The Severity of Phonological Deficit as a Determinant of Dyslexia Compensation in Adulthood

Dyslexia is a lifelong developmental condition affecting reading, with a prevalence of approximately 5% in adulthood. A small group can partially compensate for reading difficulties and achieve effective reading skills. This study explores the characteristics of this group, comparing cognitive and reading variables with typical readers and non-compensated readers with dyslexia. The study included 101 adults: 30 without dyslexia, 21 with compensated dyslexia and 50 with non-compensated dyslexia. Cognitive and linguistic tests assessed non-verbal intelligence, working memory, phonological awareness, naming speed, verbal fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, lexical decision, reading frequent words, infrequent words, pseudowords, simple text and technical text. Results showed that the compensated group performed similarly to the control group in semantic verbal fluency, vocabulary and word recognition accuracy. Significant differences emerged between controls, compensated and non-compensated groups in phonological awareness, low-frequency word reading and technical text reading. Semantic verbal fluency and phonological awareness strongly determined membership in the non-compensated group. Speed performance on phonological tasks predicted speed reading in the compensated group for tasks involving the phonological reading route. Individuals with compensated dyslexia appear to have partially compensated for phonological processing difficulties. Their better performance in demanding phonological awareness tasks differentiates them from the non-compensated group.