Regularisation of nonwords in dyslexia: contributions of visual orthographic and phonological onsets

This study investigated the contributions of visual orthographic (analogy) and phonological processes in mediating nonword reading in children with dyslexia. Three groups of primary school age children (n=15 in each group) were recruited. The first group were children with dyslexia (mean age 11 years 3 months, mean reading age 8 years 3 months), the second group were chronological age controls (mean age 11 years 3 months, mean reading age 11 years 8 months) and the third group were reading age matched controls (mean age 7 years 11 months, mean reading age 8 years 3 months). All participants were required to read aloud a list of nonwords. Nonwords in the list were derived from paired regular and irregular keywords in which onsets were manipulated to be either phonologically or visually similar to keyword onsets. ANOVAs revealed firstly that children with dyslexia were the least likely to regularise nonword pronunciation and secondly, that all groups displayed an overall preference for words that were phonologically manipulated. These findings have been interpreted within the context of dual-route theory.