Specific Learning disorders: long term prognosis of an Italian sample

Developmental Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) show strong persistence across the school years. Some adults retain a marked dyslexia, others may be more compensated and, while showing some deficits in the automation of processes involved, are able to tackle everyday tasks using alternative strategies. The difficulties resurface when more specific tests are administered or require a higher cognitive load and a more efficient level of automation. With respect to the Italian population there are only two systematic studies on the evolution of reading skills in subjects with Dyslexia become young adults. The available data show that the typical neuropsychological deficits related to reading skills tend to persist, as well as variables related to broader cognitive and learning skills, allowing to differentiate between subjects with and without dyslexia. The SLD has a major impact both at the individual level (frequent lowering of curricular level achieved and/or premature school drop-out) and at the social level (reducing the realization of social and employment potential of the individual). This work aims to add further evidence on the outcome of the disorder in young adults. 30 Subjects, with SLD diagnosis made before age 13, were recruited and revalued at the end of Second Grade Secondary School, using a battery of standardized tests and a questionnaire on clinical and educational path. The presence of the disorder appears to affect the choice of the type of high school and determine a laborious and discontinuous schooling, although almost all subjects have received sufficient therapeutic and educational support. Faced with preserved cognitive skills, evaluation of school abilities shows how the specific difficulties persist, particularly in speed of reading text, and are associated with insufficient metacognitive strategies and skills, that affect negatively the use of written code as an expressing, learning end thinking tool.