Findings of this review confirm that suitable social, health and school policies aimed at identifying and treating dyslexia as a cause of discomfort are called for, and confirm the clinical need to assess and contrast additional risk factors that may increase the probability of this suffering in dyslexic students.

Even though the real prevalence of ADHD in first graders is presumably lower than that found in the present study, this screening procedure might allow detecting those children who could benefit from referral for more comprehensive assessments.

Many studies on cognitive impulsivity in learning disabled children have been criticized for their methodological limitations, and they have not dealt with the different types of learning disability. The aim of this study was to overcome these limitations and to assess if there was a significant cognitive impulsivity in reading disorder and/or spelling disorder by using the 20-item Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF20). A total of 110 children (second through eighth grades) were recruited from a cohort of children assessed for the first time in a National Health clinic specialized in the study of specific learning disabilities. In all, 30 dyslexic children and 25 children with spelling disorder (all children without an ADHD comorbidity) were compared with 55 children of a control group on the MMF20 (accuracy and time latency). Results showed that the children with reading disorder were less accurate than the children with spelling disability (p<0.05). Both these groups performed less accurately than the control group. Subjects with dyslexia were faster than both the other groups in response time (p<0.05), clearly showing a significantly higher cognitive impulsivity than the other groups. Hence, data seem to confirm the idea that, similar to ADHD children, dyslexic children have impaired frontal/prefrontal functions. Clinical and treatment implications are discussed.

When applying stringent criteria for both severity and pervasiveness of symptoms, it is estimated that about 1.3% of the Italian elementary and middle-school children suffer from severe ADHD.

Different moderators/mediators of risk are involved in developmental dyslexia (DD), but data are inconsistent. We explored the prevalence of season of birth and its association with gender and age of school entry in an Italian sample of dyslexic children compared to an Italian normal control group. The clinical sample included 498 children (345 boys, mean age 10.3 ± 2.1 years) with DD, the control sample 1,276 children (658 boys, mean age 10.8 ± 2.2 years) from four elementary schools from the same urban area, and with the same socio-economic status level. A prevalence of birth in autumn was found among children with DD compared to controls (34% versus 24%, p < 0.0001). Children with DD were more frequently males (p < 0.0001) and had a lower mean age of school entry (p < 0.0001). Regarding the distribution of ages, 11.4% of children with DD, but none of the subjects in the control group, started school before 5.7 years. Therefore, greater risk of DD was related to age of school entry (OR = 2.72), gender (OR = 2.16), and season of birth (OR = 1.21). Significant interactions between boys with DD born in autumn, and correct school of entry (OR = 2.56) were joint predictors of higher risk of DD. The association between birth in autumn and DD may be explained by the earlier age of school entry, which may be a critical element in the youngest children with DD or at risk to DD. Whether Italian school policy is oriented to anticipate the school entry, a closer detection of early learning disorders and associated risk factors (familial load, specific language disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) should be warranted.