Developmental Dyslexia By: Malin Kinberg, Neurolinguistics, Spring term 2007 Developmental dyslexia – specific reading difficulties Developmental dyslexia – specific reading difficulties Most common form of learning disability Most common form of learning disability Deficits in phonological skills - rhyme and alliteration awareness - reading and repeating nonsense words - segmentation of words into phonemes Deficits in phonological skills - rhyme and alliteration awareness - reading and repeating nonsense words - segmentation of words into phonemes

Study German-English Most studies from English-speaking countries Most studies from English-speaking countries Cross-language comparison between German and English by Ziegler, Perry & Coltheart in 2000 Cross-language comparison between German and English by Ziegler, Perry & Coltheart in 2000 Regular ortographpy -> rely on grapheme phoneme decoding, NOT in English; supplemented by rhyme and whole word strategies Regular ortographpy -> rely on grapheme phoneme decoding, NOT in English; supplemented by rhyme and whole word strategies

Study by Landerl et al. English dyslexics English dyslexics - Much more severe reading impairments in word and nonword reading - Error rate of app. 70% on three- syllable nonwords German dyslexics German dyslexics - Error rate of app. 20% on three- syllable nonwords - Twice as fast reading of short monosyllabic nonwords

Conclusion: Dyslexia more severe in English than in German Study by Ziegler et al. In 2003 Study by Ziegler et al. In 2003 Almost the same result, clear difference in overall accuracy German-English Almost the same result, clear difference in overall accuracy German-English English ortography provides more opportunities for making reading errors English ortography provides more opportunities for making reading errors Resources Resources - Pope, Debbie J. & Whiteley, Helen E., Developmental dyslexia, cerebellar/vestibular brain function and possible links to exercise-based interventions: a review in European Journal of Special Needs Education, Vol. 18, No.1, 2003, pp Ziegler, Johannes C. et al., Developmental dyslexia in different languages: Language-specific or universal? in Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 86, 2003, pp