Early language development of children at familial risk of dyslexia: speech perception and production

Speech perception and speech production were examined in 3-year-old Dutch children at familial risk of developing dyslexia. Their performance in speech sound categorisation and their production of words was compared to that of age-matched children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls. We found that speech perception and production performance of children with SLI and children at familial risk of dyslexia was poorer than that of controls. The results of the at-risk and SLI-group were highly similar. Analysis of the individual data revealed that both groups contained subgroups with good and poorly performing children. Furthermore, their impaired expressive phonology seemed to be related to a deficit in speech perception. The findings indicate that both dyslexia and SLI can be explained by a multi-risk model which includes cognitive processes as well as genetic factors.

As a result of reading this paper the reader will be able to (1) learn about the relationship between language and literacy; (2) recognise that dyslexia and specific language impairment may show similar areas of language difficulties, and (3) understand that both disorders can be interpreted within a multirisk model, including cognitive processes as well as genetic factors.