Personalization of Visual Characters and Text-to-Speech (TTS) to Support Learning in Students With Reading Difficulties
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Seleggo Test.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Developmental Dyslexia, Reading Problem. Basic parameters: 7 years — 15 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Italy
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Efficacy of the Personalization of Visual Parameters and Text-to-Speech to Improve Reading Speed, Accuracy and Comprehension in Students With Learning Disorders
Overview
Previous research has shown the importance of font type, size and spacing to facilitate text reading in dyslexia. A special automatized procedure was designed to select the most favorable parameters for both text visualization and text-to-speech (TTS) conversion to be used by students with reading difficulties. The validation of its outcomes will be carried out through a systematic comparison of the use of the personalized versus standard fonts and voices in reading and writing tests.
Detailed description
Seleggo is a free compensatory tool for dyslexic students. It is an online platform where school textbooks are transcribed and visualized on the screen in portable format (PDF) versions, characterized by special attention to graphical features and readability, and can be listened to via TTS technology. Special functions such as karaoke modality, conceptual maps building software, summary creation, verbal and visual definition search and the possibility to record and retrieve one's own notes and sketches are also provided. Each student with Specific learning Disorder (SLD) has a personal library and can choose the parameters for text visualization to facilitate reading, modifying the display of the text, choosing font, size and spacing, as well as TTS parameters, such as speed and pitch.
The availability of many options for text visualization and TTS, however, can be advantageous only as far as the students are able to choose and use parameters that objectively facilitate their reading and comprehension. Since the analysis of the literature suggests that subjective choices may be misleading and that general recommendations may not fit the individual's needs, we decided to build an automatized, as objective as possible procedure to help the students find the combination of parameters that is most likely to facilitate them in reading and studying. This procedure, composed by an initial, gross-grained subjective procedure and followed by a thorough, systematic analysis of reading and comprehension performance, was named "Seleggo test" to match the compensatory tool it was meant to complement.
The present study aims to assess the actual advantage of personalized parameter selection through the "Seleggo Test" procedure in supporting reading compared to the use of standard parameters. The working hypothesis is that children with reading disorders would benefit from personalized text features and TTS.
The recruitment of participants will take place in schools. It is foreseen that 30 participants are recruited for each of the three groups: typically Developing children (TD), Developmental Dyslexia (DD) and Special Educational Needs (SEN) - with reading difficulties).
Additional children will be recruited form patients with DD at Scientific Institute (IRCCS) E. Medea, if necessary to reach the expected number. Children will attend the third grade of primary school to the third grade of middle school (7 to 15 years old).
Interventions
- Device Seleggo Test
Seleggo Test is a computerized procedure to identify the personalized visual and auditory parameters facilitating reading and writing for each participant. By applying these parameters to the visualization and to the TTS software during reading of school texts, the participants are expected to be facilitated in reading and understanding the text.
Primary outcome measures
- Reading facilitation (speed), i.e. the advantage in reading performance (speed) produced by personalized parameters as compared to standard parameters [Time frame: Intervention will take place during initial assessment and will last about 1,5 hours (comparison between personalized and standard parameters during the same assessment session)]
- Reading facilitation (accuracy), i.e. the advantage in reading performance (accuracy) produced by personalized parameters as compared to standard parameters [Time frame: Intervention will take place during initial assessment and will last about 1,5 hours (comparison between personalized and standard parameters during the same assessment session)]
- Comprehension facilitation, i.e. the advantage in auditory comprehension performance produced by personalized TTS parameters as compared to standard parameters [Time frame: Intervention will take place during initial assessment and will last about 1,5 hours (comparison between personalized and standard parameters during the same assessment session)]
Secondary outcome measures (6)
- possibility to discriminate TD students' reading speed from that of students with DD and SEN [Time frame: about 10 months]
- possibility to discriminate TD students's reading accuracy from that of students with DD and SEN [Time frame: about 10 months]
- possibility to discriminate TD students' writing accuracy from that of students with DD and SEN [Time frame: about 10 months]
- validity and reliability values for the reading speed measures collected by the software [Time frame: about 10 months]
- validity and reliability values for the reading accuracy measures collected by the software [Time frame: about 10 months]
- validity and reliability values for the writing accuracy measures collected by the software [Time frame: about 10 months]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion Criteria (for TD group):
- age 7-15 years
- no history of reading difficulties
- attends school in Italy
Exclusion Criteria (for TD group):
- special educational needs or diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders
Inclusion Criteria (for DD group):
- age 7-15 years
- diagnosis of Developmental Dyslexia or Specific Reading Disorder
- Attends school in Italy
Exclusion Criteria (for DD group):
- diagnosis of Intellectual Disability
Inclusion Criteria (for SEN group):
- age 7-15 years
- reported by school to have significant difficulties in reading and writing
- Attends school in Italy (at least 6 months continued schooling and exposure to the Italian language)
Exclusion Criteria (for SEN group):
- diagnosis of Intellectual Disability
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- N/A
- Model
- Single group
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
Study locations
Italy · 3 centers
- IRCCS E. Medea, polo di Bosisio Parini — Bosisio Parini
- IRCCS E.Medea, polo di Conegliano — Conegliano
- Associazione La Nostra Famiglia — Treviso
Publications
- Lorusso ML, Borasio F, Panetto P, Curioni M, Brotto G, Pons G, Carsetti A, Molteni M. Validation of a Web App Enabling Children with Dyslexia to Identify Personalized Visual and Auditory Parameters Facilitating Online Text Reading. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction. 2024; 8(1):5.
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06947512 · 996