title: Influence of auditory-verbal, visual-verbal, visual, and visual-visual processing speed on reading and spelling at the end of Grade 1.
abstract: This study examined cognitive processing speed through four modalities (auditory-verbal, visual-verbal, visual, and visual-visual) at the end of Grade 1 and how it influences reading and spelling. The subjects were 124 French-speaking children, selected for their contrasting performance on reading and spelling tasks. The children in the first group (N=69) were average readers; the second group of children (N=55) performed worse or much worse on all reading and spelling tasks. The experimental design consisted of a set of 10 tasks administered in two sessions. The major findings reveal that: (1) the children with reading difficulties displayed low and slow performance on most cognitive tasks, whatever the modality; (2) auditory-verbal and visual-verbal processing speed significantly predicted written language, which was not the case with the visual modalities; and (3) that visual problems did not appear to be a potential cause of reading problems in most delayed readers. The findings also confirm the independence of phonological and naming-speed skills in reading development and reading impairment.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Cognition et Développement, CNRS, Paris, France. plaza@psycho.univ-paris5.fr
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plaza
authors.forename: Henri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001364:Awareness; D002648:Child; D003118:Color Perception; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014706:Verbal Learning