Phonemic analysis and severe reading disability in children.

Forty-five first-grade children of average intellectual ability were studied, consisting of one group of average readers, one group with mild reading difficulty, and one group with severe reading disability. A striking deficit in phonemic analysis was observed in children with severe reading disability. These children were unable to segment spoken syllables into individual speech sounds, while children with only mild reading difficulty or none were quite proficient at this skill. In fact, using phonemic analysis scores, it was possible to distinguish the severe reading disability group from the others with perfect accuracy.