Most recent papers:

• The role of noninitial clusters in the Children's Test of Nonword Repetition: Evidence from children with language impairment and typically developing children.
  Luca Cilibrasi, Vesna Stojanovik, Tom Loucas, Patricia Riddell.
  Dyslexia. October 19, 2018
  --- - |2 The Children's Test of Nonword Repetition (CNRep) is one of the most popular tests of nonword repetition. The test is composed of nonwords of different length, and normative data suggest that children experience more difficulties in repeating long nonwords. An analysis of the distribution of phonological clusters in the test shows that noninitial clusters are unequally distributed in the test: They only appear in long nonwords (four and five syllables). For this reason, we hypothesized that the difficulties children encounter with long nonwords may be influenced by the phonological complexity of the clusters and not just by the challenge for working memory associated with length. To test the hypothesis, we compared repetition performance in long nonwords with and without a noninitial cluster in 18 children with language impairment and 18 typically developing children. The analysis shows that long nonwords with noninitial clusters are repeated less accurately by both groups. In addition, there was an interaction between cluster and age: The effect of cluster is absent in younger children and gradually increases with age. These findings suggest that phonological complexity may be having an impact on the length effect normally observed in the CNRep, and this impact may be particularly evident in older children. - Dyslexia, EarlyView.
  

  October 19, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1599   open full text
• English as a foreign language teacher training needs and perceived preparedness to include dyslexic learners: The case of Greece, Cyprus, and Poland.
  Joanna Nijakowska, Dina Tsagari, George Spanoudis.
  Dyslexia. October 10, 2018
  --- - |2 This study examines the effect of demographic variables on the beliefs of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) about their preparedness to include dyslexic learners in mainstream classrooms in Greece, Cyprus, and Poland and identifies their professional development needs. Statistically significant multivariate analysis effects were obtained for country, training, teaching experience with dyslexic learners, and school type. Unlike overall teaching experience and completed level of education (degree), the type of teaching experience with dyslexic EFL learners (direct contact and personal involvement in teaching) seems to shape the perception of teacher preparedness to successfully include these learners. Other interesting tendencies were identified such as between‐country differences concerning sources of prior professional knowledge on EFL and dyslexia as well as preferences for particular modes of training. The paper highlights the demand for professional training on EFL and dyslexia as this was confirmed across the three countries. - Dyslexia, EarlyView.
  

  October 10, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1598   open full text
• Spatial configuration processing in visual word form perception and reading abilities in Chinese.
  Chien‐Hui Kao, Hsiao‐Lan Sharon Wang, Chien‐Chung Chen.
  Dyslexia. October 02, 2018
  --- - |2 The analysis of spatial relations among components of a character is important in identifying visual word forms. We investigated such spatial configuration processing for Chinese characters in dyslexic children (aged 9–12 years) and two groups of typically developing children, matched according to chronological age or reading level. In this study, we used real characters and noncharacters to manipulate the spatial configuration between character components while preserving their local features. Both characters were displayed either in an upright or inverted position. Participants were asked to quickly determine whether the two presented stimuli were identical. A significant interaction between character type and character orientation showed children's matching performance was better in upright real characters than in the inverted version, but such effect was absent in noncharacters. This indicated that regardless of reading skills, children developed the ability to use local configuration information to visually identify words. Dyslexic children performed poorly in both real‐character and noncharacter conditions. Furthermore, compared with control groups, dyslexic children performed worse in real‐character conditions, which were close to the noncharacter performance of other groups. This reflected an impairment of global visual word‐form processing (i.e., spatial configuration between components) in dyslexia. - Dyslexia, EarlyView.
  

  October 02, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1596   open full text
• Beyond the phonological deficit: Semantics contributes indirectly to decoding efficiency in children with dyslexia.
  Robin Rijthoven, Tijs Kleemans, Eliane Segers, Ludo Verhoeven.
  Dyslexia. September 21, 2018
  --- - |2 The present study explored the direct and indirect contribution of semantic abilities to the levels of phonological and orthographic abilities in children with dyslexia. The semantic abilities of fifty‐five 9‐year‐old Dutch children diagnosed with dyslexia were associated with their phonological abilities (phonological awareness, rapid naming, and verbal working memory) and their word decoding and pseudoword decoding efficiency scores. It was found that children's semantic abilities predicted both word decoding efficiency and pseudoword decoding efficiency indirectly via phonological awareness and rapid naming. These results can be explained in terms of a lexical restructuring account of early reading development; strong semantic abilities provide children with dyslexia with a boost to strengthen their phonological skills and naming skills, which indirectly facilitate their reading development. - Dyslexia, EarlyView.
  

  September 21, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1597   open full text
• Daily motor characteristics in children with developmental coordination disorder and in children with specific learning disorder.
  Silvia Baldi, Barbara Caravale, Fabio Presaghi.
  Dyslexia. August 10, 2018
  --- - |2 An association between learning disorders and coordination problems has been reported in several studies over the last few decades. In this study, we have investigated daily motor characteristics in children with a diagnosis of specific learning disorder (SLD) and compared them with those of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and those of typically developing controls. Ninety‐six children aged 5 to 12 years were included: 29 with a diagnosis of SLD, 33 of DCD, and 34 controls. The Italian version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire 2007 (DCDQ‐Italian) was used to measure children's coordination in everyday functional activities. The mean DCDQ‐Italian total score was significantly lower in both SLD and DCD groups as compared with controls. Regarding subscores, both clinical groups scored significantly lower than controls on “Fine motor/handwriting” skills and on “General coordination.” The DCD group scored also significantly lower than controls on “Control during movement.” Moreover, clinical groups differed from each other, with SLD children scoring significantly higher on “Control during movement” and “General coordination” subscores. SLD children diverged from typically developing children in some motor skills during ordinary activities, and although this discrepancy was not as severe as in DCD children, it could have an impact on self‐esteem and sport inclusion. - Dyslexia, EarlyView.
  

  August 10, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1595   open full text
• Issue Information.
  
  Dyslexia. August 06, 2018
  --- - |2 No abstract is available for this article. - Dyslexia, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 205-206, August 2018.
  

  August 06, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1569   open full text
• Examining the double‐deficit hypothesis in vowelized–transparent Arabic in a national representative sample of Grades 3 and 4.
  Ibrahim A. Asadi, Michal Shany.
  Dyslexia. July 20, 2018
  --- - |2 We examined the double‐deficit hypothesis in Arabic by investigating the reading and cognitive profiles of readers with selective deficits in naming speed, phonological awareness, or both. In a nationally representative sample of 486 children in the third and fourth grades, we identified 171 children with reading difficulties: 20 (12%) were classified as having a phonological deficit, 31 (18%) as having a naming speed deficit, and 41 (24%) as having a double deficit. Differences between the subgroups extended to reading, cognitive, and linguistic processes beyond phonological and naming abilities. Children with a double deficit performed worse than those with a naming speed deficit but similar to those with a phonological deficit. Numerous unconfirmed theories led to an in‐depth analysis of the nature of rapid automatized naming and its relation to orthographic processing. Surprisingly, our findings revealed that orthographic processing may be considered a novel and separate core deficit, suggesting a triple deficit in Arabic rather than a double deficit. The findings are discussed in light of the uniqueness and complexity of Arabic orthography and orthographic transparency in the Arabic language. - Dyslexia, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 234-249, August 2018.
  

  July 20, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1594   open full text
• What is dyslexia? An exploration of the relationship between teachers' understandings of dyslexia and their training experiences.
  Cathryn Knight.
  Dyslexia. July 17, 2018
  --- - |2 Given that an estimated 5–10% of the worldwide population is said to have dyslexia, it is of great importance that teachers have an accurate understanding of what dyslexia is and how it effects their students. Using results from a large‐scale survey of teachers in England and in Wales (N ≈ 2,600), this paper demonstrates that teachers held a basic understanding of dyslexia, based on the behavioural issues that it is associated with. Teachers lacked the knowledge of the biological (i.e., neurological) and cognitive (i.e., processing) aspects of dyslexia. Moreover, a number of teachers mentioned visual factors in their description of dyslexia, despite there being inconclusive evidence to suggest a direct relationship between visual functioning and dyslexia. Further findings demonstrate the importance of good‐quality teacher training in increasing teachers' confidence working with those with dyslexia, while increasing their knowledge of the cognitive aspects of dyslexia. This paper argues that evidence‐based teacher training, which informs teachers of the up‐to‐date research on the biological, cognitive, and behavioural aspects of dyslexia, is essential to combat misconceptions and ensure that teachers have more nuanced and informed understandings of dyslexia. - Dyslexia, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 207-219, August 2018.
  

  July 17, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1593   open full text
• Pragmatic competence and its relationship with the linguistic and cognitive profile of young adults with dyslexia.
  Gloria Cappelli, Sabrina Noccetti, Giorgio Arcara, Valentina Bambini.
  Dyslexia. July 11, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract The study assessed the pragmatic skills of 19 well‐compensated Italian‐speaking young adults with dyslexia compared with controls. A comprehensive pragmatic assessment tool was employed, targeting production and comprehension (Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates [APACS]). Participants were also administered a series of standardized tests to assess verbal and non‐verbal cognitive abilities, including executive functions and social cognition tests. Data were analysed with the aim of understanding whether pragmatic abilities are compromised in dyslexia and of exploring associations between pragmatic performance and other cognitive domains. The performance of the dyslexia group was poorer than that of the control group in both expressive and receptive modalities. Data showed diffuse problems across several domains, with the greatest challenge posed by inferring nonliteral meanings, which indicates that pragmatic inefficiency is an important aspect of the linguistic and communicative profile of dyslexia in adulthood. Explorative correlations highlighted a relation between pragmatic performance and reading and vocabulary abilities, as well as between pragmatics and working memory. This suggests that pragmatic difficulties are strongly tied to the most distinctive aspects of dyslexia, namely, phonological awareness, verbal short‐term memory, pseudo‐word repetition, whereas the link with high‐level executive functions and Theory of Mind is negligible. - Dyslexia, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 294-306, August 2018.
  

  July 11, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1588   open full text
• The experiences of medical students with dyslexia: An interpretive phenomenological study.
  Sebastian C. K. Shaw, John L. Anderson.
  Dyslexia. May 10, 2018
  --- - |2 This article explores the experiences of U.K. medical students with dyslexia, using an interpretive phenomenological approach. This project began with a review of the literature, highlighting a void of qualitative research. We then conducted a collaborative autoethnography. This paper forms the next stage in this series of research. We aimed to elicit meaning and understanding from the lived experiences of our participants. Eight U.K. junior doctors with dyslexia were interviewed over the telephone in an in‐depth, unstructured manner. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed with the aid of a template analysis. Experiences of helplessness and hopelessness were common. These may be a result of a fear of stigmatization and personal feelings of inadequacy. They may also be fuelled by the incidents of bullying and belittling from other medical students that were reported. An important meta‐theme was of fear and lack of understanding. A lack of pastoral support was also reported. Their experiences of medical school assessments are also reported. More may need to be done to educate teachers and clinical supervisors on dyslexia. - Dyslexia, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 220-233, August 2018.
  

  May 10, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1587   open full text
• The association between reading abilities and visual‐spatial attention in Hong Kong Chinese children.
  Sisi Liu, Duo Liu, Zhihui Pan, Zhengye Xu.
  Dyslexia. March 25, 2018
  --- - |2 A growing body of research suggests that visual‐spatial attention is important for reading achievement. However, few studies have been conducted in non‐alphabetic orthographies. This study extended the current research to reading development in Chinese, a logographic writing system known for its visual complexity. Eighty Hong Kong Chinese children were selected and divided into poor reader and typical reader groups, based on their performance on the measures of reading fluency, Chinese character reading, and reading comprehension. The poor and typical readers were matched on age and nonverbal intelligence. A Posner's spatial cueing task was adopted to measure the exogenous and endogenous orienting of visual‐spatial attention. Although the typical readers showed the cueing effect in the central cue condition (i.e., responses to targets following valid cues were faster than those to targets following invalid cues), the poor readers did not respond differently in valid and invalid conditions, suggesting an impairment of the endogenous orienting of attention. The two groups, however, showed a similar cueing effect in the peripheral cue condition, indicating intact exogenous orienting in the poor readers. These findings generally supported a link between the orienting of covert attention and Chinese reading, providing evidence for the attentional‐deficit theory of dyslexia. - Dyslexia, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 263-275, August 2018.
  

  March 25, 2018   doi: 10.1002/dys.1584   open full text
• Co‐morbidities in Chinese children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and reading disabilities.
  Li‐Chih Wang, Kevin Kien Hoa Chung.
  Dyslexia. December 22, 2017
  --- - |2 The co‐morbidity of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disorder (RD) is more frequent than expected. This investigation assessed the potential uniqueness of the co‐morbidity of ADHD and RD and extended existing findings to the Chinese language. A parallel group design with a post hoc analysis of group differences was employed to compare 4 groups of children (30 with ADHD, 33 with RD, 28 with ADHD + RD, and 30 typically developing) regarding their reading comprehension, attention, reading‐related abilities, and cognitive abilities. The findings indicated that children with RD and/or ADHD symptom(s) exhibited diverse cognitive profiles, and the distinguishing factor contributed to different inhibitions. Additionally, Chinese‐speaking children with the co‐morbid symptoms of RD and ADHD demonstrated greater deficits in auditory working memory and rapid naming than did the pure‐deficit groups. Furthermore, although problems with phonological awareness were similar between the 2 groups, the deficiency of orthographic knowledge was more severe in children with RD than in the co‐morbid group. The ADHD + RD group's cognitive and reading‐related abilities displayed a relatively complicated pattern that should be considered in the diagnosis of either RD or ADHD and their remediation design. - Dyslexia, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 276-293, August 2018.
  

  December 22, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1579   open full text
• Evaluation of the psychometric properties of “the Norwegian screening test for dyslexia”.
  Trude Nergård‐Nilssen, Kenneth Eklund.
  Dyslexia. December 12, 2017
  --- - |2 The aim of this study was to develop and investigate the psychometric properties of a screening protocol for Norwegian students in upper secondary school. The protocol was designed to assess skills that are at stake in dyslexia. It was administered to 232 students. In the absence of a “gold standard,” comparisons were made between students who reported normal literacy skills (n = 184) and literacy problems (n = 48). Significant group differences were found across all areas. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses demonstrated good discriminatory power. The screening protocol met the standards for reliability and validity. It has the potential to be a useful tool for teachers to identify students at risk for dyslexia and who thus need to be referred to a full diagnostic investigation. - Dyslexia, Volume 24, Issue 3, Page 250-262, August 2018.
  

  December 12, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1577   open full text
• What can Parents' Self‐report of Reading Difficulties Tell Us about Their Children's Emergent Literacy at School Entry?
  Zahra Esmaeeli, Kjersti Lundetræ, Fiona E. Kyle.
  Dyslexia. September 18, 2017
  Research has linked family risk (FR) of reading difficulties (RD) with children's difficulties in emergent literacy development. This study is the first to apply parents' self‐report of RD as a proxy for FR in a large sample (n = 1171) in order to test group differences in children's emergent literacy. Emergent literacy, the home literacy environment and children's interest in literacy and letters were compared across different groups of FR children around the school entry. The FR children performed lower in emergent literacy compared with not‐FR children. Furthermore, when comparing FR children with one parent reporting RD and children with both parents reporting RD, moderate group differences were found in Emergent Literacy. Finally, parents' self‐report of RD was a significant contributor of emergent literacy after controlling for the home literacy environment, children's gender, their interest in literacy and letters, months in kindergarten, vocabulary and parents' education. Our findings suggest that schools should monitor the reading development of children with parents self‐reporting RD closely – especially if both parents self‐report RD. © 2017 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  September 18, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1571   open full text
• Morphology and Spelling in French: A Comparison of At‐Risk Readers and Typically Developing Children.
  Poh Wee Koh, Sharry Shakory, Xi Chen, S. Hélène Deacon.
  Dyslexia. September 15, 2017
  We present two studies that examine the role of morphology in French spelling. In Study 1, we examined the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between inflectional awareness and derivational awareness and spelling within a sample of 77 children in a French immersion programme in Canada. Children completed a non‐verbal reasoning measure and French measures of phonological awareness, word reading, vocabulary, morphological awareness, and spelling. Results showed that inflectional morphological awareness in Grade 3 was a predictor of spelling in the same grade. Inflectional awareness in Grade 2 predicted Grade 3 spelling, controlling for reading‐related skills and spelling at Grade 2. These analyses support the role of inflectional morphological awareness in the development of spelling of children of a range of reading and spelling abilities. In contrast, derivational awareness in Grades 2 and 3 did not predict spelling concurrently in both grades respectively. Study 2 contrasted the morphological errors in the spellings of six children at risk for reading difficulties with those of six chronological age‐matched and six reading level‐matched children. Analyses showed that at‐risk children exhibited more difficulties with spelling roots and suffixes in words as compared with their age‐matched peers, although they performed similarly to children matched on reading level. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  September 15, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1565   open full text
• Reading Comprehension Difficulties in Chinese–English Bilingual Children.
  Xiuhong Tong, Catherine McBride, Hua Shu, Connie Suk‐han Ho.
  Dyslexia. September 13, 2017
  The co‐occurrence of reading comprehension difficulties for first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English and associated longitudinal cognitive–linguistic correlates in each language were investigated. Sixteen poor comprehenders in English and 16 poor comprehenders in Chinese, 18 poor readers in both, and 18 children with normal performance in both were identified at age 10. The prevalence rate for being poor in both was 52.94%, suggesting that approximately half of children who are at risk for Chinese reading comprehension difficulty are also at risk for English reading comprehension difficulty. Chinese word reading, phonological, and morphological awareness were longitudinal correlates of poor comprehension in Chinese. English word reading and vocabulary were longitudinal correlates of poor comprehension in English. Chinese phonological awareness was an additional correlate of poor comprehension in English. Moreover, poor comprehenders in both Chinese and English showed slower rapid automatized naming scores than the other groups. Findings highlight some factors that might be critical for reading comprehension in L1 Chinese and L2 English; fluency is likely to be a critical part of reading comprehension across languages. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  September 13, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1566   open full text
• Socially Desirable Responding and College Students with Dyslexia: Implications for the Assessment of Anxiety and Depression.
  Jason M. Nelson, Spencer W. Liebel.
  Dyslexia. July 26, 2017
  We investigated self‐reported depressive and anxiety‐related symptoms among college students with dyslexia, with emphasis on the role of socially desirable responding (SDR) in understanding these reports. Analyses included examination of differences in self‐reported depressive symptoms, anxiety‐related symptoms, and SDR. We also examined the relationships among SDR, depressive symptoms, anxiety‐related symptoms, and reading skills. Participants with dyslexia demonstrated significantly higher SDR than did participants without dyslexia, and higher SDR was significantly associated with lower self‐reported depressive and anxiety‐related symptoms. Moreover, higher SDR was significantly associated with lower reading skills. There was no group difference on anxiety‐related symptoms, but participants with dyslexia had higher depressive symptoms than did participants without dyslexia when SDR was controlled. Implications for the assessment of anxiety and depression among college students with dyslexia are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 26, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1563   open full text
• A Three‐Year Longitudinal Study of Reading and Spelling Difficulty in Chinese Developmental Dyslexia: The Matter of Morphological Awareness.
  Xiuhong Tong, Catherine McBride, Jason Chor Ming Lo, Hua Shu.
  Dyslexia. July 25, 2017
  In the present study, we used a three‐time point longitudinal design to investigate the associations of morphological awareness to word reading and spelling in a small group of those with and without dyslexia taken from a larger sample of 164 Hong Kong Chinese children who remained in a longitudinal study across ages 6, 7 and 8. Among those 164 children, 15 had been diagnosed as having dyslexia by professional psychologists, and 15 other children manifested average reading ability and had been randomly selected from the sample for comparison. All children were administered a battery of tasks including Chinese character recognition, word dictation, morphological awareness, phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming. Multivariate analysis of variance and predictive discriminate analysis were performed to examine whether the dyslexic children showed differences in the cognitive‐linguistic tasks in comparison with controls. Results suggested that the dyslexic groups had poorer performance in morphological awareness and RAN across all 3 years. However, phonological awareness was not stable in distinguishing the groups. Findings suggest that morphological awareness is a relatively strong correlate of spelling difficulties in Chinese, but phonological awareness is not. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 25, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1564   open full text
• Exploring the Link between Visual Perception, Visual–Motor Integration, and Reading in Normal Developing and Impaired Children using DTVP‐2.
  Stéphanie Bellocchi, Mathilde Muneaux, Andréa Huau, Yohana Lévêque, Marianne Jover, Stéphanie Ducrot.
  Dyslexia. July 10, 2017
  Reading is known to be primarily a linguistic task. However, to successfully decode written words, children also need to develop good visual‐perception skills. Furthermore, motor skills are implicated in letter recognition and reading acquisition. Three studies have been designed to determine the link between reading, visual perception, and visual–motor integration using the Developmental Test of Visual Perception version 2 (DTVP‐2). Study 1 tests how visual perception and visual–motor integration in kindergarten predict reading outcomes in Grade 1, in typical developing children. Study 2 is aimed at finding out if these skills can be seen as clinical markers in dyslexic children (DD). Study 3 determines if visual–motor integration and motor‐reduced visual perception can distinguish DD children according to whether they exhibit or not developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Results showed that phonological awareness and visual–motor integration predicted reading outcomes one year later. DTVP‐2 demonstrated similarities and differences in visual–motor integration and motor‐reduced visual perception between children with DD, DCD, and both of these deficits. DTVP‐2 is a suitable tool to investigate links between visual perception, visual–motor integration and reading, and to differentiate cognitive profiles of children with developmental disabilities (i.e. DD, DCD, and comorbid children). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 10, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1561   open full text
• Response to Intervention as a Predictor of Long‐Term Reading Outcomes in Children with Dyslexia.
  Sanne W. Kleij, Eliane Segers, Margriet A. Groen, Ludo Verhoeven.
  Dyslexia. July 09, 2017
  The goal of this study was to investigate how growth during a phonics‐based intervention, as well as reading levels at baseline testing, predicted long‐term reading outcomes of children with dyslexia. Eighty Dutch children with dyslexia who had completed a 50‐week phonics‐based intervention in grade 4 were tested in grade 5 on both word and pseudoword (following regular Dutch orthographic patterns) reading efficiency and compared to 93 typical readers. In grade 5 the children with dyslexia were still significantly slower in word and pseudoword reading than their typically developing peers. Results showed that long‐term pseudoword reading in the group with dyslexia was predicted by pseudoword reading at pretest and growth in pseudoword reading during the intervention, which was itself predicted by pseudoword reading at pretest. This was not the case for word reading. We found that long‐term word reading was directly predicted from pretest word reading, and indirectly via pretest pseudoword reading, via growth in pseudoword and word reading. It can be concluded that pseudoword reading is not only a good indicator of severity of reading difficulties in children with dyslexia, it is also an indicator of who will profit from intervention in the long‐term. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 09, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1562   open full text
• Postural Control in Children with Dyslexia: Effects of Emotional Stimuli in a Dual‐Task Environment.
  Nathalie Goulème, Christophe‐Loïc Gerard, Maria Pia Bucci.
  Dyslexia. July 04, 2017
  The aim of this study was to compare the visual exploration strategies used during a postural control task across participants with and without dyslexia. We simultaneously recorded eye movements and postural control while children were viewing different types of emotional faces. Twenty‐two children with dyslexia and twenty‐two aged‐matched children without dyslexia participated in the study. We analysed the surface area, the length and the mean velocity of the centre of pressure for balance in parallel with visual saccadic latency, the number of saccades and the time spent in regions of interest. Our results showed that postural stability in children with dyslexia was weaker and the surface area of their centre of pressure increased significantly when they viewed an unpleasant face. Moreover, children with dyslexia had different strategies to those used by children without dyslexia during visual exploration, and in particular when they viewed unpleasant emotional faces. We suggest that lower performance in emotional face processing in children with dyslexia could be due to a difference in their visual strategies, linked to their identification of unpleasant emotional faces. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 04, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1559   open full text
• Early Identification of Reading Difficulties: A Screening Strategy that Adjusts the Sensitivity to the Level of Prediction Accuracy.
  Mads Poulsen, Anne‐Mette Veber Nielsen, Holger Juul, Carsten Elbro.
  Dyslexia. June 28, 2017
  Early screening for reading difficulties before the onset of instruction is desirable because it allows intervention that is targeted at prevention rather than remediation of reading difficulties. However, early screening may be too inaccurate to effectively allocate resources to those who need them. The present study compared the accuracy of early screening before the onset of formal reading instruction with late screening six months into the first year of instruction. The study followed 164 Danish students from the end of Grade 0 to the end of Grade 2. Early screening included measures of phonemic awareness, rapid naming, letter knowledge, paired associate learning, and reading. Late screening included only reading. Results indicated that reading measures improved substantially as predictors over the first six months of Grade 1, to the point where late reading measures alone provided as much information as the early measures combined. In the light of these results and a less than perfect early screening accuracy, a new strategy for screening is introduced and discussed. The strategy proposes multi‐point screening with gradually increasing sensitivity to strike a balance between manageable screening procedures and outcomes and early identification of students who are most likely in need of extra resources. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  June 28, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1560   open full text
• Short‐term Memory in Childhood Dyslexia: Deficient Serial Order in Multiple Modalities.
  Nelson Cowan, Tiffany P. Hogan, Mary Alt, Samuel Green, Kathryn L. Cabbage, Shara Brinkley, Shelley Gray.
  Dyslexia. May 12, 2017
  In children with dyslexia, deficits in working memory have not been well‐specified. We assessed second‐grade children with dyslexia, with and without concomitant specific language impairment, and children with typical development. Immediate serial recall of lists of phonological (non‐word), lexical (digit), spatial (location) and visual (shape) items were included. For the latter three modalities, we used not only standard span but also running span tasks, in which the list length was unpredictable to limit mnemonic strategies. Non‐word repetition tests indicated a phonological memory deficit in children with dyslexia alone compared with those with typical development, but this difference vanished when these groups were matched for non‐verbal intelligence and language. Theoretically important deficits in serial order memory in dyslexic children, however, persisted relative to matched typically developing children. The deficits were in recall of (1) spoken digits in both standard and running span tasks and (2) spatial locations, in running span only. Children with dyslexia with versus without language impairment, when matched on non‐verbal intelligence, had comparable serial order memory, but differed in phonology. Because serial orderings of verbal and spatial elements occur in reading, the careful examination of order memory may allow a deeper understanding of dyslexia and its relation to language impairment. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 12, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1557   open full text
• Verbal and Non‐verbal Fluency in Adults with Developmental Dyslexia: Phonological Processing or Executive Control Problems?
  James H. Smith‐Spark, Lucy A. Henry, David J. Messer, Adam P. Zięcik.
  Dyslexia. May 11, 2017
  The executive function of fluency describes the ability to generate items according to specific rules. Production of words beginning with a certain letter (phonemic fluency) is impaired in dyslexia, while generation of words belonging to a certain semantic category (semantic fluency) is typically unimpaired. However, in dyslexia, verbal fluency has generally been studied only in terms of overall words produced. Furthermore, performance of adults with dyslexia on non‐verbal design fluency tasks has not been explored but would indicate whether deficits could be explained by executive control, rather than phonological processing, difficulties. Phonemic, semantic and design fluency tasks were presented to adults with dyslexia and without dyslexia, using fine‐grained performance measures and controlling for IQ. Hierarchical regressions indicated that dyslexia predicted lower phonemic fluency, but not semantic or design fluency. At the fine‐grained level, dyslexia predicted a smaller number of switches between subcategories on phonemic fluency, while dyslexia did not predict the size of phonemically related clusters of items. Overall, the results suggested that phonological processing problems were at the root of dyslexia‐related fluency deficits; however, executive control difficulties could not be completely ruled out as an alternative explanation. Developments in research methodology, equating executive demands across fluency tasks, may resolve this issue. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 11, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1558   open full text
• Psychological Well‐being Trajectories of Individuals with Dyslexia Aged 3–11 Years.
  Julie‐Ann Jordan, Kevin Dyer.
  Dyslexia. May 03, 2017
  Dyslexia has been associated with a range of psychological well‐being issues in childhood. However, it is unclear if these difficulties stem from coping with academic struggles at school, or from other pre‐existing diagnoses that sometimes co‐occur with dyslexia. Using UK Millennium Cohort Study data (n = 7224) from 2003 to 2011, the present study compared psychological well‐being development from ages 3–11 years for children with (1) dyslexia only; (2) special educational needs excluding dyslexia; (3) comorbid dyslexia and other special educational needs; and (4) no special educational needs. Growth curve modelling results controlling for race, gender, age and family income suggested that with the exception of conduct difficulties, psychological well‐being issues related to dyslexia do not occur preschool; rather, they commence upon starting school. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 03, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1555   open full text
• Word Decoding Development during Phonics Instruction in Children at Risk for Dyslexia.
  Moniek M.H. Schaars, Eliane Segers, Ludo Verhoeven.
  Dyslexia. May 03, 2017
  In the present study, we examined the early word decoding development of 73 children at genetic risk of dyslexia and 73 matched controls. We conducted monthly curriculum‐embedded word decoding measures during the first 5 months of phonics‐based reading instruction followed by standardized word decoding measures halfway and by the end of first grade. In kindergarten, vocabulary, phonological awareness, lexical retrieval, and verbal and visual short‐term memory were assessed. The results showed that the children at risk were less skilled in phonemic awareness in kindergarten. During the first 5 months of reading instruction, children at risk were less efficient in word decoding and the discrepancy increased over the months. In subsequent months, the discrepancy prevailed for simple words but increased for more complex words. Phonemic awareness and lexical retrieval predicted the reading development in children at risk and controls to the same extent. It is concluded that children at risk are behind their typical peers in word decoding development starting from the very beginning. Furthermore, it is concluded that the disadvantage increased during phonics instruction and that the same predictors underlie the development of word decoding in the two groups of children. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 03, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1556   open full text
• Morpheme‐based Reading and Spelling in Italian Children with Developmental Dyslexia and Dysorthography.
  Paola Angelelli, Chiara Valeria Marinelli, Marinella De Salvatore, Cristina Burani.
  Dyslexia. February 08, 2017
  Italian sixth graders, with and without dyslexia, read pseudowords and low‐frequency words that include high‐frequency morphemes better than stimuli not including any morpheme. The present study assessed whether morphemes affect (1) younger children, with and without dyslexia; (2) spelling as well as reading; and (3) words with low‐frequency morphemes. Two groups of third graders (16 children with dyslexia and dysorthography and 16 age‐matched typically developing children) read aloud and spelt to dictation pseudowords and words. Pseudowords included (1) root + suffix in not existing combinations (e.g. lampadista, formed by lampad‐, ‘lamp’, and ‐ista, ‘‐ist’) and (2) orthographic sequences not corresponding to any Italian root or suffix (e.g. livonosto). Words had low frequency and included: (1) root + suffix, both of high frequency (e.g. bestiale, ‘beastly’); (2) root + suffix, both of low frequency (e.g. asprigno, ‘rather sour’); and (3) simple words (e.g. insulso, ‘vapid’). Children with dyslexia and dysorthography were less accurate than typically developing children. Root + suffix pseudowords were read and spelt more accurately than non‐morphological pseudowords by both groups. Morphologically complex (root + suffix) words were read and spelt better than simple words. However, task interacted with morphology: reading was not facilitated by low‐frequency morphemes. We conclude that children acquiring a transparent orthography exploit morpheme‐based reading and spelling to face difficulties in processing long unfamiliar stimuli. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  February 08, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1554   open full text
• English as a Foreign Language in Bilingual Language‐minority Children, Children with Dyslexia and Monolingual Typical Readers.
  Paola Bonifacci, Elisa Canducci, Giulia Gravagna, Paola Palladino.
  Dyslexia. February 06, 2017
  The present study was aimed at investigating literacy skills in English as a foreign language in three different groups of children: monolinguals with dyslexia (n = 19), typically developing bilinguals (language‐minority) (n = 19) and a control group of monolinguals (Italian) (n = 76). Bilinguals were not expected to fail in English measures, and their gap with monolinguals would be expected to be limited to the instructional language, owing to underexposure. All participants were enrolled in Italian primary schools (fourth and fifth grades). A non‐verbal reasoning task and Italian and English literacy tasks were administered. The Italian battery included word and non‐word reading (speed and accuracy), word and non‐word writing, and reading comprehension; the English battery included similar tasks, except for the non‐word writing. Bilingual children performed similarly to typical readers in English tasks, whereas in Italian tasks, their performance was similar to that of typical readers in reading speed but not in reading accuracy and writing. Children with dyslexia underperformed compared with typically developing children in all English and Italian tasks, except for reading comprehension in Italian. Profile analysis and correlational analyses were further discussed. These results suggest that English as a foreign language might represent a challenge for students with dyslexia but a strength for bilingual language‐minority children. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  February 06, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1553   open full text
• Cross‐language Transfer of Metalinguistic Skills: Evidence from Spelling English Words by Korean Students in Grades 4, 5 and 6.
  Sookkyung Yeon, Han Suk Bae, Malatesha Joshi.
  Dyslexia. January 27, 2017
  The present study examined unique and shared contributions of Korean (first language) phonological, orthographic and morphological awareness (PA, OA and MA, respectively) to English (second/foreign language) spelling among 287 fourth‐grade, fifth‐grade and sixth‐grade Korean children. Korean measures of PA, OA and MA were administered, in addition to English vocabulary and spelling measures. Results from structural equation modelling showed that PA, OA and MA were caused by one common construct, metalinguistic awareness (META), and the contribution of Korean META to English spelling was statistically significant, controlling for English vocabulary. In particular, Korean MA and PA played unique roles in explaining English spelling; whereas Korean OA did not significantly contribute to English spelling. Findings from the present study provided empirical evidence of first language META transfer effect on second/foreign language spelling development. Educational implications and future research ideas are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  January 27, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1547   open full text
• Spelling and Morphology in Dyslexia: A Developmental Study Across the School Years.
  Rachel Schiff, Ronit Levie.
  Dyslexia. January 25, 2017
  The current study examined the effect of morphological knowledge on spelling development in Hebrew‐speaking schoolchildren, adolescents and adults with dyslexia, compared with typically developing (TD) peers. Participants were 238 Hebrew‐speaking readers of five grade levels of whom 139 were TD and 99 had developmental dyslexia (DD). Participants were tested on a function letter spelling task, a phonological awareness task and a morphological awareness task. The overall picture that emerged from the results is that performance on all measures increased with grade level, with TD participants always scoring higher than peers with DD. Moreover, the higher the morphological complexity in spelling and irregularity in noun inflection, the higher the differences between the DD and TD participants. Finally, performance on the morphological awareness task contributed to spelling morphologically more complex spelling items in the TD, but not in the DD group. From clinical and educational perspectives, these results strongly suggest that rigorous morphological instruction is necessary in teaching children and adolescents with dyslexia to identify and use morphological cues in spoken and written Hebrew. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  January 25, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1549   open full text
• Exploring Text and Icon Graph Interpretation in Students with Dyslexia: An Eye‐tracking Study.
  Sunjung Kim, Rebecca Wiseheart.
  Dyslexia. January 16, 2017
  A growing body of research suggests that individuals with dyslexia struggle to use graphs efficiently. Given the persistence of orthographic processing deficits in dyslexia, this study tested whether graph interpretation deficits in dyslexia are directly related to difficulties processing the orthographic components of graphs (i.e. axes and legend labels). Participants were 80 college students with and without dyslexia. Response times and eye movements were recorded as students answered comprehension questions about simple data displayed in bar graphs. Axes and legends were labelled either with words (mixed‐modality graphs) or icons (orthography‐free graphs). Students also answered informationally equivalent questions presented in sentences (orthography‐only condition). Response times were slower in the dyslexic group only for processing sentences. However, eye tracking data revealed group differences for processing mixed‐modality graphs, whereas no group differences were found for the orthography‐free graphs. When processing bar graphs, students with dyslexia differ from their able reading peers only when graphs contain orthographic features. Implications for processing informational text are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  January 16, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1551   open full text
• Formation of Orthographic Representations in Spanish Dyslexic Children: The Role of Syllable Complexity and Frequency.
  Paz Suárez‐Coalla, Fernando Cuetos.
  Dyslexia. January 09, 2017
  Recent studies have suggested that Spanish children with dyslexia have difficulty storing orthographic representations of new words. But given that the syllable plays an important role in word recognition in Spanish, it is possible that the formation of orthographic representations is influenced by the characteristics of the syllables that make up the words. The objective of this study was to determine whether syllabic frequency and syllabic complexity influence orthographic learning in children with dyslexia. We compared the performance of a group of dyslexic children with that of a group of typical readers on a task that involved reading short and long pseudowords six times; we manipulated the frequency and complexity of the syllables from which the pseudowords were constructed. The results showed that dyslexic children do not benefit from syllabic simplicity or frequency when it comes to storing orthographic representations as the length effect in the dyslexic group remained was unchanged after repeated readings, regardless of stimulus characteristics. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Messages Children with dyslexia show difficulties storing orthographic representations. Children with dyslexia need many exposures to new words in order to achieve orthographic knowledge.

  January 09, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1546   open full text
• The 1‐min Screening Test for Reading Problems in College Students: Psychometric Properties of the 1‐min TIL.
  Tânia Fernandes, Susana Araújo, Ana Sucena, Alexandra Reis, São Luís Castro.
  Dyslexia. January 09, 2017
  Reading is a central cognitive domain, but little research has been devoted to standardized tests for adults. We, thus, examined the psychometric properties of the 1‐min version of Teste de Idade de Leitura (Reading Age Test; 1‐min TIL), the Portuguese version of Lobrot L3 test, in three experiments with college students: typical readers in Experiment 1A and B, dyslexic readers and chronological age controls in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1A, test–retest reliability and convergent validity were evaluated in 185 students. Reliability was >.70, and phonological decoding underpinned 1‐min TIL. In Experiment 1B, internal consistency was assessed by presenting two 45‐s versions of the test to 19 students, and performance in these versions was significantly associated (r = .78). In Experiment 2, construct validity, criterion validity and clinical utility of 1‐min TIL were investigated. A multiple regression analysis corroborated construct validity; both phonological decoding and listening comprehension were reliable predictors of 1‐min TIL scores. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristics analyses revealed the high accuracy of this test in distinguishing dyslexic from typical readers. Therefore, the 1‐min TIL, which assesses reading comprehension and potential reading difficulties in college students, has the necessary psychometric properties to become a useful screening instrument in neuropsychological assessment and research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  January 09, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1548   open full text
• Reading Comprehension: A Computerized Intervention with Primary‐age Poor Readers.
  Joanna Kathryn Horne.
  Dyslexia. January 09, 2017
  The current study investigates the effectiveness of a computerized reading comprehension programme on the reading accuracy, reading comprehension and reading rate of primary‐age poor readers. There is little published literature relating to computerized reading interventions in UK primary schools, and no previous studies have investigated the Comprehension Booster programme. Thirty‐eight children (26 boys and 12 girls; aged 6:7 to 11:0) from two schools in East Yorkshire, UK, took part. Half of the participants (the intervention group) undertook the Comprehension Booster programme for a 6‐week period, whilst the other half (the control group) continued with their usual teaching. Significant effects of the intervention were found, with increases in reading accuracy and reading comprehension for the intervention group. It is concluded that computerized reading programmes can be effective in improving reading skills, and these are particularly useful for pupils with reading difficulties in disadvantaged areas, where resources are limited and family support in reading is lower. However, such programmes are not a replacement for good teaching, and regular monitoring of children with reading difficulties is required. Further research is necessary to compare the programme used here to other conventional and computerized intervention programmes, using a larger sample. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  January 09, 2017   doi: 10.1002/dys.1552   open full text
• Comprehension and Generation of Metaphoric Language in Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Dyslexia.
  Anat Kasirer, Nira Mashal.
  Dyslexia. December 22, 2016
  Difficulties with figurative language comprehension were documented in adult dyslexia (DYS). In the present research, we investigated the comprehension and generation of metaphors in 37 children, 35 adolescents, and 34 adults with and without DYS. We also tested the contribution of executive function to metaphor processing. A multiple‐choice questionnaire with conventional and novel metaphors was used to assess comprehension; a concept‐explanation task was used to test conventional and novel metaphor generation (verbal creativity). The findings indicated differences between the dyslexic children and the control group in conventional metaphor comprehension. However, both groups performed similarly in the novel metaphor comprehension test. Furthermore, although children and adolescents with DYS showed similar performance in metaphor generation as their typically developing peers, adults with DYS generated more metaphors than controls. While scores on tests of verbal knowledge and mental flexibility contributed to the prediction of conventional metaphor comprehension, scores on non‐verbal tests and mental flexibility contributed to the prediction of novel metaphor generation. Our findings suggest that individuals with DYS are not impaired in novel metaphor comprehension and metaphor generation and that metaphor comprehension and generation utilize different cognitive resources. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  December 22, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1550   open full text
• University Students with Dyslexia: A Qualitative Exploratory Study of Learning Practices, Challenges and Strategies.
  Lois MacCullagh, Agnes Bosanquet, Nicholas A. Badcock.
  Dyslexia. November 28, 2016
  People with dyslexia are vastly under‐represented in universities (Katusic et al., , Richardson & Wydell, ; Stampoltzis & Polychronopoulou, ). This situation is of concern for modern societies that value social justice. This study was designed to explore learning experiences of university students with dyslexia and factors that could contribute to their success. Thirteen students with dyslexia and 20 non‐dyslexic peers were interviewed about their university learning experiences using a semi‐structured qualitative approach. Students with dyslexia described engaging in learning activities intensively, frequently and strategically. They reported challenges and strengths relating to study skills, lectures, assessments, technology and support services. They also described helpful strategies including self‐directed adaptive techniques, provisions from lecturers and assistance from the university. These findings suggest that students with dyslexia experience broad challenges at university, but helpful strategies may be available. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  November 28, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1544   open full text
• The Effect of Illustration on Improving Text Comprehension in Dyslexic Adults.
  Mona Holmqvist Olander, Eva Wennås Brante, Marcus Nyström.
  Dyslexia. November 28, 2016
  This study analyses the effect of pictures in reading materials on the viewing patterns of dyslexic adults. By analysing viewing patterns using eye‐tracking, we captured differences in eye movements between young adults with dyslexia and controls based on the influence of reading skill as a continuous variable of the total sample. Both types of participants were assigned randomly to view either text‐only or a text + picture stimuli. The results show that the controls made an early global overview of the material and (when a picture was present) rapid transitions between text and picture. Having text illustrated with a picture decreased scores on questions about the learning material among participants with dyslexia. Controls spent 1.7% and dyslexic participants 1% of their time on the picture. Controls had 24% fewer total fixations; however, 29% more of the control group's fixations than the dyslexic group's fixations were on the picture. We also looked for effects of different types of pictures. Dyslexic subjects exhibited a comparable viewing pattern to controls when scenes were complex, but fewer fixations when scenes were neutral/simple. Individual scan paths are presented as examples of atypical viewing patterns for individuals with dyslexia as compared with controls. © 2016 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  November 28, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1545   open full text
• Selective Impairments in Covert Shifts of Attention in Chinese Dyslexic Children.
  Yun Ding, Jing Zhao, Tao He, Yufei Tan, Lingshuang Zheng, Zhiguo Wang.
  Dyslexia. November 02, 2016
  Reading depends heavily on the efficient shift of attention. Mounting evidence has suggested that dyslexics have deficits in covert attentional shift. However, it remains unclear whether dyslexics also have deficits in overt attentional shift. With the majority of relevant studies carried out in alphabetic writing systems, it is also unknown whether the attentional deficits observed in dyslexics are restricted to a particular writing system. The present study examined inhibition of return (IOR)—a major driving force of attentional shifts—in dyslexic children learning to read a logographic script (i.e., Chinese). Robust IOR effects were observed in both covert and overt attentional tasks in two groups of typically developing children, who were age‐ or reading ability‐matched to the dyslexic children. In contrast, the dyslexic children showed IOR in the overt but not in the covert attentional task. We conclude that covert attentional shift is selectively impaired in dyslexic children. This impairment is not restricted to alphabetic writing systems, and it could be a significant contributor to the difficulties encountered by children learning to read. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  November 02, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1541   open full text
• Prosodic Similarity Effects in Short‐Term Memory in Developmental Dyslexia.
  Usha Goswami, Lisa Barnes, Natasha Mead, Alan James Power, Victoria Leong.
  Dyslexia. October 17, 2016
  Children with developmental dyslexia are characterized by phonological difficulties across languages. Classically, this ‘phonological deficit’ in dyslexia has been investigated with tasks using single‐syllable words. Recently, however, several studies have demonstrated difficulties in prosodic awareness in dyslexia. Potential prosodic effects in short‐term memory have not yet been investigated. Here we create a new instrument based on three‐syllable words that vary in stress patterns, to investigate whether prosodic similarity (the same prosodic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables) exerts systematic effects on short‐term memory. We study participants with dyslexia and age‐matched and younger reading‐level‐matched typically developing controls. We find that all participants, including dyslexic participants, show prosodic similarity effects in short‐term memory. All participants exhibited better retention of words that differed in prosodic structure, although participants with dyslexia recalled fewer words accurately overall compared to age‐matched controls. Individual differences in prosodic memory were predicted by earlier vocabulary abilities, by earlier sensitivity to syllable stress and by earlier phonological awareness. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of prosodic similarity effects in short‐term memory. The implications of a prosodic similarity effect for theories of lexical representation and of dyslexia are discussed. © 2016 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  October 17, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1535   open full text
• The Effects of Visual Attention Span and Phonological Decoding in Reading Comprehension in Dyslexia: A Path Analysis.
  Chen Chen, Matthew H. Schneps, Katherine E. Masyn, Jennifer M. Thomson.
  Dyslexia. October 14, 2016
  Increasing evidence has shown visual attention span to be a factor, distinct from phonological skills, that explains single‐word identification (pseudo‐word/word reading) performance in dyslexia. Yet, little is known about how well visual attention span explains text comprehension. Observing reading comprehension in a sample of 105 high school students with dyslexia, we used a pathway analysis to examine the direct and indirect path between visual attention span and reading comprehension while controlling for other factors such as phonological awareness, letter identification, short‐term memory, IQ and age. Integrating phonemic decoding efficiency skills in the analytic model, this study aimed to disentangle how visual attention span and phonological skills work together in reading comprehension for readers with dyslexia. We found visual attention span to have a significant direct effect on more difficult reading comprehension but not on an easier level. It also had a significant direct effect on pseudo‐word identification but not on word identification. In addition, we found that visual attention span indirectly explains reading comprehension through pseudo‐word reading and word reading skills. This study supports the hypothesis that at least part of the dyslexic profile can be explained by visual attention abilities. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  October 14, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1543   open full text
• Reading Processes of University Students with Dyslexia – An Examination of the Relationship between Oral Reading and Reading Comprehension.
  Henriette Folkmann Pedersen, Riccardo Fusaroli, Lene Louise Lauridsen, Rauno Parrila.
  Dyslexia. October 11, 2016
  The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of oral reading and how it relates to reading comprehension in students with dyslexia. A group of Danish university students with dyslexia (n = 16) and a comparison group of students with no history of reading problems (n = 16) were assessed on their oral reading performance when reading a complex text. Along with reading speed, we measured not only the number and quality of reading errors but also the extent and semantic nature of the self‐corrections during reading. The reading comprehension was measured through aided text retellings. The results showed that, as a group, the dyslexics performed poorer on most measures, but there were notable within‐group differences in the reading behaviours and little association between how well university students with dyslexia read aloud and comprehended the text. These findings suggest that many dyslexics in higher education tend to focus their attention on one subcomponent of the reading process, for example, decoding or comprehension, because engaging in both simultaneously may be too demanding for them. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  October 11, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1542   open full text
• Is Reading Impairment Associated with Enhanced Holistic Processing in Comparative Visual Search?
  Jiahui Wang, Matthew H. Schneps, Pavlo D. Antonenko, Chen Chen, Marc Pomplun.
  Dyslexia. October 07, 2016
  This study explores a proposition that individuals with dyslexia develop enhanced peripheral vision to process visual–spatial information holistically. Participants included 18 individuals diagnosed with dyslexia and 18 who were not. The experiment used a comparative visual search design consisting of two blocks of 72 trials. Each trial presented two halves of the display each comprising three kinds of shapes in three colours to be compared side‐by‐side. Participants performed a conjunctive search to ascertain whether the two halves were identical. In the first block, participants were provided no instruction regarding the visual–spatial processing strategy they were to employ. In the second block, participants were instructed to use a holistic processing strategy—to defocus their attention and perform the comparison by examining the whole screen at once. The results did not support the hypothesis associating dyslexia with talents for holistic visual processing. Using holistic processing strategy, both groups scored lower in accuracy and reacted faster, compared to the first block. Impaired readers consistently reacted more slowly and did not exhibit enhanced accuracy. Given the extant evidence of strengths for holistic visual processing in impaired readers, these findings are important because they suggest such strengths may be task dependent. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  October 07, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1540   open full text
• Calibration of Self‐Reports of Anxiety and Physiological Measures of Anxiety While Reading in Adults With and Without Reading Disability.
  Yael Meer, Zvia Breznitz, Tami Katzir.
  Dyslexia. July 28, 2016
  Reading difficulty has been linked to anxiety in adults yet and has not been systematically studied especially in compensated adults with dyslexia. This study examined the relationships between anxiety ratings and physiological arousal while reading among adults with reading disability (RD) compared to skilled readers (SR). Nineteen compensated adults with RD and 20 SR adults were administered a battery of reading tasks and anxiety self‐report questionnaires. Physiological measures of arousal were recorded during text reading task. Adults with RD scored significantly lower than SR on all cognitive and reading related measures. They showed no differences on any of the self‐report anxiety measures. Interestingly, in the skilled readers' sample, physiological arousal while reading correlated with trait anxiety. No correlations between physiological and self‐reported data were found in the RD sample. These findings suggest a model of resiliency in compensated adults with reading disabilities that includes lower anxiety levels and a discord between anxiety reports and actual arousal rates. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 28, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1532   open full text
• Responsiveness to Intervention in Children with Dyslexia.
  Elisabeth A. T. Tilanus, Eliane Segers, Ludo Verhoeven.
  Dyslexia. July 28, 2016
  We examined the responsiveness to a 12‐week phonics intervention in 54 s‐grade Dutch children with dyslexia, and compared their reading and spelling gains to a control group of 61 typical readers. The intervention aimed to train grapheme–phoneme correspondences (GPCs), and word reading and spelling by using phonics instruction. We examined the accuracy and efficiency of grapheme–phoneme correspondences, decoding words and pseudowords, as well as the accuracy of spelling words before and after the intervention. Moreover, responsiveness to intervention was examined by studying to what extent scores at posttest could directly or indirectly be predicted from precursor measures. Results showed that the children with dyslexia were significantly behind in all reading and spelling measures at pretest. During the intervention, the children with dyslexia made more progress on GPC, (pseudo)word decoding accuracy and efficiency, and spelling accuracy than the typical reading group. Furthermore, we found a direct effect of the precursor measures rapid automatized naming, verbal working memory and phoneme deletion on the dyslexic children's progress in GPC speed, and indirect effects of rapid automatized naming and phoneme deletion on word and pseudoword efficiency and word decoding accuracy via the scores at pretest. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 28, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1533   open full text
• Associations Between the KIAA0319 Dyslexia Susceptibility Gene Variants, Antenatal Maternal Stress, and Reading Ability in a Longitudinal Birth Cohort.
  Stephanie D'Souza, Amelia Backhouse‐Smith, John M. D. Thompson, Rebecca Slykerman, Gareth Marlow, Clare Wall, Rinki Murphy, Lynnette R. Ferguson, Edwin A. Mitchell, Karen E. Waldie.
  Dyslexia. July 28, 2016
  Maternal stress during pregnancy has been associated with detrimental cognitive developmental outcomes in offspring. This study investigated whether antenatal maternal perceived stress and variants of the rs12193738 and rs2179515 polymorphisms on the KIAA0319 gene interact to affect reading ability and full‐scale IQ (FSIQ) in members of the longitudinal Auckland Birthweight Collaborative study. Antenatal maternal stress was measured at birth, and reading ability was assessed at ages 7 and 16. Reading data were available for 500 participants at age 7 and 479 participants at age 16. FSIQ was measured at ages 7 and 11. At age 11, DNA samples were collected. Analyses of covariance revealed that individuals with the TT genotype of the rs12193738 polymorphism exposed to high maternal stress during pregnancy possessed significantly poorer reading ability (as measured by Woodcock‐Johnson Word Identification standard scores) during adolescence compared with TT carriers exposed to low maternal stress. TT carriers of the rs12193738 SNP also obtained lower IQ scores at age 7 than C allele carriers. These findings suggest that the KIAA0319 gene is associated with both reading ability and general cognition, but in different ways. The effect on IQ appears to occur earlier in development and is transient, whereas the effect of reading ability occurs later and is moderated by antenatal maternal stress. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 28, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1534   open full text
• Comparing Bilingual to Monolingual Learners on English Spelling: A Meta‐analytic Review.
  Jing Zhao, Blanca Quiroz, L. Quentin Dixon, R. Malatesha Joshi.
  Dyslexia. June 17, 2016
  This study reports on a meta‐analysis to examine how bilingual learners compare with English monolingual learners on two English spelling outcomes: real‐word spelling and pseudo‐word spelling. Eighteen studies published in peer‐reviewed journals between 1990 and 2014 were retrieved. The study‐level variables and characteristics (e.g. sample size, study design and research instruments) were coded, and 29 independent effect sizes across the 18 retrieved studies were analysed. We found that bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on real‐word spelling overall and more so in early grades, but monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on pseudo‐word spelling. Further, bilinguals at risk for reading difficulties did better on real‐word spelling than monolinguals at risk for reading difficulties. Having investigated systematic sources of variability in effect sizes, we conclude that in comparison with their monolingual peers, bilingual learners, especially those from alphabetic L1 backgrounds, are able to master constrained skills, such as English spelling, in the current instructional context. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  June 17, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1530   open full text
• A Special Font for People with Dyslexia: Does it Work and, if so, why?
  Eva Marinus, Michelle Mostard, Eliane Segers, Teresa M. Schubert, Alison Madelaine, Kevin Wheldall.
  Dyslexia. May 19, 2016
  In 2008 Christian Boer, a Dutch artist, developed a special font (“Dyslexie”) to facilitate reading in children and adults with dyslexia. The font has received a lot of media attention worldwide (e.g., TheGuardian.com, Slate.com, TheAtlantic.com, USA Today, and io9.com). Interestingly, there is barely any empirical evidence for the efficacy of Dyslexie. This study aims to examine if Dyslexie is indeed more effective than a commonly used sans serif font (Arial) and, if so, whether this can be explained by its relatively large spacing settings. Participants were 39 low‐progress readers who were learning to read in English. They were asked to read four different texts in four different font conditions that were all matched on letter display size (i.e., x‐height), but differed in the degree to which they were matched for spacing settings. Results showed that low‐progress readers performed better (i.e., read 7% more words per minute) in Dyslexie font than in standardly spaced Arial font. However, when within‐word spacing and between‐word spacing of Arial font was matched to that of Dyslexie font, the difference in reading speed was no longer significant. We concluded that the efficacy of Dyslexie font is not because of its specially designed letter shapes, but because of its particular spacing settings. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 19, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1527   open full text
• Spelling Errors in French‐speaking Children with Dyslexia: Phonology May Not Provide the Best Evidence.
  Daniel Daigle, Agnès Costerg, Anne Plisson, Noémia Ruberto, Joëlle Varin.
  Dyslexia. May 04, 2016
  For children with dyslexia, learning to write constitutes a great challenge. There has been consensus that the explanation for these learners' delay is related to a phonological deficit. Results from studies designed to describe dyslexic children's spelling errors are not always as clear concerning the role of phonological processes as those found in reading studies. In irregular languages like French, spelling abilities involve other processes than phonological processes. The main goal of this study was to describe the relative contribution of these other processes in dyslexic children's spelling ability. In total, 32 francophone dyslexic children with a mean age of 11.4 years were compared with 24 reading‐age matched controls (RA) and 24 chronological‐age matched controls (CA). All had to write a text that was analysed at the graphemic level. All errors were classified as either phonological, morphological, visual‐orthographic or lexical. Results indicated that dyslexic children's spelling ability lagged behind not only that of the CA group but also of the RA group. Because the majority of errors, in all groups, could not be explained by inefficiency of phonological processing, the importance of visual knowledge/processes will be discussed as a complementary explanation of dyslexic children's delay in writing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 04, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1524   open full text
• Novel Word Learning, Reading Difficulties, and Phonological Processing Skills.
  Marina Kalashnikova, Denis Burnham.
  Dyslexia. May 04, 2016
  Visual–verbal paired associate learning (PAL) refers to the ability to establish an arbitrary association between a visual referent and an unfamiliar label. It is now established that this ability is impaired in children with dyslexia, but the source of this deficit is yet to be specified. This study assesses PAL performance in children with reading difficulties using a modified version of the PAL paradigm, comprising a comprehension and a production phase, to determine whether the PAL deficit lies in children's ability to establish and retain novel object–novel word associations or their ability to retrieve the learned novel labels for production. Results showed that while children with reading difficulties required significantly more trials to learn the object–word associations, when they were required to use these associations in a comprehension‐referent selection task, their accuracy and speed did not differ from controls. Nevertheless, children with reading difficulties were significantly less successful when they were required to produce the learned novel labels in response to the visual stimuli. Thus, these results indicate that while children with reading difficulties are successful at establishing visual–verbal associations, they have a deficit in the verbal production component of PAL tasks, which may relate to a more general underlying impairment in auditory or phonological processing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 04, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1525   open full text
• Effects of a Randomized Reading Intervention Study Aimed at 9‐Year‐Olds: A 5‐Year Follow‐up.
  Ulrika Wolff.
  Dyslexia. May 04, 2016
  The present paper reports on a 5‐year follow‐up of a randomized reading intervention in grade 3 in Sweden. An intervention group (n = 57) received daily training for 12 weeks in phoneme/grapheme mapping, reading comprehension and reading speed, whereas a control group (n = 55) participated in ordinary classroom activities. The main aim was to investigate if there were remaining effects of the intervention on reading‐related skills. Previous analyses showed that the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group on spelling, reading speed, reading comprehension and phoneme awareness at the immediate post‐test with sustained effects 1 year later. Results from the 5‐year follow‐up show that the only significant difference between the intervention (n = 47) and the control group (n = 37) was on word decoding. There was also a significant interaction effect of group assignment and initial word decoding, in the way that the lowest‐performing students benefitted the most from the intervention. Another aim was to examine if the children identified in a screening (n = 2212) as poor readers in grade 2 still performed worse than typical readers. The analyses showed that the typically developing students (n = 66) outperformed the students identified as poor readers in grade 2 on working memory, spelling, reading comprehension and word decoding. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 04, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1529   open full text
• Self‐Reports of Increased Prospective and Retrospective Memory Problems in Adults with Developmental Dyslexia.
  James H. Smith‐Spark, Adam P. Zięcik, Christopher Sterling.
  Dyslexia. April 28, 2016
  Short‐term and working memory problems in dyslexia are well‐documented, but other memory domains have received little empirical scrutiny, despite some evidence to suggest that they might be impaired. Prospective memory is memory for delayed intentions, whilst retrospective memory relates to memory for personally experienced past events. To gain an understanding of subjective everyday memory experience, a self‐report measure designed to tap prospective and retrospective memory was administered to 28 adults with dyslexia and 26 IQ‐matched adults without dyslexia. Adults with dyslexia reported experiencing significantly more frequent problems with memory than the adults without dyslexia. Group differences were found across seven out of the eight questionnaire scales. Further to these analyses, the participants' own ratings were compared with proxy ratings provided by close associates. The perception of poorer memory abilities in the participants did not differ between respondent types. The self‐reported difficulties are, thus, unlikely to be the result of lowered self‐esteem or metacognitive awareness. More frequent difficulties with both types of memory would seem, therefore, to be experienced by adults with dyslexia in everyday life. Further laboratory‐based research is recommended to explore both memory domains in dyslexia and to identify the cognitive mechanisms by which these problems occur. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  April 28, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1528   open full text
• Improvement of the Error‐detection Mechanism in Adults with Dyslexia Following Reading Acceleration Training.
  Tzipi Horowitz‐Kraus.
  Dyslexia. April 13, 2016
  The error‐detection mechanism aids in preventing error repetition during a given task. Electroencephalography demonstrates that error detection involves two event‐related potential components: error‐related and correct‐response negativities (ERN and CRN, respectively). Dyslexia is characterized by slow, inaccurate reading. In particular, individuals with dyslexia have a less active error‐detection mechanism during reading than typical readers. In the current study, we examined whether a reading training programme could improve the ability to recognize words automatically (lexical representations) in adults with dyslexia, thereby resulting in more efficient error detection during reading. Behavioural and electrophysiological measures were obtained using a lexical decision task before and after participants trained with the reading acceleration programme. ERN amplitudes were smaller in individuals with dyslexia than in typical readers before training but increased following training, as did behavioural reading scores. Differences between the pre‐training and post‐training ERN and CRN components were larger in individuals with dyslexia than in typical readers. Also, the error‐detection mechanism as represented by the ERN/CRN complex might serve as a biomarker for dyslexia and be used to evaluate the effectiveness of reading intervention programmes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  April 13, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1523   open full text
• Precursors of Reading Difficulties in Czech and Slovak Children At‐Risk of Dyslexia.
  Kristina Moll, Paul A. Thompson, Marina Mikulajova, Zuzana Jagercikova, Anna Kucharska, Helena Franke, Charles Hulme, Margaret J. Snowling.
  Dyslexia. April 08, 2016
  Children with preschool language difficulties are at high risk of literacy problems; however, the nature of the relationship between delayed language development and dyslexia is not understood. Three hundred eight Slovak and Czech children were recruited into three groups: family risk of dyslexia, speech/language difficulties and controls, and were assessed three times from kindergarten until Grade 1. There was a twofold increase in probability of reading problems in each risk group. Precursors of ‘dyslexia’ included difficulties in oral language and code‐related skills (phoneme awareness, letter‐knowledge and rapid automatized naming); poor performance in phonological memory and vocabulary was observed in both affected and unaffected high‐risk peers. A two‐group latent variable path model shows that early language skills predict code‐related skills, which in turn predict literacy skills. Findings suggest that dyslexia in Slavic languages has its origins in early language deficits, and children who succumb to reading problems show impaired code‐related skills before the onset of formal reading instruction. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  April 08, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1526   open full text
• L2 Spelling Errors in Italian Children with Dyslexia.
  Paola Palladino, Dhebora Cismondo, Marcella Ferrari, Isabella Ballagamba, Cesare Cornoldi.
  Dyslexia. February 19, 2016
  The present study aimed to investigate L2 spelling skills in Italian children by administering an English word dictation task to 13 children with dyslexia (CD), 13 control children (comparable in age, gender, schooling and IQ) and a group of 10 children with an English learning difficulty, but no L1 learning disorder. Patterns of difficulties were examined for accuracy and type of errors, in spelling dictated short and long words (i.e. disyllables and three syllables). Notably, CD were poor in spelling English words. Furthermore, their errors were mainly related with phonological representation of words, as they made more ‘phonologically’ implausible errors than controls. In addition, CD errors were more frequent for short than long words. Conversely, the three groups did not differ in the number of plausible (‘non‐phonological’) errors, that is, words that were incorrectly written, but whose reading could correspond to the dictated word via either Italian or English rules. Error analysis also showed syllable position differences in the spelling patterns of CD, children with and English learning difficulty and control children. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  February 19, 2016   doi: 10.1002/dys.1522   open full text
• Developmental Dyslexia in Adults: Behavioural Manifestations and Cognitive Correlates.
  Trude Nergård‐Nilssen, Charles Hulme.
  Dyslexia. May 19, 2014
  This paper explores the nature of residual literacy and cognitive deficits in self‐reported dyslexic Norwegian adults. The performance of 26 self‐reported dyslexic adults was compared with that of a comparison group of 47 adults with no history of reading or spelling difficulties. Participants completed standardized and experimental measures tapping literacy skills, working memory, phonological awareness and rapid naming. Spelling problems were the most prominent marker of dyslexia in adults, followed by text reading fluency and nonword decoding. Working memory and phoneme awareness explained unique variance in spelling, whereas rapid automatized naming explained unique variance in reading fluency and nonword reading. The moderate to strong correlations between self‐reported history, self‐rating of current literacy skills and outcomes on literacy tests indicate that adults estimated their literacy skills fairly well. Results suggest that spelling impairments, more strongly than reading impairments, make adults perceive themselves as being dyslexic. A combination of three literacy and three cognitive tests predicted group membership with 90.4% accuracy. It appears that weaknesses in phoneme awareness, rapid automatized naming and working memory are strong and persistent correlates of literacy problems even in adults learning a relatively transparent orthography. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 19, 2014   doi: 10.1002/dys.1477   open full text
• Are Dyslexic Children Sensitive to the Morphological Structure of Words When They Read? The Case of Dyslexic Readers of French.
  Rachel Berthiaume, Daniel Daigle.
  Dyslexia. April 24, 2014
  Typically, research has cited a deficient use of word recognition procedures mainly caused by a phonological deficit as the source of dyslexic students' reading difficulties. However, recent studies have shown that morphological processing also plays an important part in reading. In the present study, sensitivity to the morphological structure of words was assessed with a plausibility judgment task, where participants determined which of two pseudo‐words most resembled a real word in French, and with a decomposition task requiring participants to extract the base forms of morphologically complex words. Dyslexic participants (DYS, n = 26) aged 9–12 years were matched to 26 participants of the same chronological age (CA) and 30 younger participants of the same reading age (RA). Overall, the decomposition task was less successful at demonstrating morphological knowledge than the plausibility judgment task. Results indicate that dyslexic participants demonstrated some morphological sensitivity, particularly on the plausibility task, but were outperformed by both control groups on both tasks. Performance on morphological tasks was significantly correlated to reading comprehension scores. More research needs to be carried out to better comprehend the effects of task characteristics on dyslexic participants' success and before claiming a different or deviant developmental path for morphological knowledge. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  April 24, 2014   doi: 10.1002/dys.1476   open full text
• Predictors of Reading in Urdu: Does Deep Orthography Have an Impact?
  Ammara Farukh, Mila Vulchanova.
  Dyslexia. March 24, 2014
  The aim of this study was to establish the extent to which rapid automatized naming (RAN) and non‐word repetition (NWR) tasks predict reading fluency and reading accuracy in Urdu. One hundred sixty (8–9 years) children attending two types of schools (Urdu and English medium schools) were distributed into two groups, a control and a reading disability group on the basis of teacher's report. The results confirmed the role of RAN in predicting reading fluency in both groups. The role of NWR as a predictor of accuracy was also confirmed, although the strength of the relationship was modulated by RAN in the reading disability group. There are no tests available to identify children with reading problems in Urdu. Our study supports the validity of NWR and RAN tasks for the purposes of screening for reading deficits. The performance results also confirm the original grouping based on teacher reports. The study further highlights the importance of medium of instruction and increased oral language input in learning to read. © 2014 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Key Messages Reliability of teacher reports in screening for reading difficulties in the classroom. Appropriateness of non‐word repetition and rapid automatized naming tasks for establishing reading problems in Urdu. School type and exposure to instruction influences reading skills.

  March 24, 2014   doi: 10.1002/dys.1474   open full text
• A Perceptual Learning Deficit in Chinese Developmental Dyslexia as Revealed by Visual Texture Discrimination Training.
  Zhengke Wang, Alice Cheng‐Lai, Yan Song, Laurie Cutting, Yuzheng Jiang, Ou Lin, Xiangzhi Meng, Xiaolin Zhou.
  Dyslexia. March 18, 2014
  Learning to read involves discriminating between different written forms and establishing connections with phonology and semantics. This process may be partially built upon visual perceptual learning, during which the ability to process the attributes of visual stimuli progressively improves with practice. The present study investigated to what extent Chinese children with developmental dyslexia have deficits in perceptual learning by using a texture discrimination task, in which participants were asked to discriminate the orientation of target bars. Experiment l demonstrated that, when all of the participants started with the same initial stimulus‐to‐mask onset asynchrony (SOA) at 300 ms, the threshold SOA, adjusted according to response accuracy for reaching 80% accuracy, did not show a decrement over 5 days of training for children with dyslexia, whereas this threshold SOA steadily decreased over the training for the control group. Experiment 2 used an adaptive procedure to determine the threshold SOA for each participant during training. Results showed that both the group of dyslexia and the control group attained perceptual learning over the sessions in 5 days, although the threshold SOAs were significantly higher for the group of dyslexia than for the control group; moreover, over individual participants, the threshold SOA negatively correlated with their performance in Chinese character recognition. These findings suggest that deficits in visual perceptual processing and learning might, in part, underpin difficulty in reading Chinese. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  March 18, 2014   doi: 10.1002/dys.1475   open full text
• A Tale of Two Studies on Auditory Training in Children: A Response to the Claim that ‘Discrimination Training of Phonemic Contrasts Enhances Phonological Processing in Mainstream School Children’ by Moore, Rosenberg and Coleman (2005).
  Lorna F. Halliday.
  Dyslexia. January 27, 2014
  In a previous article, Moore, Rosenberg and Coleman (Brain and Language, 2005, 94, 72‐85) reported evidence for significant improvements in phonological awareness in mainstream children following 6 h of exposure to a commercially available phoneme discrimination training programme, but not in a control group. In a follow‐up study, we failed to replicate this finding, despite using an almost identical training programme (Halliday, Taylor, Millward, & Moore, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2012, 55, 168‐181). This paper directly compares the methods and the results of the two studies, in an effort to explain the discrepant findings. It reports that the trained group in Moore et al. (2005) showed significantly greater improvements in phonological awareness following training than the trained group in Halliday et al. (2012). However, the control group in Halliday et al. (2012) showed significantly greater improvements in phonological awareness than the control group in Moore et al. (2005). The paper concludes that differences in the randomization, blinding, experimenter familiarity and treatment of trained and control groups contributed to the different outcomes of the two studies. The results indicate that a plethora of factors can contribute to training effects and highlight the importance of well‐designed randomized controlled trials in assessing the efficacy of a given intervention. © 2014 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  January 27, 2014   doi: 10.1002/dys.1470   open full text
• What are the Early Indicators of Persistent Word Reading Difficulties among Chinese Readers in Elementary Grades?
  Pui‐sze Yeung, Connie Suk‐han Ho, David Wai‐ock Chan, Kevin Kien‐hoa Chung.
  Dyslexia. January 09, 2014
  To identify the indicators of persistent reading difficulties among Chinese readers in early elementary grades, the performance of three groups of Chinese children with different reading trajectories (‘persistent poor word readers’, ‘improved poor word readers’ and ‘skilled word readers’) in reading‐related measures was analysed in a 3‐year longitudinal study. The three groups were classified according to their performance in a standardized Chinese word reading test in Grade 1 and Grade 4. Results of analysis of variance and logistic regression on the reading‐related measures revealed that rapid naming and syntactic skills were important indicators of early word reading difficulty. Syntactic skills and morphological awareness were possible markers of persistent reading problems. Chinese persistent poor readers did not differ significantly from skilled readers on the measures of phonological skills. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  January 09, 2014   doi: 10.1002/dys.1471   open full text
• Parents of Children with Dyslexia: Cognitive, Emotional and Behavioural Profile.
  Paola Bonifacci, Martina Montuschi, Laura Lami, Margaret J. Snowling.
  Dyslexia. November 21, 2013
  Within a dimensional view of reading disorders, it is important to understand the role of environmental factors in determining individual differences in literacy outcome. In the present study, we compared a group of 40 parents of children with dyslexia (PDys) with a group of 40 parents of typically developing children. The two parent groups did not differ in socioeconomic status or nonverbal IQ. Participants were assessed on cognitive (IQ, digit span) and literacy (reading fluency and accuracy) tasks, phonological awareness and verbal fluency measures. Questionnaires addressed reading history, parental distress, family functioning, anxiety and depression. The PDys group performed worse in all literacy measures and more frequently reported a history of poor reading; they also showed more parental distress. There were no differences between the two groups in depression or family functioning and no differences between mothers and fathers. Findings indicate that PDys show a cognitive profile consistent with the broader phenotype of dyslexia (i.e. reading impairment and poor phonological awareness), whereas, considering the emotional profile, the impact of dyslexia on the family system is limited to parental distress associated with the perception of having a child with specific needs. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Practitioner Points Parents of children with dyslexia may themselves have reading problems and hence difficulty in supporting their children's school work. Practitioners may consider reading history (as measured by the Adult Reading History Questionnaire) as a first screening tool to identify possible reading difficulties in parents. Practitioners should help parents of children with dyslexia to manage their emotional reactions to having a child with difficulties. Family functioning does not differ within families with and without dyslexia. Being the parent of a child with dyslexia is not a significant risk factor for a mental health disorder (e.g. anxiety/depression).

  November 21, 2013   doi: 10.1002/dys.1469   open full text
• WISC‐III Cognitive Profiles in Children with Developmental Dyslexia: Specific Cognitive Disability and Diagnostic Utility.
  Octávio Moura, Mário R. Simões, Marcelino Pereira.
  Dyslexia. November 12, 2013
  This study analysed the usefulness of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition in identifying specific cognitive impairments that are linked to developmental dyslexia (DD) and the diagnostic utility of the most common profiles in a sample of 100 Portuguese children (50 dyslexic and 50 normal readers) between the ages of 8 and 12 years. Children with DD exhibited significantly lower scores in the Verbal Comprehension Index (except the Vocabulary subtest), Freedom from Distractibility Index (FDI) and Processing Speed Index subtests, with larger effect sizes than normal readers in Information, Arithmetic and Digit Span. The Verbal–Performance IQs discrepancies, Bannatyne pattern and the presence of FDI; Arithmetic, Coding, Information and Digit Span subtests (ACID) and Symbol Search, Coding, Arithmetic and Digit Span subtests (SCAD) profiles (full or partial) in the lowest subtests revealed a low diagnostic utility. However, the receiver operating characteristic curve and the optimal cut‐off score analyses of the composite ACID; FDI and SCAD profiles scores showed moderate accuracy in correctly discriminating dyslexic readers from normal ones. These results suggested that in the context of a comprehensive assessment, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition provides some useful information about the presence of specific cognitive disabilities in DD. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Practitioner Points Children with developmental dyslexia revealed significant deficits in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition subtests that rely on verbal abilities, processing speed and working memory. The composite Arithmetic, Coding, Information and Digit Span subtests (ACID); Freedom from Distractibility Index and Symbol Search, Coding, Arithmetic and Digit Span subtests (SCAD) profile scores showed moderate accuracy in correctly discriminating dyslexics from normal readers. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition may provide some useful information about the presence of specific cognitive disabilities in developmental dyslexia.

  November 12, 2013   doi: 10.1002/dys.1468   open full text
• Lexical and Phonological Processes in Dyslexic Readers: Evidence from a Visual Lexical Decision Task.
  Susana Araújo, Luís Faísca, Inês Bramão, Karl Magnus Petersson, Alexandra Reis.
  Dyslexia. October 01, 2013
  The aim of the present study was to investigate whether reading failure in the context of an orthography of intermediate consistency is linked to inefficient use of the lexical orthographic reading procedure. The performance of typically developing and dyslexic Portuguese‐speaking children was examined in a lexical decision task, where the stimulus lexicality, word frequency and length were manipulated. Both lexicality and length effects were larger in the dyslexic group than in controls, although the interaction between group and frequency disappeared when the data were transformed to control for general performance factors. Children with dyslexia were influenced in lexical decision making by the stimulus length of words and pseudowords, whereas age‐matched controls were influenced by the length of pseudowords only. These findings suggest that non‐impaired readers rely mainly on lexical orthographic information, but children with dyslexia preferentially use the phonological decoding procedure—albeit poorly—most likely because they struggle to process orthographic inputs as a whole such as controls do. Accordingly, dyslexic children showed significantly poorer performance than controls for all types of stimuli, including words that could be considered over‐learned, such as high‐frequency words. This suggests that their orthographic lexical entries are less established in the orthographic lexicon. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  October 01, 2013   doi: 10.1002/dys.1461   open full text
• A new procedure to measure children's reading speed and accuracy in Italian.
  Isabella Morlini, Giacomo Stella, Maristella Scorza.
  Dyslexia. September 30, 2013
  Impaired readers in primary school should be early recognized, in order to asses a targeted intervention within the school and to start a teaching that respects the difficulties in learning to read, to write and to perform calculations. Screening procedures, inside the primary schools aimed at detecting children with difficulties in reading, are of fundamental importance for guaranteeing an early identification of dyslexic children and reducing both the primary negative effects—on learning—and the secondary negative effects—on the development of the personality—of this disturbance. In this study, we propose a new screening procedure measuring reading speed and accuracy. This procedure is very fast (it is exactly 1 min long), simple, cheap and can be provided by teachers without technical knowledge. On the contrary, most of the currently used diagnostic tests are about 10 min long and must be provided by experts. These two major flaws prevent the widespread use of these tests. On the basis of the results obtained in a survey on about 1500 students attending primary school in Italy, we investigate the relationships between variables used in the screening procedure and variables measuring speed and accuracy in the currently used diagnostic tests in Italy. Then, we analyse the validity of the screening procedure from a statistical point of view, and with an explorative factor analysis, we show that reading speed and accuracy seem to be two separate symptoms of the dyslexia phenomenon. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  September 30, 2013   doi: 10.1002/dys.1462   open full text
• Weaknesses in Semantic, Syntactic and Oral Language Expression Contribute to Reading Difficulties in Chinese Dyslexic Children.
  Xiao‐Yun Xiao, Connie Suk‐Han Ho.
  Dyslexia. July 31, 2013
  The present study examined the role of weaknesses in some language skills for the reading difficulties among Chinese dyslexic children. Thirty Chinese dyslexic children were compared with 30 chronological age (CA) controls and 30 reading‐level (RL) controls on a number of language and reading measures. The results showed that Chinese dyslexic children performed significantly worse than the CA controls but similarly to the RL controls in many of the linguistic measures except that the dyslexic group also performed significantly less well than the RL group in semantic skills and syntactic skills on multiple modifiers. The dyslexic children were found to have difficulties in semantic processing, syntactic skills and oral language expression as compared with the CA controls, which were also found to predict their performance in word recognition and/or sentence comprehension. In addition, measures of semantic discrimination, advanced syntactic word order, and oral narrative also significantly predicted the group membership of having or not having dyslexia. These findings suggest that weaknesses in some semantic and advanced syntactic skills are the potential source of poor word and sentence reading in Chinese developmental dyslexia. Implications of the present findings for the identification of dyslexia were discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  July 31, 2013   doi: 10.1002/dys.1460   open full text
• A View of Dyslexia in Context: Implications for Understanding Differences in Essay Writing Experience Amongst Higher Education Students Identified as Dyslexic.
  Christine Carter, Edward Sellman.
  Dyslexia. June 18, 2013
  This article applies socio‐cultural theories to explore how differences in essay writing experience are constituted for a group of students identified as dyslexic. It reports on a qualitative study with eleven student writers, seven of whom are formally identified as dyslexic, from the schools of archaeology, history and philosophy in a ‘traditional’ UK university. Semi‐structured interviews before, during and after writing a coursework essay revealed well‐documented dyslexia‐related difficulties and also strong differences in how writing was experienced. The multiple and fluid dimensions that construct these differences suggest the importance of position within the context, previous and developing writing and learning experience, and metacognitive, meta‐affective and metalinguistic awareness. They also suggest tensions between specialist and inclusive policies in relation to writing pedagogy for students identified as dyslexic. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  June 18, 2013   doi: 10.1002/dys.1457   open full text
• Italian Children with Dyslexia are also Poor in Reading English Words, but Accurate in Reading English Pseudowords.
  Paola Palladino, Isabella Bellagamba, Marcella Ferrari, Cesare Cornoldi.
  Dyslexia. May 29, 2013
  It has been argued that children with dyslexia (DC) are poor at learning a foreign language (L2) and, in particular, reading foreign words. This assumption is so general that an Italian law (law 170, October, 2010) has established that DC may be completely exempted from foreign language learning and, in any case, should not be engaged in tuition via written material. However, evidence of L2 difficulties of DC is scarce and, in particular, absent for Italian children learning English. This absence of data is problematic, as it precludes information on the pattern of weaknesses and strengths, which could be found in DC. The present paper assessed these issues by administering an English word and pseudoword reading test to 23 DC and to 23 control children, matched for age, gender, schooling and IQ. The patterns of difficulties were examined individually for accuracy and speed, and the role of measures of native (L1) competence in L2 difficulties was also taken into account. Results confirmed that Italian DC are also poor in reading English words. However, they are accurate in reading pseudowords, suggesting that they have assimilated English pronunciation rules. Difficulties in L2 were, to some extent, but not completely, explained by difficulties in reading in L1. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 29, 2013   doi: 10.1002/dys.1456   open full text
• Writing in Dyslexia: Product and Process.
  Frøydis Morken, Turid Helland.
  Dyslexia. May 29, 2013
  Research on dyslexia has largely centred on reading. The aim of this study was to assess the writing of 13 children with and 28 without dyslexia at age 11 years. A programme for keystroke logging was used to allow recording of typing activity as the children performed a sentence dictation task. Five sentences were read aloud twice each. The task was to type the sentence as correctly as possible, with no time constraints. The data were analysed from a product (spelling, grammar and semantics) and process (transcription fluency and revisions) perspective, using repeated measures ANOVA and t‐tests to investigate group differences. Furthermore, the data were correlated with measures of rapid automatic naming and working memory. Results showed that the group with dyslexia revised their texts as much as the typical group, but they used more time, and the result was poorer. Moreover, rapid automatic naming correlated with transcription fluency, and working memory correlated with the number of semantic errors. This shows that dyslexia is generally not an issue of effort and that cognitive skills that are known to be important for reading also affect writing. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  May 29, 2013   doi: 10.1002/dys.1455   open full text