Anxiety disorders in adolescents with dyslexia: Incidence and Interventions

This thesis examined the incidence of internalising disorders in adolescents with dyslexia and evaluated two interventions. Internalising problems such as stress and anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression are well established correlates of dyslexia. These symptoms persist well past the early stages of learning to read and yet there has been no systematic attempt to evaluate such symptoms or to develop interventions to reduce them. Study 1 investigated the internalising problems of students in higher education. Dyslexic students had higher anxiety and depression, and lower self-esteem than the non-dyslexic students. Study 2 investigated the internalising problems of adolescents at risk of dropping out from school. The dyslexic adolescents had higher anxiety and lower self-esteem than the non-dyslexic adolescents. Study 3 considered the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention on cognitive function and psychological well-being on adolescents. The intervention group improved significantly more than the control group from pre- to post-intervention on the anxiety measures, on self-esteem and on cognitive function measures. Study 4 investigated the performance of adolescents on a number of cognitive tasks, including procedural and declarative memory tasks, and the effects of stress on the performance in these tasks. The dyslexic group had poorer performance in all literacy tests, executive function, and procedural memory tests. Positive correlations were found between anxiety and both declarative and procedural memory tests. Study 5 investigated the effectiveness of a cerebellar challenge intervention on cognitive and motor performance of adolescents. The intervention group improved significantly more than the control group from pre- to post-intervention on most tests, including literacy, executive function, and motor tests. In conclusion, the present research highlights the long-standing incidence of internalising problems in adolescents and students with dyslexia. Furthermore, interventions in terms of mindfulness and cerebellar challenge led to significant improvements of intervention groups both of internalising problems and of executive function issues. The results are interpreted by the cerebellar/procedural learning framework and highlight the interplay between internalising issues and more intrinsic executive function difficulties of adolescents with learning difficulties.