Normal Reading Abilities and Specific Reading Disabilities (Developmental Dyslexia) : a Cross-Linguistic Study

Abstract

Abstract : Although the majority of research on developmental dyslexia has been carried out in English, a number of studies have been performed in different languages. Some of the findings suggest that learning to read in deep orthographies, such as English, is harder than in shallow orthographies such as Italian (Seymour, Aro, Erskine 2003). However, very few direct comparative studies have been carried out in order to highlight differences or similarities between different orthographies (e.g. Ziegler, Perry, Ma-Wyatt, Ladner, Schulte-Korne 2003). The present study aims at directly comparing reading-aloud abilities between French and Italian dyslexics by using a similar methodology for defining groups and measure performances. Results show a specific reading disorder in dyslexics and a lexicality effect which is not influenced by the type of orthography. By using a direct cross-linguistic comparison, this study provides evidence that lexicality effect is a general, non language-specific feature of the reading process, at least among French and Italian subjects.