Reading as functional coordination: not recycling but a novel synthesis

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Reading acquisition is viewed as procedural learning.
• Pre-existing visual and auditory skills are recruited, modified, and coordinated for reading.
• This process leads to automatization of reading procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the Functional Coordination approach to reading acquisition.
• To discuss the role of analytic processing in letter perception during reading development.
• To explain developmental dyslexia as a Functional Coordination Deficit.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of reading acquisition processes.
• Review of evidence on perceptual skill development in reading.
• Theoretical framework for understanding developmental dyslexia.

Main Results:

• Learning to read involves a novel synthesis and coordination of functions, not a loss of perceptual skills.
• Deficiencies in functional coordination, rather than automatization, underlie developmental dyslexia.
• The coordination level is critical for fine-tuning complex reading functions.

Conclusions:

• Developmental dyslexia is characterized by impaired functional coordination, leading to abnormal automatization.
• The Functional Coordination approach provides a framework for understanding reading acquisition and dyslexia.
• Reading acquisition represents a complex integration and automatization of perceptual and cognitive functions.