Skip to main content
Log in

The Role of Phonology in the Word Decoding Skills of Poor Readers: Evidence from Individuals with Prelingual Deafness or Diagnosed Dyslexia

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study seeks to clarify the relation between the phonological skills of both dyslectic readers and prelingually deafened readers and their ability to conceptually process written stimuli. Data was gathered by means of a test designed for the assessment of orthographic and phonemic awareness, and a categorization paradigm designed for the examination of written word processing skills. Twenty individuals with diagnosed dyslexia (grade = 9.05), 11 individuals with prelingual deafness (grade = 8.18), and 25 normally-developing hearing readers (n = 25, grade = 9.00) participated in the study. In general, findings indicate that the reading disorders manifested by dyslectic and deaf readers have different origins none of which is directly related to their phonological abilities. It is suggested that in prelingually deafened readers, but maybe also in dyslectic readers, teachers should foster the development of orthographic knowledge as the basis for proficient reading without making such development contingent on the processing of the phonology of written words.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In Israel primary school starts at about age six.

  2. Israeli sign language (ISL) is the signed language used by the deaf community in Israel. As American Sign Language, it has a unique, systematic phonology represented by a limited set of formational parameters such as hand shape, hand movement, place of articulation, etc.

  3. Except in a rough matching of sign order to word order in Hebrew, Signed Hebrew and spoken Hebrew differ rather substantially in most other linguistic aspects. Probably the most outstanding difference in this regard is an almost complete lack of devices in Signed Hebrew to represent the rich morphological structure of spoken Hebrew.

  4. In Hebrew, a significant part of phonetic (in particular vowel) information is not represented by letter-graphemes interlaced into the consonantal letters, but by means of a set of small diacritical marks (dashes and points) normally placed separately and clearly below the consonantal letter string. This method of vowelization is called pointing.

  5. The written word frequency estimates of the words referencing food concepts varied from 2–48 occurrences per 1 million—based on Frost and Plaut (2005).

  6. For example, the letter graphemes ‘’ (taf) and ‘’ (tet) are both read as the phoneme /t/ and the letter graphemes ‘’ and ‘ ’ both can assimilate the phonemes /a/, /o/, /u/, and /i/ depending on how they are pointed. The same phenomenon exists also with regard to vowel diacritics. For example, the vowel diacritics ‘’ (kamatz) and ‘’ (patah) both represent the phoneme /a/ whereas the vowel diacritics ‘’ (segol) and ‘’ (tsere) stand both for the phoneme /e/.

  7. A nonparametric procedure for calculating differences between two variables based upon rank order.

  8. A nonparametric procedure for calculating Oneway analysis of variance by ranks.

  9. All significant results reported from post-hoc analyses are significant at a probability level of p ≤ 0.05.

References

  • American National Standards Institute (1989). Specifications for audiometers. (ANSI S3.6-1989). New York: ANSI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Best, W., & Howard, D. (2005). “The W and M are mixing me up”: Use of a visual code in verbal short-term memory tasks. Brain and Cognition, 58, 274–285.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Canaan, O., & Share, D. L. Similarities and differences in the voiced and unvoiced recognition of words (in press).

  • Charlier, B. L., & Leybaert, J. (2000). The rhyming skills of deaf children educated with phonetically augmented speech reading. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53, 349–375.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, R. (1979). The deaf school child. London: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, A., MacSweeney, M., Szczerbinski, M., & Campbell, R. (2003). Predictors of reading delay in deaf adolescents: The relative contributions of rapid automatized naming speed and phonemic awareness and decoding. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 8, 215–229.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Stahl, S. A., & Willows, D. M. (2001). Systematic phonic instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel’s meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 71, 393–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frost, R. (1998). Toward a strong phonological theory of visual word recognition: True issues and false trials. Psychological Bulletin, 123, 71–99.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frost, R., & Plaut, D. C. (2005). The word-frequency database for printed Hebrew. Available at http://word-freq.mscc.huji.ac.il/index.html.

  • Hanson, V. L., & Fowler, C. A. (1987). Phonological coding in word reading: Evidence from hearing and deaf readers. Memory & Cognition, 15, 199–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanson, V. L., & McGarr, N. S. (1989). Rhyme generation by deaf adults. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 32, 2–11.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Izzo, A. (2002). Phonemic awareness and reading ability: An investigation with young readers who are deaf. American Annals of the Deaf, 147, 18–29.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, N. E., & Coltheart, M. (2001). Routes to reading success and failure: Toward an integrated cognitive psychology of atypical reading. Philadelphia, PA, US: Psychology.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, C., & Quigley, S. (1985). Reading and deafness. San Diego, CA: College-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krashen, S. (1999). Training in phonemic awareness greater on tests of phonemic awareness. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 93, 356–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krashen, S. (2001). Does pure phonemic training affect reading comprehension? Perceptual and Motor Skills, 89, 412–416.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krashen, S. (2002). Phonemic awareness training necessary? Reading Research Quarterly, 37, 128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (1997). The effect of communication mode on the development of phonemic awareness in prelingually deaf students. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 40, 1151–1163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2000). Syntactic and semantic processing in deaf and hearing readers. American Annals of the Deaf, 145, 436–448.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2001). Communication mode and the information processing capacity of Hebrew readers with prelingually acquired deafness. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 13, 83–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2002). Communication mode and the processing of printed words: Evidence from readers with prelingually acquired deafness. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 7, 312–329.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2004a). Processing of written words by individuals with prelingual deafness. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 979–989.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2004b). Processing of written word and non-word visual information by individuals with prelingual deafness. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47, 990–1000.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2005a). Reading comprehension and its relation to the quality of functional hearing: Evidence from readers with different functional hearing abilities. American Annals of the Deaf, 150, 305–323.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2005b). What the word recognition skills of prelingually deafened readers tell about the roots of dyslexia. Journal of Development & Physical Disabilities, 17, 369–393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2006a). What the word recognition skills of prelingually deafened readers tell about their reading comprehension problems. Journal of Development and Physical Disabilities, 18, 91–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. (2006b). What the processing of real words and pseudo-homophones tell about the development of orthographic knowledge in prelingually deafened individuals. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 11, 21–38.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen, D. C., & Leutke-Stahlman, B. (2002). Phonological awareness: One key to the reading proficiency of deaf children. American Annals of the Deaf, 147, 11–19.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Niemi, P., Poskiparta, E., & Vauras, M. (2001). Benefits of training in linguistic awareness dissipate by grade 3? Psychology: The Journal of the Hellenic Psychological Society, 8, 330–337.

    Google Scholar 

  • Padden, C. A., & Hanson, V. (2000). Search for the missing link: The development of skilled reading in deaf children. In K. Emmorey & H. Lane (Eds.), The signs of language revised: An anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima (pp. 435–447). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paul, P. (2001). Language and deafness (3nd ed.). San Diego, Ca: Singular Publishing Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perfetti, C. A., & Sandak, R. (2000). Reading optimally builds on spoken language: Implications for deaf readers. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 5, 32–50.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ramus, F., Pidgeon, E., & Frith, U. (2003). The relationship between motor control and phonology in dyslexic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44, 712–722.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Report of the National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Share, D. L. (1995). Phonological recoding and self-teaching: Sine qua non of reading acquisition. Cognition, 55, 151–218.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Share, D. L. (2004). Orthographic learning at a glance: On the time course and developmental onset of self-teaching. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 87, 267–298.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2005). Dyslexia (specific reading disability). Biological Psychiatry, 57, 1301–1309.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K. E. (2000). Progress in understanding reading: Scientific foundations and new frontiers. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutcliffe, A., Dowker, A., & Campbell, R. (1999). Deaf children’s spelling: Does it show sensitivity to phonology? Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 4, 111–123.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thaler, V., Ebner, E. W. M., & Landerl, K. (2004). Training reading fluency in dysfluent readers with high reading accuracy: Word specific effects but low transfer to untrained words. Annals of Dyslexia, 54, 89–113.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Transler, C., Leybaert, J., & Gomert, J. E. (1999). Do deaf children use phonological syllables as reading units? Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 4, 124–143.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Troia, G. (2004). Phonological processing and its influence on literacy learning. In C. Stone, E. Silliman, B. Ehren, & K. Appel (Eds.), Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders (pp. 271–301). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vellutino, F. R., Fletcher, J. M., Snowling, M. J., & Scanlon, D. M. (2004). Specific reading disability (dyslexia): What have we learned in the past four decades? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 2–40.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Miller.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Miller, P. The Role of Phonology in the Word Decoding Skills of Poor Readers: Evidence from Individuals with Prelingual Deafness or Diagnosed Dyslexia. J Dev Phys Disabil 19, 385–408 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-007-9057-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-007-9057-5

Keywords

Navigation