Skolverket har som mål att stärka elevers digitala kompetens inom skolväsendet för att främja kunskapsutvecklingen och anser att mer forskning behövs för att se hur elever kan uppnå en hög digital kompetens. För att digitala verktyg ska kunna stötta elevers lärande behöver dessa verktyg utvärderas ur ett elevperspektiv, speciellt för elever med dyslexi som har ett stort behov av digitala verktyg för att uppnå kunskapskraven. När en elev har fått diagnosen dyslexi sätts digitala verktyg in i undervisningen i syfte att underlätta elevens svårigheter, däremot finns det lite forskning som visar på hur elever upplever digitala verktyg i deras undervisning och om de digitala verktygen verkligen stödjer eleverna i deras lärande.Syftet med studien var därför att ta reda på hur digitala verktyg kan främja lärandet för elever med dyslexi sett ur ett elevperspektiv. Genom en kvalitativ forskningsmetod och intervjuer med sex dyslektiska elever från högstadiet och gymnasiet har studien undersökt elevernas upplevelser av digitala verktyg i en skolmiljö. Resultatet från studien visade på att de flesta elever upplevde flera fördelar med digitala verktyg. Ett rättstavningsprogram bidrog till att elever kände flyt i sitt skrivande då de enkelt kunde rätta till grammatiska fel och stavfel. Genom att använda datorn som verktyg för att ta anteckningar kunde elever hänga med i skolan på ett bättre sätt. Läsförståelsen och ordförrådet förbättrades genom att lyssna på böcker med digitala verktyg. Motivationen ökade när elever kände att de utvecklades i deras lärande. Dock upplevde vissa elever även utmaningar med digitala verktyg som kunde hämma deras lärande. Röda undermarkeringar som påvisade felstavningar i ett rättstavningsprogram upplevdes som störande och negativa. Talsynteser med datoriserade röster upplevdes som svåra att förstå. Andra utmaningar som lyftes fram av eleverna var tekniska problem och brist på digital kompetens hos lärare. En lärarens kompetens för att anpassa ett digitalt stöd efter elevers olika behov ansågs som en viktig faktor för elevens lärande. / The National Agency for Education aims to strengthen students' digital competence in the school system to promote student's development of knowledge and believes that more research is needed to see how students can meet a high level of digital competence. For digital tool's ability to support students' learning, these tools need to be evaluated from a student perspective, especially for students with dyslexia who have a great need for digital tools to achieve the knowledge requirements. When a student is diagnosed with dyslexia, digital tools are used in the teaching to alleviate the student's difficulties nevertheless there is little research that shows how students experience digital tools in their education and whether the digital tools support students in their learning.The purpose of the study omitted to find out how digital tools can promote learning for students with dyslexia from a student perspective. Through a qualitative research methodand interviews with six dyslexic students from high school and high school, the study has examined students' experiences of digital tools in a school environment.The results from the study showed that most students experienced several benefits of digital tools. A spelling program helped students feel fluent in their writing because of the easiness of correct grammatical errors and spelling errors. Students could keep up with the school better by using the computer as a tool for taking notes. Reading comprehension and vocabulary were improved by listening to books with digital tools. Motivation increased when students felt that they were developing in their learning. However, some students also experienced challenges with digital tools that could hamper their learning. Students perceived red underscores that indicated misspellings in a spelling program as disruptive and negative. Students perceived speech syntheses with computerized voices as hard to understand. Other challenges highlighted by the students were technical problems and lack of digital competence in teachers. A teacher's competence to adopt digital support to students' different needs was considered a key reason for the student's learning.

Den här studien vill synliggöra elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter och deras situation på yrkes­förberedande gymnasieprogram. Studien är baserad på kvalitativa halvstruktu­rerade intervjuer med kvinnliga elever som studerar vid yrkesförberedande gymnasieprogram. Resultatet belyser det stöd och bemötande som eleverna upplever från skola, familj och kamra­ter. Ett tydligt re­sultat i denna studie är brist på information från lärare till elever om tillgängliga kompenserande hjälpmedel. I slutsatsen presenteras förslag på utvecklingsprojekt mellan be­rörda parter i skolan för att förbättra måluppfyllelsen för elever i behov av särskilt stöd.

Detta är ett examensarbete i informationsdesign med inriktning textdesign. Syftetmed studien är att undersöka aspekter som gör digitala texter tillgängliga förutvald mottagargrupp med hjälp av principer framtagna för dessa i kombinationmed principer inom informationsdesign. Undersökningar och analyser har gjorts genom litteraturundersökning, läsbarhetsanalys, enkätundersökning, intervju och A/B test. Undersökningarna har visat på behovet av förenklat, anpassat informationsmaterial för mottagarna. Ett förslag på ett anpassat exempelmaterial för mottagarna läggs fram i slutet av rapporten.Teorier som har används i studien är läsbarhetsteorier, kommunikationsteoriersamt teorier inom grafisk formgivning och tillgänglighet för att styrka studien och dess relevans inom forskningen.

The overall purpose of the present study is to investigate experiences of adaptations and special support during the final years of school, from junior high school to high school. Part of the aim is to analyse teachers' perceptions of the support they provide in the Swedish language subject to students who have dyslexia and/or reading and writing difficulties. The other part is to establish how students with dyslexia and/or reading and writing difficulties perceive the support they receive. To achieve the aim, three semi-structured interviews were conducted with one junior high school teacher and two high school teachers, all of whom are experienced teachers in Swedish. Furthermore, three semi-structured interviews were conducted with high school students.                      The empirical evidence obtained was analysed based on Lev Vygotskij's sociocultural theory. The results show that the teachers partially agree on how they can adapt the teaching of Swedish for students with dyslexia and/or reading and writing difficulties from a socio-cultural perspective. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the three teachers believe that they lack on-going education about dyslexia and reading and writing difficulties. The results from the interviews with the high school students show that they experience less support from teachers at high school compared to junior high school. We can conclude that Swedish teachers need more knowledge about the causes of dyslexia and other reading and writing difficulties in order to design sustainable and well-functioning support and adaptations. Another conclusion is that most of the teachers (2 out of 3) have insight into how the external conditions in the learning environment can be adapted to accommodate students’ reading and writing problems. A second conclusion drawn from the high school students' responses is that they would like more support from teachers in all subjects, not only Swedish. The final conclusion, which is considered very important, is their wish for the teachers to acknowledge and highlight their strengths instead of pointing out their weaknesses.

Malmö högskolaLärarutbildningenSkolutveckling och ledarskapMagisterkurs i specialpedagogikHöstterminen 2008Borgfors, S. (2008). Att få diagnosen dyslexi först under gymnasietiden: tio ungdomars verklighet - en kritisk betraktelse. Skolutveckling och ledarskap, Specialpedagogisk magisterutbildning, Malmö högskola.Följande kvalitativa studie, med abduktiv ansats och reflexiv metod som vetenskapsfilosofisk grund, är resultatet av intervjuer med tio ungdomar som har fått diagnos dyslexi först under sin gymnasietid. Syftet var att utröna om diagnostiseringsprocessen och dyslexidiagnosen i sig hade haft någon betydelse för informanternas självbild, studiesituation och studieresultat. Intervjuerna reflekterade också betydelsen av omgivningens förhållningssätt till informanternas svårigheter, såväl före som efter diagnos. Den enskilda skolans och lärarens utövande av makt, bl.a. genom hur styrdokumentens riktlinjer för elever med särskilda behov tolkas, är av största vikt för den enskilda elevens möjligheter till kunskaps- och färdighetsutveckling. Vid jämförelser mellan intervjuerna och tidigare forskning synliggjordes betydelsen av såväl samhällsövergripande som individ- och klassrumscentrerade normativa mönster och brist på kunskap kring dyslexi, med risker för därpå följande stigmatiseringsprocesser. Studiens resultat visar att diagnostiseringen har haft en positiv inverkan på informanternas självbild, studiesituation och studieresultat. Studien visar också att informanterna är rädda för omgivningens okunskap och fördomar. Resultaten motsäger att diagnostisering i sig är stigmatiserande, men ger belägg för att omgivningens attityder till och värderingar av läs- och skrivsvårigheter kan vara det. Fortbildning av skolledare och pedagogisk personal i läs- och skrivutveckling/-problematik framstår som ytterst angelägen.Nyckelord: diagnostisering, dyslexi, fortbildning, kunskap, makt, normer, självbild, stigmatisering, värderingar, åtgärder Susanne Borgfors Handledare: Ingrid Sandén Examinator: Lena Lang / Malmö UniversitySchool of Education, School Development and LeadershipMasters Programme in Special Needs EducationAutumn Term 2008Borgfors, S. (2008). Getting the Diagnosis of Dyslexia only during Upper Secondary School: the Reality of Ten Adolescents – a Critical Study. School Development and Leadership, Masters Programme in Special Needs Education, Malmö University.This qualitative study, performed with an abductive and reflexive method, is the result of interviews with ten adolescents who have received the diagnosis of dyslexia during their time at upper secondary school. The fundamental aim of the study was to examine if the process of diagnosing, and the diagnosis of dyslexia in itself, have affected the informants’ regard of self, study situation and study results. The interviews reflected the significance of attitudes among adults and peers, concerning the informants’ reading and writing difficulties, both before and after the diagnosis. To enable the students’ development of cognition and proficiency, it is of great importance how schools and teachers wield their power when interpreting the principles in the steering documents regarding special education needs. When comparing the interviews with results of earlier research, the lack of knowledge about dyslexia, the importance of normative patterns, attitudes and values in society, the classroom and the individual, with the following risks of stigmatization processes, became evident.The results of the study indicate that the process of diagnosing and the diagnosis itself have had positive consequences for the informants’ concept of self, study situation and study results. The study results also show that the informants fear the ignorance and prejudice of adults and peers. The results suggest that a diagnosis of dyslexia in itself is not stigmatizing to the individual, but confirm that the attitudes and values of others can be so. Continuing professional development of school leaders and teachers regarding reading and writing development/difficulties is of the utmost importance.Keywords: continuing professional development, diagnosing, dyslexia, knowledge, measures, norms, power, self, stigmatization, valuesSusanne Borgfors Tutor: Ingrid Sandén Examiner: Lena Lang

Malmö högskolaLärarutbildningenSkolutveckling och ledarskapMagisterkurs i specialpedagogikHöstterminen 2008Borgfors, S. (2008). Att få diagnosen dyslexi först under gymnasietiden: tio ungdomars verklighet - en kritisk betraktelse. (Getting the Diagnosis of Dyslexia only during Upper Secondary School: the Reality of Ten Adolescents – a Critical Study.) Skolutveckling och ledarskap, Specialpedagogisk magisterutbildning, Malmö högskola.Följande kvalitativa studie, med abduktiv ansats och reflexiv metod som vetenskapsfilosofisk grund, är resultatet av intervjuer med tio ungdomar som har fått diagnos dyslexi först under sin gymnasietid. Syftet var att utröna om diagnostiseringsprocessen och dyslexidiagnosen i sig hade haft någon betydelse för informanternas självbild, studiesituation och studieresultat. Intervjuerna reflekterade också betydelsen av omgivningens förhållningssätt till informanternas svårigheter, såväl före som efter diagnos. Den enskilda skolans och lärarens utövande av makt, bl.a. genom hur styrdokumentens riktlinjer för elever med särskilda behov tolkas, är av största vikt för den enskilda elevens möjligheter till kunskaps- och färdighetsutveckling. Vid jämförelser mellan intervjuerna och tidigare forskning synliggjordes betydelsen av såväl samhällsövergripande som individ- och klassrumscentrerade normativa mönster och brist på kunskap kring dyslexi, med risker för därpå följande stigmatiseringsprocesser. Studiens resultat visar att diagnostiseringen har haft en positiv inverkan på informanternas självbild, studiesituation och studieresultat. Studien visar också att informanterna är rädda för omgivningens okunskap och fördomar. Resultaten motsäger att diagnostisering i sig är stigmatiserande, men ger belägg för att omgivningens attityder till och värderingar av läs- och skrivsvårigheter kan vara det. Fortbildning av skolledare och pedagogisk personal i läs- och skrivutveckling/-problematik framstår som ytterst angelägen.Nyckelord: diagnostisering, dyslexi, fortbildning, kunskap, makt, normer, självbild, stigmatisering, värderingar, åtgärder Susanne Borgfors Handledare: Ingrid Sandén Examinator: Lena Lang / Malmö UniversitySchool of Education, School Development and LeadershipMasters Programme in Special Needs EducationAutumn Term 2008Borgfors, S. (2008). Getting the Diagnosis of Dyslexia only during Upper Secondary School: the Reality of Ten Adolescents – a Critical Study. School Development and Leadership, Masters Programme in Special Needs Education, Malmö University.This qualitative study, performed with an abductive and reflexive method, is the result of interviews with ten adolescents who have received the diagnosis of dyslexia during their time at upper secondary school. The fundamental aim of the study was to examine if the process of diagnosing, and the diagnosis of dyslexia in itself, have affected the informants’ regard of self, study situation and study results. The interviews reflected the significance of attitudes among adults and peers, concerning the informants’ reading and writing difficulties, both before and after the diagnosis. To enable the students’ development of cognition and proficiency, it is of great importance how schools and teachers wield their power when interpreting the principles in the steering documents regarding special education needs. When comparing the interviews with results of earlier research, the lack of knowledge about dyslexia, the importance of normative patterns, attitudes and values in society, the classroom and the individual, with the following risks of stigmatization processes, became evident.The results of the study indicate that the process of diagnosing and the diagnosis itself have had positive consequences for the informants’ concept of self, study situation and study results. The study results also show that the informants fear the ignorance and prejudice of adults and peers. The results suggest that a diagnosis of dyslexia in itself is not stigmatizing to the individual, but confirm that the attitudes and values of others can be so. Continuing professional development of school leaders and teachers regarding reading and writing development/difficulties is of the utmost importance.Keywords: continuing professional development, diagnosing, dyslexia, knowledge, measures, norms, power, self, stigmatization, valuesSusanne Borgfors Tutor: Ingrid Sandén Examiner: Lena Lang

This study aims to investigate and compare in-service and pre-service teachers confidence and knowledge regarding dyslexia. In order to investigate this, two research questions are formulated: 1) We seek to identify differences in the way that in-service and pre-service teachers perceive their own competency in dealing with and accommodating the needs of students with dyslexia in the English classroom. 2) We seek to identify differences in the knowledge that in-service and pre-service teachers have in the areas touched upon in the first research question. In addition to these two research questions two hypotheses are made regarding the expected results. (a) That in-service teachers will have greatly larger knowledge regarding dyslexia while, (b) teacher educations does not provide pre-service teachers with enough information and tools to aid dyslexic students. To find an answer to these research questions, a questionnaire is created and sent to in-service teachers working in southern Skåne and pre-service teachers currently enrolled in Malmö University’s teachers’ education. The results show that pre-service teachers do not feel confident in their ability to detect students with dyslexia. In comparison, in-service teachers feel more confident in this area. However, several of the participants from the in-service teacher demographic present that they, in alignment with the pre-service teacher demographic did not feel confident in their ability to detect dyslexic students in their class. From both demographics the results show that participants feel highly unconfident regarding teaching EFL to dyslexic students.

The ability to read proficiently is key to social participation and an important premise for individual well-being and vocational success. Individuals with developmental dyslexia, a highly prevalent neurodevelopmental disorder affecting hundreds of millions of children and adults worldwide, face severe and persistent difficulties in attaining adequate reading levels. Despite years of extensive research efforts to elucidate the neurobiological origin of this disorder, its exact etiology remains unclear to date. In this context, most neuroimaging research on dyslexia in humans has focused on the cerebral cortex and has identified alterations in a distributed left-lateralized cortical language network. However, pioneering post-mortem human studies and animal models suggest that dyslexia might also be associated with alterations in subcortical sensory thalami and early sensory pathways. The largely cortico-centric view of dyslexia is due in part to considerable technical challenges in assessing the human sensory thalami non-invasively using conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). As a result, the role that sensory thalami may play in dyslexia has been largely unaddressed. In this dissertation, I leveraged recent advances in high-field MRI to investigate the role of the human lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the visual thalamus in adults with dyslexia in-vivo. In three multi-modal high-field MRI studies, I show that (i) dyslexia is associated with structural alterations in the direct V1-bypassing white matter pathway connecting the LGN with cortical motion-sensitive area V5/MT in the left hemisphere; (ii) the connectivity strength of which predicts a core symptom of the disorder, i.e., rapid naming ability. I further demonstrate that (iii) the two major functional subdivisions of the LGN can be distinguished non-invasively based on differences in tissue microstructure; and that (iv) adults with dyslexia show functional response alterations specifically in the magnocellular subdivision of the LGN. I also demonstrate that this subdivision deficit (v) is more pronounced in male than female dyslexics; and (vi) predicts rapid naming ability in male dyslexics only. The results of this doctoral thesis are the first to confirm previous post-mortem evidence of LGN alterations in dyslexia in-vivo and point to their relevance to key symptoms of the disorder. In synergy, our research findings offer new perspectives on explanatory models of dyslexia and bear potential implications also for prospective treatment strategies.:Contribution Statement i Acknowledgments iii Abstract v Table of Contents vii 1 General Introduction 1 1.1 Developmental Dyslexia 1 1.1.1 Diagnostic Criteria 1 1.1.2 Prevalence and Etiology 2 1.1.3 Cognitive and Behavioral Symptoms 3 1.1.4 Explanatory Models in Cognitive Neuroscience 4 1.2 Lateral Geniculate Nucleus 7 1.2.1 Anatomy and Function 7 1.2.2 Technical Challenges in Conventional MRI 8 1.2.3 High-Field MRI 9 1.3 Research Aim and Chapter Outline 10 2 Altered Structural Connectivity of the Left Visual Thalamus in Developmental Dyslexia 13 2.1 Summary 14 2.2 Results and Discussion 15 2.3 Conclusions 22 2.4 Materials and Methods 23 2.4.1 Subject Details 23 2.4.2 High-Resolution MRI Acquisition and Preprocessing 23 2.4.3 Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Definition 24 2.4.4 Cortical Region of Interest Definition 26 2.4.5 Probabilistic Tractography 27 2.4.6 Quantification and Statistical Analysis 29 2.5 Supplementary Information 30 3 Mapping the Human Lateral Geniculate Nucleus and its Cytoarchitectonic Subdivisions Using Quantitative MRI 33 3.1 Abstract 34 3.2 Introduction 35 3.3 Materials and Methods 37 3.3.1 In-Vivo MRI 37 3.3.2 Post-Mortem MRI and Histology 41 3.4 Results 44 3.4.1 Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Subdivisions in In-Vivo MRI 44 3.4.2 Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Subdivisions in Post-Mortem MRI 46 3.5 Discussion 50 3.6 Supplementary Information 54 3.6.1 In-Vivo MRI 54 3.6.2 Post-Mortem MRI and Histology 58 3.6.3 Data and Code Availability 60 4 Dysfunction of the Visual Sensory Thalamus in Developmental Dyslexia 61 4.1 Abstract 62 4.2 Introduction 63 4.3 Materials and Methods 66 4.3.1 Subject Details 66 4.3.2 High-Resolution MRI Experiments 66 4.3.3 High-Resolution MRI Acquisition and Preprocessing 67 4.3.4 Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Definition 68 4.3.5 Quantification and Statistical Analysis 69 4.4 Results 70 4.5 Discussion 75 4.6 Supplementary Information 77 4.6.1 Supporting Methods 77 4.6.2 Supporting Results 81 4.6.3 Data and Code Availability 82 5 General Conclusion 83 5.1 Summary of Research Findings 83 5.2 Implications for Dyslexia Models 84 5.2.1 Phonological Deficit Hypothesis 84 5.2.2 Magnocellular Theory 84 5.2.3 Model According to Ramus 85 5.2.4 Need for Revised Model 86 5.3 Implications for Remediation 87 5.4 Research Prospects 88 5.5 Brief Concluding Remarks 90 6 Bibliography 91 7 List of Tables 113 8 List of Figures 115 9 Selbstständigkeitserklärung 117

Dyslexia is a widely known disorder that impairs the diagnosed students’ literacy in multiple ways. There is a lot of research done on how dyslexia hinders literacy skills in a person's first language; however, not as much research has been done on how the disorder affects the reading skills in English as a second language (ESL). The purpose and aim of the literature review is to examine and evaluate how dyslexia affects the reading skills and reading comprehension, and to explore what pedagogical tools that are available to better facilitate reading skills for dyslexic students in ESL. The method used for conducting this literature review was through searching peer-reviewed scientific articles in two separate databases. Furthermore, the results showed that dyslexic students’ reading skills were impaired by poor working memory and poor phonological awareness. Nevertheless, the results also indicated that there are several pedagogical tools available, such as computer-based instruction for example, in order to aid dyslexic students in developing their reading skills in ESL. Consequently, the findings of this literature review coincided with the Swedish curriculum and the Swedish syllabus for the English courses in the upper secondary school concerning using various teaching strategies and pedagogical tools in the teaching of ESL. The almost certain inevitability of teaching dyslexic students in ESL in the future profession as an ESL teacher further validates and amplifies the importance of this study.

Reading affects everything we do in life. Sometimes it is difficult to determine how many people have a reading disability, and what tools can be used to overcome it. The main aim of this thesis is to gain insight into how and if audio recordings (audiobooks, talking books or mobile apps for reading) are used in elementary schools by teachers as a tool for pupils with reading disabilities. A quantitative approach was adopted for data collection in the form of a self-administered online survey created by using Sunet Survey software. The survey, with 15 questions in Croatian, was sent to 63 elementary schools in Primorje and Gorski Kotar County in Croatia. The sampling frame consisted of 541 elementary school teachers teaching first through fourth grades. 98 responded to the survey. To support the results, 2 theories were used. The cognitive authority theory to support the notion that teachers play a large role in pupils' relationship with reading, and the cognitive load theory to support the notion that assistive technology can help pupils with reading disabilities. The results elucidate that our sample consists of 96.6% female respondents who are between 45 and 54 years old, have 10 to 20 years of professional experience, and mainly teach first grade. 75% of the respondents currently have and 89.8% used to have pupils with reading disabilities in their class. Although audiobooks are not the most popular tool in Croatia, 63.6% of respondents recognize them as a tool they use. The results also show that schools and school libraries are not sufficiently equipped with tools to help pupils with reading disabilities. Most involvement depends on the individual will of teachers.