The European Economic Area is experiencing a modern literacy crisis, with 75 million young adults lacking basic reading and writing
skills (EU report on literacy, 2012). This represents a massive social and economic European burden, which has become even more
intense with reduced in-person literacy instruction due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This project will build, refine and make
available new tools for reading assessment and intervention to address the current literacy crisis, with a special focus on Italian
underrepresented populations. Specifically, the project will develop at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, computer
science and educational technology in order to (1) provide common, rapid, reliable, accessible, and cost-effective computer-based
reading assessment tools able to reach underrepresented populations of different age groups; (2) document behavior and
neurobiological effects of innovative reading intervention programs in participants with reading difficutlies. This project will (1)
Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca
MUR - BANDO 2022 PNRR
enable educators, clinicians, stakeholders and policy-makers to reliably monitor the development of key aspects of the Italian human
capital, and (2) refine reading intervention programs and provide reading intervention guidelines that are able to maximize Italian
citizens reading learning potential.