Family risk of dyslexia is continuous: individual differences in the precursors of reading skill

The development of 56 children at family risk of dyslexia was followed from the age of 3 years, 9 months to 8 years. In the high-risk group, 66% had reading disabilities at age 8 years compared with 13% in a control group from similar, middle-class backgrounds. However, the family risk of dyslexia was continuous, and high-risk children who did not fulfil criteria for reading impairment at 8 years performed as poorly at age 6 as did high-risk impaired children on tests of grapheme-phoneme knowledge. The findings are interpreted within an interactive model of reading development in which problems in establishing a phonological pathway in dyslexic families may be compensated early by children who have strong language skills.     

Foundation-level dyslexia: assessment and treatment

It is supposed that there is an early, foundation stage in beginning reading during which children acquire basic letter-sound knowledge, a capability for alphabetic processing, and a logographic sight vocabulary. An assessment of foundation processes was administered to Scottish children with reading difficulties (n = 51) and to reading-level-matched controls (n = 56). The results suggested that the foundation is normally in place by the time a reading age of about 7 years has been achieved. Foundation-level dyslexia is identifiable in children with reading difficulty whose reading ages fall below this level. Differing patterns of dyslexia were observed, depending on whether the primary effect was on letter-sound learning (literal dyslexia), the acquisition of the alphabetic process (alphabetic dyslexia), or retention of a sight vocabulary (logographic dyslexia). Balanced dyslexia, in which both alphabetic and logographic functions were impaired, was also found. Some implications for assessment and treatment are discussed.     

Emerging phonological awareness differentiates children with and without familial risk for dyslexia after controlling for general language skills

Emerging phonological awareness was compared in two groups of 3.5-year-old children belonging to the Jyv?skyl? Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (JLD): children with familial risk of dyslexia (at-risk group n = 98) and children without such risk (control group n = 91). Four computer animated tasks were used: Word-level and Syllable-level Segment Identification, Synthesis, and Continuation of Phonological Units. The control group children manifested higher mastery than children in the at-risk group in phonological awareness, and the proportion of children with a low phonological awareness mean score was 2.5 times higher in the at-risk group than in the control group. In both groups, phonological awareness at 3.5 years was predicted by early language skills assessed between 14 and 26 months of age, and it was also associated with concurrent language. The difference between the at-risk and control group at 3.5-year in phonological awareness remained significant, even when the effect of other language skills such as productive and receptive vocabulary, and mastery of inflections, measured both at earlier ages and concurrently were controlled for. Our findings indicate that familial risk for dyslexia is reliably reflected in emerging phonological awareness already at this early age and it can be assessed independently of other language skills.     

Comparison of deficits in cognitive and motor skills among children with dyslexia

There is a growing body of evidence that children with dyslexia have problems not just in reading but in a range of skills including several unrelated to reading. In an attempt to compare the severity and incidence of deficits across these varied domains, children with dyslexia (mean ages 8, 12, and 16 years), and control groups of normally achieving children matched for IQ and for age or reading age, were tested on a range of primitive (basic) skills. The children with dyslexia performed significantly worse than the same-age controls on most tasks, and significantly worse even than the reading-age controls on phoneme segmentation, picture naming speed, word tachistoscopic word recognition, speeded bead threading and some balance tasks. The overall performance of the children with dyslexia is interpreted as showing less complete automatization than normal.     

Early reading development in children at family risk for dyslexia

In a 3-year longitudinal study, middle- to upper-middle-class preschool children at high family risk (HR group, N = 67) and low family risk (LR group, N = 57) for dyslexia (or reading disability, RD), were evaluated yearly from before kindergarten to the end of second grade. Both phonological processing and literacy skills were tested at each of four time points. Consistent with the well-known familiarity of RD, 34% of the HR group compared with 6% of the LR group became RD. Participants who became RD showed deficits in both implicit and explicit phonological processing skills at all four time points, clearly indicating a broader phonological deficit than is often found at older ages. The predictors of literacy skill did not vary by risk group. Both risk groups underwent a similar developmental shift from letter-name knowledge to phoneme awareness as the main predictor of later literacy skill. This shift, however, occurred 2 years later in the HR group. Familial risk was continuous rather than discrete because HR children who did not become RD performed worse than LR non-RD children on some phonological and literacy measures. Finally, later RD could be predicted with moderate accuracy at age 5 years, with the strongest predictor being letter-name knowledge.     

Children with dyslexia are slow writers because they pause more often and not because they are slow at handwriting execution

It is commonly assumed that children with dyslexia are slower at handwriting than other children. However, evidence of slow handwriting in children with dyslexia is very mixed. Thirty-one children with dyslexia, aged 9 years, were compared to both age-matched children and younger spelling-ability matched children. Participants completed an alphabet-writing task and a composition task on the surface of a digital writing tablet. Children with dyslexia wrote the same amount of letters per minute in the alphabet task but wrote fewer words per minute when composing their texts than children of the same age. Crucially, no differences were found between children with dyslexia and their same age peers for speed of handwriting execution, measured by the tablet, when writing the alphabet or composing their texts. However, children with dyslexia were found to pause within their compositions as often as the spelling ability matched group. Thus handwriting execution is not impaired in children with dyslexia. The slow writing that is typical of children with dyslexia is due to pausing more often when composing and is related to spelling ability. This may reflect processing problems in response to high cognitive load through having to contend with spelling and composing concurrently.     

The Home Literacy Environment as a Predictor of the Early Literacy Development of Children at Family-Risk of Dyslexia

The home literacy environment (HLE) predicts language and reading development in typically developing children; relatively little is known about its association with literacy development in children at family-risk of dyslexia. We assessed the HLE at age 4 years, precursor literacy skills at age 5, and literacy outcomes at age 6, in a sample of children at family-risk of dyslexia (n = 116) and children with no known risk (n = 72). Developmental relationships between the HLE and literacy were comparable between the groups; an additional effect of storybook exposure on phoneme awareness was observed in the family-risk group only. The effects of socioeconomic status on literacy were partially mediated by variations in the HLE; in turn, effects of the HLE on literacy were mediated by precursor skills (oral language, phoneme awareness, and emergent decoding) in both groups. Findings are discussed in terms of possible gene–environment correlation mechanisms underpinning atypical literacy development.     

The role of achievement beliefs and behaviours in spontaneous reading acquisition

This study examined the role of motivational or attitudinal factors, such as achievement beliefs and behaviours, in learning to read before receiving formal instruction. A total of 200 Finnish children were examined at ages 5 and 6½. Half of them (n = 107) had a familial risk for dyslexia. The results showed that those children who were verbally skilful at age 5 showed a higher level of task-focused behaviour at age 6½. This task-focused behaviour then contributed to spontaneous reading acquisition. The impact of previous verbal skills on spontaneous reading acquisition was mediated in part by achievement behaviour.     

Child care in the preschool years: Attachment,behaviour problems and cognitive development

The possible implications of the experience of non parental care on cognitive development and on behaviour problems are considered in interaction with individual and contextual variables. A sample of 47 Swiss children who experienced varying kinds of care arrangements were studied longitudinally between 1 and 5 years of age. The effects of the experience of care were related to mothers’ reports of behavioral problems (CBCL, with subscales of internalizing and of externalizing problems) at age 5, and to cognitive developmental quotients (at 1, 2 and 5 years). Several variables were considered for their potential interaction with the experience of care, such as the pattern of attachment to the mother (observed at 21 months of age in the “Strange Situation”), characteristics of the experience of care (duration and type of care), its quality (relationship with non parental caregivers), the socio-economic status of the family, etc. The effect of non parental care on behaviour problems (5 years) happened to be mediated by the the pattern of attachment to the mother: insecurely attached children had some risk to be reported as having externalizing problems, but this didn’t occur when they had an extended experience of non parental care, and when non parental care was mainly family-based. The effect of non parental care on cognitive development was mediated by the quality of care: children with a positive contact with the caregivers had greater cognitive gains between 2 and 5 years; the relationship with the care-givers itself was influenced by the quality of the relationship with the mother. The limited size and origin of the sample restricts generalization, however these data might contribute to the notion that non parental care can have varying effects depending of the type of care, the quality of the relation with the caregivers, the age and personal traits of the child.     

Longitudinal Stability of Phonological and Surface Subtypes of Developmental Dyslexia

Limited evidence supports the external validity of the distinction between developmental phonological and surface dyslexia. We previously identified children ages 8 to 13 meeting criteria for these subtypes (Peterson, Pennington, & Olson, 2013) and now report on their reading and related skills approximately 5 years later. Longitudinal stability of subtype membership was fair and appeared stronger for phonological than surface dyslexia. Phonological dyslexia was associated with a pronounced phonological awareness deficit, but subgroups otherwise had similar cognitive profiles. Subtype did not inform prognosis. Results provide modest evidence for the validity of the distinction, although not for its clinical utility.     

Coherent motion sensitivity and reading development in the transition from prereading to reading stage

Evidence suggests that sensitivity to coherent motion (CM) is related to reading, but its role in the etiology of developmental dyslexia remains unclear. In this longitudinal study, CM sensitivity was measured in 31 children at family risk for dyslexia and 31 low-risk controls. Children, diagnosed with dyslexia in third grade (mean age=8 years 3 months), demonstrated reduced CM sensitivity in kindergarten (mean age=5 years 8 months), before they had learned to read. Preschool CM thresholds in controls also uniquely predicted future literacy achievement. When reassessed in first grade, CM sensitivity in the dyslexic children was age appropriate, and CM thresholds in the controls no longer predicted literacy acquisition. These findings contribute to the debate about the developmental relations between visual processing and reading acquisition.     

Visual stress in adults with and without dyslexia

The relationship between dyslexia and visual stress (sometimes known as Meares‐Irlen syndrome) is uncertain. While some theorists have hypothesised an aetiological link between the two conditions, mediated by the magnocellular visual system, at the present time the predominant theories of dyslexia and visual stress see them as distinct, unrelated conditions, a view that has received some support from studies with children. Studies of visual stress in adults are rare, yet recent reports of a high incidence of this phenomenon amongst university students with diagnosed dyslexia call for further investigation of the issue. This study sought to clarify the relationship between visual stress and dyslexia by comparing the reading performance of dyslexic and non‐dyslexic adults with, and without, colour. Degree of susceptibility to visual stress was determined by means of a symptom rating scale. Optimal colour was determined using an Intuitive Colorimeter, which was also employed to assess reading speed under the two experimental conditions. Only the dyslexic students with high visual stress showed significant gains in reading speed when using optimal colour. The use of response to treatment (rather than symptomatology) as a diagnostic criterion for visual stress is questioned, especially when applied to adults, as this may give misleading findings. On the basis of reported symptomatology, students who experience high levels of visual stress are more likely to show improvements in reading rate with optimal colour if they also have dyslexia than if they do not have dyslexia. Although not establishing an aetiological link, these findings imply an interaction between the two conditions with major implications for theory, diagnosis and treatment.     

The Relationship Between Phoneme Awareness and Rapid Serial Naming Skills and Literacy Acquisition: The Role of Developmental Period and Reading Ability

This study investigates the relationship between phoneme awareness and rapid naming skills and subsequent reading and spelling ability in two developmental periods: kindergarten to Grade 1 and Grade 1 to Grade 2. Two groups of children participated in the study: children at high and children at low familial risk of developmental dyslexia. The results are consistent with previous findings that both phoneme awareness and rapid naming play an important role in early literacy acquisition in an alphabetic writing system. However, relative to phoneme awareness, rapid naming plays a modest role. In this study, an unambiguous specific effect for rapid naming was found only among the children in the high-risk group. Furthermore, even among these children, the effect of rapid naming was limited to rapid naming of letters and digits and to the second developmental period investigated. The implications of these results for understanding the role played by rapid naming and phoneme awareness in alphabetic literacy acquisition are discussed.     

Cultural Considerations: Interpretations of blame and perceived ability among children in India

In the first study, children's ability attributions following teacher blame was assessed for 218 Tamil-speaking children in India between 6 and 12 years of age. Indian children of all ages attributed low ability to the child that was blamed and high ability to the child who was not blamed by the teacher. This finding does not conform to expectations based on studies conducted in the West. In the second study, children between the ages of 6 and 12 were given questionnaires that attempted to explore their conceptions of ability and effort. It was found that the Indian sample did not clearly distinguish between ability and effort. Studies conducted in the West have found that older children clearly differentiate between ability and effort and value ability more than effort. The reasons for these culturally different findings in children's attributions is examined, and several possible explanations are offered.     

Preschool predictors of dyslexia status in Chinese first graders with high or low familial risk

The present 4-year longitudinal study examined preschool predictors of Grade 1 dyslexia status in a Chinese population in Hong Kong where children started learning to read at the age of three. Seventy-five and 39 Chinese children with high and low familial risk respectively were tested on Chinese word reading, oral language skills, morphological awareness, phonological skills, rapid naming, and print-related skills from age 4 to 6 and a standardized dyslexia test at age 7. Results showed that children of the high risk group performed significantly worse than the low risk group in Chinese literacy, phonological awareness, and orthographic skills at age 7. All the children with dyslexia had word reading difficulties in at least one preschool year. Results of the logistic regression showed that preschool verbal production, syllable deletion, and letter naming were the best predictors of dyslexia outcome at age 7. As in alphabetic languages, preschool oral language skills like verbal production, phonological skills, and print-related skills are the most significant predictors of children’s later reading difficulties.     

Developmental Outcomes for Children at High Risk of Dyslexia and Children With Developmental Language Disorder

We followed children at family risk of dyslexia and children with preschool language difficulties from age 3½, comparing them with controls (N = 234). At age 8, children were classified as having dyslexia or Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and compared at earlier time points with controls. Children with dyslexia have specific difficulties with phonology and emergent reading skills in the preschool period, whereas children with DLD, with or without dyslexia, show a wider range of impairments including significant problems with executive and motor tasks. For children with both dyslexia and DLD, difficulties with phonology are generally more severe than those observed in children with dyslexia or DLD alone. Findings confirm that poor phonology is the major cognitive risk factor for dyslexia.     

Spelling difficulties in Spanish-speaking children with dyslexia / Dificultades de escritura en niños españoles con dislexia

In addition to reading difficulties, a significant proportion of developmental dyslexics have spelling problems, which persist into adulthood. Studies carried out in languages with opaque orthographies have found that dyslexics frequently make phonological substitutions when spelling and have difficulties in developing orthographic representations of irregular words. Those errors seem to derive from an excessive use of phonological codes when writing. Minimal research in Spanish (relatively transparent orthography) about the relationship between dyslexia and spelling difficulties has been carried out to date. In this study, 19 Spanish-speaking developmental dyslexics (from 7 to 11 years old) and 28 controls (from 6 to 11 years old, distributed in two groups, one matched for age and the other for reading level with the dyslexics) performed a dictation task of 80 stimuli with different levels of orthographic consistency, in order to discover the codes they use in the writing process. Results showed that Spanish children with dyslexia made significantly more spelling errors, especially among the ruled and irregular words. These findings are consistent with the idea that these children have difficulties in developing orthographic representations and use phonological codes more frequently than non-dyslexics, resulting in phonologically plausible errors when writing irregular words. These results have important implications for the treatment of spelling difficulties in children with dyslexia, highlighting the need to focus on the correct acquisition of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules as well as the development of appropriate orthographic representations.     

Maternal and Child Characteristics that Influence the Growth of Daily Living Skills from Infancy to School Age in Preterm and Term Children

Research findings. Growth across 6 months to 8 years of age, assessed at seven time points, for daily living and cognitive skills was compared for term (n = 122), very low birth weight (VLBW) children of low (n = 114) and high (n = 73) medical risk and lower socioeconomic status (SES). Dramatic declines in daily living skills were found for all children, while cognitive skills were stable across this age range. By 8 years, daily living skills were in deficient ranges for all groups with both VLBW groups showing lower levels in both skill areas across all ages compared to term children. Relations between child and parenting factors and daily living skill growth were examined in order to better understand this decline. Early maternal general stimulation and directiveness predicted slower declines in daily living skills while higher parental developmental expectations predicted higher levels in daily living skills. Practice. These results demonstrated the negative impact of lower SES and biological risk on children's growth in daily living skill. The findings highlighting several parenting factors that are important in understanding individual differences in children's daily living skill development have implications for early intervention.     

Differences in eye movements control among dyslexic,retarded and normal readers in the Spanish population

This paper reports a research which examined the relationship between dyslexia and eye movement control in Spanish speaking children. The study compared the eye movements recordings of 30 dyslexic, 30 retarded and 30 normal readers, aged between 7 and 14, in one ocular tracking task and two reading tasks which differed in their degree of reading difficulty. Within each group the subjects were divided into 3 subgroups of 10 in accordance with the following chronological ages: 7–9, 10–11 and 12 years and above. Dependent variables were saccadics (number, size and fixation pause), regressives (number, size and fixation pause), total number of movements and percentage of regressives over the total number of movements. The following results were obtained: (1) In the two reading tasks significant differences were found between dyslexic and normal readers and between retarded and normal readers in most of the parameters, no differences being found between dyslexic and retarded readers except in a few parameters; (2) in the ocular tracking task significant differences both between dyslexic and normal readers and between dyslexic and retarded readers were found in all dependent variables, no differences being found between retarded and normal readers at all, and (3) the age factor produced a significant main effect in the two reading tasks indicating a general improvement of eye movements as age increases but an interaction effect with reading disability in the ocular tracking task-indicating a deterioration in eye movements in the dyslexic group as a function of age-was also found. The results are discussed in the context of alternative theoretical explanations of developmental dyslexia.This research was supported by grant PR82-1933 from the Spanish Consulting Committee for Scientific and Technological Research (CAYCIT). Requests for reprint should be sent to F. J. Martos, Departamento de Psicologia Experimental y Fisiologia del Comportamiento. Campus de Cartuja, Universidad de Granada. 18071 Granada, Spain.