Annie Magnan

The Nature of the Phonological Processing in French Dyslexic Children: Evidence for the Phonological Syllable and Linguistic Features' Role in Silent Reading and Speech Discrimination.

This study investigated the status of phonological representations in French dyslexic children (DY) compared with reading level- (RL) and chronological age-matched (CA) controls. We focused on the syllable’s role and on the impact of French linguistic features. In Experiment 1, we assessed oral discrimination abilities of pairs of syllables that varied as a function of voicing, mode or place of articulation, or syllable structure. Results suggest that DY children underperform controls with a ‘speed-accuracy’ deficit. However, DY children exhibit some similar processing than those highlighted in controls. As in CA and RL controls, DY children have difficulties in processing two sounds that only differ in voicing, and preferentially process obstruent rather than fricative sounds, and more efficiently process CV than CCV syllables. In Experiment 2, we used a modified version of the Colé, Magnan, and Graingers (Applied Psycholinguistics 20:507–532, 1999) paradigm. Results show that DY children underperform CA controls but outperform RL controls. However, as in CA and RL controls, data reveal that DY children are able to use phonological procedures influenced by initial syllable frequency. Thus, DY children process syllabically high-frequency syllables but phonemically process low-frequency syllables. They also exhibit lexical and syllable frequency effects. Consequently, results provide evidence that DY children performances can be accounted for by laborious phonological syllable-based procedures and also degraded phonological representations.

COMPUTER-BASED ASSESSMENT OF READING IN 7- TO 10 Y-O CHILDREN: THE ROLE OF VOCABULARY IN WORD READING AND COMPREHENSION

This study aims at assessing reading ability in primary school children. One hundred ninety-eight French-speaking children in grade 2 (N=48), grade 3 (N=50), grade 4 (N=50), and grade 5 (N=50) were assessed using a computer-based program. Efficiency and accuracy were recorded. Word Reading was assessed with a phonological decoding task, an orthographic discrimination task and a semantic categorization task. Reading and listening comprehension were assessed using texts with three types of questions to examine literal and two inferential processes (text-connecting inferences and knowledge-based inferences). Vocabulary depth was assessed with questions about properties and categories of target words in the latter texts. Results from analyses of variance showed an effect of the grade level on the four components. Supplementary regression analyses highlight the emerging role of vocabulary knowledge as word reading processes become more and more automated. This study provided a complete and accurate assessment of reading skill. An analysis of performance according to grade should provide important information about reading processes and difficulties which children may encounter during primary school.