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Pseudoword reading errors of poor, dyslexic, and normally achieving readers on multisyllable pseudowords

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Naomi Frankel Tal
Affiliation:
York University
Linda S. Siegel*
Affiliation:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
*
Linda S. Siegel, Department of Applied Psychology, OISE, 252 Bloor Street, Ontario, Canada M5S 1V6

Abstract

This study examined the pseudoword reading strategies of dyslexic readers (i.e., children whose reading was significantly lower than predicted by their IQ score) and poor readers (i.e., children whose reading scores were consistent with their lower IQ scores). The disabled readers were grouped according to their reading grade level and were compared with reading level matched, normally achieving readers. The reading performance on a test of pseudoword reading (Woodcock Word Attack Subtest) for the three groups (dyslexic, poor, and normal readers) was analyzed according to the type of error committed. The performance of dyslexic and poor readers was virtually indistinguishable at both reading grade levels 2–3 and 4–5. There was very little difference among dyslexic, poor, and normally achieving readers in the types of errors made. Nearly 50010 of all the oral reading errors of all three groups were vowel substitutions, followed by consonant substitution and deletion and insertion errors. Sequential, reversal, and word substitution errors were committed infrequently for all three reader groups. The findings failed to support the existence of a critical phonological processing difference between IQ reading- discrepant and IQ reading-nondiscrepant disabled readers and suggest that disabled readers lag behind normally achieving readers in phonological decoding skills.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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