A preliminary study
Marco Orlandi, Francesca Magostini, Angelina Capuano, Marta Ronconi, Ilaria Pino
This study analyses the results of visual-perceptual-motor treatment for cursive writing and speed/accuracy abilities of reading a passage and word lists, in terms of effectiveness and rate of change in a sample of 20 children with a diagnosis of ASD. The results were then compared to those described by other studies related to other types of treatment for dyslexia (sublexical, balance, neuropsychological and lexical). Among the five categories of treatment, there are no substantial differences in increasing the reading speed of the track; significant differences are found rather in the improvement obtained in the reading of words, non-words, and in the average number of hours of treatment. All types of treatment are effective but as far as rate of change is concerned, the sublexical and visual-perceptual-motor treatments are of shorter duration. In the specific case of visual- perceptual-motor processing, there is a lower average number of treatment hours. For writing skills, in view of the small sample, results show only at a greater efficacy of the accuracy parameter compared to speed. Subsequent studies must provide an expansion of sample size through the use of more stringent selection criteria. Also, the effects of interaction with other types of treatment could be assessed.
Keywords
Dyslexia, writing, visual-perceptual-motor treatment.