title: Phonological and lexical influences on phonological awareness in children with specific language impairment and dyslexia.
abstract: Children with dyslexia and/or specific language impairment have marked deficits in phonological processing, putting them at an increased risk for reading deficits. The current study sought to examine the influence of word-level phonological and lexical characteristics on phonological awareness. Children with dyslexia and/or specific language impairment were tested using a phoneme deletion task in which stimuli differed orthogonally by sound similarity and neighborhood density. Phonological and lexical factors influenced performance differently across groups. Children with dyslexia appeared to have a more immature and aberrant pattern of phonological and lexical influence (e.g., favoring sparse and similar features). Children with SLI performed less well than children who were typically developing, but followed a similar pattern of performance (e.g., favoring dense and dissimilar features). Collectively, our results point to both quantitative and qualitative differences in lexical organization and phonological representations in children with SLI and in children with dyslexia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE, USA ; Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy, Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Farquharson
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Tracy M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Centanni
authors.affiliation: Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE, USA.
authors.forename: Chelsea E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Franzluebbers
authors.affiliation: Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE, USA ; Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, MGH Institute of Health Professions Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Tiffany P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Hogan
keywords: dyslexia; neighborhood density; phonological awareness; sound similarity; specific language impairment