Do phonologic and rapid automatized naming deficits differentially affect dyslexic children with and without a history of language delay? A study of Italian dyslexic children.
OBJECTIVE
The study aims to verify whether phonologic and rapid automatized naming (RAN) deficits are present and associated in Italian dyslexic children and whether they differentially affect dyslexics with and without a history of previous language delay (LD).


BACKGROUND
According to the phonologic core deficit hypothesis, dyslexia may stem from impairment of the representation and manipulation of phonemes and may be closely associated with oral language deficits. However, deficits in tasks not requiring fine-grained phonologic representations, such as RAN, have also been described in dyslexic children.


METHODS
Thirty-seven children were selected on the basis of a reading deficit and were assigned to 2 groups according to whether or not they had a history of early LD as determined retrospectively by parental report. A battery of reading and writing, verbal working memory, metaphonologic, RAN, and visual search tests were administered.


RESULTS
RAN deficits were shared by most dyslexics (with and without a history of LD), whereas phonologic deficits were mainly associated with a previous LD. This last condition did not result in a more profound impairment of reading and writing decoding skills.


CONCLUSIONS
In a shallow orthography such as Italian, RAN, not phonologic deficits, may represent the main cognitive marker of developmental dyslexia.
Brizzolara
Daniela
D
Department of Developmental Neuroscience, IRCCS Stella Maris, viale del Tirreno 331-56018 Calambrone (PI), Italy. daniela.brizzolara@inpe.unipi.it
Chilosi
Anna
A
Cipriani
Paola
P
Di Filippo
Gloria
G
Gasperini
Filippo
F
Mazzotti
Sara
S
Pecini
Chiara
C
Zoccolotti
Pierluigi
P
D000293:Adolescent; D001364:Awareness; D002648:Child; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D013060:Speech