reading 2 - dyslexia

Question 1

dyslexia DSM-V definition

Answer 1

Difficulties in accuracy or fluency of reading that are not consistent with the person’s chronological age, educational opportunities or intellectual abilities

Question 2

dyslexia British Dyslexia Association definition

Answer 2

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills. It is characterised by difficulties that may not match up to an individual’s other cognitive abilities

Question 3

NHS - dyslexia prevelence in UK

Answer 3

up to 1 in 10 people in the UK have a certain degree of dyslexia

Question 4

what is dyslexia

Answer 4

many definitions mention decoding of written words - importance of fast and efficient decoding and word recognition

issue with phonological processing and how speech sounds correspond to letters - leads to fluency issues

not a visual problem - demonstrated by difficulty identifying phonemes (kids with dyslexia find it hard to say “skip” without the ‘p’)

caused by interaction of gene and environment - puts some more at risk than others

Question 5

identifying dyslexia - tasks to assess skills (3)

Answer 5

decoding skills –> converting graphemes into phonemes –> task = phoneme deletion/substitution (e.g. say speech without the ‘s’) ; decoding pseudowords (e.g. say ‘veep’ - nonword)

lexical retrieval skills –> recognise whole words e.g. activate representations in an orthographic lexicon –> task = rapid automatic naming (RAN) tasks ; word identification of regular and irregular words

verbal short-term memory skills –> retain information in STM –> task = word span ; digit span

Question 6

longitudinal study of phonological awareness - through primary school

Answer 6

De Jong and van der Leij (2003)

phoneme identification:

• say “speech” without the ‘s’
• say the first sound in the word “train”

group into: dyslexic, weak readers, and normal

found no deficit in kindergarten
problem appeared in the first year of learning to read
problem disappears by end of primary school (6th year)

Question 7

reading impairment profiles in dyslexia - longitudinal study from age 5-7

Answer 7

Nation (2019)

dyslexic participants only

worse performance on measures of phonological awareness at age 7 compared to age 5

Question 8

study of automatic word processing in dyslexia

Answer 8

De Jong and van der Leij (2003)
2 measures:

RAN task - name images, letters, digits as quickly as possible

• dyslexic and weak readers are slower to name objects than control

identification of words and non-words

• dyslexic readers name fewer objects and fewer correct words than control group
• doesn’t mean they can’t do it, but do it with less fluency or speed

Question 9

dyslexic profile (2 components)

Answer 9

poor phonological awareness

• problems identifying phonemes
• problems reading non-words

slow lexical retrieval

• slow retrieval of letters - in RAN task
• slower word reading for dyslexic group compared to weak + normally developing readers

Question 10

which route of DRC is there a deficit in dyslexia

Answer 10

could be lexical or non-lexical

deficits in non-lexical could lead to problems in lexical –> issues reading non-words

Question 11

phonological deficit in dyslexia - issues this causes later in life

Answer 11

Initial problems linking phonemes and graphemes results in problems with word reading later in development

Difficulties in reading later in life may be due to phonological deficit when learning to read – less robust orthographic lexicon – less fluidity in reading

difficulty de-coding words:

• Unlikely to be motivated to read
• Reading (exposure to print) facilitates the development of an orthographic lexicon
• Development of an orthographic lexicon facilitates ‘skilled’ reading

reflected in slower identification and reading of correct words in later stage of development

Question 12

key time for learning to read

Answer 12

end of first year of school - based on phonological processing

difference in ability - phonological awareness - is most pronounced here

Question 13

orthographic learning and self-teaching

Answer 13

decoding skill creates opportunities for self-teaching but does not guarantee that orthographic learning will take place (Share, 2011)

Question 14

orthographic learning and dyslexia

Answer 14

weak phonological processes affect the formation of orthographic representations

BUT Orthographic learning may be affected independently of phonological processes

the result could be an ‘Unexpectedly poor speller’ or a subtype of dyslexia called ‘Surface’ Dyslexia

Question 15

surface dyslexia

Answer 15

typical decoding, reading speed but difficulty in spelling

reading is preserved by orthographic issues are present (cannot spell)

phonological awareness appears unimpaired

non-word reading is within a ‘normal’ range

irregular word reading is impaired – break is read as ‘breek’

unable to distinguish between homophones – difficulty telling which of the following is a vegetable been or bean

Question 16

surface vs phonological dyslexia - irregular word study

Answer 16

Wybrow et al. (2015)

tests of irregular compared to regular word reading have highlighted differences in dyslexic profiles

Results for reading a list of irregular words - demonstrates evidence of a deficit in the lexical route

surface dyslexic = more regularisation errors for irregular words than control

phonological dyslexic = less regularisation errors for irregular words than control

Question 17

testing reading impairment profiles (surface and phonological dyslexic) - study

Answer 17

Peterson et al., (2013) study 1

Large samples of dyslexic populations allow for tests of different profiles to be conducted

3 tests:

• phonological awareness -> phoneme deletion
• Rapid Automatic Naming -> images & colours
• orthographic coding -> which of the following is a flower? Rose vs Rows

results:

phonological awareness = phonological are worse
rapid naming = surface are worse (closer)
orthographic coding = surface are worse

LOOK AT DIAGRAM

Question 18

evidence of surface dyslexia as a subtype (3)

Answer 18

Bailey et al (2004) Surface dyslexics had difficulty learning a set of irregular words such that they could recognise them and read them out loud

Ziegler et al. (2008) found evidence of a surface dyslexic subtype in children diagnosed with developmental dyslexia compared to a chronological age control group

Naama Friedmann and Max Coltheart (2016) describe a variety of types of developmental dyslexia

Question 19

2 routes of DRC for dyslexic subtypes

Answer 19

Ziegler et al (2008)

Surface dyslexia:
Deficits to the lexical Route
No problems reading regular non-words
Problems reading irregular words

Phonological dyslexia:
Deficits to the non=lexical route
Problems reading non-words
Impairment of non-lexical (GPC) route

Question 20

debate over existence of subtypes of dyslexia

Answer 20

review of 5 studies Sprenger-Charolles & Serniclaes (2003)

concluded that -
“These results are more in line with the hypothesis that a phonological deficit is at the core of developmental dyslexia, than with the idea that a clear dissociation exists between surface and phonological profiles”

Question 21

semantic processing in individuals with dyslexia

Answer 21

“Children with dyslexia have serious difficulties with forming detailed orthographic representations necessary for fluent reading. As a compensatory mechanism, they tend to rely more on semantic processing for reading than their typically reading peers. That is, stronger influences of semantics on word reading can be expected in this group compared with typical readers”

Question 22

processing words using partial de-coding

Answer 22

using context to work out what the word is
e.g. read “pint” - irregular word

activates potential words e.g. paint, pit, pot, plot, post

then use context e.g. “ lets go for a pint” to figure out which word is correct

Question 23

lexical access - context

Answer 23

Participants started to repeat specific words from recorded sentences 200ms after word onset,
But only if the sentences made sense

“ the car travelled down the motorway”
“ the aeroplane travelled down the motorway”

language system predicts which words might come up next and activate them

Question 24

semantic processing with dyslexia

Answer 24

predicting next item - use of context

then build up the word from sounds you can understand

Question 25

semantic processing with dyslexia - study with homographs

Answer 25

Frith & Snowling 1983

• tested children’s ability to correctly read out loud sentences that ended with a homograph (spelled the same – pronounced differently)
• “before he made his speech he gave a bow”
• dyslexic children were more likely to correctly pronounce ‘bow’ than controls

Question 26

semantic processing with dyslexia - study with reading words in isolation

Answer 26

Nation & Snowling (1998)

tested children’s ability to correctly read regular and irregular words:

• in isolation
• after hearing a sentence (related target)

results:

• dyslexic readers use context to process both regular and irregular words more than normal readers – i.e. 850ms quicker for regular words in context than in isolation
• context used more by normal readers for irregular than regular word reading
• greater priming effects in dyslexic readers than normal readers
• dyslexic readers use context more for regular words

Question 27

semantic processing with dyslexia - semantic priming effects methodology

Answer 27

priming to measure semantic processing

stronger predictive processing and links between semantic concepts = larger semantic priming effects

calculated by subtracting reaction time for related and unrelated conditions

Question 28

semantic processing with dyslexia - semantic priming effects study

Answer 28

van der Kleij et al (2019)

dyslexic readers show larger semantic priming effects than normal readers

rely on context

Question 29

semantic processing and dyslexia - summary

Answer 29

Children with dyslexia may acquire stronger semantic processing ability to compensate for weaker phonological processing

The predictions in relation to the DRC model would be that, the use of contextual cues improves when the ‘non lexical route’ is impaired