Naming Abilities and Orthographic Recognition during Childhood an Event-Related Brain Potentials Study

Abstract

Children with reading disabilities or dyslexia, commonly suffer disturbances in phonological awareness, slow-naming speed, and delayed automatic word recognition. A close relation between naming speed and reading difficulties has been well documented; hence, the former could be a useful early predictor of dyslexia. Reading disabled children usually show orthographic problems, but the neurophysiological basis underlying the detection of orthographic violations is still unclear. In this study, 28 healthy, right-handed, second-grade children were selected from a wider screening study and divided into two groups according to their performance on a rapid-naming test battery: slow-naming (SN) and average-naming (AN). Groups were matched by sex, age and school grade, and participants were asked to perform a visual recognition task that consisted of two stimuli: an easily-named drawing followed by a word that either matched (congruent) or did not match (on semantic or orthographic grounds) the drawing. Subjects were instructed to judge the relationship between each pair of stimuli and then press a key on a keyboard while ERP were being recorded. Behavioral results showed significant differences between groups in terms of the number of correct responses, but only for the orthographic violation condition, as no significant differences were observed in reaction times. In addition, SN showed poorer reading performance compared to AN. ERP were significantly different between the two groups during processing of visual words. Results are interpreted as the expression of the difficulties that SN manifested in generating strong associations between phonological and orthographic word forms.

Electrophysiological signatures of spelling sensitivity development from primary school age to adulthood

“…Thus, ERPs in children of the 2nd grade with good reading skills in Gomes-Velaskes’s study 35 were similar to ERPs in children of the 4th grade in Heldmann’s study 34 . It is important to note that in the experiment of Gomes-Velaskes 35 and in the Heldmann study 34 , the presentation of verbal stimuli was associated with the presentation of the corresponding picture. This means that such paradigms differ from those used in studies with adults, which makes it difficult to compare the results obtained in different age groups.…”

“…The authors consider this effect a marker of orthographic sensitivity and conclude that there is a distinct shift from the 2nd (age range 6.8-8.7) to the 4th (age range 9.6-10.8) grade with regard to orthographic sensitivity 34 . Gómez-Velasquez and colleagues examined the detection of spelling errors in 8-yearold children with varying performance on four naming tasks (drawings, letters, numbers, and colors) 35 , and their results partially agree with the results of Heldmann and colleagues 34 . Their study found enhanced amplitude for negativity peaking at 380 ms (N380) and also enhancement of the subsequent positive component (600-700 ms) for pseudohomophones in children with average naming performance that was not found in children with slow naming performance 35 .…”

“…It could be assumed that the spelling task, unlike the phonological task, modulates the differences between words and pseudo-homophones, but our data showed that the spelling task did not modulate the differences in ERP in children. At the same time, as we already noted in the introduction, in the few studies with the spelling task in which differences between words and pseudohomophones were observed, images were used that were presented before a verbal stimulus and probably, facilitated the detection of conflict between orthography and phonology in children 8-10 years old 34,35 . The division of children aged 8–10 years into narrower age groups may be useful in further research since, during this period, the initial patterns of recognition of correct spelling at the neural level might be formed.…”

“…Their study found enhanced amplitude for negativity peaking at 380 ms (N380) and also enhancement of the subsequent positive component (600-700 ms) for pseudohomophones in children with average naming performance that was not found in children with slow naming performance 35 . Thus, ERPs in children of the 2nd grade with good reading skills in Gomes-Velaskes’s study 35 were similar to ERPs in children of the 4th grade in Heldmann’s study 34 . It is important to note that in the experiment of Gomes-Velaskes 35 and in the Heldmann study 34 , the presentation of verbal stimuli was associated with the presentation of the corresponding picture.…”

Effective connectivity of visual word recognition and homophone orthographic errors

“…Although these mistakes do not compromise reading comprehension in normal persons in a meaningful way, they do cause the speakers of Mexican Spanish to make numerous pseudohomophone spelling mistakes, something observable in the general population ( Gómez-Velázquez et al, 2013a ).…”