Department of Speech-Language Therapy and Aural Rehabilitation, Woosong University, Jayang-dong, Dong-gu, Daejeon 300-718, Republic of Korea.
Res Dev Disabil. 2013 Sep;34(9):2946-58. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2013.06.002. Epub 2013 Jun 29.
Processing speed deficits along with phonological awareness deficits have been identified as risk factors for dyslexia. This study was designed to examine the behavioral profiles of two groups, a younger (6-8 years) and an older (10-15 years) group of dyslexic children for the purposes of (1) evaluating the degree to which phonological awareness and processing speed deficits occur in the two developmental cohorts; (2) determining the strength of relationships between the groups' respective mean scores on cognitive tasks of phonological awareness and processing speed and their scores on component skills of reading; and (3) evaluating the degree to which phonological awareness and processing speed serve as concurrent predictors of component reading skills for each group. The mean scaled scores for both groups were similar on all but one processing speed task. The older group was significantly more depressed on a visual matching test of attention, scanning, and speed. Correlations between reading skills and the cognitive constructs were very similar for both age-groups. Neither of the two phonological awareness tasks correlated with either of the two processing speed tasks or with any of the three measures of reading. One of the two processing speed measures served as a concurrent predictor of word- and text-level reading in the younger, however, only the rapid naming measure functioned as a concurrent predictor of word reading in the older group. Conversely, phonological processing measures did not serve as concurrent predictors for word-level or text-level reading in either of the groups. Descriptive analyses of individual subjects' deficits in the domains of phonological awareness and processing speed revealed that (1) both linguistic and nonlinguistic processing speed deficits in the younger dyslexic children occurred at higher rates than deficits in phonological awareness and (2) cognitive deficits within and across these two domains were greater in the older dyslexic children. Our findings underscore the importance of using rapid naming measures when testing school-age children suspected of having a reading disability and suggest that processing speed measures that do not reply on verbal responses may serve as predictors of reading disability in young children prior to their development of naming automaticity.
加工速度缺陷以及语音意识缺陷已被确定为阅读障碍的风险因素。本研究旨在检查两组阅读障碍儿童的行为特征，一组为年龄较小（6-8 岁），另一组为年龄较大（10-15 岁），目的是：（1）评估在这两个发展阶段中，语音意识和加工速度缺陷出现的程度；（2）确定两组在语音意识和加工速度认知任务的平均分数与其阅读成分技能分数之间的关系强度；（3）评估语音意识和加工速度在多大程度上作为每个组的阅读成分技能的同期预测因子。除了一项加工速度任务外，两组的平均标度分数都相似。在一项视觉匹配注意力、扫描和速度测试中，年龄较大的组得分明显较低。阅读技能与认知结构之间的相关性对于两个年龄组都非常相似。两个语音意识任务都与两个加工速度任务中的任何一个，或任何三个阅读测量值都没有相关性。然而，两个加工速度测量中的一个在年龄较小的组中作为词汇和文本阅读的同期预测因子，只有快速命名测量在年龄较大的组中作为词汇阅读的同期预测因子。相反，语音处理测量在两个组的词汇水平或文本水平阅读中都不作为同期预测因子。在语音意识和加工速度领域中个体受试者的缺陷的描述性分析表明：（1）在年龄较小的阅读障碍儿童中，不仅语言加工速度缺陷的发生率高于语音意识缺陷，而且非语言加工速度缺陷的发生率也高于语音意识缺陷；（2）在两个领域内和跨领域的认知缺陷在年龄较大的阅读障碍儿童中更为严重。我们的发现强调了在测试被怀疑有阅读障碍的学龄儿童时使用快速命名测量的重要性，并表明在儿童发展出命名自动性之前，不依赖于言语反应的加工速度测量可能成为预测儿童阅读障碍的指标。
