Participants were administered multiple measures of phonological awareness, oral language, and rapid automatized naming at the beginning of kindergarten and multiple measures of word reading at the end of second grade. A structural equation model was fit to the data and latent scores were used to identify children with a deficit in phonological awareness alone or in combination with other kindergarten deficits. Children with a deficit in phonological awareness in kindergarten were found to be 5 times more likely to have dyslexia in second grade than children without such a deficit. This risk ratio substantially increased with the addition of deficits in both oral language and rapid naming. Whereas children with one or more kindergarten deficits were at heighten risk for dyslexia, some of these children were found to be adequate or better readers. These results are discussed within a multifactorial model of dyslexia that includes both risk and protective factors.
... Early phonological theory postulates that dyslexics have a specific impairment in the representation, storage, and/or retrieval of speech sounds (Ramus, 2003), often resulting in a deficit in phonological awareness (PA) -the conscious segmentation, manipulation of speech sounds and mapping of phonemes to graphemes (Bradley & Bryant, 1985;Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Hulme et al., 2005). This deficit is considered the primary underlying cause of reading difficulties in children with dyslexia (Catts et al., 2017;Snowling, 2000). Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is considered another source of reading difficulties independent of PA deficits (Wolf & Bowers. ...
... This, in turn, affects performance in rapid name extraction and phonetic short-term memory storage capability. It means that poor PA reduces one's likelihood of becoming a better reader, implying that phonological awareness is an essential factor in deficient readers (Catts et al., 2017;Ramus & Szenkovits, 2008). The results support the phonological deficit theory (Ramus et al., 2003) and are also congruent with studies on Chinese reading development, which consistently show that PA is a salient early predictor of reading development and impairment in Chinese children (e.g., Lei et al., 2011;McBride-Chang et al., 2012;Pan et al., 2016;Shu et al., 2008). ...
It has been widely accepted that phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), and verbal short-term memory (VSTM) deficits are three core facets of phonological deficits in developmental dyslexia (DD) of alphabetic orthographies. Yet, whether these three phonological facets also represent key phonological deficits of DD in Chinese, a logographic language, has never been investigated. The current study aimed to examine profiles of phonological deficits and comorbidity in Chinese DD. We tested 128 children with DD aged between 8 and 11 years and 135 age-matched controls on 9 tasks, including 2 PA tasks (phoneme deletion and onset/rime deletion), 3 RAN tasks (digit, object and color), 2 VSTM task (spoonerisms and digit span), an orthographic awareness task (orthographic judgment), and a morphological awareness task (morphological production). With the control of morphological and orthographic awareness, results from latent profile analysis revealed three latent profiles, namely the RAN deficit group, the severe PA deficit group, and the mild VSTM deficit group. Individual analysis using a Venn plot showed that 83.59% of DD exhibited phonological deficits, among whom 58.59% with RAN deficit, 49.22% with PA deficit, and 47.66% with VSTM deficit, and all three groups shared overlap. The results have important implications for the identification and remediation of Chinese DD.
... Αντίστοιχα, οι ελλείψεις στη γνώση γραμμάτων και η καθυστέρηση στην αυτόματη κατονομασία συμβόλων (RAN) (Balci, 2020) ειδικότερα των αριθμών σε συνδυασμό με ελλείψεις στη φωνολογική επίγνωση αποτελούν ισχυρούς δείκτες πρόβλεψης αναγνωστικών δυσκολιών τόσο κατά την είσοδο των παιδιών στο δημοτικό σχολείο (Clayton et al., 2020· Thompson et al., 2015, όσο και στη Β΄ τάξη του δημοτικού (Gellert & Elbro, 2018). Συγχρόνως, έχει φανεί ότι οι χαμηλές επιδόσεις στη φωνολογική επίγνωση, στην ταχύτητα κατονομασίας συμβόλων και στον προφορικό λόγο συνδέονται με χαμηλές επιδόσεις στην αναγνωστική ικανότητα στη Β΄ τάξη του δημοτικού σχολείου (Catts et al., 2017). ...
Σκοπός της παρούσας διαχρονικής έρευνας ήταν να εξετάσει τoν ρόλο της διδακτικής παρέμβασης, που στηρίχτηκε στις αρχές της προσέγγισης «Ανταπόκριση στη Διδασκαλία – ΑσΔ», στην ενίσχυση των δεξιοτήτων αναδυόμενου γραμματισμού σε παιδιά προσχολικής ηλικίας υψηλού κινδύνου για εμφάνιση δυσκολιών στην εκμάθηση του γραπτού λόγου. Στην έρευνα συμμετείχαν πενήντα οκτώ παιδιά ηλικίας 5;1 έως 6;1 ετών. Στην πειραματική ομάδα εντάχθηκαν τριάντα τέσσερα παιδιά με χαμηλή επίδοση (κάτω από το 25ο εκατοστημόριο) τουλάχιστον σε τέσσερις από τις επτά σταθμισμένες δοκιμασίες αναδυόμενου γραμματισμού που τους χορηγήθηκαν. Στην ομάδα ελέγχου εντάχθηκαν είκοσι τέσσερα παιδιά, με τυπικές αλλά όχι υψηλές επιδόσεις στις αντίστοιχες δοκιμασίες. Αρχικά, υλοποιήθηκαν είκοσι δύο παρεμβάσεις: έντεκα για την ενίσχυση της φωνολογικής επίγνωσης και της γνώσης γραμμάτων και έντεκα για την ενίσχυση του λεξιλογίου και των εννοιών γραπτού λόγου. Στη δεύτερη φάση του πειραματικού σχεδιασμού πραγματοποιήθηκαν πέντε επιπλέον παρεμβάσεις εστιασμένες στις ελλείψεις των συμμετεχόντων όπως αυτές προέκυψαν από την αξιολόγηση της ανταπόκρισής τους στη διδακτική παρέμβαση. Η ομάδα ελέγχου παρακολούθησε το βασικό πρόγραμμα του νηπιαγωγείου, χωρίς καμία διαφοροποίηση. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν ότι η παρέμβαση ΑσΔ συμβάλλει σημαντικά στην ενίσχυση των δεξιοτήτων αναδυόμενου γραμματισμού σε παιδιά προσχολικής ηλικίας υψηλού κινδύνου. Ειδικότερα, οι επιδόσεις της πειραματικής ομάδας στο τέλος του νηπιαγωγείου ξεπέρασαν τις επιδόσεις της ομάδας ελέγχου στο κριτήριο αναγνώριση κοινού αρχικού φωνήματος, στο δεκτικό λεξιλόγιο, στο εκφραστικό λεξιλόγιο και στην αντίληψη εννοιών γραπτού λόγου. Τα ευρήματα χρησιμεύουν στον έγκυρο εντοπισμό παιδιών υψηλού κινδύνου για εμφάνιση δυσκολιών στην εκμάθηση του γραπτού λόγου και συμβάλλουν στον σχεδιασμό προγραμμάτων πρώιμης διδακτικής παρέμβασης.
... It is correct that phonological deficits often underpin complex reading difficulties (Perfetti et al., 2019), yet it is erroneous to seek to use their presence/absence as a means of diagnostic differentiation (Brady, 2019;Catts et al., 2024;Elliott & Grigorenko, 2024a). Research has demonstrated that '… not every person with dyslexia has a phonological deficit' (Snowling, 2019, p. 55) and not all those with a phonological deficit experience a reading disability (Bishop et al., 2009;Catts et al., 2017;Ramus et al., 2013). Misunderstandings in this respect can have serious implications for those struggling readers who do not present with a phonological problem and, as a result, could be excluded from special accommodations and resources (Brady, 2019;Pennington et al., 2012Pennington et al., , 2019Protopapas & Parrila, 2018;Ring & Black, 2018). ...
This paper examines the operation of the English Special Educational Needs and Disability tribunal system in relation to children who present with a dyslexia diagnosis. It identifies a number of significant weaknesses; in particular, the absence of clear diagnostic criteria capable of differentiating such children from large numbers of other struggling readers. It then explains why it is inappropriate to identify particular cognitive processes as indicating the presence of dyslexia, as distinct from a broader reading difficulty. The paper subsequently explores the erroneous nature of claims about specialised dyslexia teaching and resourcing that, while often asserted with confidence by some privately funded assessors, are not supported by the scientific literature. It is argued that the tribunal system is an inappropriate method for reconciling the competing needs of a diagnosed dyslexic subgroup in relation to the wider population of struggling readers, estimated to be 20% of the school population.
... It is estimated that approximately 50-58% of dyslexic individuals have poor performance in measurements of oral language abilities (vocabulary and morphosyntax) (e.g., [55,66,67]). Research findings from concurrent, longitudinal, and at-risk studies have confirmed the correlational nature of these relationships (e.g., [59,[68][69][70][71][72][73][74]). ...
The aim of the present study has been to investigate reading comprehension (RC) of children with specific learning difficulties (SLD), considering linguistic factors, such as receptive vocabulary, morphosyntax, and pragmatics (i.e., figurative language). Participants included 90 students (9–12 years old; Μyears = 10.8, SD = 0.95), 45 with SLD and 45 typically developing (TD) controls, matched on age, gender, and non-verbal cognitive ability. Results indicated that students with SLD had significantly lower performance on RC and across all linguistic measures compared to TD peers. Scores of the figurative language comprehension task predicted RC for TD children, whereas morphosyntactic ability emerged as a unique predictor of RC for SLD children. The two groups utilize distinct linguistic resources in their effort to extract meaning from written texts. The differentiated language profile of children with SLD suggests the implementation of differentiated educational assessment and intervention practices, which are discussed.
... There is evidence that phonological processing deficits in early childhood do not necessarily predict word reading abilities later in life (Pennington et al., 2012;Snowling et al., 2019;van Bergen et al., 2011). Many researchers have taken a multifactorial approach to understanding reading difficulties in children that includes skills such as oral language, rapid automatized naming, or executive function (Astle & Fletcher-Watson, 2020;Catts et al., 2017;Compton, 2020;Snowling et al., 2019). ...
Phonological processing is an important contributor to decoding and spelling difficulties, but it does not fully explain word reading outcomes for all children. As orthographic knowledge is acquired, it influences phonological processing in typical readers. In the present study, we examined whether orthography affects phonological processing differently for children with current reading difficulties (RD), children with a history of reading difficulties who are currently presenting with typical word reading skills (Hx), and children with typical development and no history of reading difficulties (TD). School-aged children completed a phonological awareness task containing spoken words and pictures while eye movements were recorded. In this task, children had to pair a spoken stimulus word with one of four pictures that ended with the same sound. Within the task, stimulus-target picture pairs varied in the congruency and consistency of the orthographic and phonological mappings of their final consonant sounds. Eye movements revealed that children with typical word reading (the Hx and TD groups) showed better discrimination of the target from the foils compared to peers with underdeveloped word reading skills. All children were more accurate when stimulus-target pairs were congruent and consistent than when they were incongruent or inconsistent. Orthography plays an important role in the completion of phonological awareness tasks, even in the absence of written words and for children with a wide range of reading abilities. Results highlight the importance of considering orthography during interventions for phonological awareness and word reading.
... Their findings thus provide evidence for promotive effects. Lastly, no evidence on protective factors was found in the study of Catts et al. (2017) comparing an at risk RD group with an at-risk resilient group. As a TD-comparison group was missing, relevant group comparisons could thus not be made. ...
Background
To date little is known about factors that might contribute to positive literacy outcomes in children with (a risk of) reading difficulties (RD). Research into resilience in literacy is needed to understand why some children with (a risk of) RD can overcome their difficulties in the face of adversity.
Aim
This scoping review aims to 1) provide a framework and operationalize study designs and statistical approaches for studying academic resilience; and 2) systematically review empirical evidence for promotive, protective, and skill-enhancing factors involved in resilience in atypical literacy development of children with (a risk of) word-level RD.
Method
The systematic literature search included empirical studies with a focus on compensation in literacy development, including samples of 6- to 16-year-old children with a detectable (risk of) word-level RD. Outcome measures had to include at least one relevant literacy measure.
Results
Analysis of the 22 included studies revealed two main findings: 1) most studies had (very) small sample sizes and thus low statistical power to find relevant effects; 2) study designs and/or statistical analyses used were often insufficient to distinguish between promotive, protective, and skill-enhancing factors. Furthermore, findings point towards underrecognition of evidence for promotive and skill-enhancing factors as well as overinterpretation of the same evidence towards protective effects.
Conclusion
Overall, empirical evidence for protective factors is sparse and at present based on only a few studies. Based on the current findings, we state implications for the field of educational psychology in planning and conducting research into resilience in literacy.
... Despite its primacy in explanatory accounts, a simple causal association has now been largely rejected '…because a single phonological deficit is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause the (reading) disorder' (Pennington et al., 2019, p. 167). It is recognised that '… not every person with dyslexia has a phonological deficit' (Snowling, 2019, p. 55) (see also Dębska et al., 2022;Carroll et al., 2016;Mundy & Hannant, 2020;O'Brien & Yeatman, 2021;Pennington et al., 2012;Valdois et al., 2021), and some children with poor phonological abilities nevertheless develop good reading skills (Bishop, et al., 2009;Catts et al., 2017;Ramus et al., 2013;Ring & Black, 2018). ...
In offering a commentary upon the IDA definition, we address its main components in turn. While each is technically accurate, we argue that, when taken together, the definition, or more accurately, the use to which it is often put, becomes problematic. We outline different current conceptions of dyslexia and conclude that the operationalisation of the definition for diagnostic purposes often results in scientifically questionable diagnoses and inadvertently leads to significant educational inequity. We propose a simpler definition that describes the primary difficulty, avoids reference to causal explanation, unexpectedness, and secondary outcomes, and redirects practitioner and policymaker focus to the importance of addressing and meeting the needs of all struggling readers.
... The use of explicit phonics instruction is based on the fact that dyslexic students have difficulties in recognizing and processing words, spelling, and decoding as the results of their language phonological component deficit (Catts et al., 2017;Dickie et al., 2013;Siok & Tan, 2022). Therefore, an explicit, systematic, and intensive instruction is needed in order to help student build their phonemic awareness, which is beneficial for their reading and writing abilities improvement. ...
Dyslexia is a hereditary, neurodevelopmental learning disorder found to appear in around 10% of the population, characterized by difficulty in reading. Therefore, it needs to be addressed properly by implementing appropriate teaching strategies that can help dyslexic students to learn in the inclusive education setting. However, there is still limited study that provides literature related to the matter. Therefore, this study was a conceptual research aimed to analysing teaching strategies used to deal with the learning difficulties encountered by dyslexic students and provide descriptions related to the dyslexic students’ characteristics along with their learning difficulties. This study is a kind of literature review through library research.The result found that there are four teaching strategies that teachers can use to deal with dyslexic students’ learning difficulties, which are task analysis, explicit phonics instruction, multisensory instruction, and field-dependent approaches. The strategies are adjusted to the characteristics and learning difficulties faced by dyslexic students that include low phonological awareness, slow working memory, rapid naming difficulty, slow processing speed, and low skills automatic development. The strategies emphasise on providing clear, direct instruction with multiple aids and assistance from the teachers. The use of several accommodations are also needed in order to help the dyslexic students to develop their reading skill and deal with their learning difficulties.
Purpose
The purpose of this clinical focus article is to review why speech sound disorder (SSD) puts children at risk for word reading difficulties and how speech-language pathologists can integrate foundational word reading skills to reduce this risk.
Method
The triangle model was reviewed to identify phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and language as integrated foundational word reading skills for skilled word reading. Reading research in SSD suggests that children with SSD often exhibit poor phonological awareness, limited orthographic knowledge, and may have potential language deficits increasing risk of word reading difficulties. Recent evidence suggests that one or more reduced foundational word reading skills may decrease the interconnected strength among these three skills, negatively impacting accurate and fluent word reading development.
Results
Informed by theory and SSD research, clinical recommendations were provided to guide assessment and intervention for children with SSD. Two hypothetical case studies illustrated the practical implementation of these recommendations in both assessment and intervention planning.
Conclusions
Although SSD elevates the risk of word reading difficulties, not all children with SSD present with these difficulties. Recognizing the interplay of strengths and weaknesses between phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and language skills may explain word reading variability in children with SSD. Integrating these foundational word reading skills into SSD assessment and intervention is essential, as recent evidence indicates that deficits in these skill areas may reduce the connections crucial for accurate and fluent word reading. This comprehensive approach, outlined in the clinical recommendations, not only enhances speech sound production for effective communication but also holds significant potential to promote word reading. Understanding and supporting the dynamic relationship between speech and foundational word reading skills in children with SSD can help optimize their reading achievement.
Phonological awareness (PA) is at the foundation of reading development: PA is introduced before formal reading instruction, predicts reading development, is a target for early intervention, and is a core mechanism in dyslexia. Conventional approaches to assessing PA are time-consuming and resource intensive: assessments are individually administered and scoring verbal responses is challenging and subjective. Therefore, we introduce a rapid, automated, online measure of PA—The Rapid Online Assessment of Reading—Phonological Awareness—that can be implemented at scale without a test administrator. We explored whether this gamified, online task is an accurate and reliable measure of PA and predicts reading development. We found high correlations with standardized measures of PA (CTOPP-2, r = .80) for children from Pre-K through fourth grade and exceptional reliability (α = .96). Validation in 50 first and second grade classrooms showed reliable implementation in a public school setting with predictive value of future reading development.
Which children go on to develop dyslexia? Since dyslexia has a multifactorial etiology, this question can be restated as: what are the factors that put children at high risk for developing dyslexia? It is argued that a useful theoretical framework to address this question is Pennington’s (2006) multiple deficit model (MDM). This model replaces models that attribute dyslexia to a single underlying cause. Subsequently, the generalist genes hypothesis for learning (dis)abilities (Plomin and Kovas, 2005) is described and integrated with the MDM. Next, findings are presented from a longitudinal study with children at family risk for dyslexia. Such studies can contribute to testing and specifying the MDM. In this study, risk factors at both the child and family level were investigated. This led to the proposed intergenerational MDM, in which both parents confer liability via intertwined genetic and environmental pathways. Future scientific directions are discussed to investigate parent-offspring resemblance and transmission patterns, which will shed new light on disorder etiology.
The combination of investigating child and family characteristics sheds light on the constellation of risk factors that can ultimately lead to dyslexia. This family-risk study examines plausible preschool risk factors and their specificity. Participants (N = 196, 42 % girls) included familial risk (FR) children with and without dyslexia in Grade 3 and controls. First, we found impairments in phonological awareness, rapid naming, and letter knowledge in FR kindergartners with later dyslexia, and mild phonological-awareness deficits in FR kindergartners without subsequent dyslexia. These skills were better predictors of reading than arithmetic, except for rapid naming. Second, the literacy environment at home was comparable among groups. Third, having a dyslexic parent and literacy abilities of the non-dyslexic parent related to offspring risk of dyslexia. Parental literacy abilities might be viewed as indicators of offspring's liability for literacy difficulties, since parents provide offspring with genetic and environmental endowment. We propose an intergenerational multiple deficit model in which both parents confer cognitive risks.
The Dyslexia Debate examines how we use the term “dyslexia” and questions its efficacy as a diagnosis. While many believe that a diagnosis of dyslexia will shed light on a reader’s struggles and help identify the best form of intervention, Julian G. Elliott and Elena L. Grigorenko show that it adds little value. in fact, our problematic interpretation of the term could prove to be a major disservice to many children with difficulties learning to read. This book outlines in detail the diverse ways in which reading problems have been conceptualized and operationalized. Elliott and Grigorenko consider the latest research in cognitive science, genetics, and neuroscience, and the limitations of these fields in terms of professional action. They then provide a more helpful, scientifically rigorous way to describe the various types of reading difficulties and discuss empirically supported forms of intervention.
Objective.
—There is strong evidence that developmental dyslexia is both familial and heritable, but the mode of genetic transmission has remained unclear. In this article, we examine specific genetic hypotheses about the mode of transmission of developmental dyslexia by performing complex segregation analyses.Design.
—A family study method was applied, whereby the relatives of dyslexic probands were examined for dyslexia. The families studied represent four independently ascertained samples.Setting.
—The four samples of families were primarily from rural and suburban communities of Colorado, Washington State, and Iowa.Participants.
— A total of 204 families and 1698 individuals in the four samples combined.
Main Outcome Measures.
—The complex segregation program, POINTER, was used to test competing genetic hypotheses of how a categorical trait (dyslexia) is transmitted in families.Results.
—The results were consistent with major locus transmission in three of four samples and with polygenic transmission in the fourth. In these three samples, the estimates of penetrance for the AA, Aa, and aa genotypes (where A is the abnormal allele) were, respectively, 1.000, 1.000, and 0.001 to 0.039 in males, and 0.560 to 1.000, 0.550 to 0.897, and 0.000 in females. The estimated gene frequency of the major locus was between 3% and 5%.Conclusions.
—Sex-influenced, additive, or dominant transmission occurs in a significant proportion of dyslexic families. Other evidence indicates, however, that dyslexia is etiologically heterogeneous and that there is genetic heterogeneity even among families selected for apparent dominant transmission. Thus, while no single major locus may account for all of dyslexia, it is important to pursue potential major loci for dyslexia using linkage techniques.(JAMA. 1991;266:1527-1534)
The study investigated cognitive deficits associated with dyslexia and familial risk of dyslexia (endophenotypes) by comparing children from families with and without a history of dyslexia. Eighty-eight school-aged children were assessed on measures of phonology, language and rapid automatized naming. A series of regression analyses with family risk and dyslexia status as predictors indicated that word recall, morphology, and rapid automatized naming were associated with the deficit, whereas the two phonological measures (phoneme awareness and nonword repetition) were associated with both literacy deficits and family risk, suggesting that the phonological deficit is an endophenotype of dyslexia. Whereas the association with familial risk was similar for the two phonological measures, they differed in their relation to dyslexia status: Phoneme awareness showed a stronger association with dyslexia than risk status, whereas nonword repetition was more strongly related to the risk. The data are interpreted within the framework of multiple deficit models of dyslexia.
