title: Identifying high-functioning dyslexics: is self-report of early reading problems enough?
abstract: We used a questionnaire to identify university students with self-reported difficulties in reading acquisition during elementary school (self-report; n=31). The performance of the self-report group on standardized measures of word and non-word reading and fluency, passage comprehension and reading rate, and phonological awareness was compared to that of two other groups of university students: one with a recent diagnosis (diagnosed; n=20) and one with no self-reported reading acquisition problems (comparison group; n=33). The comparison group outperformed both groups with a history of reading difficulties (self-report and diagnosed) on almost all measures. The self-report and diagnosed groups performed similarly on most tasks, with the exception of untimed reading comprehension (better performance for diagnosed) and reading rate (better performance for self-report). The two recruitment methods likely sample from the same underlying population but identify individuals with different adaptive strategies.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department Dalhousie University, Life Sciences Centre, P.O. Box 15000, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada. sdeacon@dal.ca
authors.forename: S Hélène
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Deacon
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Rauno
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parrila
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D032882:Comprehension; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult