Potenziare le abilità di lettura e scrittura per stare bene a scuola: effetti del programma Eureka sul benessere dei bambini

[Autom. eng. transl.] Introduction: Children with reading and writing difficulties often have little confidence in their abilities, low motivation and low self-esteem and fear being involved in school activities, anticipating their failure (Graham et al., 2012; Mason et al., 2012 ). Furthermore, reading and writing skills influence the social status and the image the child acquires within the class (Andolfi et al., 2015; Cornoldi and De Beni, 2001; Mugnaini et al., 2009). The present study aims to assess whether EUREKA (EntUsiasmo, RicErca and CApacità) (Traficante, 2017), Italian adaptation of the RAVE-O linguistic enhancement program (Reading, Automaticity, Vocabulary, Engagement-Orthography) (Wolf et al., 2000) , not only able to improve children's reading and writing skills, but also their experience of well-being, as the program offers a context that allows them to feel competent and experience self-efficacy in school activities, developing positive relationships and feelings of belonging to the peer group. Method: Participants: 60 Italian children (78.3% male) of primary class II with scores on reading and / or writing tests less than -0.5 z. Tools: the CPMs (Raven, 1965), the MT Reading Tests (Cornoldi and Colpo, 2006), the CEO test (Bozzo et al., 2003), the CIT-Child (Andolfi et al., 2017) were used , the QBS (Tobia and Marzocchi, 2015). Procedure. After the preliminary assessment (T0), three groups of 20 children each were identified, matched by age, gender, reading and writing skills, and wellness scores. In phase T1 (14 weeks), group A (Control) received no treatment, group B exercised with iWinABC software, group C participated in the EUREKA program. In the T2 phase all the instruments used in the T0 phase (except the CPM) were applied. Results: The results obtained by mixed ANOVA, with a cross-group factor (Group) and an in-group factor (Time), showed that children of groups B and C increased their reading skills more than the control group A (for rapidity: F2.57 = 3.18; p = .049; for accuracy: F2.57 = 14.87; p <.001), but only children of group C significantly increased writing correctness (interaction : F 2.57 = 3.66; p = .032), general well-being scores (CIT-child) (interaction: F2.50 = 8.629; p = .001) and school welfare (QBS) (interaction: F2, 50 = 12.14; p <.001) compared to the children of the other two groups. Conclusions: Research has shown that an intervention program that works on decoding skills, but also pays attention to the social and emotional aspects of student life, such as EUREKA training, is more effective in terms of improving reading / writing skills and the well-being of children, in general and at school, compared to other training aimed exclusively at improving the fluidity of reading.