Siegel-Share-1995
Authors: Linda S. Siegel, David Share, Esther Gava.
Article: Evidence for Superior Orthographic Skills in Dyslexics.
Publication: Psychological Science (Sage Journals). Volume: 6 issue: 4, page(s): 250-254 1995 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1995.tb00601.x
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the development of both phonological and orthographic skills in normally achieving and dyslexic readers The subjects were 257 dyslexic and 342 normally achieving readers, matched at eight reading levels They were administered the Woodcock (1987) Word Attack Subtest, a measure of phonological skills requiring the reading of pseudowords, and an orthographic awareness task designed to measure awareness of the properties of English words and the probable sequences and positions of letters within words The dyslexics had significantly higher scores than the normally achieving readers on the orthographic awareness task However, the normally achieving readers had significantly higher scores on the Word Attack Subtest Therefore, the difficulties with phonological processing and the increased orthographic awareness of the dyslexics may indicate a reading strategy that relies more on the visual than the phonological features of words
Siegel, L. S., Share, D., & Geva, E. (1995). Evidence for Superior Orthographic Skills in Dyslexics. Psychological Science, 6(4), 250–254. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1995.tb00601.x
This demonstration of superior awareness of the sequential orthographic features of the English language suggests that dyslexic and normal readers who are reading words with the same level of skill may sometimes be using different processing mechanisms to read. The dyslexics may not be using phonological coding efficiently but, instead, coding each word as a visual image and retrieving the meaning of the word from memory.
…[E]ven when dyslexic and normal readers are capable of reading words at the same level, they may be using different paths to arrive at the same place.