Category: Dyslexia

Dyslexia: How Different is PREP from Phonetics Instruction?

Every child tries to learn to read in the first year in school. Indeed, it is no surprise that a few do not, or cannot, leam from instruction in reading. We are surprised that almost all children learn to read in the first year. There are many conditions that help children to read—instruction and some kind of blueprint in the child’s brain are the two most important conditions that help the child. But when children fail to leam how to read, remediation becomes necessary. As said before, remediation begins when instruction fails.

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Dyslexia: How does the PASS Model Apply to Reading Skills?

Kirby and Williams (1991) argue that the cognitive processing associated with reading passes through eight distinct and increasingly complex levels of abstractions: (a) features (components of letters), (b) letters, (c) sound or syllable units, (d) words, (e) phrases, (f) ideas, (g) main ideas, and (h) themes. At each level, items of information are recognized (simultaneous processing) and ordered (successive processing). In other words, both simultaneous and successive processing are required at each level.

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Dyslexia: Arithmetic Disability

Many children who are dyslexic also experience difficulties in arithmetic. This is partly because they struggle to read the arithmetic questions. In addition, however, some of them have comprehension problems, that is, even when the problem is read out to them, they cannot understand it. This indicates a deficit in simultaneous processing, the same cognitive process that is involved in word comprehension.

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Dyslexia: Integration of Contemporary Views on Reading

The interpretation of reading difficulties can be wrapped up by presenting examples of studies that integrate Luria’s notion, as we discussed earlier, with contemporary views. Here is a scientific report, written in the style of an article in an academic journal. So, I hope that psychologists and other academics will find it worth reading. Is it of interest to teachers? For every one of them! Why not?

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Dyslexia: Naming Objects and Reading Words – A Theoretical Connection

We return to Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN) as an example. Here we ask—why should the naming of objects be significantly predictable for naming words, unless the two share some fundamental cognitive processes, as discussed earlier while reviewing successive processing?

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Dyslexia: A Study on Prediction of Reading Difficulties

Another ongoing longitudinal study exemplifies the usefulness of the distal PASS processes in predicting reading difficulty (Papadopoulus, Parrila, and Kirby, 1998). PASS processing tasks, together with several phonological coding tasks, were administered to 90 kindergarten children identified by their teachers as being at risk for early reading problems. Two reading tasks (word attack and word identification) were administered a year later in Grade 1, when children were exposed to reading instruction.

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Dyslexia: Kinds of Dyslexia – Can PASS Theory and Luria Help?

Considering the distinction proposed by Harm and Seidenberg (1999), we suppose that the phonological dyslexics, the most prevalent group among dyslexics, are likely to have a deficit in successive processing, whereas the delayed dyslexics are likely to have a mixed deficit in some of the other processes as well. This explanation may be only a partial one; its object is to show the relevance of PASS processes.

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