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Early language development in children with a genetic risk of dyslexia
Author(s) -
van Alphen Petra,
de Bree Elise,
Gerrits Ellen,
de Jong Jan,
Wilsenach Carien,
Wijnen Frank
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
dyslexia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.694
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-0909
pISSN - 1076-9242
DOI - 10.1002/dys.272
Subject(s) - dyslexia , psychology , specific language impairment , phonological development , rhyme , phonological awareness , language development , developmental psychology , phonology , cognitive psychology , learning to read , language acquisition , developmental dyslexia , literacy , communication disorder , language disorder , linguistics , cognition , reading (process) , philosophy , pedagogy , mathematics education , poetry , neuroscience
We report on a prospective longitudinal research programme exploring the connection between language acquisition deficits and dyslexia. The language development profile of children at‐risk for dyslexia is compared to that of age‐matched controls as well as of children who have been diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI). The experiments described concern the perception and production of grammatical morphology, categorical perception of speech sounds, phonological processing (non‐word repetition), mispronunciation detection, and rhyme detection. The results of each of these indicate that the at‐risk children as a group underperform in comparison to the controls, and that, in most cases, they approach the SLI group. It can be concluded that dyslexia most likely has precursors in language development, also in domains other than those traditionally considered conditional for the acquisition of literacy skills. The dyslexia‐SLI connection awaits further, particularly qualitative, analyses. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.