ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1477896
Characterization of reading processes in Brazilian adolescents: development of criteria for identifying students at risk for dyslexia
Provisionally accepted
Renata Pires Sena de Assumpção Victorio
Giseli Donadon Germano*- São Paulo State University. (UNESP), Marilia, São Paulo, Brazil
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Reading processes in Brazilian pre-adolescent and adolescent students are scarcely investigated, and it is essential to identify gaps and possible dyslexic students that have not yet been determined. Therefore, the objective of this study was to characterize the reading processes in adolescents and develop criteria to identify Brazilian students at risk for dyslexia in middle school. Two hundred six students participated in the study, divided into four groups: 55 students (6th grade), 54 students (7th grade), (46 students (8th grade), and 51 students (9th grade). Initially, they were assessed collectively in the Evaluation of the Reading Processes Test. Criteria were developed, and the students were classified in relation to their reading performance as no risk, low risk (LR) and high risk (HR) for dyslexia. Only students who presented low or high risk were assessed individually, that is, 84 students. These were evaluated separately and classified in relation to accuracy and reading speed, meeting the criteria for risk for dyslexia. Finally, they were classified into phonological, visual and undefined profiles. The results of the collective phase revealed 27.3% LR and 12.7% with HR in GI, 29.6% with LR and 25.9% with HR in 7th grade, 23.9% with LR and 13% with HR in 8th grade, and 23.5% with LR and 5.9% with HR in 9th grade. As for profiles, 34.6% met the criteria for phonological profile, 23.8% for visual profile, 2.4% for mixed profile, and 39.3% of students did not fit the established profile criteria. We conclude that reading assessments are necessary for this population, as evidenced by the indication of students at risk for dyslexia who have not yet been diagnosed. Finally, the study reinforces the idea of the heterogeneous nature of dyslexia in pre-adolescent and adolescent students.
Keywords: Dyslexia, reading, assessment, Monitoring, adolescents
Received: 08 Aug 2024; Accepted: 29 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Victorio and Germano. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Giseli Donadon Germano, São Paulo State University. (UNESP), Marilia, São Paulo, Brazil
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.