Dorthe Klint Petersen

Dyslexia in adults: Evidence for deficits in non-word reading and in the phonological representation of lexical items

Difficulties in reading and language skills which persist from childhood into adult life are the concerns of this article. The aims were twofold: (1) to find measures of adult reading processes that validate adults’ retrospective reports of difficulties in learning to read during the school years, and (2) to search for indications of basic deficits in phonological processing that may point toward underlying causes of reading difficulties. Adults who reported a history of difficulties in learning to read (n=102) were distinctly disabled in phonological coding in reading, compared to adults without similar histories (n=56). They were less disabled in the comprehension of written passages, and the comprehension disability was explained by the phonological difficulties. A number of indications were found that adults with poor phonological coding skills in reading (i.e., dyslexia) have basic deficits in phonological representations of spoken words, even when semantic word knowledge, phonemic awareness, educational level, and daily reading habits are taken into account. It is suggested that dyslexics possess less distinct phonological representations of spoken words.

Long-Term Effects of Phoneme Awareness and Letter Sound Training: An Intervention Study With Children at Risk for Dyslexia

Positive long-term effects of phoneme awareness training in kindergarten were found in this study with children of dyslexic parents. Thirty-five at-risk children (attending 26 different classes) participated in an intensive 17-week program in their regular kindergarten classes designed to help them improve in phoneme awareness. Follow-up measures indicated that the trained children outperformed 47 untrained at-risk controls in both word and nonword reading in Grades 2, 3, and 7. For the very poorest readers, significant effects were found--even in Grade 7 reading comprehension. However, the trained at-risk children were found to lag behind a 2nd control group of 41 not-at-risk children in most aspects of reading. Treatment-resistant children had relatively poor phonological representations of known words.

Fagintegreret læseundervisning for kortuddannede voksne

Er det muligt at oge voksnes faglige laeseforstaelse gennem den almindelige faglige uddannelse, og hvordan tilrettelaegger man en veldokumenteret fagintegreret laeseundervisning for voksne? Det belyser denne undersogelse, som blev afviklet pa Social- og Sundhedshjaelperuddannelsen i Greve. Undersogelsen beskriver, hvilke saerlige laesekrav en fagbog stiller til sin laeser, og giver et overblik over metoder i arbejdet med laeseforstaelsesstrategier. Endelig praesenteres et saerligt LAES SMART-forlob, der afproves i faget Sundhedsfag pa Social- og Sundhedshjaelperuddannelsen, og resultaterne af effektundersogelsen og de videre perspektiver diskuteres.