There are still differences in diagnosis between Northern and Southern Italy
More attention to bilingualism, a consequence of the migratory phenomenon, to predictive indices, to school-age evaluation and to a ‘certification’ that facilitates entry into the world of work. They are the key points at the heart of the new Guidelines for the management of interventions for the treatment of Specific Learning Disorders (SLD).
Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dysorthography and dyscalculia are phenomena which quintupled from 2010 to 2019 (from 0.9 to 4.9% *) among the school population as attested by the latest MIUR data, according to which fewer and fewer students, children and adolescents, are able to read, write and work with numbers in a fluid and correct way. We are talking about 298,114 students of the third, fourth and fifth year of primary school and of the secondary school of I and of the second degree, equal to 4.9% of the total students of Italian state and non-state schools, who have had a diagnosis’ certified by DSA in 2019.
A widely underestimated situation due to the different territorial surveys, significantly lower in the South than in Northern Italy: 7.3% of full-blown DSA certifications issued to pupils in the North West; 5.9% in the North East and 5.7% in the Center, all percentages above the national average, compared to only 2.4% certifications issued in the South.
In some cases, to aggravate the learning difficulties, the condition of bilingualism weighs: again according to the MIUR, 10% of the school population is of migratory origin and is potentially exposed to developing an SLD. It will now also be essential to quantify the clearly pejorative effect that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on this problem. After more than 10 years it was therefore essential for the scientific community to update the ‘rules’ of intervention, integrating and updating the previous 2010 document with new Guidelines. The new Guidelines, promoted by the Italian Dyslexia Association (AID), coordinated by a special commission of experts, they will be disseminated by the Scientific Societies involved, including the Federation of Speech Therapists on the occasion of the European Day of Speech Therapy on March 6.
The guidelines
“Among the novelties of the document – he explains Tiziana Rossetto, president of FLI – there is attention to bilingualism and the diagnosis of ASD in adulthood. The phenomenon of immigration and the increasing number of foreign minors inserted in schools, equal to 10% of the school population in the year 2018/2019, caused the phenomenon to explode, requiring clinicians to carefully evaluate the abilities of the child exposed to two o more languages and the sharing with families and schools of clinical indications for specific and effective educational-didactic support, where necessary. For example, the document suggests the importance of linguistic biography and an analysis of linguistic history, through questionnaires and interviews with parents to evaluate the duration and type of bilingualism: simultaneous, with continuous exposure to two languages from birth, early, with continuous exposure to the second language within 3-4 years or late after 5 years “.
“The document, another novelty – he adds Anna Giulia De Cagno, FLI vice president – deals with the aspect of DSA certification for children and adults, necessary for entry and integration into the world of work, study paths / evening courses for working students or university courses. One of the latest decrees to participate in public competitions (How to participate in public competitions for individuals with specific learning disabilities “published in the Official Gazette on 9.11.2021), provides for the possibility of using compensatory tools, replacing the written test with an oral one or more time available in all public administration competitions. Therefore, the evaluation and clinical certification of DSA in adulthood becomes fundamental to obtain these recognitions and deserving of clinical-diagnostic strategies shared by doctors “.
“The 2021 Guidelines – he concludes Luigi Marotta, Speech therapist Vice-president of the Italian Logopedia Scientific Association – are an example of a virtuous path in the field of clinical practice, born from the synergistic work of multi-professional associations, useful for the best management and protection of people with SLD in all areas. It is now necessary that the document be disseminated and shared as much as possible and above all applied, so that good practice becomes a common denominator for all realities “.