Reading Disorders & Connections w/Language Disorders (W4)

Question 1

What is dyslexia? (international dyslexia association definition)

Answer 1

-Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling & decoding abilities. Those difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge

Question 2

History of language based view of dyslexia (3)

Answer 2

• ~1900: “congenital word blind-ness” - a visual problem
• 1937: reading disorders as a larger set of developmental language disorders but saw that weak cerebral dominance caused reversals
• 1967: first time to discuss phonological processing problems leading to dyslexia (Myklebust & Johnson)

Question 3

Does RD represent a skewed distribution or the lower end of a normal distribution?

Answer 3

The lower end of a normal distribution (like SLI or lang. disorders) - dimensional disorder

Question 4

Is there a “fixed” prevalence rate?

Answer 4

No. - It’s arbitrary depending on where the cutoff is for that assessment

Question 5

What % of 4th grades, 8th grades, and 12th graders read below a basic level?

Answer 5

40% of 4th graders
30% of 8th graders
25% of 12th graders

Question 6

2 general categories of reading disorders:

Answer 6

• Dyslexia (symptoms limited to reading)

- Other language-based reading problems

Question 7

4 reading disorders

Answer 7

• Dyslexia
• Specific comprehension deficit (SCD)
• Mixed
• Nonspecified

Question 8

Characteristics of dyslexia:

Answer 8

• Linguistic comprehension is high (no oral language problem)
• Word recognition is low (poor word rec. due to phonological deficits & subsequent problems decoding)

Question 9

Characteristics of specific comprehension deficit:

Answer 9

• Linguistic comprehension is LOW (poor oral language abilities)
• Word recognition is high

Question 10

Characteristics of mixed reading disorders:

Answer 10

• Linguistic comprehension is LOW (poor oral language abilities) AND
• Word recognition is LOW (difficulties decoding)

Question 11

Characteristics of non-specified reading disorders:

Answer 11

• Linguistic comprehension is HIGH (oral language abilities are fine)
• Word recognition is also high (fine decoders)
• yet they still have a reading disorder

Question 12

What stage of reading development does dyslexia have the greatest impact?

Answer 12

‘Learning to Read’ - they get better and rate becomes a larger problem later on

Question 13

Which reading disorder groups have trouble with comprehension?

Answer 13

They all do!

Question 14

Children with dyslexia have poor ____________ __________ skills AND difficulty ____________ ______-_____ _______________.

Answer 14

Children with dyslexia have poor PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING skills and difficulty ESTABLISHING LETTER-SOUND CORRESPONDENCES (phonics)
*rec. letters & letter knowledge also plays a part

Question 15

What are parts of phonological processing?

Answer 15

• Phonological awareness (blending phonemes)
• Phonological memory (assess w/digit span & non-word rep – to decode, you need to hold in phono. mem. to get enough to blend)
• Phonological retrieval / rapid automatic naming

Question 16

When can we identify dyslexia?

Answer 16

-Kindergarten / first grade

Question 17

When can we identify phonological processing problems?

Answer 17

Earlier than we can ID dyslexia! (may be used for prevention)

Question 18

What happens to children w/dyslexia, over time?

Answer 18

• On avg. they tend to get better as they rec. more automatically but rate and spelling may continue to be difficult
• They develop less language knowledge overtime as they avoid reading (depending on severity/resolve)

Question 19

Specific comprehension deficit is AKA (2)

Answer 19

• Hyperlexic (implies above avg. word decoding, which isn’t necessarily true)
• Poor comprehension

Question 20

Specific comprehension deficits (strengths/weaknesses)

Answer 20

• Read fluently & accurately
• But don’t comprehend well (difficulty ‘making sense’ of words, sentences, discourse that they’re reading)
• May or may not have previous diagnosis of LI

Question 21

Mixed reading disorders

Answer 21

-Share characteristics of BOTh dyslexic and SCD groups

Question 22

What language skills are likely to be weak with kids with mixed reading disorders?

Answer 22

-Essentially all of them. (phonological processing, vocab, syntactic processing, discourse processing)

Question 23

What is another way to categorize RD?

Answer 23

According to time of ID

Question 24

If RD is ID’ed in ~grade K-3 it is considered…

Answer 24

Early-emerging RD - most likely dyslexia

Question 25

If RD is ID’ed ~grade 4+ it is considered…

Answer 25

Late-emerging RD

Question 26

Two potential causes of late-emerging RD are:

Answer 26

• They can’t read to learn (SCD - weak linguistic comp.)

- Had word rec. problems but good visual memory so they previously squeaked by.

Question 27

Describe the shift in reading disorders over time.

Answer 27

Dyslexia starts out with a greater prevalence but word recognition improves over time so the number drops while mixed/SCD numbers get bigger over time as comprehension becomes more important and passages get harder.