The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a multicomponent program for treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) carried out by teachers in a classroom context. Dependent measures included neuropsychological tasks, behavioral rating scales for parents and teachers, direct observation of behavior in the classroom, and academic records of children with ADHD. Fifty children with ADHD participated in the study. The teachers of 29 of the 50 students were trained in the use of behavior modification techniques, cognitive behavior strategies, and instructional management strategies. The other 21 students formed the control group. Parents' and teachers'ratings detected improvements in primary symptoms (inattention—disorganization, hyperactivity—impulsivity) and in behavioral difficulties usually associated with ADHD (e.g., antisocial behavior, psychopathological disorders, anxiety). Furthermore, the results showed increased academic scores, enhanced classroom behavioral observations, and improved teachers' knowledge about the strategies directed toward responding to the children's educational needs.

Background: Research during 2020 has been rapidly attending to the impact of COVID-19 on various dimensions of wellbeing (e.g., physical, psychological, lifestyle and routines) on adults and children around the world. However, less attention has focused on the psychoeducational impact on children and their families. To our knowledge, no currently available studies have looked specifically at the impact of COVID-19 on students with dyslexia and their families. Research on this topic is needed to offer greater support for this population of students and their families.Objective: The main objective of this paper is to examine the psychoeducational impact of the required COVID-19 quarantine in Spain among children with dyslexia and their families.Method: A sample of 32 children with dyslexia and their mothers participated in this study.Measures: Children and adolescents with dyslexia and their mother completed several measures before the required national quarantine in Spain and again during the quarantine. Children completed measures of depression, state anxiety, reading activity, and reading motivation. Mothers provided demographic information and completed measures related to students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties as well as parenting stress, parental distress, and a questionnaire about educational problems during quarantine.Results: Major findings showed that during quarantine, children with dyslexia had increased levels of depression and anxiety symptoms, and parents perceived their children as having more emotional symptoms, hyperactivity-inattention, and conduct problems. During quarantine, children and adolescents with dyslexia also showed less reading activity and less reading motivation. Parents also reported significantly more stress, during quarantine compared to pre-quarantine conditions. Some demographic and psychological variables predicted children’s state anxiety as well parental stress. The questionnaire related to impacts of quarantine also revealed several important findings. For example, nearly all parents of children with dyslexia reported (a) difficulties in establishing study routines, (b) that the quarantine negatively affected their child’s learning, and (c) that they did not receive sufficient help from teachers on how to support their child’s learning. Additionally, the vast majority of the parents were very worried about the child’s learning and school success, the child’s motivation and interest in reading, the child’s peer relations, and the professional skills of the child’s teacher.Conclusion: This study offers a preliminary investigation into this topic and elucidates several psychoeducational challenges that children with dyslexia and their families have experienced during the quarantine in Spain. Study findings highlight the need to provide immediate support for children with dyslexia and emphasizes the importance of developing prevention programs to mitigate any future negative impacts of COVID-19 on children with dyslexia and their parents.

The purpose of this study was to create and validate a scale measuring knowledge and beliefs regarding developmental dyslexia. A four-step procedure was followed to achieve this objective. A literature review generated a preliminary pool of 65 items. A group of 12 university teachers of learning disabilities read the items for content and face validity and offered comments. Based on their comments, some items were combined, and confusing items were changed or eliminated, which left a scale of 50 items, with the response options of true (V), false (F) or dońt know (NS). Later, each participant, using a description of the scales, placed each item into one of the three subscales. An item was considered part of a subscale if at least 80% of the sample was in agreement. The scale was pilot tested with a group of 89 teachers. Participants took the full 50-item scale. Based on the item-total correlations, fourteen items were deleted from the scale, resulting in the final 36-item scale. Finally, the reliability for the total scale was found to be .76 using Cronbach’ alpha. The three subscales within the scale (general information, symptoms/diagnosis, and treatment of dyslexia) all had moderate levels of internal consistency (Cronbach’ alpha ranging .64 to .69). The scale was also practical to use. It allowed a gather a great deal of information about knowledge and beliefs about dyslexia in a brief amount of time

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is frequently associated with learning disabilities. The present study examined the written composition of children with ADHD, which depends to a large degree on continuous self-regulation and attentional control skills for organizing information and maintaining the level of effort. Fifty children with ADHD and 50 normally developing children, matched on age and IQ, were assessed using a composition writing task. The results contribute to prior research findings by showing that the children with ADHD performed significantly worse than the comparison groups on the majority of the planning, translation, and revision process measures usually employed to assess the quality of written compositions. Deficiencies in executive functioning or poor linguistic and metalinguistic competence could account for the results found. More research is needed to clarify the underlying causes of the written composition performance profile of children with ADHD.