Normal and Disabled Readers Can Locate and Identify Letters: Where's the Perceptual Deficit?

Abstract

In a backward masking letter identification and localization task, performance of children with reading disabilities was compared to that of normal readers matched for age and reading level. On all measures, the performance of the disabled reader group was superior to that of the control groups. This included: correct identification, correct localization, absolute number correct and fewer intrusions. The data are interpreted as indicating that previous hypotheses about visual perceptual difficulties are inadequate in explaining reading disabilities. Alternatively, it is suggested that a reorientation of remedial techniques should be implemented. These should include phonics and graphemic to phonemic encoding, both of which compensate for losses in higher order verbal cognitive processing ability.