Specific Reading Disorders of Reading Kana (Japanese Syllables) in Children With Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The present study investigated properties of the lexical process in children with learning disabilities (LD) and specific reading disorders in relation to the development of children without disabilities, by measuring the vocal reaction times of children with specific reading disorders to meaningful kana words, compared to their reaction times to pseudo words. Participants were 42 elementary school children with learning disabilities (LD), 163 children without LD, and 10 adults. On the basis of the developmental standards of parameters of reading kana sentences in the Token Test, which had been standardized on children without LD, 19 children with specific reading disorders (SRD) and 23 children without specific reading disorders (NSRD) were identified. A majority of the children with specific reading disorders had longer vocal reaction times when reading a one-syllable kana word. Many children with specific reading disorders were unable to read a meaningful two- or three-syllable word as quickly as a one-syllable one. In the lexical process, all graphemes of a word are decoded into phonemes in parallel. Children with specific reading disorders may have difficulty in the developmental transition from a non-lexical to a lexical process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)