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Developmental dyslexia in an orthography of intermediate depth: the case of European Portuguese

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Abstract

Fifteen Portuguese children with dyslexia, aged 9–11 years, were compared with reading and chronological age controls with respect to five indicators related to the phonological deficit hypothesis: the effects of lexicality, regularity, and length, implicit and explicit phonological awareness, and rapid naming. The comparison between groups indicates that Portuguese children with dyslexia have a phonological impairment which is revealed by a developmental deficit in implicit phonological awareness and irregular word reading (where younger reading level controls performed better than dyslexics) and by a developmental delay in decoding ability and explicit phonological awareness (where dyslexics matched reading level controls). These results are discussed in relation to the idea that European Portuguese is written in an orthography of intermediate depth.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Sylvia Defior, Jacqueline Leybaert, and Francisca Serrano for enlightening discussions, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through a grant to the Language Group of the Center for Psychology at the University of Porto and a doctoral fellowship to Ana Sucena.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Ana Sucena

  2. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto, Rua Doutor Manuel Pereira da Silva, 4200-392, Porto, Portugal

    São Luís Castro

  3. University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

    Philip Seymour

Authors
  1. Ana Sucena
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  2. São Luís Castro
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  3. Philip Seymour
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to São Luís Castro.

Appendix

Appendix

Stimuli for common unit identification (Panel A) and same/different judgement (Panel B)

Syllable type

#

Common Syllable

Common Phoneme

Common Rime

Panel Aa

CV

1

vinda

vinco

vĩ

baba

beco

b

fuga

lume

u

CV

2

rude

rumo

ru

caco

cola

k

lama

cano

α

CV

3

povo

poça

po

dedo

dica

d

mito

vira

i

CV

4

pêlo

pêra

pe

fera

figo

f

toga

colo

ó

CVC

5

balça

balde

bal

mosca

março

m

silva

filme

il

CVC

6

cisco

cisne

siě

perna

polvo

p

bolso

polpa

ol

CVC

7

larva

largo

lar

relva

risco

r

bosque

costa

þě

CVC

8

melga

melro

mɛl

sarda

silvo

s

curva

furto

ur

Training pairs

CV

 

bago

bala

ba

casa

colo

k

cave

dado

a

CV

 

dona

dote

dþ

gato

gula

g

fome

gola

þ

CVC

 

burgo

burla

bur

caldo

curva

k

marca

pardo

ar

Panel Bb

CV

1

tosse

vaso

 

peru

bica

 

baba

giro

 

CV

2

depor

final

 

sofá

bebé

 

golo

mata

 

CV

3

gelo

vaca

 

bolor

legal

 

papa

ruço

 

CV

4

vento

bala

 

doce

fava

 

sala

tinto

 

CVC

5

xisto

belga

 

melga

pisco

 

bispo

cerca

 

CVC

6

barco

culpa

 

porco

relva

 

cesto

farda

 

CVC

7

testa

vulto

 

rosto

salsa

 

festa

março

 

CVC

8

filme

larva

 

selva

tarde

 

lesma

bolso

 

Training pairs

CV

 

laca

mimo

 

fera

gomo

 

chefe

barro

 

CV

 

mola

pico

 

guita

judo

 

cola

dente

 

CVC

 

surdo

vespa

 

melro

parque

 

guelra

largo

 
  1. In each task, three linguistic units are tested: Syllable, Phoneme and Rime
  2. aThere are eight word pairs per condition, plus three for training
  3. bStimuli are the same as in Panel A for pairs that share one segment in the first syllable (same condition), plus the 8 pairs presented here for pairs that have no common unit (different condition)

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Sucena, A., Castro, S.L. & Seymour, P. Developmental dyslexia in an orthography of intermediate depth: the case of European Portuguese. Read Writ 22, 791–810 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-008-9156-4

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