Onset-Rime Units in Visual Word Recognition in Spanish Normal Readers and Children With Reading Disabilities

Abstract

This study focuses on the effects of intrasyllabic units on lexical decision performance in normal readers (NR) and children with reading disabilities (RD) in a transparent orthography. Thirty Spanish children (15 NR, 15 with RD) were selected. An experiment was conducted to test whether onset- and rime-like units may be involved in visual word recognition in children with RD in comparison to NR. Previous research using a reading-level-match design has demonstrated that Spanish children with RD have more difficulties in analyzing spoken words into phonemes. Based on this empirical evidence we suggest that children with RD would have more need for larger units (e.g., onset-rime) in visual word recognition; however, NR would not need multiletter units because their phonemic awareness can be helpful in word decoding in a transparent orthography. The findings suggested that Spanish children with RD do not use correspondences based on higher level units such as onsets and rimes in a transparent orthography.