PSEUDOWORD READING ERRORS OF POOR, DYSLEXIC, AND NORMALLY ACHIEVING READERS ON MULTISYLLABLE PSEUDOWORDS

This study examined the pseudoword reading strategies of dyslexic read ers (i.e., children whose reading was significantly lower than predict ed by their IQ score) and poor readers (i.e., children whose reading s cores were consistent with their lower IQ scores). The disabled reader s were grouped according to their reading grade level and were compare d with reading level matched, normally achieving readers. The reading performance on a test of pseudoword reading (Woodcock Word Attack Subt est) for the three groups (dyslexic, poor, and normal readers) was ana lyzed according to the type of error committed. The performance of dys lexic and poor readers was virtually indistinguishable at both reading grade levels 2-3 and 4-5. There was very little difference among dysl exic, poor, and normally achieving readers in the types of errors made . Nearly 50% of all the oral reading errors of all three groups were v owel substitutions, followed by consonant substitution and deletion an d insertion errors. Sequential, reversal, and word substitution errors were committed infrequently for all three reader groups. The findings failed to support the existence of a critical phonological processing difference between IQ reading-discrepant and IQ reading-nondiscrepant disabled readers and suggest that disabled readers lag behind normall y achieving readers in phonological decoding skills.