Orthographic learning in developmental surface and phonological dyslexia

Abstract

Phonological decoding skill has been proposed to be key to successful sight word learning (orthographic learning). However, little is known about how children with phonological dyslexia, who have impaired phonological decoding, acquire sight words, or why children with surface dyslexia can have normal phonological decoding skill yet impaired sight word acquisition. This study addressed this issue by investigating orthographic learning in two 10-year-old children: S.D., with a reading profile of surface dyslexia, and P.D., with a reading profile of phonological dyslexia. They participated in two experiments exploring the role of phonological decoding and paired-associate learning in orthographic learning. The results showed that, first, P.D.'s orthographic learning ability was better than S.D.'s, despite her phonological decoding skills being poorer. Second, S.D. showed impaired paired-associate learning abilities while P.D. did not. Overall, the results indicate that phonological decoding ability does not translate directly to orthographic learning ability, and that paired-associate learning ability may also be associated with success in orthographic learning.

Keywords:

• developmental dyslexia
• paired-associate learning
• orthographic learning
• subtypes of dyslexia

View correction statement:

Erratum

Acknowledgements

We want to thank the reviewers for the very helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper. We are also very grateful to the children who participated in this study.

Notes

1. P.D. scored 4/10 on the visual retention test, which although relatively low compared to the performance of S.D. (7/10), is still within normal range according to the normative data.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship [grant number FT120100102] to the second author; an Australian Research Council Grant to the third author.