A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF READING DEVELOPMENT IN DYSLEXIC-CHILDREN

The development of literacy skills was studied in 20 dyslexic children (7 years 7 months to 12 years 7 months). At Time 1, the dyslexic chil dren performed worse on tests of reading, spelling, and phonological p rocessing than chronological age-matched normal readers, but their per formance was qualitatively similar to that of younger reading age-matc hed controls. The dyslexic children made poor progress over the follow ing 2 years and, in comparison with reading age controls at Time 2, sh owed specific difficulties in nonword reading and repetition and made more dysphonetic spelling errors. The authors argue that this typical dyslexic profile becomes more defined with development and provides su pport for the theory that phonological deficits in dyslexia compromise the development of reading skills.