Rapid auditory processing and phonological ability in normal readers and readers with dyslexia

According to a prominent theory the phonological difficulties in dyslexia a re caused by an underlying general impairment in the ability to process seq uences of rapidly presented, brief sounds. Two studies examined this theory by exploring the relationships between rapid auditory processing and phono logical processing in a sample of 82 normally reading children (Study 1) an d by comparing 17 children with dyslexia to chronological-age and reading-a ge control participants on these tasks (Study 2). In the normal readers, mo derate correlations were found between the measure of rapid auditory proces sing (Auditory Repetition Task, or ART) and phonological ability. On the AR T, the dyslexia group performed at a level similar to that of the reading-a ge control group but obtained scores that were significantly below those of the chronological-age control group. This difference was due to a subgroup of 4 children in the dyslexia group who had particular difficulty with the ART. The phonological skills of these individuals were not worse than thos e of the children in the dyslexia group who were unimpaired on the ART. The discussion argues that there is no evidence that phonological difficulties are secondary to impairments of rapid auditory processing, as measured by the ART, and highlights the need to examine the strategic and cognitive dem ands involved in tasks of rapid auditory processing.