Perception of phonemic length and its relation to reading and spelling skills in children with family risk for dyslexia in the first three grades of school.

PURPOSE

To examine the ability to discriminate phonemic length and the association of this ability with reading accuracy, reading speed, and spelling accuracy in Finnish children throughout Grades 1-3.

METHOD

Reading-disabled (RDFR, n = 35) and typically reading children (TRFR, n = 69) with family risk for dyslexia and typically reading control children (TRC, n = 80) were tested once in each grade of Grades 1-3 using a phonemic length discrimination task. Reading, spelling, IQ, verbal short-term memory, phonological memory, and naming speed were assessed.

RESULTS

The RDFR group made more errors in phonemic length discrimination than the TRC group in Grades 2 and 3. After taking into account variance in verbal short-term memory, phonological memory, and naming speed, discrimination ability explained unique variance of spelling accuracy in Grades 2 and 3 and reading accuracy in Grade 3 in the RDFR group. At the individual level, in Grade 2, 31.4% of the RDFR group and 14.7% of the TRFR group performed below -1.25 SDs in the phonemic length discrimination task.

CONCLUSION

Problems in phonemic length discrimination could be one of the accumulating risk factors affecting development leading to dyslexia.