Toward the characterization of a visual form of developmental dyslexia: Reduced visuo-attentional capacity for processing multiple stimuli made of separable features.

Some dyslexics cannot process multiple letters simultaneously. It has been argued that this reduced visuo-attentional (VA) letter span could result from poor reading ability and experience. Here, moving away from reading context, we showed that dyslexic group exhibited slower visual search than normal readers group for "symbols", defined as graphic stimuli made up of separable visual features, but not for filled objects. Slowness in symbol visual search was explained by reduced VA field and atypical ocular behaviour when processing those letter-like stimuli and was associated with reduced VA letter span and impaired elementary visuo-spatial perception. Such a basic visual search deficit can hardly be attributed to poor reading ability and experience. Moreover, because it is specific to letter-like stimuli (i.e., "symbols"), it can specifically hinder reading acquisition. Symbol visual search can easily be tested in the pre-reading phase, opening up prospects for early risk detection and prevention of VA dyslexia.

Enhancing reading accuracy through visual search training using symbols.

Children with reading disorders present with inaccurate and/or delayed printed word identification. Regarding visual-attentional processing, printed words are letter strings, and each letter is a symbol made of separable features. Simultaneous processing of separable features has been evidenced to be specifically impaired in visual search tasks using symbols in poor readers as well as in a patient with superior parietal lobules (SPL) lesion. Additionally, activation in the SPL has been shown to be abnormally low in dyslexic readers displaying a reduced span of letter strings processing. This deficit has been assumed to impair visual-attentional sampling of printed words. An experiment conducted with 21 dyslexic children tested the hypothesis that a training program based on visual symbol search may stimulate the SPL, leading to a potential benefit transferred to reading performance. We designed the VisioCogLetters serious game and introduced it at random for one month (10 min every day) between four monthly reading sessions. No training was provided between the other (control) reading sessions. Reading accuracy increased without any speed-accuracy trade-off specifically in the session after training. Moreover, the percentage of improvement correlated with the individual time spent at home on training. These results show that improved visual search skills on symbols can translate into enhanced reading performance, and pave a new avenue for future rehabilitation tools.

Representations of Research among Newly Graduated Paramedical Professionals: A Qualitative Study.

Despite a keen interest in clinical research, most paramedical professionals are unwilling to play an active role. Our objective was to explore paramedical professionals' representations of research. Using an existing database of final year paramedical students (speech therapy, occupational therapy, psychomotricity, audiometry, physiotherapy, orthoptics), we deployed a qualitative approach composed of two successive steps: (1) a free word association task, and (2) semi-structured individual interviews. Out of the 54 students who agreed to be contacted, we received 21 responses to the free word association questionnaire, and 11 interviews were conducted. The hierarchical evocation matrix revealed that the scientific representation of research is based on words defining the research and the purpose of the research. "Collaboration" was identified as being an essential part of the research process. The central core of the representation is coherent with all its components perceived as positive. The content analysis of the interviews showed a polarization around two key points: (1) participants are interested in accessing and using evidence in their practice (2) but feel less confident about and/or motivated to generate evidence themselves. This study highlights the need to develop more research-friendly environments, especially in training institutions.

Confronting Lexical Choice and Error Distribution in Written French: New Insights into the Linguistic Insecurity of Students with Dyslexia.

The main goal of this paper is to analyze written texts produced by monolingual French university students, with and without dyslexia. More specifically, we were interested in the linguistic characteristics of the words used during a written production and of the type of word errors. Previous studies showed that students with dyslexia have difficulties in written production, whether in terms of the number of spelling errors, some syntactic aspects, identification of errors, confusion of monosyllabic words, omissions of words in sentences, or utilization of unexpected or inappropriate vocabulary. For this present study, students with dyslexia and control students were asked to produce written and spoken narrative and expository texts. The written texts (N = 86) were collected using Eye and Pen© software with digitizing tablets. Results reveal that students with dyslexia do not censor themselves as regards the choice of words in their written productions. They use the same types of words as the control students. Nevertheless, they make many more errors than the control students on all types of words, regardless of their linguistic characteristics (length, frequency, grammatical classes, etc.). Finally, these quantitative analyses help to target a rather unexpected subset of errors: short words, and in particular determiners and prepositions.

Paramedical students' perceptions of research: a survey.

BACKGROUND: There is a general perception that research is underdeveloped in rehabilitation professions. However, a PubMed search found that the growth in publications in the rehabilitation field was twice that of the general medical field. Despite this growth, another study focusing on Europe found that the proportion of articles reporting on clinical research in the rehabilitation field remained low (less than 40% of articles). This could be due to lack of teaching about research in rehabilitation schools or the late introduction of such courses. AIMS: Describe the students' perceptions of research: their desire to conduct research, the usefulness of research and research competence. METHODS: Questionnaire survey targeting all French paramedical students (speech therapy, occupational therapy, psychomotricity, audiometry, physiotherapy, orthoptics) in their final year of study in 2018-2019. RESULTS: Overall, 791 students completed the full survey representing a response rate of 36.3% of the students contacted. Only 34.3% of rehabilitation students were willing to conduct research despite finding it useful (98.6%). The main barrier was the preference for their core operational work (cited 444 times, representing 17.6% of citations). There was a significant relation between perceived competence and the attractiveness of research: 84% of the students not interested in research felt they were not competent to conduct research but this figure dropped to 57.6% amongst the students interested in research (OR 4.0; 95% CI 2.9-5.6). Using a multivariate analysis, we confirmed that the main incentive was feeling competent, as well as past contact with research and supervisors who promoted research work. CONCLUSION: Students have little contact with research during their internships, low perceived competence and, consequently, little desire to conduct research.