ArticleScientific reports2017
Action video games improve reading abilities and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting in English-speaking children with dyslexia.
Article in Scientific reports, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 185 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dyslexia treatment studies: A systematic review and suggestions on testing treatment efficacy with small effects and small samples.Behavior research methods · 2021Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Computerized Cognitive Training Programs (CCTP) with Game-like Features in Children with or without Neuropsychological Disorders: a Meta-Analytic Investigation.Neuropsychology review · 2020Pooled it
- Therapeutic and Preventive Use of Video Games in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- A new effective treatment for dyslexia based on dorsal visual stream neuromodulation.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2026Trial
- Improving Reading Skills Using a Computerized Phonological Training Program in Early Readers with Reading Difficulties.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Action video game training improves text reading accuracy, rate and comprehension in children with dyslexia: a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Improving sentence reading performance in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia by training based on visual attention span.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Dispelling Myths and Misunderstandings About Defining and Remediating Dyslexia.Dyslexia (Chichester, England) · 2026Review
- From Visual Attention to Literacy: Symbol Search Deficit Predicts Future Reading Difficulties From Age 3.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Motion perception and eye movements predict reading readiness: Evidence from pre-readers in an action video game task.iScience · 2026Article
- Effects of central vs. peripheral attentional-oculomotor exercise on lexical processing.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2025Article
- Mediational effects of reading-related intermediate phenotypes from polygenic scores to reading skills.NPJ science of learning · 2025Article
- Cognitive Training Combined with Multifocal tDCS over the Reading Network Improves Reading Performance: A Case of Severe Dyslexia.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Performance of teenaged action video game players on the Developmental Eye Movement and King-Devick tests.PloS one · 2025Article
- Comparing conventional and action video game training in visual perceptual learning.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Influence of static cartoons combined with dynamic virtual environments on preoperative anxiety of preschool-aged children undergoing surgery.World journal of clinical cases · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of the Use of Virtual Reality Rehabilitation in Children with Dyslexia: Follow-Up after One Year.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Action video games normalise the phonemic awareness in pre-readers at risk for developmental dyslexia.NPJ science of learning · 2024Article
- The effect of attention shifting on Chinese children's word reading in primary school.Psicologia, reflexao e critica : revista semestral do Departamento de Psicologia da UFRGS · 2024Article
- Playing for keeps or just playing with emotion? Studying tilt and emotion regulation in video games.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in learning to read and there is some evidence that action video games (AVG), without any direct phonological or orthographic stimulation, improve reading efficiency in Italian children with dyslexia. However, the cognitive mechanism underlying this improvement and the extent to which the benefits of AVG training would generalize to deep English orthography, remain two critical questions. During reading acquisition, children have to integrate written letters with speech sounds, rapidly shifting their attention from visual to auditory modality. In our study, we tested reading skills and phonological working memory, visuo-spatial attention, auditory, visual and audio-visual stimuli localization, and cross-sensory attentional shifting in two matched groups of English-speaking children with dyslexia before and after they played AVG or non-action video games. The speed of words recognition and phonological decoding increased after playing AVG, but not non-action video games. Furthermore, focused visuo-spatial attention and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting also improved only after AVG training. This unconventional reading remediation program also increased phonological short-term memory and phoneme blending skills. Our report shows that an enhancement of visuo-spatial attention and phonological working memory, and an acceleration of visual-to-auditory attentional shifting can directly translate into better reading in English-speaking children with dyslexia.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.