Predicting Future Reading Problems Based on Pre-reading Auditory Measures: A Longitudinal Study of Children with a Familial Risk of Dyslexia.

Jeremy M. Law,Jan Wouters,Maaike Vandermosten,Pol Ghesquière

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00124

Abstract

Purpose: This longitudinal study examines measures of temporal auditory processing in pre-reading children with a family risk of dyslexia. Specifically, it attempts to ascertain whether pre-reading auditory processing, speech perception, and phonological awareness (PA) reliably predict later literacy achievement. Additionally, this study retrospectively examines the presence of pre-reading auditory processing, speech perception, and PA impairments in children later found to be literacy impaired.Method: Forty-four pre-reading children with and without a family risk of dyslexia were assessed at three time points (kindergarten, first, and second grade). Auditory processing measures of rise time (RT) discrimination and frequency modulation (FM) along with speech perception, PA, and various literacy tasks were assessed.Results: Kindergarten RT uniquely contributed to growth in literacy in grades one and two, even after controlling for letter knowledge and PA. Highly significant concurrent and predictive correlations were observed with kindergarten RT significantly predicting first grade PA. Retrospective analysis demonstrated atypical performance in RT and PA at all three time points in children who later developed literacy impairments.Conclusions: Although significant, kindergarten auditory processing contributions to later literacy growth lack the power to be considered as a single-cause predictor; thus results support temporal processing deficits' contribution within a multiple deficit model of dyslexia.

Highlights

Dyslexia is a hereditary neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent, lifelong reading, and/or spelling impairments that cannot be accounted for by low intelligence or environmental factors (Vellutino et al, 2004)
Results of this study demonstrated that children who went on to develop dyslexia were already impaired in dynamic frequency modulation (FM) sensitivity and speech-in-noise perception prior to reading instruction
rise time (RT) in first grade was found to be significantly correlated with phonological awareness (PA), while it was found to be approaching significance with reading at grade one and two

Summary

Introduction

Dyslexia is a hereditary neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent, lifelong reading, and/or spelling impairments that cannot be accounted for by low intelligence or environmental factors (Vellutino et al, 2004). Recent etiological views of dyslexia have proposed a multi-cognitive deficit model explaining the behavioral traits associated with this disorder (Pennington, 2006). Pre-reading Auditory Processing and Dyslexia cognitive risk or protective factors that increase or decrease the probability of the development of the expressed behavioral symptoms attributed to dyslexia. One prominent etiological risk factor thought to be at the core of dyslexia, and found across all languages, is a deficit in the formation of, and/or access to, phonological representations (Snowling, 2000; Ramus and Szenkovits, 2008). Prereading phonological awareness (PA) has shown to account for 40–60% of the later reading achievement of kindergarten children (Bryant et al, 1990; Torgesen et al, 1994; Caravolas et al, 2001). It is believed that the awareness of larger segmental units of words, such as syllables, onsets, and rimes, develops first, while an awareness of smaller units, referred to as phonemic awareness, is thought to develop only after exposure to print (Goswami, 2002)

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