The orthographic code: Developmental trends in reading-disabled and normally-achieving children.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Orthographic processing is crucial for reading development.
• Children with reading disabilities (RD) often struggle with phonological and orthographic skills.
• Understanding the developmental trajectory of orthographic code access in RD children is important for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate orthographic code development in reading-disabled (RD) and normally-achieving (NA) children.
• To compare the extent of orthographic facilitation in rhyme detection between RD and NA groups.
• To determine the age at which RD children exhibit comparable orthographic facilitation to NA children.

Main Methods:

• An auditory rhyme detection task was administered to 27 RD and 27 NA children (ages 7-0 to 11-5).
• Orthographic facilitation was measured by comparing response latencies for similar versus dissimilar rhyme pairs.
• Data analysis focused on the amount of orthographic facilitation for each subject.

Main Results:

• RD children demonstrated significantly less orthographic facilitation overall compared to NA children.
• RD children required approximately two additional years of development to show comparable orthographic facilitation effects to NA children.
• This suggests a delayed or impaired ability in accessing stored orthographic information.

Conclusions:

• Children with reading disabilities have a diminished capacity for automatic access and utilization of stored lexical orthographic information.
• The findings highlight a specific deficit in orthographic processing that persists into later childhood for RD individuals.
• Interventions may need to focus on strengthening the connection between orthography and phonology for RD learners.