Several previous studies have suggested that basic decoding skills may develop less effectively in English than in some other European orthographies. The origins of this effect in the early (foundation) phase of reading acquisition are investigated through assessments of letter knowledge, familiar word reading, and simple nonword reading in English and 12 other orthographies. The results con rm that children from a majority of European countries become accurate and uent in foundation level reading before the end of the rst school year. There are some exceptions, notably in French, Portuguese, Danish, and, particularly, in English. The effects appear not to be attributable to differences in age of starting or letter knowledge. It is argued that fundamental linguistic differences in syllabic complexity and orthographic depth are responsible. Syllabic complexity selectively affects decoding, whereas orthographic depth affects both word reading and nonword reading. The rate of development in English is more than twice as slow as in the shallow orthographies. It is hypothesized that the deeper orthographies induce the implementation of a dual (logographic + alphabetic) foundation which takes more than twice as long to establish as the single foundation required for the learning of a shallow orthography.There has been much recent attention to the possibility that the ease of reading acquisition may vary between languages because of differences in 'orthographic depth' (Frost, Katz, & Bentin, 1987 between English, which is regarded as a deep orthography containing many inconsistencies and complexities, and other alphabetic European languages, several of which have shallow orthographies with consistent grapheme -phoneme correspondences. For example, Wimmer and Goswami (1994) compared reading of digits, number names and nonwords formed by exchanging the onsets and rimes of number names by 7-, 8-and 9-year-old children in German and English. Nonword reading was signi cantly slower and more error prone in English at all three age levels. Frith, Wimmer, and Landerl (1998) used structurally equivalent sets of 1-, 2-and 3-syllable nonwords in English and German and again found consistently poorer nonword reading in English. Similar data are reported for comparisons of English with Spanish and French by Goswami, Gombert, and de Barrera (1998) and with Greek by Goswami, Porpodas, and Wheelwright (1997). These studies suggest that the decoding process, which is commonly assigned a central role in theoretical accounts of reading acquisition (Ehri, 1992;Gough & Hillinger, 1980;Share, 1995), develops more slowly and less effectively in English than in other European languages. The present study extends this work to a comparison of English with a wider range of European languages and also seeks to determine the stage in reading acquisition at which the orthographic depth effect becomes evident. The theoretical context is provided by the foundation literacy framework developed by Seymour (1990Seymour ( , 1997Seymour ( , 1999. This pro...

Lyytinen, H. (2010). Language development, literacy skills and predictive connections to reading in Finnish children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 43 (4), 308-321. http://dx

Children at risk for familial dyslexia (n = 107) and their controls (n = 93) have been followed from birth to school entry in the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD) on developmental factors linked to reading and dyslexia. At the point of school entry, the majority of the at-risk children displayed decoding ability that fell at least 1 SD below the mean of the control group. Measures of speech processing were the earliest indices to show both group differences in infancy and also significant predictive associations with reading acquisition. A number of measures of language, including phonological and morphological skill collected repeatedly from age three, revealed group differences and predictive correlations. Both the group differences and the predictive associations to later language and reading ability strengthened as a function of increasing age. The predictions, however, tend to be stronger and the spectrum of significant correlations wider in the at-risk group. These results are crucial to early identification and intervention of dyslexia in at-risk children.

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U. (2009). In search of a science-based application: A learning tool for reading acquisition. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 50,[668][669][670][671][672][673][674][675] This is a story about the fate of a psychological application: from its conception to the optimistic vision surrounding its future. We hope that this application -an enjoyable learning game (www or mobile phone-based, available free of charge to the end users) for children -can at best help millions of children in their reading acquisition in the future. Its basis was created by following intensively the development of children with (N = 107) and without (N = 92) genetic (familial) risk for dyslexia from birth to puberty in the Jyväskylä Longitudinal study of Dyslexia (JLD)-project. We summarize some of the major findings of the JLD in order to facilitate understanding of the reasons and logic behind the development of the game. Originally intended as a research tool for reading acquisition, its potential for prevention of reading difficulties was quickly recognized.

Over two decades of Finnish research, monitoring children born with risk for dyslexia has been carried out in the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (JLD). Two hundred children, half at risk, have been assessed from birth to puberty on hundreds of measures. The aims were to identify measures of prediction of later reading difficulty and to instigate appropriate and earliest diagnosis and intervention. We can identify at-risk children from newborn electroencephalographic brain recordings (Guttorm et al., J Neural Transm 110:1059–1074, 2003). Predictors are also apparent from late-talking infants who have familial background of dyslexia (Lyytinen and Lyytinen, Appl Psycolinguistics 25:397–411, 2004). The earliest easy-to-use predictive measure to identify children who need help to avoid difficulties in learning to read is letter knowledge (Lyytinen et al., Merrill-Palmer Q 52:514–546, 2006). In response, a purpose-engineered computer game, GraphoGame™, provides an effective intervention tool (Lyytinen et al., Scand J Psychol 50:668–675, 2009). In doubling as a research instrument, GraphoGame provides bespoke intervention/reading instruction for typical/atypically developing children. Used extensively throughout Finland, GraphoGame is now crossing the developed and developing world to assist children, irrespective of the cause (environmental or genetic) of their failing to learn to read (Ojanen et al., Front Psychol 6(671):1–13, 2015).

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Dyslexic students may be disadvantaged in their use of written language, impeding academic achievement, and requiring remediation and concessions. A proximal analysis assessed the operations of the 3 major pathways (orthography to semantics, orthography to phonology, and phonology to orthography) within models of reading and spelling through lexical decision, reading aloud, and spelling aloud. No dyslexic individual exactly matched the group outcomes on all of the indicators, and no 2 dyslexic individuals presented identical profiles. A multicomponent mosaic model is supported whereby dyslexic difficulties relate to functions that require manipulation of orthographic and phonological units. A documented history and cognitive indicators of orthographic processing may offer a viable approach to the diagnosis, remediation, and concession of adult dyslexia in higher education.