Ninety-three children (ages 10-12) were compared on phonological and visuospatial abilities. Children with a reading disability performed worse than nondisabled children on many visual and eye movement tasks. Sixty-eight percent of the variance in reading ability could be predicted by combining visual and phonological scores in a multiple…

Children (N=20, age 9-12) with severe dyslexia were slower in counting from memory and naming alternating digits and letters than children with milder reading impairment. The children most disabled also had poorer phonological sensitivity, shorter digit spans, and lower verbal intelligence quotients. (Author/DB)

Describes a German longitudinal study of the relationship among verbal ability, memory capacity, phonological awareness, and reading performance. Reports that the relationship between memory capacity and phonological awareness remained stable over time. Concludes that memory capacity predicted phonological awareness task performance, phonological…

Examines genetic influences on language by assessing 158 preschool twins on vocabulary comprehension, semantic knowledge, morphology, syntax, and articulation. Vocabulary comprehension was significantly influenced by heredity, whereas performance skills were influenced by between-family environmental factors. (Author/AS)

Analysis of spelling errors of 45 primary-school children needing reading and writing improvement found that a considerable proportion of errors involved both syllabic reduction and feature changes similar to those seen in normal speech development. A model is presented to account for the phonological simplifications seen in both speech and…

In this commentary on Linda Siegel's paper (EC221505), it is argued that a minimum level of general ability is needed for successful reading performance. Above this threshold other kinds of intelligence are required and more important is the contribution of verbal efficiency, which is predicated on the covariance of phonology, morphology, and…

A study of 93 Spanish-speaking Latin American children of low socioeconomic background with reading difficulties found that, 4 years later, 17% had average reading ability, but 11% remained with severe reading difficulties. Characteristics examined include IQ, phonological processing, decoding ability, reading comprehension, and other verbal…

Comparison of eight-year-old children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (n=21), learning disorder (LD) (n=12), or both (n=27) on neuropsychological measures found that ADHD children were impaired in control and inhibition of impulses; children with LD in phonological awareness, verbal memory span, storytelling, and verbal IQ;…