LEARNING DISORDERS AS A BARRIER TO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Cel

The main objective of this Action is to establish a European multidisciplinary research co-operation on learning processes and their disorders in order to contribute to the understanding of early reading failure, in particular dyslexia, taking into account the language and other cultural differences related to literacy. Activities focus on

the exploration of major conceptual and assessment issues,

research concentrating on identifying the major bottlenecks in the acquisition of reading skills using such methods as the follow-up of the development course of the acquisition of reading skills, cross-linguistic comparisons of reading problems, and experimental remediation approaches,

psychophysiological research to uncover the brain-based foundations of learning and reading disorders.

Current status

The Action entered into force on 12 January 1995 for an initial period of three years. In the beginning the following research areas were identified as being of interest to the Action :

core features of dyslexia - research using means provided by cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology and psychophysiology;

development of the phonological decoding skills forming the basis of fluent reading, with the focus on the sources of failure in their acquisition during childhood;

cognitive/attentional/behavioral features identified as risk factors for learning disorders.

Five Working Groups have been established :

large-scale studies;

crosslinguistic issues;

cognitive and neuropsychological assessment issues;

psychophysiology;

treatment and prevention issues.

Their task is to consider the conceptual and measurement issues relevant for concrete collaborative research and suggest areas of interest for experimental research problems.

The chairman - on behalf of the MC - has presented the subject area of the Action to DG XII of the CEC and has asked for inclusion in the 5th FP.

The Action has made extensive use of the possibility of Short-Term Scientific Missions. These have resulted in a number of collaborative activities between researchers from different countries.

Work planned

During the Action's first two years of operation it has become clear that the theoretical and practical issues are extremely complex, involving multidisciplinary approaches, variations in diagnosis and definition, as well as differing educational systems and pedagogic methods. Also, it has become clear that the longitudinal component of the research is essential. The MC has therefore asked the Technical Committee Social Sciences to recommend an extension of the Action for two years (to January 2000) to the CSO. This will be decided in 1997.

Program(-y)

IC-COST - European cooperation in the field of scientific and technical research (COST), 1971-

Temat(-y)

6 - Social Sciences

Zaproszenie do składania wniosków

Data not available

System finansowania

Data not available

Koordynator

CEC

Wkład UE

Brak danych

Adres

Rue de la loi, 200
1049 Brussels
Belgia

Koszt całkowity