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PERCEPTUAL DYSFUNCTION IN POOR READERS: EVIDENCE FOR VISUAL AND AUDITORY SEGMENTATION PROBLEMS IN A SUB‐GROUP OF POOR READERS
Author(s) -
Johnston Rhona S.,
Anderson Marjorie,
Perrett David I.,
Holligan Christopher
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1990.tb00938.x
Subject(s) - psychology , reading (process) , perception , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , context (archaeology) , visual perception , linguistics , paleontology , philosophy , neuroscience , biology
S ummary . The purpose of this study was to consider reading disorders in children within the context of their general perceptual development. A review of the literature suggested that visual and auditory perceptual skills advance from a holistic to an analytical approach, and that reading skills also show this progression. It was proposed that poor readers might show impairments in visual and auditory segmentation tasks, if these skills are important factors in reading development. This hypothesis was tested on a sample (N = 20) of poor readers in the primary age range who were assessed against reading age and chronological age control groups. The hypothesis was partially borne out, a quarter of the sample performing very poorly on both types of tasks. It was argued that segmentation problems in perceptual tasks may underlie reading failure in some children, although the direction of the causation has yet to be determined.