Remediation of Allophonic Perception and Visual Attention Span in Developmental Dyslexia: A Joint Assay.

Rachel Zoubrinetzky,Willy Serniclaes,Sylviane Valdois,Gregory Collet,Marie-Ange Nguyen-Morel

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01502

Abstract

Categorical perception of phonemes and visual attention span are cognitive processes that contribute independently to poor reading skills in developmental dyslexia. We here explored whether training programs specifically targeting one or the other process do improve reading performance in dyslexic children. The dyslexic participants were trained using either the RapDys© program designed to improve phonemic perception or the MAEVA© program targeting visual attention span. Each participant was provided the two programs successively for intensive training. Results show specific effects of RapDys© on phonemic discrimination and pseudo-word reading. MAEVA© specifically improved visual attention span and irregular word reading. Phonemic awareness and regular word reading improved after application of both training programs, suggesting similar positive effects of both methods although effects of concomitant phonic training cannot be ruled out (as there was no control group). The overall findings suggest that both categorical perception and visual attention span remediation contribute to reading.

Highlights

Many studies during the last 40 years have been conducted to explore the cognitive origin of developmental dyslexia
While training with RapDys© had a strong positive effect on PA, PA improvement was observed following MAEVA© and there was no significant difference between the effects of the two methods
The improvement in phoneme awareness after MAEVA training in the present study suggests that MAEVA training might have implications for PA

Summary

Introduction

Many studies during the last 40 years have been conducted to explore the cognitive origin of developmental dyslexia. The “RapDys©” method stems from the hypothesis that the phonological deficit in dyslexia arises from a specific mode of speech perception that is based on allophonic features and segments, rather than phonemic ones (Serniclaes et al, 2004). Allophonic theory locates the origin of the phonological deficit to an unconscious perceptual factor contrary to the classical phonological theories of dyslexia that ascribe such deficit to a lack of phonological “awareness” (i.e., in the conscious access to phonemic units). The “MAEVA©” method stems from the hypothesis that the visual deficit in dyslexia is due to a visual attention (VA) dysfunction that impairs multi-letter parallel processing (Bosse et al, 2007; LassusSangosse et al, 2008). Unlike other visual theories that relate the visual deficit to a deficiency in either the representation of letters (Cohen and Dehaene, 2004) or in the orientation of spatial attention (Franceschini et al, 2012), the VA span theory attributes the visual deficit in dyslexia to a deficit in the simultaneous processing of distinct visual elements

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