Separating the influences of prereading skills on early word and nonword reading

The essential first step for a beginning reader is to learn to match printed forms to phonological representations. For a new word, this is an effortful process where each grapheme must be translated individually (serial decoding). The role of phonological awareness in developing a decoding strategy is well known. We examined whether beginning readers recruit different skills depending on the nature of the words being read (familiar words vs. nonwords). Print knowledge, phoneme and rhyme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonological short-term memory (STM), nonverbal reasoning, vocabulary, auditory skills, and visual attention were measured in 392 prereaders 4 and 5 years of age. Word and nonword reading were measured 9 months later. We used structural equation modeling to examine the skills–reading relationship and modeled correlations between our two reading outcomes and among all prereading skills. We found that a broad range of skills were associated with reading outcomes: early print knowledge, phonological STM, phoneme awareness and RAN. Whereas all of these skills were directly predictive of nonword reading, early print knowledge was the only direct predictor of word reading. Our findings suggest that beginning readers draw most heavily on their existing print knowledge to read familiar words

Theories of developmental dyslexia: Insights from a multiple case study of dyslexic adults

A multiple case study was conducted in order to assess three leading theories of developmental dyslexia: the phonological, the magnocellular (auditory and visual) and the cerebellar theories. Sixteen dyslexic and 16 control university students were administered a full battery of psychometric, phonological, auditory, visual and cerebellar tests. Individual data reveal that all 16 dyslexics suffer from a phonological deficit, 10 from an auditory deficit, 4 from a motor deficit, and 2 from a visual magnocellular deficit. Results suggest that a phonological deficit can appear in the absence of any other sensory or motor disorder, and is sufficient to cause a literacy impairment, as demonstrated by 5 of the dyslexics. Auditory disorders, when present, aggravate the phonological deficit, hence the literacy impairment. However, auditory deficits cannot be characterised simply as rapid auditory processing problems, as would be predicted by the magnocellular theory. Nor are they restricted to speech. Contrary to the cerebellar theory, we find little support for the notion that motor impairments, when found, have a cerebellar origin, or reflect an automaticity deficit. Overall, the present data support the phonological theory of dyslexia, while acknowledging the presence of additional sensory and motor disorders in certain individuals

Predicting future reading problems based on pre-reading auditory measures: a longitudinal study of children with a familial risk of dyslexia

Purpose: This longitudinal study examines measures of temporal auditory processing in pre-reading children with a family risk of dyslexia. Specifically, it attempts to ascertain whether pre-reading auditory processing, speech perception, and phonological awareness (PA) reliably predict later literacy achievement. Additionally, this study retrospectively examines the presence of pre-reading auditory processing, speech perception, and PA impairments in children later found to be literacy impaired. Method: Forty-four pre-reading children with and without a family risk of dyslexia were assessed at three time points (kindergarten, first, and second grade). Auditory processing measures of rise time (RT) discrimination and frequency modulation (FM) along with speech perception, PA, and various literacy tasks were assessed. Results: Kindergarten RT uniquely contributed to growth in literacy in grades one and two, even after controlling for letter knowledge and PA. Highly significant concurrent and predictive correlations were observed with kindergarten RT significantly predicting first grade PA. Retrospective analysis demonstrated atypical performance in RT and PA at all three time points in children who later developed literacy impairments. Conclusions: Although significant, kindergarten auditory processing contributions to later literacy growth lack the power to be considered as a single-cause predictor; thus results support temporal processing deficits’ contribution within a multiple deficit model of dyslexia

The relationship of phonological ability, speech perception, and auditory perception in adults with dyslexia

This study investigated whether auditory, speech perception and phonological skills are tightly interrelated or independently contributing to reading. We assessed each of these three skills in 36 adults with a past diagnosis of dyslexia and 54 matched normal reading adults. Phonological skills were tested by the typical threefold tasks, i.e. rapid automatic naming, verbal short term memory and phonological awareness. Dynamic auditory processing skills were assessed by means of a frequency modulation (FM) and an amplitude rise time (RT); an intensity discrimination task (ID) was included as a non-dynamic control task. Speech perception was assessed by means of sentences and words in noise tasks. Group analysis revealed significant group differences in auditory tasks (i.e. RT and ID) and in phonological processing measures, yet no differences were found for speech perception. In addition, performance on RT discrimination correlated with reading but this relation was mediated by phonological processing and not by speech in noise. Finally, inspection of the individual scores revealed that the dyslexic readers showed an increased proportion of deviant subjects on the slow-dynamic auditory and phonological tasks, yet each individual dyslexic reader does not display a clear pattern of deficiencies across the levels of processing skills. Although our results support phonological and slow-rate dynamic auditory deficits which relate to literacy, they suggest that at the individual level, problems in reading and writing cannot be explained by the cascading auditory theory. Instead, dyslexic adults seem to vary considerably in the extent to which each of the auditory and phonological factors are expressed and interact with environmental and higher-order cognitive influences

Reading acquisition: from digital screening to neurocognitive bases in a transparent orthography

155 p.El aprendizaje de la lectura es un área activa de investigación en la psicología y la neurociencia cognitiva. En las últimas décadas se ha avanzado enormemente en la comprensión de los procesos neurocognitivos subyacentes al aprendizaje de la lectura y a sus dificultades. Sin embargo, existen al menos dos dimensiones en las que es necesario seguir trabajando arduamente. Por un lado, el conocimiento actual sobre el aprendizaje de la lectura no ha impactado en las prácticas educativas. Por otro lado, la diversidad de las características del aprendizaje de la lectura en distintas ortografías no se comprende cabalmente. La presente tesis se enfoca en el estudio del aprendizaje de la lectura combinando estrategias de identificación oportuna de niños en riesgo lector en el contexto escolar, y estudios de laboratorio enfocados en comprender las bases neurocognitivas del aprendizaje de la lectura en una ortografía transparente como el español. Estos objetivos se lograron a través de un diseño longitudinal comenzando desde la educación inicial, siguiendo a un mismo grupo de aproximadamente 600 niños hasta segundo año de escuela. Los resultados muestran, por una parte, que es factible identificar a niños en riesgo lector incluso antes de la educación primaria, y, por otra parte, que el aprendizaje de la lectura en una ortografía transparente como el español tiene características comunes y características distintivas respecto a ortografías opacas. Estos resultados ponen en evidencia la factibilidad de la identificación oportuna de riesgo lector, y remarcan la importancia de considerar las características de la ortografía durante el aprendizaje de la lectura

Learning to Read Bilingually Modulates the Manifestations of Dyslexia in Adults

Published online: 28 Mar 2018According to the Grain Size Accommodation hypothesis (Lallier & Carreiras, 2017), learning to read in two languages differing in orthographic consistency leads to a cross-linguistic modulation of reading and spelling processes. Here, we test the prediction that bilingualism may influence the manifestations of dyslexia. We compared the deficits of English monolingual and early Welsh–English bilingual dyslexic adults on reading and spelling irregular English words and English-like pseudowords. As predicted, monolinguals were relatively more impaired in reading pseudowords than irregular words, whereas the opposite was true for bilinguals. Moreover, monolinguals showed stronger sublexical processing deficits than bilinguals and were poorer spellers overall. This study shows that early bilingual reading experience has long-lasting effects on the manifestations of dyslexia in adulthood. It demonstrates that learning to read in a consistent language like Welsh in addition to English gives bilingual dyslexic adults an advantage in English literacy tasks strongly relying on phonological processing.This research was funded by the Fyssen Foundation, the European Commission (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF, Proposal N°274352, BIRD, to M.L) the European Research Council (ERC advanced grant, BILITERACY, to M.C., and ERC- 209704 to G.T.), the Spanish government (PSI2015-65338-P to M.L, and PSI2015-67353-R to M.C.), and the Economic and Social Research Council UK (RES-E024556-1 to G.T.). BCBL acknowledges funding from Ayuda Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2015-0490

Visual attentional processes in adults with dyslexia

Deficits in sensory processing of visual and auditory stimuli, specifically that associated with the magnocellular/dorsal pathways, have been extensively reported in individuals with dyslexia (McArthur and Bishop, 2001; Stein, 2001). Furthermore, significant relationships have been reported between reading ability and performance on sensory processing tasks, both in the auditory and the visual modalities (Cestnick and Coltheart, 1999; Cestnick and Jerger, 2000; Talcott et al., 2002). However, a central role for phonological difficulties in reading difficulties independent of visual and auditory processing deficits has been demonstrated (Ramus et al., 2003b). The inconsistent results may be explained by individual differences in attentional processes (Marshall et al., 2001; Olson and Datta, 2002). While many studies have been carried out investigating attentional difficulties experienced by children with dyslexia, relatively few have examined these difficulties in adults with dyslexia (ADys). Furthermore, the relationship of these difficulties to the phonological deficits most often seen has yet to be fully explored. By determining the difficulties experienced by individuals with dyslexia, it may be possible to develop strategies to overcome them. This thesis primarily examines and compares processes of visual attention in adults with and without dyslexia. Each adult with dyslexia demonstrated phonological deficits consistent with this difficulty being a core deficit in dyslexia. A case-based approach, in addition to the usual group comparisons, has been adopted..

Sequence Processing in Music Predicts Reading Skills in Young Readers: A Longitudinal Study

Musical abilities, both in the pitch and temporal dimension, have been shown to be positively associated with phonological awareness and reading abilities in both children and adults. There is increasing evidence that the relationship between music and language relies primarily on the temporal dimension, including both meter and rhythm. It remains unclear to what extent skill level in these temporal aspects of music may uniquely contribute to the prediction of reading outcomes. A longitudinal design was used to test a group-administered musical sequence transcription task (MSTT). This task was designed to preferentially engage sequence processing skills while controlling for fine-grained pitch discrimination and rhythm in terms of temporal grouping. Forty-five children, native speakers of Portuguese (Mage = 7.4 years), completed the MSTT and a cognitive-linguistic protocol that included visual and auditory working memory tasks, as well as phonological awareness and reading tasks in second grade. Participants then completed reading assessments in third and fifth grades. Longitudinal regression models showed that MSTT and phonological awareness had comparable power to predict reading. The MSTT showed an overall classification accuracy for identifying low-achievement readers in Grades 2, 3, and 5 that was analogous to a comprehensive model including core predictors of reading disability. In addition, MSTT was the variable with the highest loading and the most discriminatory indicator of a phonological factor. These findings carry implications for the role of temporal sequence processing in contributing to the relationship between music and language and the potential use of MSTT as a language-independent, time- and cost-effective tool for the early identification of children at risk of reading disability

Predicting dyslexia using prereading skills:the role of sensorimotor and cognitive abilities

Background: It is well established that phonological awareness, print knowledge and rapid naming predict later reading difficulties. However, additional auditory, visual and motor difficulties have also been observed in dyslexic children. It is examined to what extent these difficulties can be used to predict later literacy difficulties. Method: An unselected sample of 267 children at school entry completed a wide battery of tasks associated with dyslexia. Their reading was tested 2, 3 and 4 years later and poor readers were identified (n = 42). Logistic regression and multiple case study approaches were used to examine the predictive validity of different tasks. Results: As expected, print knowledge, verbal short-term memory, phonological awareness and rapid naming were good predictors of later poor reading. Deficits in visual search and in auditory processing were also present in a large minority of the poor readers. Almost all poor readers showed deficits in at least one area at school entry, but there was no single deficit that characterised the majority of poor readers. Conclusions: Results are in line with Pennington’s (2006) multiple deficits view of dyslexia. They indicate that the causes of poor reading outcome are multiple, interacting and probabilistic, rather than deterministic. Keywords: Dyslexia; educational attainment; longitudinal studies; prediction; phonological processing