Systematic review: cognitive profile of comorbid dyslexia and dyscalculia

Abstract

This paper explores the nature of the comorbidity of developmental dyslexia (DD) and dyscalculia (DC) and the shared and differentiating cognitive deficits of both disorders. The aim is to help school psycho-pedagogical assessments adjust to the complex and comorbid reality of developmental disorders that give rise to specific learning difficulties (DEA). To this end, a systematic review is carried out according to the PRISMA norms of empirical works, in the PubMed, Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus databases in the period 2009-2020, of articles that include mixed samples for the comparison of both common and differentiating cognitive deficits in each disorder. Differentiating deficits and those which overlap in the comorbid group are identified on an additive or interactive basis. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for school diagnosis and educational practice, highlighting the need to assess all modalities of working memory and the speed of processing and retrieval, as well as the preparation of specific guidance reports for teachers about the performance of DD and DC in the different curriculum areas.