Atypical galvanic skin response in dyslexic children reading aloud

Around 3-6% of children are affected by a specific reading disorder with neurobiological origin, or developmental dyslexia. People with dyslexia often exhibits negative emotional manifestation, such as anxiety. Findings of anxiety symptoms in dyslexia come primarily from self- and proxy reports. However some studies analyzed the autonomic activation of children with general learning disabilities, finding proofs of activation of the behavioural inhibition system, that could product withdrawal or anxiety. Main aim of this study is to investigate psychophysiological manifestations in connection to specific tasks, in children with dyslexia and in a control group of typical readers. Heart rate and Galvanic skin response (GSR), recorded during four tasks involving aloud and silent reading and vignettes description, were compared for children with dyslexia (n = 16) and a control group of typical readers (n = 16). Furthermore, children’s school wellness was measured through self and parent proxy-reports. Significantly lower GSR was found for dyslexic children in the reading aloud task, compared to the control group. Considering the dyslexic group, the discrepancy in the GSR between reading aloud and silently resulted significantly larger compared to the discrepancy between aloud and silent production in the vignettes description task. GSR registered during reading tasks correlated with Child’s emotional difficulties’ as reported by parents. No significant differences between groups nor correlations with questionnaires’ scores were found for heart rate recordings. Possible interpretations of the lower activation during reading aloud in dyslexic children are discussed.