Year-end Sale % OFF 
Abstract
It has been suggested that orthographic transparency and age changes may affect the relationship between visual attention span (VAS) deficit and reading difficulty. The present study explored the developmental trend of VAS in children with developmental dyslexia (DD) in Chinese, a logographic language with a deep orthography. Fifty-seven Chinese children with DD and fifty-four age-matched normal readers participated. The visual 1-back task was adopted to examine VAS. Phonological and morphological awareness tests, and reading tests in single-character and sentence levels were used for reading skill measurements. Results showed that only high graders with dyslexia exhibited lower accuracy than the controls in the VAS task, revealing an increased VAS deficit with development in the dyslexics. Moreover, the developmental trajectory analyses demonstrated that the dyslexics seemed to exhibit an atypical but not delayed pattern in their VAS development as compared to the controls. A correlation analysis indicated that VAS was only associated with morphological awareness for dyslexic readers in high grades. Further regression analysis showed that VAS skills and morphological awareness made separate and significant contributions to single-character reading for high grader with dyslexia. These findings suggested a developmental increasing trend in the relationship between VAS skills and reading (dis)ability in Chinese.
Highlights
Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a specific impairment in learning how to read accurately, fluently and in gaining reading comprehension, which is not accounted for by problems in general intelligence, learning opportunities, general motivation, or sensory acuity[1]
The present study investigated the developmental pattern of the visual attention span in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia
The results showed that morphological awareness could account for a significant 23.1% of variance in the prediction of speed in single-character reading for the dyslexic readers from high grades [F(1,14) = 20.25, p = 0.02]
Summary
Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a specific impairment in learning how to read accurately, fluently and in gaining reading comprehension, which is not accounted for by problems in general intelligence, learning opportunities, general motivation, or sensory acuity[1]. A case study of a VAS intervention on a French girl with dyslexia reported that the training resulted in the faster identification of words, improved text reading, and increased activation in her bilateral superior parietal cortices and bilateral precuneus[15] These findings provided evidence for the causal link between the visual attention span deficit and reading disability. Awadh et al recruited Arabic, French and Spanish adults, and they found that the visual attention span of French adults was correlated with their scores on an oral reading fluency test, in which the orthographic depth of French was deeper than that of both Spanish and Arabic This finding revealed that the visual attention span might exhibit a more significant relation to reading skills in languages with deep orthography[26]. The VAS may be small for both dyslexics and normal readers in languages with shallow orthography, and group differences may not be markedly presented
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
