**2. Learning disabilities and digital tools**

The term 'learning disabilities' refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders which manifest as significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical skills [15]. The DSM‐5 [16], the primary reference in professional and research practice in this field, includes difficulties in writing, reading and calculating, along with unspecified difficulties in a category called Specific Learning Disorders. These disorders are understood to be intrinsic to the individual, supposedly due to a dysfunction of the central nervous system, and may occur at any time throughout a person's life. Nonetheless, extrinsic circumstances arising from an individual's surrounding context, such as inappropriate teaching, or the presence of comorbid conditions such as ADHD, can have a strong influence on the diagnosis and progress of learning disabilities [17, 18].

Many studies emphasise the need for identification, evaluation and intervention as early as possible for students with learning disabilities. To expedite early diagnosis, newly developed, empirically substantiated and validated strategies can be implemented to complement the various mechanisms for identification, reinforcement and support already in use with students with learning disabilities.

This new perspective highlights the multiplicity of capabilities, structures and processes involved in intelligent behaviour, as well as the possible contributions teaching can make to the improvement and optimisation of intellectual skills and learning abilities [1–4]. Within these non‐unitary theories, there is one which stands out: Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. This theory postulates that intelligence is composed of a mixture of abilities, skills and capabilities called intelligences, which are independent of each other, and which may be found in everybody waiting to be developed [2]. These postulates can be considered in the

In recent years, there has been much research into the possibilities offered by digital tools for intervention in learning disabilities. The latest research has found that these tools can have positive effects on various aspects such as the acquisition of reading skills [5, 6]; the development of vocabulary, language and listening skills [7]; treatment of dysgraphia [8]; mathematics learning [9–11]; and improvement in executive functioning in students with attention

Despite these studies showing the positive effects of digital tools, it is still necessary to look more closely at the usefulness of these tools in the identification, evaluation and earliest pos-

What is proposed here is the fusion of two aspects—the postulates of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences and the use of digital tools—with the aim of designing and testing a tool that

The current state of the art on digital tools applied to learning difficulties identification and intervention is presented below. Multiple intelligences postulates are also described in rela-

The term 'learning disabilities' refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders which manifest as significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical skills [15]. The DSM‐5 [16], the primary reference in professional and research practice in this field, includes difficulties in writing, reading and calculating, along with unspecified difficulties in a category called Specific Learning Disorders. These disorders are understood to be intrinsic to the individual, supposedly due to a dysfunction of the central nervous system, and may occur at any time throughout a person's life. Nonetheless, extrinsic circumstances arising from an individual's surrounding context, such as inappropriate teaching, or the presence of comorbid conditions such as ADHD, can have a strong influ-

Many studies emphasise the need for identification, evaluation and intervention as early as possible for students with learning disabilities. To expedite early diagnosis, newly developed, empirically substantiated and validated strategies can be implemented to complement the

facilitates the diagnosis and treatment of students with learning disabilities.

development of serious games.

84 Learning Disabilities - An International Perspective

deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [12–14].

tion to the new tool, Boogies Academy.

**2. Learning disabilities and digital tools**

ence on the diagnosis and progress of learning disabilities [17, 18].

sible treatment of those students with learning disabilities.

These new techniques must also be consistent with new ways of student learning and the growing changes in society in which communication and information technologies play an increasing role. One example of this type of methodology is the use of digital tools developed through gamification in the form of educational video games or 'serious games' [19]. According to Sánchez‐Peris [20], the use of these types of games is an excellent way to improve a player's concentration, effort and motivation, due to the recognition, success, competition, collaboration, self‐expression and educational power inherent in such recreational activities. Recent studies [21] concluded that serious games could be stimuli which encourage the development of multiple intelligences, as they already have the multi‐sensorial components which favour learning contexts capable of grabbing the player's attention and keeping them involved in the game.

Serious games share technology with video games, but, compared to video games, the aims and uses of serious games is outcome‐driven and extremely varied [22]. For this reason, it is fundamentally necessary to define the objectives, content, skills and behaviours to develop, while not forgetting aesthetic, narrative and technical resources to encourage engagement and playability [21, 23, 24].

Thus, digital tools can bring together the necessary requirements to facilitate diagnosis and intervention in specific groups. It must be remembered that, as with all individuals, students with learning problems present unique characteristics, interests and needs when it comes to learning. The current paradigm advocates education that is centred on the person and considers individual differences. This approach makes it necessary to develop learning systems and contexts which are adapted, as far as possible, to each student's characteristics.

In terms of potential usefulness of serious games, it is important to note that, in comparison with traditional educational tools, digital systems have the advantage of presenting content in a variety of formats (written texts, images, animation, sound, etc.) [25]. A benefit of this is that the images, sounds, text and other methods of presentation are present at the same time, so simultaneous activation of both verbal/auditory and visual channels is possible. In addition, working in this kind of environment gives the learner better control over their learning processes by, for example, allowing them to choose a specific sequence.

Another characteristic of these systems is that information is organised in the same way that the human mind processes information—that is, in knowledge structures represented by interconnected networks of concepts. These structures are made up of nodes, with ordered relationships connecting them in such a way that distinct content that is related can be activated simultaneously and very rapidly [26]. Compared to traditional forms of organising information, such as the linear organisation used in textbooks, this type of organisation has been shown to have advantages as it encourages content acquisition and retention, and makes the learning process easier, which in turn has been shown to have its own impact on levels of student motivation [27, 28].

The benefits of using digital tools have been demonstrated in various studies of students with learning disabilities. The use of these systems has been shown to have positive effects on the acquisition of reading skills [5, 6]; acquisition of vocabulary, language and listening skills [7]; on the treatment of dysgraphia [8]; and on learning mathematics [9–11]. Its effects have also been studied in cases involving ADHD. Students with this developmental disorder face problems including abnormal executive functioning or the reduced capacity to control behaviour, and difficulties in regulating emotion, motivation and arousal or activation in general. These problems have been shown to be reduced by using digital tools [12–14]. In an earlier study [29], the use of this type of tool demonstrated a positive effect on academic achievement in a sample of students with ADHD, while more recent studies [30] found that students with ADHD exhibited increased levels of attention and better achievement in tasks when they were shown simultaneous videos, images and short narrations, whereas they demonstrated more difficulties when presented information in the form of linear texts. One of the explanations for these results is linked to the inherent properties of digital tools—that is, they make it easy to receive information through multiple channels. So, if one channel is being ignored, the information may be captured via another channel instead of being lost. Thus, presenting information through multiple channels increases the probability of relevant information being retained [28].

A very important aspect to consider is the level to which these new systems are adaptive [8] that is, whether the functioning and difficulty levels adapt to variables of individual students, such as previous knowledge or pace of learning. While there is a lot of current research into the impact of digital tools on learning disabilities and ADHD, investigations into the adaptability of these tools when used in this population has so far been limited. Some exceptions include programs such as Number Race [31] for the treatment of dyscalculia and Agent‐Dysl for dyslexia [32], both of which are aimed at treating students in primary education.

Number Race [31], primarily for children aged 4–8, is especially designed to address mathematical learning disabilities (dyscalculia) by strengthening the brain circuits for representing and manipulating numbers. Children who are making their first steps with numbers learn the basic concepts of number and arithmetic, while older children, who are already familiar with numbers, build their fluency in arithmetic and in mapping numbers to quantities (number sense).

The objective of Agent‐Dysl [32] is to help narrow the gap between good and poor (due to dyslexia) readers in school‐aged children. Agent‐Dysl is an intelligent assistive reading system that gives personalised treatment, customising the presentation of the reading material (usually study material for a school lesson) to help each child improve their reading. The system builds and maintains individual profiles by observing each child reading the text on the system's viewing area and recognising the reading errors. The individual profiles are then used to customise text presentation for that individual so that each child's reading performance is improved. By employing image analysis techniques, the system can also assess the child's emotional and physical state and dynamically adapt the document presentation accordingly. Similar system adaptability should be considered and incorporated during the future development of tools designed for the contexts of learning disabilities and ADHD also.

The studies described above demonstrate how digital resources, utilised in the right way, can bring about improvements in students with learning disabilities. However, there have also been studies which demonstrate the potential that these types of systems have in evaluation and early diagnosis of these problems. Two completed studies [33] propose early evaluation systems for the identification of students in primary education at risk of presenting with learning disabilities, and which provide predictions of student learning based on a profile of performance in digital environments. Although the diagnostic efficacy of both systems is still being tested, positive data have already been acquired demonstrating the diagnostic efficacy of this type of instrument and indicating some of the required fundamental aspects for these systems: that they have a high level of automation and are accessible for use by teachers; that they offer relevant information on the student's effective learning and acquired skills; that the data provided is persistent over time; and that they have an accumulative character, allowing the student to be evaluated in different stages.

Despite the novelty of these systems in the context of intervention and evaluation in learning disabilities, something they suffer from in some cases is the presence of a stable theoretical reference framework. The current proposal is to begin with Gardner's paradigm of multiple intelligences, an aspect of which is that individuals possess different capabilities which can be gateways to facing their weaknesses. A new digital tool, called Boogies Academy, can hopefully utilise these individual capabilities in both the identification of and intervention in learning disabilities.
