, M., López-Pérez; J. y Luque, J. (2019). “¿Predice la eficacia en lectura de palabras el rendimiento académico en secundaria?”. Contextos de Educación 27 (20). Pp 74-87.

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La relación entre la lectura de palabras y el rendimiento académico se ha constatado en estudiantes de primaria. Sin embargo, estos estudios son escasos e inexistentes en cursos superiores. Puesto que las diferencias individuales en el desarrollo de las habilidades de descodificación pueden persistir en la edad adulta, nos planteamos como objetivo analizar si la eficacia para leer palabras sigue impactando sobre el rendimiento académico en estudiantes de secundaria (13-14 años). Método: se evaluó a un grupo de 54 estudiantes de Educación Secundaria mediante una selección de pruebas de procesamiento fonológico, lenguaje, mecanismos lectores y lectura de textos. Los resultados se relacionaron con las calificaciones obtenidas en las cinco asignaturas de contenido. Resultados: el mejor predictor del rendimiento académico resultó ser la ortografía seguida por la fluidez en el uso de palabras en la escritura espontánea, la eficiencia lectora y el vocabulario. Es decir, medidas que ponen el foco en las dos habilidades que sustentan la lectura: los mecanismos de descodificación y el lenguaje. Además, sugieren que la calidad de las representaciones léxicas puede explicar la relación con la adquisición de conocimientos académicos. Conclusión: los resultados señalan la importancia de planificar actividades para adquirir vocabulario, desarrollar la fluidez verbal que ayudan a profundizar en la comprensión del texto.

Sánchez, A., Cobo, M.A., Luque, J. L. y Giménez, A. (2018). Fase de prevención del Proyecto Leeduca. Un enfoque proactivo en la enseñanza de la lectura. Cuadernos de Pedagogía, 490 (junio), 32-37.

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Giménez, A. Ortiz, A., López-Zamora, M., Sánchez, A. y Luque, J. L. (2017). Parents’ reading history as an indicator of risk for reading difficulties. Annals of Dyslexia, 67(3): 259-280. DOI 10.1007/s11881-017-0143-9

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Children from families whose members have reading impairments are found to be poorer performers, take less advantage of instruction, and require more time to reach the reading level of children whose relatives are good readers. As a family’s reading history may not be available, a self-report of reading abilities is used to identify children’s background. In this paper, we explored the contribution of phonological, literacy, and linguistic abilities and reported parental reading abilities to predict reading achievement at the end of the school year in a Spanish sample. Children who were starting to read were assessed in a variety of oral language, phonological, and literacy tasks at the beginning and end of the school year. Parents filled out a self-report questionnaire about their reading abilities. Their answers were used to assign children to good or poor reader parent groups (GRP vs PRP). A logistic and ROC analysis were used to assess the variables’ discriminative capability, considering literacy scores at the end of the year as a measure of reading achievement. GRP children obtained higher scores than PRP children did. Performance on tasks of rapid naming assessment (RAN) letters (78.6%), Word Reading (75.7%), and Deletion (75.6%) were the most accurate predictors of children’s reading achievement. IPRA showed slightly lower accuracy (73.8) than did the behavioral measures and as high specificity as RAN letters (96.2%), similarly to the percentages found in previous studies. Although behavioral measures were shown as the best predictors, parents’ self-reports could also provide a quick estimation of family risk of difficulties in literacy acquisition.

Álvarez, C. J., García-Saavedra, G., Luque, J. L. y Taft, M. (2017). Syllabic parsing in children: a developmental study using visual word-spotting in Spanish. Journal of Child Language, 44, 380-401. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000916000040

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Some inconsistency is observed in the results from studies of reading development regarding the role of the syllable in visual word recognition, perhaps due to a disparity between the tasks used. We adopted a word-spotting paradigm, with Spanish children of second grade (mean age: 7 years) and sixth grade (mean age: 11 years). The children were asked to detect one-syllable words that could be found at the beginning of pseudo-words, with the boundary between the word and the remaining letters being manipulated. The end of the embedded word could either match the syllabic boundary (e.g. the word FIN in the pseudo-word FINLO, where the syllable boundary is between N and L) or not (e.g. FINUS, where the syllable boundary is located between I and N). The results showed that children of both grades were faster in the syllabic than the non-syllabic condition, and that the magnitude of this effect was the same regardless of reading ability. The results suggest an early universality in the use of syllables in Spanish, regardless of reading level.

Some inconsistency is observed in the results from studies of reading development regarding the role of the syllable in visual word recognition, perhaps due to a disparity between the tasks used. We adopted a word-spotting paradigm, with Spanish children of second grade (mean age: 7 years) and sixth grade (mean age: 11 years). The children were asked to detect one-syllable words that could be found at the beginning of pseudo-words, with the boundary between the word and the remaining letters being manipulated. The end of the embedded word could either match the syllabic boundary (e.g. the word FIN in the pseudo-word FINLO, where the syllable boundary is between N and L) or not (e.g. FINUS, where the syllable boundary is located between I and N). The results showed that children of both grades were faster in the syllabic than the non-syllabic condition, and that the magnitude of this effect was the same regardless of reading ability. The results suggest an early universality in the use of syllables in Spanish, regardless of reading level.

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Enlace de la Publicación

Luque, J.L., Giménez, A., Bordoy, S. y Sánchez, A. (2016). De la teoría fonológica a la identificación temprana de las dificultades específicas de aprendizaje de la lectura. Revista de Logopedia, Audiología y Foniatría, 36, pp.: 142-149. DOI: 10.1016/j.rlfa.2015.10.001

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Se revisa el marco teórico de investigación generado en torno a la teoría fonológica de la dislexia evolutiva. Este marco ha habilitado la posibilidad de realizar una identificación temprana de las dificultades específicas de aprendizaje de la lectura y ha justificado su necesidad práctica. Cuatro son las aportaciones fundamentales. Primero, la teoría fonológica defiende que la dislexia evolutiva se produce como consecuencia de un déficit fonológico general que afecta a diversos componentes del sistema fonológico, entre los que destacan la conciencia fonológica, la velocidad de los procesos léxicos y la memoria verbal a corto plazo. Segundo, la teoría fonológica ha puesto de manifiesto que la causa primaria de la dislexia está presente desde el periodo embrionario y produce consecuencias sobre el desarrollo del lenguaje oral durante todo el periodo previo al aprendizaje de la lectura. Tercero, la teoría fonológica ha defendido la tesis del lenguaje oral como causa primaria del déficit, y con ello ha revelado las relaciones entre los trastornos específicos del lenguaje y la dislexia evolutiva. Cuarto, la investigación ha mostrado el significativo impacto de los programas de prevención e intervención temprana, lo que obliga a complementar las estrategias reactivas y tardías de diagnóstico, con estrategias proactivas de prevención y/o identificación e intervención temprana. Finalmente, se argumenta que si las causas primeras y los sistemas de prevención e intervención de estas dificultades están directamente vinculados con el desarrollo del lenguaje, entonces la logopedia debería tener un papel protagonista en la implementación de las estrategias proactivas en el contexto escolar. This paper presents a review of the research issued from the frame of the Phonological Theory of developmental dyslexia. This theory has set up the means to make an early identification of specific learning difficulties in reading, and has provided theoretical support for its implementation. There are four fundamental contributions. First, the Phonological Theory argues that developmental dyslexia is a consequence of a general phonological deficit that affects different components of the phonological system being phonological awareness, lexical processing speed and verbal short-term memory the most relevant. Second, the Phonological Theory has pointed out that the primary cause of dyslexia is present from the embryonic period and that it affects oral language development before learning to read. Third, the Phonological Theory has considered oral language as the main cause of the deficit, and consequently, has highlighted the relations between Specific Language Impairment and Developmental Dyslexia. Fourth, since research has proved the significant impact of Programs for prevention and early intervention, a clear need for adding proactive strategies of early prevention and/or identification to the late reactive diagnosis strategies has arisen. Finally, it is argued that if primary causes as well as prevention and intervention resources are directly attached to language development, then, speech therapists should play a main role in the implementation of proactive strategies in the school context.

Luque, J.L. y grupo LEEDUCA (2015). Avances en la identificación temprana y diagnóstico diferencial de los trastornos evolutivos de la lectura. AOSMA, 20, 40-58.

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Luque, J.L., López-Zamora, M., Bordoy, S. y Álvarez, C.J. (2013). Beyond Decoding Deficit: Inhibitory Effect of Positional Syllable Frequency in Dyslexic Spanish Children. Annals of Dyslexia, 63, 3-4, pp.: 239-252. DOI: 10.1007/s11881-013-0082-z.

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This study explores whether activation and inhibition word processes contribute to the characteristic speed deficits found in transparent orthographies (Wimmer, Appl Psycholinguist 14:1—33, 1993). A second and fourth grade sample of normal school readers and dyslexic school readers participated in a lexical decision task. Words were manipulated according to two factors: word frequency (high vs. low) and syllable frequency (high vs. low). It has been repeatedly found that words with high-frequency syllables require extra time for deactivating the lexical syllabic neighbors: the so-called inhibitory effect of positional frequency syllable (Carreiras et al., J Mem Lang 32:766—780, 1993). We hypothesized that dyslexic readers would show a stronger inhibitory effect than normal readers because they are slower decoders and they may also be slower at the activation and inhibition of word representations that are competing (i.e., syllabic candidates). Results indicated an interaction between word and syllable frequency (i.e., a strong inhibitory effect was found in the low-frequency word condition). According to our hypothesis, the inhibitory effect size was almost three times bigger in dyslexics than in the normal readers. This difference shows an alteration, not a developmental lag. Interestingly, the inhibitory effect size did not interact with school grade. Thus, reading experience did not impact the lexical processes involved on the inhibitory effect. Our outcomes showed how activation and/or inhibition of lexical processes can contribute to the lack of speed beyond decoding deficit.