Speech perception, lexicality, and reading skill

This study examined the interaction between speech perception and lexical i nformation among a group of 7-year-old children, of which 26 were poor read ers and 36 were good readers. The children's performance was examined on ta sks assessing reading skill, phonological awareness. pseudoword repetition, and phoneme identification. Although good readers showed clearly defined c ategorical perception in the phoneme identification task for both the /bif/ -/pif/ and the /bis/-/pis/ continua, the category boundary for /bif/-/pif/ was at longer VOTs than the boundary for /bis/-/pis/. which characterizes t he classic lexicality effect. Poor readers showed less sharply defined cate gorical perception on both continua. Although poor readers did not show the classic lexicality effect, lexicality did affect the overall rate with whi ch phonemes were identified as /b/ or /p/ at each VOT. These findings sugge st that the lexicon may operate as a compensatory mechanism for resolving a mbiguities in speech perception. Furthermore, statistical correction for gr oup differences in phoneme identification made group differences in phoneme deletion disappear, suggesting that deficits in speech perception may play a causal role in the phonological core deficit associated with reading fai lure. (C) 2001 Academic Press.