Is poor reading caused by an automatisation deficit?

The study examined the hypothesis of Nicolson and Fawcett (1990) that readi ng disabled children suffer from a general automatisation deficit and not f rom a specific phonological impairment as postulated by the dominant explan ation of dyslexia (z. B. Shaywitz, 1997). 24 dyslexic (nine- and ten-year o lds) and 24 normally reading children participated in three balancing task: single-task balancing, dual-task balancing and balancing with a blindfold. Dyslexic children exhibited poorer balancing performance particularly when balancing with a blindfold. However, this deficit was no longer reliabel w hen differences between the dyslexic and the control group with respect to attentional problems and hyperactivity were controlled for. This findings s uggests that the original result of Nicolson and Fawcett may have been due to the inclusion of a number of children in the dyslexic sample with an add itional attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.