Dyslexics and normal beginning readers read by different strategies: a comparison of strategy distributions in dyslexic and normal readers1

Abstract

Research on subtypes of developmental dyslexia often implies that dyslexics fall into discrete groups with different reading strategies and underlying deficits. Recently this assumption has been questioned (Stanovich 1989). However, the distributions of reading strategies in groups of dyslexic and normal readers have never been compared. With this aim, the present study compared the individual reading strategies in a group of 26 severely impaired developmental dyslexics with strategies in a reading‐level‐matched group of 26 younger, normal readers. It was found that reading skills and strategies were distributed over a continuum in both groups. The dyslexic subjects were specifically impaired in phonological processing, however, and half of them read by means of more whole‐word oriented strategies than any of the normal controls. These findings contest current subtype theory and clinical practice (e.g. Boder & Jarrico 1982).