Insights from a dyslexia simulation font: Can we simulate reading struggles of individuals with dyslexia?

Abstract

Dyslexia is the most common learning disability (Lerner, 1989;Siegel, 1999) with reported prevalence rates between 5% and 15% in school-aged children (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). This would equate to approximately 12 million children and 53 million total individuals in the United States and Canada affected by dyslexia. Individuals with dyslexia often take much longer to read texts and do so with lower levels of comprehension, resulting in the need to re-read complete texts (Rayner, Murphy, Henderson, & Pollatsek, 1989;Swanson & Hsieh, 2009). These difficulties can make the process of reading strenuous and exhausting on a daily basis. Above and beyond acadaemic and professional struggles caused by a disability in reading and spelling, individuals with dyslexia report experiencing lowered self-esteem and decreased motivation, resulting in increased levels of anxiety and depression among this population. Children with dyslexia may be called lazy and unintelligent (Baker & Ireland, 2007;Nelson & Harwood, 2011;Snowling, 2013). Together, these difficulties and the high prevalence rate accentuate the critical need to improve understanding of the various struggles faced by individuals with dyslexia among the general public.Research attempting to find the main cause underlying these struggles has given rise to the phonological theory

How to Run Behavioural Experiments Online: Best Practice Suggestions for Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience

“…As in previous studies, we suggest safeguarding against including participants in the control group who might be part of a special population. For instance, participants who are suspected to encounter dyslexiarelated issues can be filtered by means of the Adult Dyslexia Checklist (Franzen, 2018;Franzen et al, 2021;Smythe & Everatt, 2001;Stark et al, 2022). This checklist is a selfreport questionnaire that can be easily administered and scored online without much effort on the experimenters' side.…”

Validation and Reliability of the Dyslexia Adult Checklist in Screening for Dyslexia

“…Currently, use of this tool is twofold; in self exploration and understanding (British Dyslexia Association, n.d.), and for research purposes for group categorization (Franzen, Stark & Johnson, 2021;Stark, Franzen, Johnson, 2022;Vatansever, Bozhilova, Asherson, & Smallwood, 2019). With the current research, we aim to prompt other researchers in the field in reporting psychometric properties of screening and assessment tools used on their own research.…”

Non-Linguistic Working Memory Challenges in Dyslexia in The Context of Applied Consumer Psychology

“…It was important to avoid the inclusion of individuals in the non-dyslexia group who were suspected to regularly encounter dyslexia related difficulties via self-reports. As we have done in previous studies (Franzen et al, 2021;Stark et al, 2022), we used the Adult Dyslexia Checklist (Smythe & Everatt, 2000) to exclude individuals from the non-dyslexia group. This checklist is a valid self-report screener for adults (Stark et al, 2023).…”

“…As we have done in previous studies (Franzen et al, 2021;Stark et al, 2022), we used the Adult Dyslexia Checklist (Smythe & Everatt, 2000) to exclude individuals from the non-dyslexia group. This checklist is a valid self-report screener for adults (Stark et al, 2023). Exclusion was determined by a conservative upper cut-off score of 40 on the Adult Dyslexia Checklist 40]; Figure 1C).…”