2024/12/16 by Réka Vágvölgyi, Kirstin Bergström, Aleksandar Bulajić +6 · 1 voice
Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills #Reading and Literacy Development #Writing and Handwriting Education
paper · doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2024.100659
openalex publication_date 2024/12/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
Dealing with text is crucial in modern societies. However, not everyone acquires sufficient literacy skills during school education. This systematic review summarizes and synthesizes research on adults with low literacy skills (ALLS) in alphabetic writing systems, includes results from behavioral and neurobiological studies, and compares these findings with those on developmental dyslexia given that this developmental disorder is one possible explanation for low literacy skills in adulthood. Twenty-seven studies focusing on the cognitive profile of ALLS met the three predefined criteria of reading level, age, and education. Results showed that ALLS performed worse than literate adults in various tasks at skill and information processing level, and exhibited structural and functional differences at the neurobiological level. The cognitive profile of ALLS was closer to that of primary school children than of literate adults. However, relative to children, ALLS’ literacy skills relied less on phonological and more on orthographic strategies. A narrative comparison of results with meta-analyses on developmental dyslexia showed large, though not complete, overlap in the cognitive profiles. The present results helps to better understand the literacy skills and reading-related cognitive functions of ALLS and may support the development of tailored interventions directed to the specific cognitive difficulties ALLS have. • Studies on adults with low literacy skills (ALLS) were collected and summarized. • ALLS show deviations at skill, information processing and neurobiological levels. • ALLS rely rather on orthographic than on phonological strategies. • ALLS perform closer to children with developmental dyslexia than to literate adults. • Skill-oriented methods and formative assessments may improve adult literacy education.