Executive, behavioural and emotional functioning in Spanish children with dyslexia.
Miguel López-Zamora, Nadia Porcar-Gozalbo, Alejandro Cano-Villagrasa and 1 others
PMID 41417542WHAT IT FOUND
Spanish children with dyslexia had higher parent and teacher reported anxiety, depression and aggression, and poorer executive functioning.
Executive functioning was associated with emotional problems, but no intervention was tested.
Key findings
01Compared with typical readers, children with dyslexia had higher parent and teacher reported aggression, anxiety and depression.
02Children with dyslexia showed marked difficulties on executive function measures, especially lower resistance to interference and poorer verbal fluency.
03Executive functioning was associated with emotional problems, and the direct dyslexia-internalizing association weakened when executive functioning was included.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study measured children at a specific point in time, so it cannot show whether dyslexia, executive functioning or emotional problems came first. Emotional and behavioural scores came from parent and teacher questionnaires, which can miss or exaggerate problems. All children were monolingual Spanish speakers born in Spain and aged 8 to 10 years, so results may not fit other languages, ages or backgrounds. The paper did not test any treatment, so it cannot say whether improving executive functioning would reduce anxiety, depression or behaviour problems.
Declared interests
The funding and conflicts of interest section states financial support: nothing to declare.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the executive functioning mediation result as proof that training executive functioning will reduce anxiety or depression. The study was cross-sectional and did not test an intervention, so it only shows associations at a specific time point.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →