1. Reading Disorders By: Larry Burd, Ph.D.
Director, North Dakota Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Center
University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Grand Forks, ND

2. Many of the slides in this presentation are from the work of Pelli et al Nature (423) ; 2003 or Wilson et al Nature (423) ; 2003.

3. By age 25 the average person has read 100,000,000 words.

4. Efficiency Level in Reading1
n = number of
letters in word

5. 1,000
Human
100
Energy (relative to noise)
Ideal 10 1
Word Length (letters) 10

6. 0.1
Efficiency
0.01 1 10
Word Length (letters)

7. 5 most common 3 letter words:
The
And
Was
For
His

8. Least frequent word “his” is encountered:
100 times per hour
400,000 times per decade if reading 1 hour a day

9. Letter Recognition
All or not very well phonemena

10. Word Effect
Coin C
Join J

11. Comprehension Decoding impairs comprehension
Comprehension improves decoding

12. Rset
Pclae
Rghit
Ltteer
Lsat
Tihng
Iprmoetnt
Bcuseae
porbelm
Raed
Rscheearch
Elingsh
Mese
Still
Lteter
Ervey
Word
wlohe

13. Comprehension Improves Decoding Skills
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprometnt tihng is that frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can still raed it wouthit porbelm. This is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by istlef but the word as a wlohe.

14. Reading Skills Progression
Signs
Alphabet
Letter Sounds
Phonics
Words
Careful Reding
Comprehension
Rapid Reading
Skipping
Context
Context and Skipping

15. Reversals are Frequent
p/d
p/b
q/g
m/w
was/saw
on/no

16. Rarely
6/9
2/6
3/8