The persistence of rapid naming problems in children with reading disabilities: a nine-year follow-up

Verbal fluency and autism: Reframing current data through the lens of monotropism

The purpose of this study was to reexamine research that used verbal fluency tasks to reinforce assumed deficits in word knowledge and retrieval in the autistic population. We identified seventeen articles that compared the performance of autistic and non-autistic people on verbal fluency measures and provided an interpretation of the observed performance. In this narrative review, we summarize many components of these studies, including a comprehensive account of how authors framed their research findings. Overall, results of the studies showed variation both between and within groups in terms of total number of correct words, how many subsequent words fell into subcategories, and how frequently participants switched between subcategories. Despite wide variation in findings across studies, authors consistently interpreted results as revealing or reinforcing autistic deficits. To contrast the deficit narrative, we offer an alternative interpretation of findings by considering how they could provide support for the autistic-led theory of monotropism. This alternative interpretation accounts for the inconsistencies in findings between studies, since wide individual variation in performance is an expected feature of the monotropic theory. We use our review as an exercise in reframing a body of literature from a neurodiversity-affirming perspective. We propose this as a case example and model for how autism research and clinical practice can move away from the consistent narrative of autism deficits that has pervaded our field for decades. Accordingly, we offer suggestions for future research and clinical practice.

What are the cognitive-linguistic profiles and subtypes of Chinese adolescents with dyslexia?

While research has identified multiple deficits that may lead to dyslexia, the profiles of adolescents with dyslexia and dyslexia subtypes are yet fully understood. This study examined the profiles of Chinese adolescents with dyslexia and identified dyslexia subtypes. Adolescents from grades 7 to 9 (n = 184, 92 with dyslexia) were evaluated on morphological skills, visual-orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, working memory, word reading, word spelling, reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results revealed that adolescents with dyslexia performed less well on the cognitive-linguistic and literacy measures than typically developing adolescents. A logistic regression analysis also showed that morphological skills, visual-orthographic knowledge and rapid naming were significantly predictive of dyslexia status. Using cluster analysis and guided by the multiple deficit hypothesis, this study identified four dyslexia subtypes: morphological deficit, visual-orthographic knowledge deficit, rapid naming deficit and global deficit showing multiple cognitive-linguistic and literacy problems. Understanding the profiles and subtypes of dyslexia could enable educational psychologists and educators to select appropriate assessment measures and develop intervention strategies to support the learning of Chinese adolescents with dyslexia.

Predictive Examination of Phonological Awareness Among Hebrew-Speaking Kindergarten Children

The purpose of this study was to examine the development of phonological awareness (PA) skills among Hebrew-speaking kindergarten children. Specifically, the study examines the effects of cognitive, early literacy, and language skills to PA among Hebrew-speaking children at the middle (Early K) and end (End K) of kindergarten, and the contribution of various literacy and cognitive skills measured from the early kindergarten stage to the subsequent development of PA. Participants were 41 native Hebrew-speaking children (28 boys), ages 5-6, who were recruited from two kindergarten classrooms. A battery of cognitive, early literacy, and language measures was administered and ten PA skills were examined extensively. The results demonstrated the rapid growth of PA skills from Early K to End K. The participants were significantly better at manipulations at the syllable level, as compared to phonemes or consonants. Furthermore, deletion of a final consonant was found to be easier for them than deletion of an initial consonant. This finding emphasizes the body-coda segmentation tendency, which characterizes the Hebrew language structure. Strong-moderate positive correlations were found between PA and both letter naming and executive functioning at Early K. A strong correlation between letter naming and PA was found at End K. Regression analyses demonstrated that letter naming and executive functioning at Early K were the most significant predictors of PA at Early K, and that letter naming was the most significant predictor at End K. These findings highlight both universal and language-specific features of phonological awareness.

Resolving reading disability-Childhood predictors and adult-age outcomes

We examined frequency of adult-age reading disability (RD) and its childhood predictors among 48 adults (20 to 39 years) with documented childhood RD, and contrasted their cognitive skills, education, and employment with 37 matched controls. Among individuals with childhood RD, more than half had improved in their reading fluency to the level where the set criterion for adult-age RD was not met anymore. More fluent rapid naming, less severe childhood RD, and multiple support providers in childhood together predicted improvement of reading fluency. More fluent naming differentiated the childhood RD participants whose reading fluency had improved by adult-age from those participants whose RD persisted to adult-age. All the individuals with childhood RD performed weaker than the controls in adult-age working memory, processing speed, and verbal skills. Educational level among both RD groups was lower than that among the controls. Unemployment of individuals with persistent adult-age RD (31.6%) was higher than that of individuals with improved adult-age RD (13.8%) or that of the controls (8.1%). According to our findings, rapid naming is one evident factor differentiating individuals with persisted RD from those with ameliorated reading fluency. Also, better adult-age reading fluency has significance for adult-age employment among individuals with childhood RD.

Psychological and physical violence towards children with disabilities in Finland and Sweden

This article describes psychological aggression and physical violence by Swedish and Finnish mothers ( N = 3420) towards their 0- to 12-year-old children with disabilities ( N = 286) by comparing such behaviour with the mothers of children without disabilities ( N = 3134). The survey data are based on representative samples from Finland and Sweden of mothers' reports of their behaviour towards their child in conflict situations. Mothers of children with disabilities reported more psychological aggression towards their child than did mothers of children without disabilities. Mothers used psychological aggression, especially towards children with neurological/psychological disabilities. However, the only significant difference regarding physical violence was repetitive use of mild physical violence. Overall, the analysis suggests that children with neurological/psychological disabilities are more exposed to both psychological and physical violence than children without disabilities or children with somatic/developmental disabilities.

A Special Chinese Reading Acceleration Training Paradigm: To Enhance the Reading Fluency and Comprehension of Chinese Children with Reading Disabilities

According to a number of studies, use of a Reading Acceleration Program as reading intervention training has been demonstrated to improve reading speed and comprehension level effectively in most languages and countries. The objective of the current study was to provide further evidence of the effectiveness of a Reading Acceleration Program for Chinese children with reading disabilities using a distinctive Chinese reading acceleration training paradigm. The reading acceleration training paradigm is divided into a non-accelerated reading paradigm, a Character-accelerated reading paradigm and a Words-accelerated reading paradigm. The results of training Chinese children with reading disabilities indicate that the acceleration reading paradigm applies to children with Chinese-reading disabilities. In addition, compared with other reading acceleration paradigms, Words-accelerated reading training is more effective in helping children with reading disabilities read at a high speed while maintaining superior comprehension levels.

Dynamics of the Compelex Forms of Visual Perception in Children of Pre-School Age (A Neuropsychological Analysis)

: Experimental data in preschool aged children proves the determining role of the auditory and visual processes for future reading skills, therefore the investigation of complex forms of visual perception in this age period is diagnostically important.

: Basic aim of the research is assessment of the sensitive period for the non-verbal perceptive operations in pre-school aged children, and determination of subgroup with low results for non-verbal perception.

: The dynamics of the visual perception (visual gnosis) in typically developing children were tested with an adapted version of the Poppelreuter-Ghent Test for figure-ground segregation. The total number of overlapping objects is 33, grouped according to the level of difficulty. The children are given a group of objects separately in a following sequence and they should segregate and name the objects.

A number of 365 typically developing children without diagnosis of visual disorders and without corrected visus took part in the research. All children, aged 4, 5, and 6 from three different settlements attend state nursery schools and have Bulgarian as a mother tongue. A three-factor dispersion analysis was held to define the statistical significance of the independent factors age, gender and settlement. The research’s data define the 5 year olds as sensitive about the dynamics of the complex forms of visual perception, compared to the four year old children (p<0.000009) and the six year old children (p<0.001650). The influence of the demographic factor is engaged with the significantly better results of the children from the big town compared to the capital (p<0.000926) and small town (p<0.000700). The influence of the gender as a factor is due to the better functioning of the non-verbal perceptive operations in the females (F = 1,346, p<0.019). According to the additional analysis, 25% of the children at the age of six demonstrate a low rating of the complex forms of non-verbal visual gnosis that could be reviewed as risk for developing dyslexia.

: In the age period 4 – 6, there is a process of dynamic maturation of the right-hemispheric structures of the ventral visual system, leading to substantial improvement of the abilities for discrimination of objects in visual crowding. Poppelreuter’s test allows an objective assessment of the state of the non-verbal perceptive abilities in pre-school age and could be used in the diagnostics of predictors for dyslexia.

Development of reading-related skills in Chinese and English among Hong Kong Chinese children with and without dyslexia

This 2-year longitudinal study sought to identify a developmental pattern of Chinese and English reading skills in children with and without dyslexia from 6 to 8years of age. Three groups of 15 children each-those with dyslexia, age-matched (AM) controls, and reading-matched (RM) controls-participated. Dyslexia was diagnosed at 8years of age. All children were tested on phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), morphological awareness, word reading, and vocabulary knowledge in both Chinese and English and also speed of processing skill. AM controls outperformed the group with dyslexia on all measures except for phonological awareness, English word reading, and vocabulary. However, those with dyslexia and AM controls developed at a similar rate across all reading-related skills from 6 to 8years of age. Compared with the RM controls, the group with dyslexia scored higher in phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and vocabulary knowledge in both Chinese and English and also in English word reading but scored similarly in RAN. Children with dyslexia, thus, manifested clear difficulties in Chinese vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, and RAN as well as general speed of processing, representing a developmental lag in cognitive skills. Among these, RAN deficits are likely to be the most severe deficits in Chinese children with dyslexia.

Rapid Naming Tests: Developmental Course and Relations with Neuropsychological Measures

A Digits Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) test and a Colors and Shapes Rapid Alternating Stimulus (RAS) test were administered to 904 Portuguese, normally achieving children (ages 7 to 15), in order to examine these tests scores developmental course. The results showed that the two tests have slightly different developmental trajectories. In addition, the two tests associations with a large number of neuropsychological measures were determined in three age groups (7-9 years, n = 301; 10-12 years, n = 299; 13-15 years, n = 304). The neuropsychological measures addressed attention/executive functions, motor behavior, verbal memory, visual memory and language. The results indicated that each one of the rapid naming tests brings into play not entirely coincident processes. Although, they converge in terms of their associations with language and attention measures, Colors and Shapes RAS test is more demanding in cognitive and linguistic terms. In addition, while Digits RAN test has little in common with short-term memory, Colors and Shapes RAS test relates moderately with short-term memory, due to the increased demands in terms of effort, access and retrieval of the phonological labels that correspond to the different stimuli categories. The need to differentiate between the two rapid naming tests is supported.

Differential cognitive and perceptual correlates of print reading versus braille reading

The relations between reading, auditory, speech, phonological and tactile spatial processing are investigated in a Dutch speaking sample of blind braille readers as compared to sighted print readers. Performance is assessed in blind and sighted children and adults. Regarding phonological ability, braille readers perform equally well compared to print readers on phonological awareness, better on verbal short-term memory and significantly worse on lexical retrieval. The groups do not differ on speech perception or auditory processing. Braille readers, however, have more sensitive fingers than print readers. Investigation of the relations between these cognitive and perceptual skills and reading performance indicates that in the group of braille readers auditory temporal processing has a longer lasting and stronger impact not only on phonological abilities, which have to satisfy the high processing demands of the strictly serial language input, but also directly on the reading ability itself. Print readers switch between grapho-phonological and lexical reading modes depending on the familiarity of the items. Furthermore, the auditory temporal processing and speech perception, which were substantially interrelated with phonological processing, had no direct associations with print reading measures.

Predicting dyslexia at age 11 from a risk index questionnaire at age 5

This study focused on predicting dyslexia in children ahead of formal literacy training. Because dyslexia is a constitutional impairment, risk factors should be seen in preschool. It was hypothesized that data gathered at age 5 using questions targeting the dyslexia endophenotype should be reliable and valid predictors of dyslexia at age 11. A questionnaire was given to caretakers of 120 5-year-old children, and a risk index score was calculated based on questions regarding health, laterality, motor skills, language, special needs education and heredity. An at-risk group (n = 25) and matched controls (n = 24) were followed until age 11, when a similar questionnaire and literacy tests were administered to the children who participated in the follow-up study (22 at risk and 20 control). Half of the at-risk children and two of the control children at age 5 were identified as having dyslexia at age 11 (8 girls and 5 boys). It is concluded that it is possible to identify children at the age of 5 who will have dyslexia at the age of 11 through a questionnaire approach.

Cognitive skills and literacy performance of Chinese adolescents with and without dyslexia

The present study sought to identify cognitive abilities that might distinguish Hong Kong Chinese adolescents with dyslexia and to assess how these abilities were associated with Chinese word reading, word dictation, and reading comprehension. The cognitive skills of interest were morphological awareness, visual-orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, and verbal working memory. A total of 90 junior secondary school students, 30 dyslexic, 30 chronological age controls, and 30 reading level controls was tested on a range of cognitive and literacy tasks. Dyslexic students were less competent than the control students in all cognitive and literacy measures. The regression analyses also showed that verbal working memory, rapid naming, morphological awareness, and visual-orthographic knowledge were significantly associated with literacy performance. Findings underscore the importance of these cognitive skills for Chinese literacy acquisition. Overall, this study highlights the persistent difficulties of Chinese dyslexic adolescents who seem to have multiple causes for reading and spelling difficulties.

Neurocognitive profiles of preterm infants randomly assigned to lower or higher hematocrit thresholds for transfusion

OBJECTIVE

Preterm infants are frequently transfused with red blood cells based on standardized guidelines or clinical concerns that anemia taxes infants' physiological compensatory mechanisms and thereby threatens their health and well-being. The impact of various transfusion guidelines on long-term neurocognitive outcome is not known. The purpose of this study is to evaluate long-term neurocognitive outcome on children born prematurely and treated at birth with different transfusion guidelines.

METHODS

Neurocognitive outcomes were examined at school age for 56 preterm infants randomly assigned to a liberal (n = 33) or restrictive (n = 23) transfusion strategy. Tests of intelligence, achievement, language, visual-spatial/motor, and memory skills were administered. Between-group differences were assessed.

RESULTS

Those in the liberal transfusion group performed more poorly than those in the restrictive group on measures of associative verbal fluency, visual memory, and reading.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings highlight possible long-term neurodevelopmental consequences of maintaining higher hematocrit levels.

Mapping for dyslexia and related cognitive trait loci provides strong evidence for further risk genes on chromosome 6p21

In a genome-wide linkage scan, we aimed at mapping risk loci for dyslexia in the German population. Our sample comprised 1,030 individuals from 246 dyslexia families which were recruited through a single-proband sib pair study design and a detailed assessment of dyslexia and related cognitive traits. We found evidence for a major dyslexia locus on chromosome 6p21. The cognitive trait rapid naming (objects/colors) produced a genome-wide significant LOD score of 5.87 (P = 1.00 × 10⁻⁷) and the implicated 6p-risk region spans around 10 Mb. Although our finding maps close to DYX2, where the dyslexia candidate genes DCDC2 and KIAA0319 have already been identified, our data point to the presence of an additional risk gene in this region and are highlighting the impact of 6p21 in dyslexia and related cognitive traits.

Language development, literacy skills, and predictive connections to reading in Finnish children with and without familial risk for dyslexia

Discriminative language markers and predictive links between early language and literacy skills were investigated retrospectively in the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia in which children at familial risk for dyslexia have been followed from birth. Three groups were formed on the basis of 198 children's reading and spelling status. One group of children with reading disability (RD; n = 46) and two groups of typical readers from nondyslexic control (TRC; n = 84) and dyslexic families (TRD; n = 68) were examined from age 1.5 years to school age. The RD group was outperformed by typical readers on numerous language and literacy measures (expressive and receptive language, morphology, phonological sensitivity, RAN, and letter knowledge) from 2 years of age onward. The strongest predictive links emerged from receptive and expressive language to reading via measures of letter naming, rapid naming, morphology, and phonological awareness.

Cognitive profiles of Chinese adolescents with dyslexia

The present study sought to identify cognitive abilities that might distinguish Hong Kong Chinese adolescents with and without dyslexia and examined the cognitive profile of dyslexic adolescents in order to better understand this important problem. The performance of 27 Chinese adolescents with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia was compared with 27 adolescents of the same chronological age (CA) and 27 of matched reading level (RL) on measures of literacy and cognitive abilities: Chinese word reading, one-minute reading, reading comprehension, dictation, verbal short-term memory, rapid naming, visual-orthographic knowledge, morphological and phonological awareness. The results indicated that the dyslexic group scored lower than the CA group, but similar to the RL group, especially in the areas of rapid naming, visual-orthographic knowledge and morphological awareness, with over half having multiple deficits exhibited 2 or more cognitive areas. Furthermore, the number of cognitive deficits was associated with the degree of reading and spelling impairment. These findings suggest that adolescents with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia have persistent literacy difficulties and seem to have multiple causes for reading difficulties in Chinese.

The RAVE-O Intervention: Connecting Neuroscience to the Classroom

This article explores the ways in which knowledge from the cognitive neurosciences, linguistics, and education interact to deepen our understanding of reading's complexity and to inform reading intervention. We first describe how research on brain abnormalities and naming speed processes has shaped both our conceptualization of reading disabilities and the design of a multicomponent reading intervention, the RAVE-O program. We then discuss the unique ways this program seeks to address the multiple and varied sources of disruption in struggling readers. Finally, we present efficacy data for the RAVE-O reading intervention across multiple school settings.

The representation and processing of familiar faces in dyslexia: differences in age of acquisition effects

Two under-explored areas of developmental dyslexia research, face naming and age of acquisition (AoA), were investigated. Eighteen dyslexic and 18 non-dyslexic university students named the faces of 50 well-known celebrities, matched for facial distinctiveness and familiarity. Twenty-five of the famous people were learned early in life, while the remaining 25 were first encountered more recently. There was no overall difference between the dyslexics and the non-dyslexics in the speed or the accuracy with which they named faces, suggesting that face naming is unimpaired in dyslexic adults. In keeping with previous findings, the results indicated a speed and accuracy advantage for early-acquired over late-acquired faces. In addition, a significant participant group x AoA interaction demonstrated that the non-dyslexic group was significantly faster to name early- than late-acquired faces, while the dyslexic group showed a much smaller and non-significant effect of AoA. The results suggest that there are differences in representation in dyslexia and that these may be linked to problems with attentional/executive function and automaticity. It is proposed that a more fine-grained approach to investigating dyslexia in adulthood should be adopted, in order to uncover cognitive as well as behavioural differences between dyslexics and non-dyslexics.

Same or different? Insights into the etiology of phonological awareness and rapid naming

This work's objective was to offer additional insights into the psychological and genetic bases of reading ability and disability, and to evaluate the plausibility of a variety of psychological models of reading involving phonological awareness (PA) and rapid naming (RN), both hypothesized to be principal components in such models. In Study 1, 488 unselected families were assessed with measures of PA and RN to investigate familial aggregation and to obtain estimates of both the number and effect-magnitude of genetic loci involved in these traits' transmission. The results of the analyses from Study 1 indicated the presence of genetic effects in the etiology of individual differences for PA and RN and pointed to both the shared and unique sources of this genetic variance, which appeared to be exerted by multiple (3-6 for PA and 3-5 for RN) genes. These results were used in Study 2 to parameterize a simulation of 3000 families with quantitatively distributed PA and RN, so that the robustness and generalizability of the Study 1 findings could be evaluated. The findings of both studies were interpreted according to established theories of reading and our own understanding of the etiology of complex developmental disorders.

Word recognition and cognitive profiles of Chinese pre-school children at risk for dyslexia through language delay or familial history of dyslexia

BACKGROUND

This study sought to identify cognitive abilities that might distinguish Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children at risk for dyslexia through either language delay or familial history of dyslexia from children who were not at risk and to examine how these abilities were associated with Chinese word recognition. The cognitive skills of interest were syllable awareness, tone detection, rapid automated naming, visual skill, and morphological awareness.

METHOD

We recruited 36 children whose sibling had been previously diagnosed with dyslexia (familial risk group) and 36 children who were initially reported to have difficulties in preschool literacy acquisition by either teachers or parents and subsequently found to demonstrate clinical at-risk factors in aspects of language by paediatricians (language delayed group); the mean age of these groups was approximately 61 months. Thirty-six children with no such risk factors were matched by age, IQ, and parents' education to the at-risk groups. All children were tested on cognitive skills and Chinese word recognition.

RESULTS

Compared to the controls, children in the language delayed group scored significantly lower on all measures, whereas children in the familial risk group performed significantly worse only on tone detection, morphological awareness, and Chinese word recognition. In regression analyses, word recognition was best explained by morphological awareness, tone detection and visual skill.

CONCLUSIONS

Language-related measures are strongly associated with early reading development and impairment in Hong Kong Chinese children. Tests of tone detection and morphological awareness may be important clinical tools for diagnosing risk for reading problems in young Chinese children. In contrast, Chinese language delay may be associated with broader cognitive impairments as found previously in various Indo-European languages (e.g., Bishop & Snowling, 2004).

Evaluation of the double-deficit hypothesis subtype classification of readers in Spanish

The double-deficit hypothesis acknowledges both phonological processing deficits and serial naming speed deficits as two dimensions associated with reading disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine these two dimensions of reading as they were related to the reading skills of 29 Spanish average readers and poor readers (mean age 9 years 7 months) who met the criteria for either single phonological deficit (PD), double deficit (DD), or no deficit. DD children were the slowest readers and had the weakest orthography processing skills. No significant differences were found between PD and DD groups on word and pseudoword reading. Word reading and reading comprehension skills were average or above average in the three studied groups. As in previous studies in transparent orthographies, word reading was not a salient problem for Spanish poor readers, whereas for the DD group, reading speed and orthographic recognition skills were significantly affected.

Computerized screening for visual stress in children with dyslexia

Visual stress-a condition in which unpleasant visual symptoms are experienced when reading-has been reported to be more prevalent in dyslexic individuals but at the present time the relationship between dyslexia and visual stress remains controversial. ViSS, a computerized visual stress screener that incorporates reading-like visual search, has recently shown promise in studies with unselected samples of primary and secondary school children. This study investigated the use of ViSS with dyslexic children. Dyslexic children identified as having high visual stress showed significantly higher per cent increases in reading rate with a coloured overlay and reported significantly higher critical symptoms of visual stress, compared to dyslexic children with low visual stress. The same results were found for reading-age controls, indicating that ViSS can be equally effective with normal readers as well as with children with dyslexia. Compared to reading-age controls, dyslexic children were found to have significantly higher susceptibility to visual stress, significantly larger per cent increases in reading rate with an overlay, and significantly higher critical and non-critical symptoms of visual stress. Extrapolated to unselected population samples, the data also suggest that visual stress is more likely to be found in people with dyslexia than in people who do not have dyslexia. These results, which point to an important link between the two conditions, are discussed in relation to current theories that attribute visual stress to either a magnocellular dysfunction or cortical hyperexcitability.

The Development of Naming and Word Fluency: Evidence From Hebrew-Speaking Children Between Ages 8 and 17

Naming and word fluency tests are commonly used in neuropsychological evaluations of both children and adults. The current work examines at which age performance on these tests reaches adult level. One hundred fifty children, 30 in each of 5 age groups (8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15, 16-17), and 30 adults ages 18 to 29, participated in the study. Participants completed a Hebrew naming test, a three-letter phonemic fluency task, and a three-category semantic fluency task (animals, fruits and vegetables, and vehicles). Results show that all measures increase steadily from age 8 to age 17. No difference between the 16- to 17-year-old adolescents and the adults was found on the naming test and on the phonemic fluency task, but such a difference was documented for semantic fluency. The relative contribution of the maturation of vocabulary and the development of efficient retrieval processes to performance on naming and fluency tasks is discussed.

The ABCs of computerized naming: Equivalency, reliability, and predictive validity of a computerized rapid automatized naming (RAN) task

Population-based studies indicate dual routes to disabled reading in adolescence and adulthood: slowed acquisition of single word reading and ADHD (particularly inattention) in early childhood. Impairments in rapid serial naming may be a factor common to both problems. The gold-standard measure of this ability, the Rapid Automatized Naming Task (RAN; [Denckla MB, Rudel R. Rapid automatized naming of pictured objects, colors, letters and numbers by normal children. Cortex 1974;10:186-202]), has traditionally been administered in a paper-pencil format. Recently however, researchers [Neuhaus GF, Carlson CD, Jeng WM, Post Y, Swank PR. The reliability and validity of rapid automatized scoring software ratings for the determination of pause and articulation component durations. Educ Psychol Meas 2001;61:490-504] have begun to use computerized versions of the RAN. Here a slightly modified computerized version of the RAN was created and the equivalency between the computerized RAN and the conventional version was investigated using a university student sample. Naming times on the conventional and computerized RAN were highly correlated, overall, and for each of the four RAN stimulus types (letters, digit, colors, objects). Conventional and computerized RAN times predicted reading rate and reading comprehension scores equally well and both showed very high test-retest reliability. With our university student sample, findings indicate equivalency between the two testing mediums in all areas examined.

Naming skills of children born preterm in comparison with their term peers at the ages of 9 and 16 years

The linguistic abilities of children born preterm at 32 weeks' gestation or earlier at Kuopio University Hospital during 1984 to 1986 were evaluated during successive phases of a prospective study. The study protocol included the Rapid Automatic Naming test and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised at 9 years of age and a modified Stroop Color-Word test and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale - Revised at the age of 16 years. Fifty-one children born preterm (26 males, 25 females) and 51 age-matched and sex-matched term controls (26 males, 25 females) were studied at the age of 9 years. At the age of 16 years, 40 children born preterm (19 males, 21 females) and 31 term controls (14 males, 17 females) participated in the study. The children born preterm scored significantly lower in two naming tasks than the controls at the age of 9 years. However, there was no difference between the study groups in naming skills at the age of 16 years or in verbal IQ in either study phase. Maternal education level was not associated with naming skills. Thus, the consequences of preterm birth seem to be minor in relation to linguistic skills during school age and diminish by adolescence.

Dyslexics are impaired on implicit higher-order sequence learning, but not on implicit spatial context learning

Developmental dyslexia is characterized by poor reading ability and impairments on a range of tasks including phonological processing and processing of sensory information. Some recent studies have found deficits in implicit sequence learning using the serial reaction time task, but others have not. Other skills, such as global visuo-spatial processing may even be enhanced in dyslexics, although deficits have also been noted. The present study compared dyslexic and non-dyslexic college students on two implicit learning tasks, an alternating serial response time task in which sequential dependencies exist across non-adjacent elements and a spatial context learning task in which the global configuration of a display cues the location of a search target. Previous evidence indicates that these implicit learning tasks are based on different underlying brain systems, fronto-striatal-cerebellar circuits for sequence learning and medial temporal lobe for spatial context learning. Results revealed a double dissociation: dyslexics showed impaired sequence learning, but superior spatial context learning. Consistent with this group difference, there was a significant positive correlation between reading ability (single real and non-word reading) and sequence learning, but a significant negative correlation between these measures and spatial context learning. Tests of explicit knowledge confirmed that learning was implicit for both groups on both tasks. These findings indicate that dyslexic college students are impaired on some kinds of implicit learning, but not on others. The specific nature of their learning deficit is consistent with reports of physiological and anatomical differences for individuals with dyslexia in frontal and cerebellar structures.

Effects of mora deletion, nonword repetition, rapid naming, and visual search performance on beginning reading in Japanese

This study examined the extent to which mora deletion (phonological analysis), nonword repetition (phonological memory), rapid automatized naming (RAN), and visual search abilities predict reading in Japanese kindergartners and first graders. Analogous abilities have been identified as important predictors of reading skills in alphabetic languages like English. In contrast to English, which is based on grapheme-phoneme relationships, the primary components of Japanese orthography are two syllabaries-hiragana and katakana (collectively termed "kana")-and a system of morphosyllabic symbols (kanji). Three RAN tasks (numbers, objects, syllabary symbols [hiragana]) were used with kindergartners, with an additional kanji RAN task included for first graders. Reading measures included accuracy and speed of passage reading for kindergartners and first graders, and reading comprehension for first graders. In kindergartners, hiragana RAN and number RAN were the only significant predictors of reading accuracy and speed. In first graders, kanji RAN and hiragana RAN predicted reading speed, whereas accuracy was predicted by mora deletion. Reading comprehension was predicted by kanji RAN, mora deletion, and nonword repetition. Although number RAN did not contribute unique variance to any reading measure, it correlated highly with kanji RAN. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Naming speed deficits in adults with reading disabilities: a test of the double-deficit hypothesis

The present study investigated the persistent nature of naming speed deficits within the context of the double-deficit hypothesis in a university sample of adults with reading disabilities (RD). Twenty-five university students with RD were compared to 28 typically achieving readers on measures of reading skill, phonological processing, and naming speed. The results indicated that both naming speed and phonological processing deficits characterized the RD group. In a regression analysis, neither naming speed nor phonological processing were important variables in explaining comprehension when reading rate was in the model. The results of the present study are mixed at best and are consistent with earlier conclusions that support for the double-deficit hypothesis of dyslexia remains limited.

A comparison of multiple methods for the identification of children with reading disabilities

There has been considerable discussion of the methods used for the identification of children with reading disabilities. This study examined three different methods that could be used in the identification of children with reading disabilities and their consistency with teacher ratings of behaviors believed to be associated with reading disabilities. Standardized, norm-referenced measures of achievement, phonological processing measures, and curriculum-based measures of reading fluency were used with 40 children in Grades 1 and 2. Comparisons were made to determine which measures, if any, differentiated between children referred for reading disabilities (n = 20) and children who were progressing typically in reading in their general education classroom settings (n = 20). The results indicated significant between-group differences on standardized, norm-referenced measures of reading recognition, word attack, and comprehension; phonological measures of blending nonwords and elision; and reading fluency. Teacher ratings on the Dyslexia Screening Instrument were consistent with teacher beliefs regarding children's progress in reading. All measures were found to correlate significantly with each other. However, correlations were generally in the moderate range, suggesting that the measures used did not measure the same reading skills or, in the case of phonological processing, the underlying abilities believed to be necessary for reading. Given the differences in tasks and the moderate correlations, it is likely that the choice of measures may affect the conclusions reached regarding a student's reading ability.

Temporal processing and phonological impairment in dyslexia: effect of phoneme lengthening on order judgment of two consonants

The evidence of supporting phonological deficit as a cause of developmental dyslexia has been accumulating rapidly over the past 2 decades, yet the exact mechanisms underlying this deficit remain controversial. Some authors assume that a temporal processing deficit is the source of the phonological disorder observed in dyslexic children. Others maintain that the phonological deficit in dyslexia is basically linguistic, not acoustic, in nature. Three experiments were conducted and tested the impact of the temporal alteration and the impact of complex syllabic structure on consonant order judgments. Thirteen phonological dyslexics (age 10-13) and 10 controls matched for chronologial age were compared on a Temporal Order Judgment (TOJ) task using the succession of two consonants (/p/ /s/) within a cluster. In order to test the possible relevance of the temporal deficit hypothesis, the task also included two additional conditions where either the two stimuli were artificially slowed or two phonological structures were opposed (CCV and CVCV). As expected, the TOJ performance was significantly poorer in dyslexics than in controls. Moreover, in the "slowed speech" condition dyslexics' performance improved to reach the normal controls' level, whereas manipulating the phonological structure complexity provided no significant improvement. Finally dyslexics' performances, especially on the slowed condition, were found correlated with several tests of phonological processing. These results lend support to the general temporal deficit theory of dyslexia.

Pictogram naming in dyslexic and normal children assessed by SLO

We measured pictogram naming (PN) and text reading in dyslexic and normally reading young teenagers. Eye movements were monitored by scanning laser ophthalmoscope, revealing positions of fovea, stimuli on the retina, and speech simultaneously. While text reading speed showed the expected difference between groups, PN speeds overlapped widely. PN was mainly controlled by retrieval time in both groups and correlated with age in dyslexics. During PN, only backward saccades occurred more frequently in dyslexics. We conclude that PN activates visual/eidetic mechanisms that are distinct from the phonemic/analytic pathway necessary for reading. This dual organization leads to a wide range of combinations of performances in PN and text reading.

Predicting delay in reading achievement in a highly transparent language

A random sample of 91 preschool children was assessed prior to receiving formal reading instruction. Verbal and nonverbal measures were used as predictors for the time of instruction required to accurately decode pseudowords in the highly orthographically regular Finnish language. After 2 years, participants were divided into four groups depending on the duration of instruction they had required to reach 90 % accuracy in their reading of pseudowords. Participants were classified as precocious decoders (PD), who could read at school entry; early decoders (ED), who learned to read within the first 4 months of Grade 1; ordinary decoders (OD), who learned to read within 9 months; and late decoders (LD), who failed to reach the criterion after 18 months of reading instruction at Grade 2. Phonological awareness played a significant role only in differentiating PD from ED and OD. However, phonological awareness failed to predict the delayed learning process of LD. LD differed from all other groups in visual analogical reasoning in an analysis not containing phonological awareness measures. Letter knowledge and visual analogical reasoning explained above 90% of the PD-LD difference. Preschool composite (objects, colors, and digits) naming speed measures best predicted reading fluency at the end of Grade 2. The supportive role of orthographic knowledge in phonological awareness, the role of visual analogical reasoning, and the inability of phonological measures to discriminate late decoders are discussed.

A clinical rationale for assessing rapid automatized naming in children with language disorders

Three continuous rapid naming tasks (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 1995) were administered to 2,450 American, English-speaking, academically achieving individuals with typical language development and intellectual ability (ages 6 to 21 years) and 136 individuals with primary language disorders (LD; ages 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15-16). Naming time in seconds differed significantly (p < .01) between the groups for color naming (Task 1) at age 12, shape naming (Task 2) at age 6, and color-shape naming (Task 3) at ages 6, 7, 9, and 12. Naming accuracy did not differ significantly (p > .01) between groups at the majority of the age levels compared. In the normative group, naming speed increased with age in a monotonic progression. The developmental trajectory in the LD group was essentially parallel, but elevated. The percentages of individuals who failed the naming-time criteria for Task 3 (color-shape naming) differed significantly in the two groups at all ages compared (p < .05). These findings indicate that the requirements for two-dimensional, continuous naming (Task 3 color-shape naming) resulted in reduced naming speed (longer total times) and interference with fluency in language production in about half of the clinical sample.

Naming-speed processes, timing, and reading: a conceptual review

This article integrates the findings in the special issue with a comprehensive review of the evidence for seven central questions about the role of naming-speed deficits in developmental reading disabilities. Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-linguistic research on naming-speed processes, timing processes, and reading is presented. An evolving model of visual naming illustrates areas of difference and areas of overlap between naming speed and phonology in their underlying requirements. Work in the cognitive neurosciences is used to explore two nonexclusive hypotheses about the putative links between naming speed and reading processes and about the sources of disruption that may cause subtypes of reading disabilities predicted by the double-deficit hypothesis. Finally, the implications of the work in this special issue for diagnosis and intervention are elaborated.

Lessons from the follow-up of developmental dyslexics

The follow-up of developmental dyslexics from childhood to maturity reveals interesting and important facts. One of the main conclusions which can be reached on considering these facts is that reading and writing can be acquired without phonology. Many developmental dyslexics manage to reach high levels of literacy while remaining seriously handicapped in their phonological skills. The suggestion presented in this paper advocates the adoption of the practical strategies employed by the dyslexics as the basis of the remedial methods to be used in schools.

Understanding individual differences in word recognition skills of ESL children

This paper focuses on the extent to which the development of ESL (English as a Second Language) word recognition skills mimics similar trajectories in same-aged EL1 (English as a First Language) children, and the extent to which phonological processing skills and rapid naming can be used to predict word recognition performance in ESL children. Two cohorts of Grade 1 ESL and EL1 primary-level children were followed for two consecutive years. Results indicated that vocabulary knowledge, a measure of language proficiency, and nonverbal intelligence were not significant predictors of word recognition in either group. Yet, by considering individual differences in phonological awareness and rapid naming, it was possible to predict substantial amounts of variance on word recognition performance six months and one year later in both language groups. Commonality analyses indicated that phonological awareness and rapid naming contributed unique variance to word recognition performance. Moreover, the profiles of not at-risk children in the EL1 and ESL groups were similar on all but the oral language measure, where EL1 children had the advantage. In addition, EL1 and ESL profiles of children who had word-recognition difficulty were similar, with low performance on rapid naming and phonological awareness. Results indicate that these measures are reliable indicators of potential reading disability among ESL children.

Semantic cortical activation in dyslexic readers

The combined temporal and spatial resolution of MEG (magnetoencephalography) was used to study whether the same brain areas are similarly engaged in reading comprehension in normal and developmentally dyslexic adults. To extract a semantically sensitive stage of brain activation we manipulated the appropriateness of sentence-ending words to the preceding sentence context. Sentences, presented visually one word at a time, either ended with a word that was (1) expected, (2) semantically appropriate but unexpected, (3) semantically anomalous but sharing the initial letters with the expected word, or (4) both semantically and orthographically inappropriate to the sentence context. In both subject groups all but the highly expected sentence endings evoked strong cortical responses, localized most consistently in the left superior temporal cortex, although additional sources were occasionally found in more posterior parietal and temporal areas and in the right hemisphere. Thus, no significant differences were found in the spatial distribution of brain areas involved in semantic processing between fluent and dyslexic readers. However, both timing and strength of activation clearly differed between the two groups. First, activation sensitivity to word meaning within a sentence context began about 100 msec later in dyslexic than in control subjects. This is likely to result from affected presemantic processing stages in dyslexic readers. Second, the neural responses were significantly weaker in dyslexic than in control subjects, indicating involvement of a smaller or less-synchronous neural population in reading comprehension. Third, in contrast to control subjects, the dyslexic readers showed significantly weaker activation to semantically inappropriate words that began with the same letters as the most expected word than to both orthographically and semantically inappropriate sentence-ending words. Thus, word recognition by the dyslexic group seemed to be qualitatively different: Whereas control subjects perceived words as wholes, dyslexic subjects may have relied on sublexical word recognition and occasionally mistook a correctly beginning word for the one they had expected.

A validation of the role of preschool phonological and orthographic skills in the prediction of reading

Two cohorts of children were followed to determine whether tests of phonological awareness (Syllable Tapping), orthographic processing (Visual Matching), and serial naming speed (RAN Objects), added to a preschool battery, would improve prediction of reading. The major predictors of first-grade reading and spelling were preschool letter naming and sentence memory for both cohorts, but the orthographic and serial naming tasks added a small amount of additional variance. Sentence memory accounted for the most variance in second-grade reading for both cohorts, and Visual Matching made contributions to reading and spelling for each cohort. Sentence memory, Visual Matching, and color naming together yielded an 87% to 90% hit rate in predicting which individual children would be good or poor readers. The orthographic and serial naming speed tasks are useful additions to a preschool predictive battery, but recommendations are that alternative preschool phonological tasks, not based on syllable recognition, should be used to predict reading.