Intervención cognitivo-conductual en un caso de ansiedad ante la lectura en público: mejora de la fluidez y comprensión

Abstract

Reading anxiety is considered an unpleasant emotional reaction to anticipation or the act of reading. This type of anxiety generates important repercussions in the performance of the reading of the students who suffer it. However, there are few studies that empirically investigate the most favorable type of intervention in this type of anxiety. This case study describes the implementation of a cognitive-behavioral therapy in a 17 years old teenager who has suffered from anxiety about reading in public since he was 13 years old. The treatment aimed to reduce the anxiety manifested when the patient faced public reading and thereby improve reading fluency and comprehension. The intervention consisted of 24 sessions of treatment and three follow-up sessions in the consultation room. The results showed that the teenager managed to achieve the proposed goals. In the last telephone follow-up session, at two years, the therapeutic achievements were maintained. This work deepens the study of cognitive-behavioral techniques in the treatment of reading anxiety.