Phonological Decoding Skills Research Articles

The speed factor and learning disabilities: The toll of slowness in adolescents

Speed of responding in different domains (handwriting, coding, naming, and simple text reading) was compared in two samples of adolescents with learning disabilities. In both samples, speed measures were significantly interrelated. Slowness was more characteristic of students with generalized basic skill deficits (reading, spelling, and arithmetic) than of those with single achievement deficits. Phonological decoding skill and naming speed (sample 2 only) were not correlated. Poor decoders were poor word list readers, whether or not slow namers, whereas slow namers were poor in arithmetic and were slow readers, whether or not poor decoders. The relation between slow naming/reading and weakness in arithmetical calculation merits further study in learning-disabled students. It is suggested that slowness impedes automatization in reading, spelling, and arithmetic.

Word processing in dyslexics

Dyslexic children (n=21, mean age=10.2 years) were compared with normal readers of the same age, normal readers of the same reading-age, and poor readers of the same reading-age on measures of phonological decoding and automatic word processing. Three different tasks, varying in phonological demand, were used: a naming task, an auditory-visual matching task, and a lexical decision task. On each task, word-pseudoword profiles were obtained to test phonological decoding skills and unspeeded-speeded profiles were assessed to test automaticity in word processing. Main results indicated that dyslexics have a deficit in automatic phonological decoding skills. The results are discussed within the framework of the phonological deficit and the automatization deficit hypothesis.