An investigation of memory functions in dyslexic children

A detailed investigation of short-term memory storage, long-term memory storage and semantic memory associated with developmental dyslexia is reported. Fifty-one dyslexic and 28 control children were tested, and the following deficits were found amongst the dyslexic children. Short-term memory functions were impaired both with respect to storage capacity and rate of decrement. Long-term memory functions for visual material were normal but verbal long-term memory functions were impaired. There was evidence of difficulties in incorporating new material into semantic memory but the rate of accessing information from within this system appeared to be normal. The significance of the memory deficits is discussed in relation to the hypothesis that childhood dyslexia is a double deficit of the graphemic-phonemic and graphemic-semantic reading routes.