Rapid Automatized Naming, Verbal Working Memory, and Rhythm Discrimination as Predictors of Reading in Italian Undergraduate Students with and without Dyslexia

Abstract

Whereas the clinical manifestations and the neuropsychological predictors of Developmental Dyslexia (DD) are already well documented in Italian-speaking children, empirical evidence on DD in Italian adults is in contrast rather scarce. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of a subset of neuropsychological skills, which have been identified by previous literature to be related to reading, in the decoding abilities of a group of Italian undergraduates with and without DD. For this purpose, 39 university students aged between 19 and 27 years, 19 of whom with a diagnosis of DD, underwent an assessment battery including standardized reading tests, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal working memory, and rhythmic pattern discrimination tests. Cross-group differences confirmed significantly lower performances of undergraduates with DD in all measures but rhythm discrimination, compared to typical readers, thus showing a non-compensated neuropsychological profile. Regression analyses showed that, while reading speed was strongly and uniquely predicted by RAN speed, reading accuracy was concurrently predicted by RAN and rhythmic abilities. Finally, RAN speed emerged as a strong predictor of reading performance and risk of receiving a diagnosis of DD.

Assessing phonological awareness in Italian children with and without developmental dyslexia: The contribution of a new pseudo-word blending task

“…Further studies conducted with Italian children (i.e., 6- to 11-years-old; Di Filippo et al., 2005) and young adults (i.e., 19- to 27-years-old; Cancer & Antonietti, 2018) with dyslexia suggest that phonological awareness and serial rapid automatized naming (RAN) deficits are the strongest factors accounting for reading performance ─ an effect being found across many languages (for a review see Norton & Wolf, 2012) ─ since they ‘predict different portions of variance in reading tasks’ (Di Filippo et al., 2005, p. 350). Overall, in RAN tasks phonological skills are engaged automatically (i.e., implicit phonological processing, see Melby-Lervåg et al., 2012), since participants access phonological codes without any awareness, in order to name (i.e., retrieve from a lexical knowledge system) rapidly sequences of visually presented stimuli (e.g., objects, colors).…”

Predicting dyslexia in Arabic‐speaking children: Developing instruments and estimating their psychometric indices

“…Studies show that PA-based instructions and instruments significantly improve reading and/or vocabulary skills in various languages: English (Huo & Wang, 2017), Italian (Cancer & Antonietti, 2018), German (Degé & Schwarzer, 2011), French (Martin et al, 2010), Portuguese (Gottardo, Pasquarella, Chen, & Ramirez, 2016), Spanish (Páez & Rinaldi, 2006), and Chinese (Wang, 2017). A few studies investigated the contributions of PA-based instructions and instruments to Arabic-reading scores.…”

Using Neurofeedback to Restore Inter-Hemispheric Imbalance: A Study Protocol for Adults With Dyslexia

“…Besides reading, RAN is assessed using the RAN test (De Luca et al, 2005), which was found to be a strong predictor of reading difficulties in older individuals (Cancer and Antonietti, 2018a). In this test, participants are required to sequentially name various visual stimuli (i.e., colored squares, black and white icons, and numbers) presented in 10 × 5 matrices.…”