Remote treatment of developmental dyslexia: how ADHD comorbidity, clinical history and treatment repetition may affect its efficacy

Abstract

IntroductionTachidino is a web-based platform for remote treatment of reading and spelling disorders. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the possible impact of different clinical conditions on the efficacy of treatment. The focus was on possible ADHD comorbidity-related effects on the outcomes of the Tachidino treatment, and the impact of previous treatments, such as speech and language therapy or the repetition of the same Tachidino program.Methods136 children with developmental dyslexia received four-weeks treatment via the Tachidino platform. Improvements in reading and writing scores were compared between different subgroups.ResultsNo gross differences emerged in treatment effectiveness between groups of children. Children receiving treatment improved significantly more than untreated children.DiscussionTreatment with Tachidino brought significant benefits for all children, irrespective of comorbidity, clinical history or treatment repetition. Comparison with an untreated control group (waiting list) made it possible to exclude that improvement was due to test–retest learning effects.