Prediction of dyslexia in kindergarten boys

Abstract

This study followed 163 boys from kindergarten through fourth grade. A battery of neurospychological and preacademic tests and electrophysiological measures (BEAM) were administered in kindergarten, and reading tests at grade 4, in an attempt to delineate precursors of dyslexia. Three of the kindergarten tasks (giving sounds associated with letters, rapid naming of numbers, and finger localization) differentiated dyslexics from normal readers with 98 percent correct classification. The tasks primarily involve grapheme-phoneme associations, storage and retrieval of phonological information in long-term memory, and verbal labeling. Results are interpreted as confirming the role played by phonological processing tasks in the prediction of dyslexia. Preliminary BEAM results for visual evoked potential topography suggest a significant increment in the distribution of this potential in the left parietal and frontal region, and, for auditory evoked potential topography, a significant difference between the two groups in the right posterior hemisphere.