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Identification of neurobiological causes and neuro-cognitive profiles in children with isolated reading deficits and isolated spelling deficits

Subject Area Developmental and Educational Psychology
Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
Term from 2015 to 2019
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 253249123
 
Final Report Year 2019

Final Report Abstract

The project set out to understand why reading and spelling problems can dissociate despite the fact that the development of both literacy skills is based on similar processes, such as phonological skills, letter-sound knowledge, sublexical processes (decoding/recoding), and lexical processes (building-up word specific representations). Thus, the project aimed to identify the cognitive profiles and deficits in word processing (sublexical and lexical word processing) that are specifically related to problems in reading fluency versus problems in spelling. The findings indicate that problems in reading fluency and problems in spelling are associated with different word processing deficits. Problems in spelling are caused by deficits in building-up word specific representations and storing them in long-term memory. Less well-specified representations are sufficient for recognizing a word during reading, but are not precise enough for spelling a word correctly. This explains why children can be poor spellers in the context of intact reading skills. The exact causes and pathways underlying problems in building-up word specific representations still need to be investigated. Based on previous research and the current findings, identified risk factors are poor phonological skills (i.e. in preschool and early school years) and deficits in orienting attention. Additional risk factors which haven’t been tested in the current project, such as morphological awareness, may also play a role. Future research based on longitudinal studies is needed to examine how these risk factors interact during development. In contrast to deficits in spelling, slow reading is not caused by deficient lexical representations. The current evidence further suggests that slow reading does not result from overreliance on sublexical decoding strategies (i.e., reading letter-by-letter or based on small units instead of accessing the word as a whole), as is generally assumed. Instead the findings indicate that poor readers use lexical strategies, but are still extremely slow. The cognitive and neurophysiological results showed that slow reading is best explained by deficits in efficient word processing and in visual-verbal access. Future research needs to further specify the developmental pathway of these problems. The results of the project have the following practical implications: During the diagnostic process it is important to differentiate between isolated reading disorder, isolated spelling disorder, and combined reading and spelling disorder as they have different aetiologies and are related to different cognitive deficit profiles. With respect to treatment, interventions need to be adapted according to the deficit profile. For example, frequently used trainings programmes that address problems in phoneme awareness are not helpful for children with isolated reading problems given that their phonological skills are unaffected. Instead training programmes for this group need to address their problems in automatizing letter-sound associations and efficient visual-verbal access and word processing. Future training studies are needed in order to identify how these aspects can be best trained. Grobner, C. (2018, August 10). Wenn der Knopf beim Lesen nicht aufgeht. Die Presse. https://diepresse.com/home/science/5478458/Wenn-der-Knopf-beim-Lesen-nicht-aufgeht Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) (2018, August 2). FWF Dossier. https://science.apa.at/dossier/Genau_hinsehen_beim_Lesen_und_Rechtschreiben/SCI_20180802_SCI793751746 43635188 Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) (2018, August 2). FWF scilog. https://scilog.fwf.ac.at/kultur-gesellschaft/8142/genau-hinsehen-beim-lesen-und-rechtschreiben Viciano, A. (2019, Februar 3). Süddeutsche Zeitung. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/paedagogik-diewoerter-zaehmen-1.4312995 Knetsch, G. (2019, Februar 4). Bayern 2. Neues zur Lese-Rechtschreibstörung. https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/programmkalender/ausstrahlung-1651920.html

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