Occurrence of reading and writing cognitive processes and perception visual skills in students with Visual Dyslexia

ABSTRACT

Purpose  to evaluate and classify visual dyslexic students, considering that developmental dyslexia subtypes are not differentiated in most diagnoses and that they affect a generalized approach.

Methods  Cross-sectional, observational, analytical study composed of 80 students, divided into two groups, GA (dyslexics) and GB (without complaints of learning difficulties) using PROLEC (proof of assessment of reading processes), TVPS – 3 (Visual Test of Perceptual Skills) and TPMBO (Bruininks-Oseretsky Motor Proficiency Test) - subtests 7 and 8.

Results  Comparing the groups, the students of GA presented inferior performance in all the PROLEC tests and in the TVPS3 tests. The TPMBO tests of visuomotor coordination and manual dexterity tests were inferior. In a second stage, screening the visual dyslexics, 12 (30%) schoolchildren were found, who presented better performance in reading frequent words, when compared to the performance in reading infrequent words and pseudowords. In the visual perceptual skills (TVPS-3), they obtained values below 50%, except for the subscale constancy of form. The occurrences of exchanges in reading aloud were in confusion of letters, syllables or words with little difference in the way of writing, but different in the direction, the same students did not present exchanges or confusions between letters, which have the same point and manner of articulation, and whose sounds are acoustically close.

Conclusion  Thus, characterizing the dyslexia subtype is fundamental, because the application of therapeutic techniques will depend on the correct focus of the observed changes. Therefore, an accurate and multidisciplinary diagnosis is required.

Keywords Dyslexia; Reading; Handwriting; Visual Perception; Students