Ramezani Mehdi, Fawcett Angela J
Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Health Management Research Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran 14496-14535, Iran.
Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea SA1 8EN, UK.
Brain Sci. 2024 Jan 25;14(2):127. doi: 10.3390/brainsci14020127.
Children with developmental dyslexia (DD) often struggle with executive function difficulties which can continue into adulthood if not addressed. This double-blinded randomized clinical trial study evaluated the short-term effects of the Verbal Working Memory-Balance (VWM-B) program on reading-related executive functions, reading skills, and reading comprehension in Persian children with DD. The active control group [12 children with DD with a mean age of 9 years (SD = 0.90)] received training using the single-task VWM program, while the experiment group [15 children with DD with a mean age of 8 years (SD = 0.74)] received training with the dual-task VWM-B program. Both groups received fifteen training sessions, and assessments were conducted before and after the intervention. The groups were homogenized for possible confounders of age, gender, IQ level, and attention level. The study employed separate mixed ANOVA analyses to estimate the impact of training programs on various measured functions. Significant improvements were observed in the outcome measures of backward digit span, text comprehension, verbal fluency, Stroop color-word test and interference, and the reading subtests. Additionally, significant correlations were found between reading skills and backward digit span, text comprehension, verbal fluency, and Stroop variables. In conclusion, the dual-task VWM-B program was found to be more effective than the single-task VWM program in improving selective attention, cognitive inhibition, verbal working memory capacity, information processing speed, naming ability, and lexical access speed. These enhanced executive functions were associated with improved reading skills in children with DD.
患有发育性阅读障碍（DD）的儿童通常在执行功能方面存在困难，如果不加以解决，这些困难可能会持续到成年期。这项双盲随机临床试验研究评估了言语工作记忆-平衡（VWM-B）计划对患有DD的波斯儿童与阅读相关的执行功能、阅读技能和阅读理解的短期影响。积极对照组[12名患有DD的儿童，平均年龄9岁（标准差=0.90）]接受单任务VWM计划的训练，而实验组[15名患有DD的儿童，平均年龄8岁（标准差=0.74）]接受双任务VWM-B计划的训练。两组均接受15次训练课程，并在干预前后进行评估。对年龄、性别、智商水平和注意力水平等可能的混杂因素进行了组间均衡。该研究采用单独的混合方差分析来估计训练计划对各种测量功能的影响。在倒背数字广度、文本理解、言语流畅性、斯特鲁普颜色-单词测试及干扰以及阅读子测试的结果测量中观察到显著改善。此外，在阅读技能与倒背数字广度、文本理解、言语流畅性和斯特鲁普变量之间发现了显著相关性。总之，发现双任务VWM-B计划在提高选择性注意力、认知抑制、言语工作记忆容量、信息处理速度、命名能力和词汇获取速度方面比单任务VWM计划更有效。这些增强的执行功能与患有DD的儿童阅读技能的提高有关。
