ORTHOGRAPHIC ANALOGIES AND DEVELOPMENTAL DYSLEXIA

Goswami (1986, 1988) has demonstrated that children can use orthograph ic analogies (particularly at the onset-rime level) between the spelli ng patterns in words to help to decode new words (e.g. using 'beak' to read 'peak'). This strategy has been shown in children as young as si x years old. Since it is known that children with developmental dyslex ia find it particularly difficult to read words that they have not bee n specifically taught (Lovett, Warren-Chaplin, Ransby & Borden, 1990), the present study investigated whether dyslexic children might be una ble to use analogies. Employing a design similar to that used by Goswa mi (1988), it was hypothesized that dyslexics would iind it difficult to transfer spontaneously knowledge of a 'clue' word to decode new wor ds that could be read by analogy with the clue word. The results of Ex pt 1 indicated that the dyslexic readers read significantly fewer of t he analogous words than a reading age-matched comparison group of youn ger children. Furthermore, none of the nine dyslexic children read as many of the analogous words as the lowest scoring control child. Iri a second experiment, a design similar to that of Muter, Snowling & Tayl or (1994) was used with a new and larger sample of dyslexic children. In this experiment, all the children were brought to criterion in read ing the clue words before the analogous words were presented. Once aga in, the dyslexic children read significantly fewer words that were ana logous with the clue words than did a reading age-matched comparison g roup. The number of analogous words that the dyslexic children read wa s significantly correlated with their performance on a test that is se nsitive to the ability to detect rhyme. It is argued that a failure to make analogies may be one of the main causes of the reading impairmen t experienced by children with developmental dyslexia.