Literacy Progress in Children with Dyslexia and the Role of Attention

Abstract The main focus of this study was the role of attention in children with dyslexia (n = 137), who participated in a literacy-remediation program. Prior to and during four assessment moments (pretest and follow-ups 1–3), the attentional skill was assessed using the Attention Concentration Test (ACT). The ACT provides two measures for attentional skill, namely, working speed and distraction time. Working speed, unlike distraction time, was related to word and text decoding, and spelling (i.e., literacy level). Children who had high scores on working speed were more likely to perform better on all three literacy measures. Thus, working speed is related to literacy level. Literacy progress, the improvement due to the remediation was not affected by attentional skill. An unexpected finding was that a substantial number of children with dyslexia were unable to complete the ACT task without making errors. The same task administered to a younger group of readers without dyslexia proved that the task was not too difficult for this age sample. Attentional skill, albeit related to literacy skill, had no differential effect on remediation. All children profited equally.