Characteristics of reading hiragana nonwords aloud in children with developmental dyslexia and children in regular classes

Abstract

This study investigated and compared the characteristics of hiragana nonword reading in Japanese children with developmental dyslexia (DD) and children in regular classes and examined cognitive functions in nonword reading. We tested 758 children in regular classes and 36 children with DD in hiragana nonword reading with special syllables. The results revealed that children with DD were significantly less accurate in nonword reading than children in regular classes. However, within the regular class group, the children with many errors in nonword reading performed significantly lower in phonological tasks, visual cognitive tasks (figure copying, immediate recall, and delayed recall), and rapid automatized naming (RAN) than the children without errors. Multiple regression analyses on a mixed group showed that both phonological information processing and visual memory were significant predictor variables for nonword reading. These results suggested that children with DD have difficulty in reading hiragana nonwords aloud and also that DD might be involved in the performance of the children in regular classes who made many errors in nonword reading. Both phonological information processing and visual memory possibly affect hiragana nonword reading.