Diagnosticare i Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento nell’adulto. Dati preliminari dal «Progetto Diagnosi AID-FTI»
Angelini Damiano, Bocchicchio Sara, Ciuffo Massimo, Del Rio Elenal, Fulgeri Gian Marco, Ghidoni Enrico, Luoni Chiara, Manassero Alessandra, Norveti Federica, Paganelli Laura
The demand for a diagnosis of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) in adults has greatly increased, and requires adequate resources and tools still lacking in Italian. In order to address the problem with a pilot experience, a large-scale project by the Italian Dyslexia Association and the Foundation Telecom Italy involved six diagnostic centers, where, for a year, there was a diagnostic program using a standard protocol. The analysis of the data for the first 523 cases allowed us to highlight the most relevant epidemiological features. We found a little prevalence of males than females (58% vs. 42%). Only 44% of patients had a prior diagnosis. 65% of patients were in the age group 18-24, but there were also 50 cases aged over 45. The students constituted 67% of the cases. Dyslexia had been diagnosed in 66.7%, dysorthography in 58.5%, dyscalculia in 45.5%, and dysgraphia in 25%. We found frequent comorbidity, in more than 80% of cases, the most common combination being dyslexia + dysorthography + dyscalculia. Only in 12% of cases dyslexia was diagnosed as an isolated disorder. A completely negative assessment was found in 14% of cases. The parameters most sensitive for the diagnosis of dyslexia are the time spent in text reading for cases of dyslexia combined with other SLD (sensitivity 63.9%), but the reading time of pseudowords for cases of isolated dyslexia (sensitivity 58.5%). Even the text dictation is very sensitive. A combination of a few diagnostic tools (reading of words, pseudowords and text, and a comprehension task) appears to be sufficient to arrive at the diagnosis of dyslexia and the addition of at least one test of writing and calculation allows the identification of other disorders that are often associated. With this procedure we can quickly get a diagnostic characterization that in most cases is sufficient for the needs of certification to obtain support measures at school or university.
Keywords
dyslexia, Specific Learning Disabilities, diagnosis, adults.