Dyslexia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Dyslexia, including details on learning, reading, education, teaching, treatment.

Early language development in children with a genetic risk of dyslexia.

van Alphen P, de Bree E, Gerrits E, de Jong J, Wilsenach C, Wijnen F

Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Utrecht University, Netherlands.

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.

Published 2 December 2004 in Dyslexia, 10(4): 265-88.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Dyslexia Research Today. All Rights Reserved.