THE NONWORD READING DEFICIT IN DEVELOPMENTAL DYSLEXIA - EVIDENCE FROMCHILDREN LEARNING TO READ GERMAN

This study examined whether dyslexic children learning to read German show the same nonword reading deficit, which is characteristic of dysl exic children learning to read English (Rack, Olson, & Snowling, 1992) , a deficit which is taken as evidence for a phonological impairment u nderlying dyslexia. Because the German writing system, in contrast to English, exhibits comparatively simple and straightforward graphemepho neme correspondences, the generality of the nonword reading deficit ac ross different alphabetic systems seemed questionable. Actually, it wa s found that 10-year-old dyslexic children learning to read German exh ibited rather high reading accuracy for nonwords when compared to that typically found among dyslexic children learning to read English. Nev ertheless, the children learning German did exhibit a nonword reading deficit. Specifically, their speed for nonwords was impaired in relati on to younger control (nondyslexic) children matched on reading speed for frequent words. This nonword reading deficit was observed for nonw ords with little similarity to existing German words as well as for no nwords which were analogous to short, frequent content words. It is hy pothesized that dyslexic children learning German do not differ from d yslexic children learning English in their underlying phonological imp airment, but that they do differ with respect to the expression of thi s impairment. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.