dyslexia research | Helen Arkell

Dyslexic readers needed for an eye tracking study!

Can bolding text benefit reading in dyslexic and non-dyslexic readers?

A team of researchers at the University College London are looking for participants to help in a study aimed at understanding the reading patterns of individuals with dyslexia.

This research will help better understand the cognitive processes that underlie reading. They will use an eye-tracker to do this. By monitoring readers’ eye movements, you can learn a great deal about the moment-to-moment decisions made by readers. Reading is a vital skill in modern society and finding out more about how we achieve this amazing skill can help us better understand how to teach reading or to help those who struggle. Participants will be asked to attend a single session lasting between 1-1.5 hours at 26 Bedford Way, University College London, WC1H 0AP

During the session you will be asked to:

Complete several tasks measuring general language skills.
Read short extracts of text off a computer screen while your eye movements are recorded.

To be eligible you must:

Have a dyslexia diagnosis and be aged between 18-40 years old.
Have native-level English proficiency (or spoken English for 15+ years).
Have Normal or corrected-to-normal vision (with glasses or preferably contact
lenses).
Have no history of significant hearing loss or neurological disease.

Participants will be compensated for their time by receiving either £9/hour or 1 Credit/hour and will be helping grow our understanding in how best to help those with dyslexia, learn in the best way possible.

Please contact Haibei Wang if you are interested in taking part in this study:

Haibei.wang.23@ucl.ac.uk

+44 (0)7503986873

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-01T11:54:26+01:00July 1st, 2024|Latest news, Research news|0 Comments

Opportunities to take part in dyslexia research

We have had a flurry of requests from top universities to help recruit for various dyslexia research projects. Supporting dyslexia research is an important part of what we do here at Helen Arkell because the more that is known about dyslexia, the better we can be at understanding it and providing support.

All the research projects we promote have been approved by the appropriate university ethics committees and, in turn, by us at Helen Arkell.

We have three research projects. If suitable, we would love for you to take part. Some of the projects offer a small financial reward for taking part:

Christina at London South Bank University is asking for adults aged 18 to 40 with and without dyslexia to complete a series of questionnaires and verbal and non-verbal cognitive tasks. The study takes place in a lab at London South Bank University (Elephant & Castle campus), and takes approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. The purpose of the study is to compare the performance of people with and without dyslexia on tasks and questionnaires relating to the executive function of planning. Executive functions enable us to pay attention, plan, organise and set goals, for example they enable us to plan a holiday. Christina wants to find out whether individuals with dyslexia have any strengths or difficulties when it comes to planning, organisation and time management. If difficulties are identified, future research can explore interventions and other adjustments that can be made to help the individuals. Find out more.
Jovana at the University of Surrey is looking for adolescents with reading difficulties, their parents and teachers to create a panel of experts by experience to help design a research project. Find out more.
Manon at the University of Cambridge is running a study into music perception in dyslexia. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying speech and music processing (and their potential interactions) in people with and without reading difficulties, with a view to paving the way for new methods of remediation. To carry out this project, he is looking for volunteers aged between 18 and 40 with developmental dyslexia, who are native speakers of English and who are not musicians. Find out more.

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-23T16:31:40+01:00May 13th, 2024|Research news|0 Comments

University of Surrey needs dyslexia research advisory group volunteers

Dyslexia research volunteers needed

A group of researchers in the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey are interested in adolescents’ social and emotional experiences related to reading difficulties, so that they can better support them in the future.

They would like to involve you as a group of experts by experience to ensure their dyslexia research is relevant to adolescents with reading difficulties.

Volunteers for their dyslexia research advisory groups will give feedback on the design of the research project and recruitment materials to be used in the subsequent study itself: “Understanding the mechanisms underpinning poor mental health outcomes in children with reading disorders”.

The University of Surrey team are looking for volunteers to join 3 advisory groups:

The panels will meet online about 3 times during the year for approximately an hour.

You will be asked to read some materials before these meetings.

In the meetings, you will be asked to provide your thoughts on parts of the research.

Please contact Jovana Durica at UnRAP@surrey.ac.uk if you are interested in joining the group or if you would like more information.

By Helen Arkell|2024-07-23T16:32:49+01:00April 7th, 2024|Research news|0 Comments

What are the research priorities for the dyslexia community? Help us to find out!

We are delighted to be working with our colleague, Dr Cathy Manning and her colleagues at the University of Reading, on a collaborative research project asking people with dyslexia, and those people who support them, what are their research priorities about dyslexia. This will help inform the direction of future research efforts and guide our focus to those areas that matter most to the dyslexia community.

We are looking for people who are aged 18 years or over who:

have a diagnosis of dyslexia, OR,
are a parent/caregiver/other family member of a person with a dyslexia diagnosis.

The nature of this practical research will include you completing a brief questionnaire and being invited to a focus group (online or face-to-face) with 5 to 7 others. You will be asked some questions about your views on dyslexia research and what you would like to be researched in the future. The session will last around an hour.

If you are interested in participating, or would like to find out more, please contact Dr Cathy Manning (c.a.manning@reading.ac.uk; 0118 378 3454), Raveen Rayat (r.rayat@student.reading.ac.uk), Ella Callus (e.m.callus@student.reading.ac.uk) or Dr Holly Joseph (h.joseph@reading.ac.uk). Please note, that by getting in touch to find out more, you are not committing to participate in the study.

We look forward to hearing from you!

By admin|2024-07-23T16:36:46+01:00February 10th, 2024|Research news|0 Comments

Volunteers with dyslexia needed for psychology research

Doctoral research student Ella-Joy Osofisan is based at Richmond University and London South Bank University. She is looking for volunteers to help with her executive function research into performance of computer- and paper-based tasks.

Volunteers should:

Be aged between 18 and 40
Be a native English speaker
Have proof of a dyslexia diagnosis, eg a dyslexia assessment

Volunteers will receive a £35 Amazon voucher.

Can you help? More details are here.

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-23T16:46:38+01:00April 25th, 2023|Research news|0 Comments

Are you 11 to 13? Get a picture of your brain!

Could your 11-13-year-old help with research into engaging children in reading?

We are researchers in the N-Code Lab at Royal Holloway University, London. We are running two studies to understand why humans enjoy learning new words while reading, and whether this ‘buzz’ can be harnessed to boost learning in children with dyslexia. Our work is funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences.

In the first study, we are looking for 11-13 year olds with dyslexia (as well as neurotypical children) to complete an MRI study. We offer a £40 voucher and a picture of their brain! This requires coming to our MRI scanner at Royal Holloway, University of London, in Egham, Surrey (our postcode is TW20 0EX). We can arrange parking on campus/cover reasonable travel costs. We are recruiting 25 children with dyslexia.

Our second study is an online study. This can be done remotely via Teams and takes about 2 hours. Children complete a set of games and reading tasks. We are looking for around 25 children with dyslexia aged 11-13. We offer a £20 voucher as a token of our thanks.

We offer appointments on weekends, evenings and school holidays. To sign up, parents can email us at ncodelab@rhul.ac.uk or visit http://ncodelab.com/springboard/

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-23T16:48:35+01:00March 17th, 2023|Research news|0 Comments

Reading in adults with dyslexia research

***This study has now closed. Thank you for participating! Sign up to our e-newsletter to hear about the research results later this year.***

Laura is a third-year student at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is researching reading and enjoyment and reading behaviour in adults who have dyslexia and is recruiting participants for the study.

Laura says:

We are looking for adults aged 18-30 with dyslexia to participate in our online study, with the opportunity to enter a prize draw for a £50 Amazon voucher. We are looking for adults with normal/corrected-to-normal vision and hearing, who are native English speakers (defined as attending school in a majority English speaking country from age 5). We kindly ask you not to participate if you have a neurodevelopmental condition that affects learning (e.g. autism, ADHD, epilepsy).

The main task of the study will involve reading a series of short book extracts, rating how much you enjoy them, and deciding if you would like to read a bit more of the book, or if you would like to move straight on to the next book.

You will also be asked to complete two short questionnaires about your reading history and experiences, and a measure of reading fluency.

Taking part will take approximately 30 minutes.

Please use a computer, laptop or tablet to complete the study rather than a mobile device, to ensure tasks are displayed correctly.

***This study has now closed. Thank you for participating! Sign up to our e-newsletter to hear about the research results later this year.***

Thank you!

By Marcy Rice|2024-07-23T16:50:42+01:00December 14th, 2022|Research news|0 Comments

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