Abstract
We review current knowledge about reading development and the origins of difficulties in learning to read. We distinguish between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading for meaning (reading comprehension). At a cognitive level, difficulties in learning to read appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. The development of decoding skills appears to depend critically upon phonological language skills, and variations in phoneme awareness, letter–sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming each appear to be causally related to problems in learning to read. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be critically dependent on a range of oral language comprehension skills (including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical, morphological and pragmatic skills).
Highlights
We will consider a wide range of evidence about the inter-relationships between developmental disorders of reading and spoken language
We accept that reading comprehension depends on both decoding and language comprehension skills (Gough & Tunmer’s [2] simple view of reading), there is no doubt that broader oral language skills are important for reading comprehension
This view suggests that models of acquired and developmental disorders of reading already show a good degree of alignment
Summary
We will consider a wide range of evidence about the inter-relationships between developmental disorders of reading and spoken language. It is common to distinguish between four domains: phonology, grammar, semantics and pragmatics. The primary systems hypothesis [3,4] sees adult cases of reading disorders, just like developmental cases, as reflecting impairments to underlying primary brain systems (systems concerned with different aspects of oral language as well as visual processing mechanisms). This view suggests that models of acquired and developmental disorders of reading already show a good degree of alignment. License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited
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