Phonological Processing Difficulties Research Articles

Assessing Phonological Processing in Children With Speech Sound Disorders

Purpose: Phonological processing skills, or using phoneme knowledge to process language, in preschool- and kindergarten-age children are an important indicator of children's future reading abilities. However, assessing phonological processing skills can be difficult in children with speech sound disorders because scoring often requires that children produce speech sound accurately. This tutorial presents assessment tasks that are appropriate for children with speech sound disorders to better identify children with phonological processing difficulties. Conclusions: The following phonological processing assessment tasks are recommended for children with speech sound disorders: receptive tasks for phonological awareness, the Syllable Repetition Task for phonological memory, and limited letter choices for rapid automatized naming in phonological retrieval tasks. These tasks can be modified for multilingual children. Appropriate assessment of phonological processing skills will help speech-language pathologists in differential diagnosis of children with true phonological processing difficulties and children whose speech sound errors may mask phonological processing abilities. Assessment of phonological processing skills is particularly important for children with speech sound disorders, whose speech errors may be evidence of phonological processing difficulties.

What do classroom teachers of varying backgrounds know about English spelling?

The ability to encode (spell) is an integral writing skill needed to communicate effectively. The ability to spell, also, enhances decoding as spelling and decoding are reciprocal skills that rely on knowledge of the same subskills. Spelling can also be particularly difficult for students with literacy and phonological-processing difficulties such as dyslexia. Because of the multiple benefits of knowing how to spell correctly, it is important for teachers to know the structure of the English language, so they can explicitly teach spelling. Through the administration of a survey, this study assessed 324 U.S. teachers' knowledge of English spelling patterns (Part 1). In addition, the inclusion of survey items intended to measure teachers' awareness of how children's spelling can be influenced by either African American English or the overlap between Spanish and English in emergent bilinguals. African American English and Spanish were chosen due to the underperformance of many African American and Hispanic/Latinx students on national and state reading assessments. Part 2 of the survey assessed teachers' self-efficacy in teaching spelling, while Part 3 assessed teachers' philosophy about spelling and teaching spelling. The Rasch analyses revealed that teachers whose primary area of teaching was reading outperformed those whose primary area of teaching was not reading. Additionally, teachers who taught Emergent Bilinguals outperformed those who did not on the constructs measuring words with possible influences of Spanish language on the spelling of English words. Several spelling patterns posed problems for all groups of teachers, while others were the least difficult for teachers. Practical and research implications are addressed.

Chinese Two-Character Word Orthographic Processing and Adjective-Noun Collocation Comprehension in Sentence Reading.

Reading can be regarded as a combination of lexical decoding and linguistic comprehension (Hoover and Gough in Read Writ Interdiscip J 2:127-160, 1990). In Chinese sentence reading, skilled readers' difficulties in phonological processing significantly enhance the 'wrap-up' effect (Li and Lin in J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ 25(4):505-516, 2020). To examine how orthographic processing in Chinese two-character word recognition might interact with adjective-noun collocation (ANC) comprehension before the wrap-up effect, two experiments were conducted in the same paradigm as used by Li and Lin (J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ 25(4):505-516, 2020). The sentences contained ANCs or semantically inappropriate combinations of adjectives and nouns (nANCs), the adjectives (Experiment 1) or the nouns (Experiment 2) of which were two-character words or corresponding transposed nonwords (T-nonwords). Similar results were obtained in both experiments: difficulties in T-nonword processing and in nANC comprehension collectively lengthened the reading times of the words immediately following. In conclusion, sentence reading likely contains interactions between orthographic processing and linguistic comprehension. As an indication of psycholinguistic significance, skilled readers have to use extra resources to suspend the cognitive vigilance that arises from unexpected demand in lexical decoding, in addition to their main focus of linguistic comprehension.

The Performances on Non-Word Repetition in Inner and Overt Speech Between Mandarin-Speaking Adults Who Do and Do Not Stutte

<p>本研究之目的在探討口吃成人與非口吃成人於內在與外在言語非詞複誦表現之差異情形。本研究以29位口吃成人和29位非口吃成人，共計58位為研究對象，以修訂中文口吃嚴重度評估工具──成人版，確認出口吃成人與非口吃成人，之後進行內在和外在言語非詞複誦作業，以獨立樣本t檢定和二因子混合設計變異數分析進行統計考驗，探討口吃成人與非口吃成人於內在與外在言語之非詞複誦的差異情形。本研究結果發現：口吃成人和非口吃成人於內在或外在言語下的非詞複誦反應時間、正確率和流暢度均達顯著差異，皆是口吃成人的表現較非口吃成人為差；在言語形式的表現上，不論口吃成人或非口吃成人，內在言語的非詞複誦流暢度均顯著高於外在言語，但在正確率表現上，兩組不論在內在語言或外在語言則無顯著差異。本研究的結論為，口吃成人於內在與外在言語非詞複誦的反應時間和正確率均不如非口吃成人，可能源自於口吃者的音韻處理困難；口吃成人的內、外在言語非詞複誦的流暢度皆較非口吃成人不佳，可能代表口吃者的言語不流暢於內在言語期間就發生了，而且可能與內外在短期音韻記憶不佳有關，但此仍需更精確的研究設計加以證實。最後，研究者提出有關未來研究的建議，以供之後的研究者參考。</p> <p> </p><p>This study aimed to make a comparison of the non-word repetition performances be-tween inner and overt speech of the adults with and without stuttering (AWS and AWOS). The 29 pairs of AWS and AWOS were recruited by matching their ages, genders and edu-cation levels. All of the participants were assessed by the Revised Stuttering Severity In-strument-4 for Mandarin-Speaking Adults to determine whether they had stuttering or not. Then, both of the groups repeated the non-words in two speech conditions, inner and overt, separately. The three measures including response time (RT), accuracy ratio (AR) and dis-fluency ratio (DR) in the task of non-word repetition were recorded and t-tests and two-way mixed ANOVA were employed to examine whether the differences existed in the three measures between the two groups and between the two speech conditions. The results of this study showed that for both the inner and overt speech, the performances on the three measures (RT, AR and DR) in NWR of the AWS were significantly poorer than those of AWOS. Ad-ditionally, for both the groups, the DRs in NWR in the inner speech were significantly higher than those in the overt speech, but no significant difference existed in AR of NWR between the inner and overt speech. The results showed that AWS may have phonological processing difficulties so that they took more time and made more mistakes than AWOS. Also, the dis-fluencies of AWS might occur in inner speech before they spoke out bumpily.</p> <p> </p>

Phonological processing skills in children with speech sound disorder: A multiple case study approach.

Children with speech sound disorder (SSD) are at increased risk of reading difficulties due to poor phonological processing skills. However, the extent to which children with SSD demonstrate weaknesses on specific or all phonological processing tasks is not well understood. To examine the phonological processing abilities of a clinically identified sample of children with SSD, with and without reading difficulties. To determine the extent to which the proportion of children with concomitant SSD and reading difficulties exhibited weaknesses in specific areas of phonological processing, or a more general phonological deficit. Data were obtained from 157 school-aged children (Mage = 77 months, SD = 7.01) in receipt of school-based speech therapy. Approximately 25% of the sample was identified as poor readers, based on a standardized measure of word decoding. We compared the proportion of children who scored at or below 1 SD below the mean, or the bottom 16th percentile, on measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming and verbal short-term memory among those identified as poor readers and good readers. Children with SSD demonstrated a range of phonological processing difficulties, particularly on the measure of verbal short-term memory. No specific skill differentiated groups of children with SSD with and without reading difficulties; however, those classified as poor readers on the word-decoding measure exhibited more widespread difficulties, even after controlling for language ability. Results support a cumulative risk model such that children with SSD and reading difficulties are likely to demonstrate generally poor phonological processing abilities. What is already known on the subject Children with SSD are at heightened risk of reading difficulties, particularly if their SSD persists into school age. However, not all children with SSD experience reading problems. Research aimed at determining which children are at the highest risk is mixed as to how best to identify which children with SSD are most likely to experience reading difficulties. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The study used a multiple case study approach to determine if performance on phonological processing skills might differentiate children with SSD who were poor readers from those who were good readers. As a group, children with SSD exhibited poor verbal short-term memory but relatively intact rapid automatized naming skills. No one phonological processing skill differentiated children who were poor readers from good readers. However, children with reading difficulties appeared to experience more general difficulties across phonological processing tasks, even after controlling for language abilities. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? A single deficit (i.e., speech sound production) is not sufficient data to make a complete diagnosis or treatment decisions. Multiple sources of data, including several aspects of phonological processing, should be obtained to understand reading risk in children with SSD.

Phonology Processing and Reading Ability in Elementary School-aged children with Cleft Palate

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the phonological processing and reading abilities of elementary school-aged children with and without cleft palate (CP).Methods: The participants were 10 children with CP and 12 typically developing children in the first to the second grades of elementary school. All children with CP in the study were identified with speech and language development problems during preschool age and were recommended speech and language therapy. The performances of phonological processing were measured in terms of phonological awareness (syllable and phoneme awareness), phonological memory (nonword repetition, digit span and backward digit span), and rapid automatized naming. The reading abilities were also measured in terms of decoding, reading fluency and reading comprehension. The correlations among vocabulary, articulation, and phonological processing and reading ability were examined.Results: Children with CP showed significantly lower performances in phonological awareness of syllable level and nonword repetition than typically developing children. Also, significant group differences were seen in all decoding and reading comprehension tasks except reading fluency. The results showed that nonword repetition performances of children with CP were highly correlated with receptive vocabulary and percentage of consonants correct.Conclusion: This study confirmed that school-aged children with CP who showed speech sound disorders in preschool age are likely to have difficulties in phonological processing and reading. Therefore, this study suggested that comprehensive evaluation of phonological processing skills should be performed more actively in preschool children with CP who show speech sound disorders, and intervention should continue to improve reading skills for school age.

A Bridge over Troubled Listening: Improving Speech-in-Noise Perception by Children with Dyslexia.

Developmental dyslexia is most commonly associated with phonological processing difficulties. However, children with dyslexia may experience poor speech-in-noise perception as well. Although there is an ongoing debate whether a speech perception deficit is inherent to dyslexia or acts as an aggravating risk factor compromising learning to read indirectly, improving speech perception might boost reading-related skills and reading acquisition. In the current study, we evaluated advanced speech technology as applied in auditory prostheses, to promote and eventually normalize speech perception of school-aged children with dyslexia, i.e., envelope enhancement (EE). The EE strategy automatically detects and emphasizes onset cues and consequently reinforces the temporal structure of the speech envelope. Our results confirmed speech-in-noise perception difficulties by children with dyslexia. However, we found that exaggerating temporal "landmarks" of the speech envelope (i.e., amplitude rise time and modulations)-by using EE-passively and instantaneously improved speech perception in noise for children with dyslexia. Moreover, the benefit derived from EE was large enough to completely bridge the initial gap between children with dyslexia and their typical reading peers. Taken together, the beneficial outcome of EE suggests an important contribution of the temporal structure of the envelope to speech perception in noise difficulties in dyslexia, providing an interesting foundation for future intervention studies based on auditory and speech rhythm training.

Consciência fonológica, nomeação automática rápida e leitura em adultos analfabetos funcionais

The study's purpose is to describe the cognitive profile of a sample of functionally illiterate individuals in reading, phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN), as well as to correlate the performance of these tasks. Moreover, it sought to understand how the performances in PA and RAN predict results in reading of words and pseudowords. 23 functionally illiterate adults were assessed for intelligence, reading, PA and RAN tasks. Participants showed difficulties in PA, performing poorly in tasks involving phoneme analysis and manipulation. In RAN, they found it easier to name alphanumeric items. Regarding reading, they presented difficulties in phonological processing, with errors caused by phonological exchange. Correlation analyses indicated that reading presented higher correlations with RAN than PA. Finally, a regression analysis indicated that performance in RAN can account for more than half of participants' reading results. In general, the profile of functionally illiterate adults presents impairment in the abilities assessed that are more evident in PA at phoneme levels as well as in naming of non-alphanumerical items. Moreover, the results in RAN explain those in word and pseudowords reading better than the results in PA.

Deficits in musical rhythm perception in children with specific learning disabilities.

A specific learning disability comes with a cluster of deficits in the neurocognitive domain. Phonological processing deficits have been the core of different types of specific learning disabilities. In addition to difficulties in phonological processing and cognitive deficits, children with specific learning disability (SLD) are known to have deficits in more innate non-language-based skills like musical rhythm processing. This paper reviews studies in the area of musical rhythm perception in children with SLD. An attempt was made to throw light on beneficial effects of music and rhythm-based intervention and their underlying mechanism. A hypothesis-driven review of research in the domain of rhythm deficits and rhythm-based intervention in children with SLD was carried out. A summary of the reviewed literature highlights that music and language processing have shared neural underpinnings. Children with SLD in addition to difficulties in language processing and other neurocognitive deficits are known to have deficits in music and rhythm perception. This is explained in the background of deficits in auditory skills, perceptuo-motor skills and timing skills. Attempt has been made in the field to understand the effect of music training on the children's auditory processing and language development. Music and rhythm-based intervention emerges as a powerful intervention method to target language processing and other neurocognitive functions. Future studies in this direction are highly underscored. Suggestions for future research on music-based interventions have been discussed.

Dynamics of morphological processing in pre-school children with and without familial risk for dyslexia

Abstract Difficulties in phonological processing and speech perception are associated with developmental dyslexia, but there is considerable diversity across people with developmental dyslexia (e.g., dyslexics with and without phonological difficulties). Phonological and morphological awareness are both known to play an important role in reading acquisition. Problems in morpho-phonological information processing could arguably be associated with developmental dyslexia, especially for Finnish, which is a rich morphologically language. We used MEG to study the connection between morpho-phonology in the Finnish language and familial risk for developmental dyslexia. We measured event-related fields (ERFs) of 22 pre-school children without risk and 18 children with familial risk for developmental dyslexia during a morphological task. Pairs of sentences consisting of a verb and its derived noun with the derivational suffix/–jA/and pairs of sentences consisting of a pseudo-verb and its pseudo-noun ending with the same suffix were presented to the participants. The derived nouns were also divided into correctly and incorrectly derived forms. Incorrectly derived forms contained an incorrect morpho-phonological change in the last vowel before the derivational suffix/-jA/. Both typically developing children and children at-risk for developmental dyslexia were sensitive to the morphological information, both in the case of real words and pseudowords, as shown by the sensor level analysis and cluster-based permutation tests for the responses to the morphologically correct vs. incorrect contrast. The groups showed somewhat different response patterns to this contrast. However, no significant differences were found in the between-group differences. No significant differences emerged between typically developing children and children at-risk for developmental dyslexia neither for real words nor for pseudowords. Overall, these findings suggest that pre-school children with and without risk for developmental dyslexia are already sensitive to the processing of morpho-phonological information before entering school.

ROLE OF PARENT’S ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE AND PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP IN INCREASING SELF-ESTEEM OF CHILDREN WITH DYSLEXIA

Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder due to difficulties in phonological processing that impacts on the fluency and reading comprehension ability. The aim of this research is to identify the role of parents’ attributional style and parent-child relationship in determining the level of self-esteem in children with dyslexia. There are 24 respondents who consist of the parent or the caregiver of children with dyslexia along with the child were invited to participate in this research. The method used in this research is a cross-sectional study design using a quantitative approach. The researcher used three different tests to measure the variables involved. Tests used in this research consist of Causal Dimensional Scale II, Parent-Child Relationship Inventory and Rosenberg’s Self Esteem Scale. Results showed there is a significant relationship between parents’ attributional style and level of self-esteem in children with dyslexia. Attributional style measured in this research consists of four dimensions namely, locus of causality, external control, stability, and personal control. However, only two of the dimensions mentioned above are significantly related to the level of self-esteem in children with dyslexia. The two dimensions are external control (r = 0.408, p > 0.05) and personal control (r = 0.557, p > 0.05). Whereas, results showed there is no significant relationship between the parent-child relationship and the level of self-esteem of children with dyslexia. In a nutshell, the role of parents’ attributional style in determining the level of self-esteem in children with dyslexia is notably significant while the relationship of parent-child does not influence the level of self-esteem in children with dyslexia.

Atypical neural processing of rise time by adults with dyslexia

In recent studies phonological deficits in dyslexia are related to a deficit in the synchronization of neural oscillations to the dynamics of the speech envelope. The temporal features of both amplitude modulations and rise times characterize the speech envelope. Previous studies uncovered the inefficiency of the dyslexic brain to follow different amplitude modulations in speech. However, it remains to be investigated how the envelope's rise time mediates this neural processing. In this study we examined neural synchronization in students with and without dyslexia using auditory steady-state responses at theta, alpha, beta and low-gamma range oscillations (i.e., 4, 10, 20 and 40 Hz) to stimuli with different envelope rise times. Our results revealed reduced neural synchronization in the alpha, beta and low-gamma frequency ranges in dyslexia. Moreover, atypical neural synchronization was modulated by rise time for alpha and beta oscillations, showing that deficits found at 10 and 20 Hz were only evident when the envelope's rise time was significantly shortened. This impaired tracking of rise time cues may very well lead to the speech and phonological processing difficulties observed in dyslexia.

Conciencia fonológica y resolución de problemas matemáticos en educación infantil

IntroductionSolving mathematical problems requires a number of different skills. Several studies have highlighted the role of language processing in problem solving through its influence on mental representation and information processing in mathematical problems. However, these studies usually focus on the primary school years and less often on children at preschool level. ObjectivesThe objective of this study was twofold: to analyse the effect of linguistic competence on problem solving in mathematics at the kindergarten stage and to identify which specific language skills are most closely associated with problem-solving skill. MethodThe sample included 76 children attending a kindergarten third grade class. Composed measures of semantic and morphosyntactic skills, phonological awareness, verbal memory and processing speed were formed from the CELF subscales. Problem-solving skill was assessed by asking children to solve a range of different mathematical problems involving Piagetian logical operations, and word problems with and without accompanying visual representations. ResultsLinguistic skills correlated significantly with skill in solving problems involving logical thinking, and verbal statement problems with and without visual representation. Linguistic skills predicted children’ problem-solving skills as they accounted for additional variance beyond that accounted for by IQ. Phonological awareness was the single best predictor of scores in solving word problems without visual support. ConclusionsPhonological awareness is a good indicator of the quality of phonological representations that allow manipulation of the linguistic information contained in mathematical problems at an early age. These findings have practical consequences for helping children to achieve normative development and for children with phonological processing difficulties.

Mothers speak differently to infants at-risk for dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder manifested in deficits in reading and spelling skills that is consistently associated with difficulties in phonological processing. Dyslexia is genetically transmitted, but its manifestation in a particular individual is thought to depend on the interaction of epigenetic and environmental factors. We adopt a novel interactional perspective on early linguistic environment and dyslexia by simultaneously studying two pre-existing factors, one maternal and one infant, that may contribute to these interactions; and two behaviours, one maternal and one infant, to index the effect of these factors. The maternal factor is whether mothers are themselves dyslexic or not (with/without dyslexia) and the infant factor is whether infants are at-/not-at family risk for dyslexia (due to their mother or father being dyslexic). The maternal behaviour is mothers' infant-directed speech (IDS), which typically involves vowel hyperarticulation, thought to benefit speech perception and language acquisition. The infant behaviour is auditory perception measured by infant sensitivity to amplitude envelope rise time, which has been found to be reduced in dyslexic children. Here, at-risk infants showed significantly poorer acoustic sensitivity than not-at-risk infants and mothers only hyperarticulated vowels to infants who were not at-risk for dyslexia. Mothers' own dyslexia status had no effect on IDS quality. Parental speech input is thus affected by infant risk status, with likely consequences for later linguistic development.

Developmental trajectories for children with dyslexia and low IQ poor readers.

Reading difficulties are found in children with both high and low IQ and it is now clear that both groups exhibit difficulties in phonological processing. Here, we apply the developmental trajectories approach, a new methodology developed for studying language and cognitive impairments in developmental disorders, to both poor reader groups. The trajectory methodology enables identification of atypical versus delayed development in datasets gathered using group matching designs. Regarding the cognitive predictors of reading, which here are phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory (PSTM) and rapid automatized naming (RAN), the method showed that trajectories for the two groups diverged markedly. Children with dyslexia showed atypical development in phonological awareness, while low IQ poor readers showed developmental delay. Low IQ poor readers showed atypical PSTM and RAN development, but children with dyslexia showed developmental delay. These divergent trajectories may have important ramifications for supporting each type of poor reader, although all poor readers showed weakness in all areas. Regarding auditory processing, the developmental trajectories were very similar for the two poor reader groups. However, children with dyslexia demonstrated developmental delay for auditory discrimination of Duration, while the low IQ children showed atypical development on this measure. The data show that, regardless of IQ, poor readers have developmental trajectories that differ from typically developing children. The trajectories approach enables differences in trajectory classification to be identified across poor reader group, as well as specifying the individual nature of these trajectories.

Altered neural circuits accompany lower performance during narrative comprehension in children with reading difficulties: an fMRI study.

Narrative comprehension is a linguistic ability that is foundational for future reading ability. The aim of the current study was to examine the neural circuitry of children with reading difficulties (RD) compared to typical readers during a narrative-comprehension task. We hypothesized that due to deficient executive functions, which support narrative comprehension abilities, children with RD would display altered activation and functional connectivity, as well as lower performance on a narrative-comprehension task. Children with RD and typical readers were scanned during a narrative-comprehension task and administered reading behavioral tests. Children with RD scored significantly lower on the narrative-comprehension task than did typical readers. Composite activation maps showed more diffused activation during narrative comprehension in the RD group. Maps comparing the two reading groups showed more activation in the frontal lobes (regions responsible for executive functions), and functional connectivity showed higher global efficiency in children with RD than in typical readers. Global efficiency was negatively correlated with phonological awareness and reading and executive function scores in the entire study group. Children with RD may suffer from narrative-comprehension difficulties due to diffused activation of language areas, as was observed during a narrative-comprehension task. Greater effort in this task may be reflected by the engagement of brain regions related to executive functions and higher functional connectivity or attributed to difficulties in phonological processing and reading and executive functions. Therefore, the accommodation given to children with RD of reading aloud may need to be revised due to the observed difficulty in this domain.

Associations among nonword repetition and phonemic and vocabulary awareness: Implications for intervention

Prior research has shown possible relations among nonword repetition (NWR), vocabulary, and phonological processing skills in children with and without language impairment. This study was designed to investigate whether relationships would differ for students with primary language impairment (PLI) and typical language (TL) and whether they would shift across the school-age years, with implications for setting intervention priorities. NWR performance was compared for school-age students with PLI ( n = 36) and TL ( n = 36), matched for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and home language experience at three grade level bands (grades 1–2, 3–5, and 6–12). Both groups also completed tests of vocabulary awareness and phonological awareness to investigate them as predictors of performance on the NWR task. The two groups differed significantly with large effect sizes on the NWR task, as well as on vocabulary awareness and phonological awareness tasks. Regression analyses supported different predictive models for students with TL and PLI, with vocabulary awareness predicting significant variance in NWR for the TL students, but not for those with PLI. Conversely, phonological awareness, but not vocabulary awareness, predicted NWR for the students with PLI. Controlling for age did not change the regression models. Results support a view that phonological processing difficulties may function as a specific limiting factor for students with PLI, influencing their ability to learn new vocabulary as well as vice versa. These results have implications for designing treatment aimed explicitly at helping children connect sublexical aspects of word structure knowledge with word meaning.

Auditory scene analysis in school-aged children with developmental language disorders

Natural sound environments are dynamic, with overlapping acoustic input originating from simultaneously active sources. A key function of the auditory system is to integrate sensory inputs that belong together and segregate those that come from different sources. We hypothesized that this skill is impaired in individuals with phonological processing difficulties. There is considerable disagreement about whether phonological impairments observed in children with developmental language disorders can be attributed to specific linguistic deficits or to more general acoustic processing deficits. However, most tests of general auditory abilities have been conducted with a single set of sounds. We assessed the ability of school-aged children (7–15years) to parse complex auditory non-speech input, and determined whether the presence of phonological processing impairments was associated with stream perception performance. A key finding was that children with language impairments did not show the same developmental trajectory for stream perception as typically developing children. In addition, children with language impairments required larger frequency separations between sounds to hear distinct streams compared to age-matched peers. Furthermore, phonological processing ability was a significant predictor of stream perception measures, but only in the older age groups. No such association was found in the youngest children. These results indicate that children with language impairments have difficulty parsing speech streams, or identifying individual sound events when there are competing sound sources. We conclude that language group differences may in part reflect fundamental maturational disparities in the analysis of complex auditory scenes.

Gamma phase locking modulated by phonological contrast during auditory comprehension in reading disability

Children with specific reading impairment may have subtle deficits in speech perception related to difficulties in phonological processing. The aim of this study was to examine brain oscillatory activity related to phonological processing in the context of auditory sentence comprehension using magnetoencephalography to better understand these deficits. Good and poor readers, 16-18 years of age, were tested on speech perception of sentence-terminal incongruent words that were phonologically manipulated to be similar or dissimilar to corresponding congruent target words. Functional coupling between regions was measured using phase-locking values (PLVs). Gamma-band (30-45 Hz) PLV between auditory cortex and superior temporal sulcus in the right hemisphere was differentially modulated in the two groups by the degree of phonological contrast between the congruent and the incongruent target words in the latency range associated with semantic processing. Specifically, the PLV was larger in the phonologically similar than in the phonologically dissimilar condition in the good readers. This pattern was reversed in the poor readers, whose lower PLV in the phonologically similar condition may be indicative of the impaired phonological coding abilities of the group, and consequent vulnerability under perceptually demanding conditions. Overall, the results support the role of gamma oscillations in spoken language processing.

Developmental dyslexia: exploring how much phonological and visual attention span disorders are linked to simultaneous auditory processing deficits

The simultaneous auditory processing skills of 17 dyslexic children and 17 skilled readers were measured using a dichotic listening task. Results showed that the dyslexic children exhibited difficulties reporting syllabic material when presented simultaneously. As a measure of simultaneous visual processing, visual attention span skills were assessed in the dyslexic children. We presented the dyslexic children with a phonological short-term memory task and a phonemic awareness task to quantify their phonological skills. Visual attention spans correlated positively with individual scores obtained on the dichotic listening task while phonological skills did not correlate with either dichotic scores or visual attention span measures. Moreover, all the dyslexic children with a dichotic listening deficit showed a simultaneous visual processing deficit, and a substantial number of dyslexic children exhibited phonological processing deficits whether or not they exhibited low dichotic listening scores. These findings suggest that processing simultaneous auditory stimuli may be impaired in dyslexic children regardless of phonological processing difficulties and be linked to similar problems in the visual modality.