Abstract
Phonological and visual theories propose different primary deficits as part of the explanation for dyslexia. Both theories were put to test in a sample of Spanish dyslexic readers. Twenty-one dyslexic and 22 typically-developing children matched on chronological age were administered phonological discrimination and awareness tasks and coherent motion perception tasks. No differences were found between groups on the coherent motion tasks, whereas dyslexic readers were impaired relative to controls on phonological discrimination tasks. Gender differences followed the opposite pattern, with no differences on phonological tasks, and dyslexic girls performing significantly worse than dyslexic boys in coherent motion perception. These results point to the importance of phonological deficits related to speech perception in Spanish, and to possible gender differences in the neurobiological bases for dyslexia.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 273-278 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Brain and Cognition |
| Volume | 70 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank Erik Vandenbussche, one of the main inspirators of this project, for freely providing the program for the coherent motion experiments, and the participating children and parents for their time and help. This research was possible thanks to Grant Number SEJ2007-67080/PSIC of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science to the second and last authors.
Keywords
- Coherent motion
- Dyslexia
- Gender differences
- Phonological abilities
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Cognitive Neuroscience