Neurocognitive and Linguistic Deficits in Developmental Dyslexia

Abstract

Background: It has been suggested that dyslexic individuals manifest difficulties in phonological awareness, rapid naming, morphological awareness, and short-term memory.  Nevertheless, the percentage of these difficulties varied among languages.  Materials and Methods: A group of children who have developmental dyslexia, aged from 6.5 to 10 years, were investigated to determine the percentage of neurocognitive and linguistic deficits in Arabic speaking dyslexic individuals. Results: Rapid automatized naming was found to be the most common deficit occurring in all participants.  Other linguistic, auditory, visual and memory difficulties were noticed. The percent of deficits in their abilities was determined and discussed. Conclusion: The present study suggested that dyslexia is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder rather than a simple disorder related to a phoneme-grapheme correspondence disorder. Furthermore, it emphasized the importance of thorough assessment of different neurocognitive and linguistic abilities using different scales and detailed tests for better design of remediation programs for children having developmental dyslexia.