title: An examination of lexical and sublexical reading skills in children with neurofibromatosis type 1.
abstract: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an inherited neurocutaneous disorder associated with a high frequency of cognitive and learning difficulties. Based on discrepancies between IQ and academic achievement, approximately 17% of children with NF1 have been classified as having reading impairments. In this study, the lexical and sublexical reading skills of children with NF1 (n = 30) were examined using the Castles' Word/Non-Word Test (modified version), together with measures of neuropsychological functioning and academic achievement. Twenty children (67%) demonstrated deficits in one or more reading subskills, with 75% of these meeting criteria for phonological dyslexia and 20% classified with mixed dyslexia. These findings indicate that a large proportion of children with NF1 may be characterized by a specific difficulty with the sublexical procedure, suggesting a difficulty employing spelling-to-sound rules to assemble a pronunciation when reading. In line with previous studies, the present findings also suggest that discrepancy-based methods may not be sufficiently sensitive to identify children who experience reading difficulties.
authors.affiliation: Neurogenetics Research Unit, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Sharon E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Watt
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shores
authors.forename: Kathryn N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: North
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D009456:Neurofibromatosis 1 / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014825:Vocabulary