Week 5:

Question 1

What is the main argument this paper makes about the causes of dyslexia? (Stein et al., 2023)

Answer 1

Studies have demonstrated that the magnocellular timing deficit is present in infants who later become dyslexic, long before they begin learning to read

-  intervention studies that have shown that improving magnocellular function improves dyslexic children’s reading

existence of a developmental form of dyslexia have turned out to be absolutely correct DEVELOPMENTAL DYSLEXIA

- Developmental dyslexia does exist and a proper understanding of its causation should lead to better techniques for diagnosing and treating it.

Question 2

Criticism of the Phonological theory of dyslexia?

Answer 2

failure to master the phonological principle applies to all causes of failure to learn to read, not just to dyslexia.

- main weakness is that it is not really a theory at all in the sense of providing an explanation for the condition; it does not provide any hint as to its cause

Question 3

Which aspects of dyslexia can be explained by the imprecise signalling of timing of auditory and visual signals by magnocellular neurons?

Answer 3

temporal processing deficit theory of dyslexia

Accurate signalling of the timing of when the eyes or visual attention alight on each letter in the written word is what is essential for determining the sequence of letters in the word [43]. Likewise, signalling the precise time at which each phoneme is heard enables the order of the sounds in the spoken word to be correctly sequenced

The auditory magnocellular timing stream in dyslexics is compromised, which is why they tend to be poor at picking up rhythm

but they are better, for example, at detecting the combination of components in a musical chord [71]. This holistic perception of music -
may explain ‘positive’ dyslexia, which is the exceptional creative, artistic, entrepreneurial, communication, and engineering talents that some dyslexics display

Question 4

What is the prevalence of dyslexia?

Answer 4

roughly 7% of the population being identified as dyslexic

More common in males

Frequently comorbid with other developmental disorders (e.g. ADHD)

Question 5

What are the main aspects of reading difficulties?

Answer 5

Problems in learning to decode (developmental dyslexia)

reading comprehension impairment

deficits in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming

hard to recognize printed words, have great difficulties ‘sounding out’ unfamiliar words, and often also read slowly.

Question 6

What does the literature review say about intervention programs?

Answer 6

• evidence from randomized trials that educational interventions for reading and related learning disorders are effective when delivered by trained practitioners (Hulme et al., 2015)
  • early interventions to strengthen the language foundations for reading will be important

evidence from randomized trials that language interventions can ameliorate language weaknesses detected in the early school years.
Similarly, specialist teaching methods are effective in ameliorating the problems in learning to decode print that are seen in children with dyslexia