Dyslexiareading

IS DYSLEXIA A FORM OF SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT?
A COMPARISON OF DYSLEXIC
AND LANGUAGE IMPAIRED CHILDREN AS ADOLESCENTS
Author(s): Nata K. Goulandris, Margaret J. Snowling and Ian Walker
Source: Annals of Dyslexia, Vol. 50 (2000), pp. 103-120
Published by: Springer
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23765192
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A FORM OF SPECIFIC
IS DYSLEXIA
LANGUAGE
A
IMPAIRMENT?
COMPARISON
OF DYSLEXIC
AND LANGUAGE
IMPAIRED
CHILDREN
AS
ADOLESCENTS
Nata K. Goulandris,
University
College
London,
United Kingdom
J. Snoioling
Margaret
of York,
University
United Kingdom
Ian Walker
Max
Planck
Institute
of Cognitive
Bennewitz,
Neuroscience,
Germany
Two groups of adolescents with a childhood history of language impair

ment were compared with a group of developmentally dyslexic young
people of the same age and nonverbal ability. The study also included
two comparison groups of typically developing children, one of the same
age as those in the clinical groups, and a younger comparison group of

similar reading level to the dyslexic students. Tests of spoken and writ
ten language skills revealed that the adolescents with dyslexia were in
impairments on
from those with resolved language
distinguishable
at age
tasks, and both groups
performed
spoken
language
expected levels. However, both dyslexic readers and those with resolved
specific language impairments showed deficits in phonological aware
ness. On written language tasks, a different pattern of performance was
Annals
of Dyslexia,
Vol.
50,2000
Copyright 2000 by The International Dyslexia Association

ISSN 0736-9387
103
104
Development
Language
and Reading
Disabilities
apparent. In reading and spelling, adolescents with dyslexia performed

only as well as those with persistent oral language impairments and
younger controls. However, their reading comprehension was better. The
theoretical and educational
implications
of these findings are discussed.
(SLI) and developmental

reading
impairment
two distinct condi
are usually
considered
(dyslexia)
Association
tions (e.g., DSM-IV,
American
1994).
Psychiatric
a child who has a
The term dyslexia
is usually used to describe
Specific
disorder
language
skills despite
normal
ostensibly
language
that such
abilities, and there is general agreement
deficits (Snowling
1991). In
specific phonological
is
used
to de
contrast, the term specific language
impairment
with the acquisition
of spo
scribe children who have problems
disorder
of written
oral language
children have
ken
The
language
nonverbal
normal
despite
of SLI children
difficulties
language
wide range of linguistic
ments and grammatical
Leonard
2000).
1997).
ability (Bishop
a
tend to encompass
vocabulary
including
impair
processes
et al. 1987; Bishop and
deficits (Leonard
However,
many dyslexic children
difficulty (Rutter and Yule 1975) and
with language
to go on
impairments
1990; Tallal, Ross, and
(Scarborough
and Stollwerck
1996). Such findings
have
a history of language
it is common
for children
to have reading difficulties
Curtiss 1989; van der Lely
suggest that the two disor
ders exist on a continuum

of language
disorder, both groups of
children showing
in
awareness
and phono
deficits
phonological
and Wells
(Catts 1989, 1993, 1996; Stackhouse
logical processing
Within
this view, dyslexia
is conceptualized
either as a
1997).
mild form of language
the
impairment,
affecting only
phonolog
ical system, or as a residual problem that remains when oral lan
difficulties
guage
1984; Scarborough
An alternative
and Nation
(Aram,
Ekelman,
1990).
of these findings
is that lan
interpretation
a
risk
for
is
factor
guage
impairment
dyslexia
(Snowling,
to this view, phonologi
Bishop, and Stothard 2000). According
cal skills are critical to reading
development
(Byrne et al. 1997;
Share 1995) and, to the extent that children have phonological
failure.
difficulties,
However,
they will be at risk of reading
whether or not they show specific reading
difficulties/dyslexia
depends
on how
dyslexic
profile
have
resolved
and Dobrich
this phonological
deficit interacts with other
skills
2000). For children who
cognitive
language
(Snowling
have good semantic
a
of
is possible
skills,
degree
compensation
and Snowling
and
it
is
that
the
(Nation
common
1998),
likely
and
of better
reading
comprehension
than
word
Is Dyslexia
a Form of Specific Language
Impairment?
105
level decoding
will ensue.
children
who have poor
However,
semantic
or syntactic resources
show a global delay in reading.
semantic
difficulties
verbal
Moreover,
IQ, and
compromise
such children
receive
a
definition
of
rarely
discrepancy-based
a
be
outcome
cannot
assumed
for
Therefore,
dyslexia.
dyslexic
children
with preschool
it is
Indeed,
language
impairments.
of children who attract such a "di
likely that the characteristics
will change with the age of the child, along with both
agnosis"
the demands
of reading
at that stage in development
and the
received.
with this idea,
Consistent
teaching
they have
et al. (1992)
that different children
from
Shaywitz
reported
their epidemiological
fulfilled criteria for specific read
sample
at
different
retardation
et al. (2000) re
ing
ages, and Snowling
that
the
of
difficulties
ported
prevalence
specific
reading
with
a
children
of
among
history
preschool
impair
language
from 6 percent to 24 percent between
ment increased
the ages
of 8 and
15 years.
In light of the theoretical
and clinical interest in this issue, it
is surprising
that there have been few direct comparisons
of the
and
skills
of
children
as
reading
cognitive
diagnosed
having
difficulties and those with developmental
lan
specific reading
disorders.
Our
aim
in
the
was
to
examine
guage
present study
the notion
of a continuum
of language
disorder
directly by in
the
and
vestigating
cognitive, linguistic,
literacy profiles of ado
lescents
of school-leaving
who
had
a childhood
age
history of
either SLI or developmental
To
a
enable
dyslexia.
rigorous com
between
these groups, they were compared
with age
parison
and reading-level
matched
controls of similar nonverbal
ability.
adolescents
with either resolved
or persistent oral
By including
it was possible
to address
the following
language
impairments,
hypotheses:
1.
Dyslexia
is a resolved
pothesis,
children
with
children
ment whose
form of SLI.
with
a preschool
oral language
dyslexia
According
perform
history of language
impair
difficulties have resolved but
have been shown

to have residual
deficits (Bishop,
North, and
processing
Stothard et al. 1998).
who
2.
to this hy
to
similarly
phonological
Donlan
1996;
to
is a risk factor for reading difficulties. According
children with dyslexia
have a qualita
this hypothesis,
tively different profile from children with SLI because
deficits
and
more specific
phonological
they have
and
skills.
vocabulary
comprehension
stronger
SLI
106
Language
Development
and Reading
Disabilities
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
Three
of 15- to 16-year-old
clinical
groups
pated in this study, one with a childhood
mental
and two with a preschool
dyslexia
The
impairment.
IQ and compared
language
nonverbal
adolescents
partici
of develop
history of specific
matched
for age and
history
were
groups
with two groups
of normal read
selected
to be of the same level of
ers, an age-matched
group
nonverbal
ability, and a younger
group
matched
controls for the dyslexies.
selected
as reading
age
The dyslexic
of 20 adolescents
with child
group consisted
hood
of
14
to
18
10
diagnoses
dyslexia,
aged
years
years
= 15
with a mean
of
15
9
months
(SD
months,
years
age
of the adolescents
were drawn from a cohort
months).
Eighteen
that had
in a longitudinal
study of developmental
five
after
their first assessment.
dyslexia,
approximately
years
this
20
children
in reading
Initially,
group comprised
ranging
from
8
at
6
to
all
of
least
whose
IQ,
age
years,
reading
average
participated
performance
lagged at least 18 months behind their chronologi
cal age (Snowling,
and Defty 1996). The data we
Goulandris,
had about
the early language
of these children
development
was from parental
About
one-third
of
reports.
parents reported
preschool
language
delays in their children.
to participate
Ninety percent of the original sample
agreed
in this follow-up;
one refused on the grounds
that he did not
wish to undertake
to
any more tests and the other was unable
attend because
of illness. 12/18 of the childhood
still
dyslexies
met
the criterion
of 18 months
below
grade level. Two more
with dyslexia, both reporting long-standing
reading
at this stage according
to the same se
difficulties, were added
lection criteria.
The participants
with a history of speech and language
diffi
culties were drawn from a sample
recruited
between
originally
3:9 and 4:2 years of age by Bishop
and Edmundson
(1987).
adolescents
children
in the study
(68 with SLI) participated
Eighty-seven
and were assessed
at 4, 4:6 and 5:6 years of age. At 5:6, 30 of
these
children
had
resolved
their
difficulties
language
38 had persistent
(Resolved
SLI), while the remaining
language
difficulties
in this paper
(Persistent
SLI). The data presented
were
collected
as part of a follow-up
of these groups of children
Stothard
et
al.
SLI
(1998). The resolved
reported by
19
children whose mean age at the time of the
comprised
at 15 years,
group
Is Dyslexia
Impairment?
107
assessment
was 15 years 5 months (SD = 3 months), being those
that matched the dyslexies
on the basis of chronological
age and
Block Design
of nonverbal
score, a measure
IQ. The persistent
SLI group consisted
of 20 children aged 15 years 7 months (SD
= 4 months),
selected
from the 30 available
to match on the
basis
of chronological
score. The reading
age and Block Design
status of these children was not known prior to the study.
Nineteen
readers whose mean age was
normally developing
=
15 years 9 months
3
formed the age-matched
(SD
months)
These
children
were drawn
comparison
group (CA-controls).
from the normative
tested
et
al.
(1998) by
sample
by Stothard
a range match by nonverbal
IQ and age to the
performing
children
with a mean age of 10
younger
dyslexies.
Eighteen
= 4 months)
formed a second
years 4 months (SD
comparison
readers. These children were se
group of normally
developing
and to
lected to be of similar nonverbal
ability to the dyslexies
at a similar
perform
readers
level
to the dyslexic and the persistent SLI

score on the Wechsler
Objective
to raw
according
Dimensions
test of basic reading
Wechsler
(WORD;
Reading
1993), a test of single-word
reading.
are summarized
in table 1. There
Details of the participants
the groups
were no significant
differences
between
for Block
Table
I.
of adolescents
Characteristics
language
with
Resolved
Dyslexic
(n = 20)
Age
and
RA,
impairment,
a history
of dyslexia,
CA- controls.
Persistent
SLI
SLI
(k = 19)
( = 20)
(n
specific
Young
Older
Controls
Controls
( = 18)
(n = 19)
(years)
15.79a
15.793
15.44
1.30
SD
a
3
15.62a
15.623
10.39b
15.68a
15.683
0.41
0.39
0.25
11.00a
11.003
9.65a
9.653
9.33
3.30
2.74
2.00
0.31
Block Design
(Scaled Score)
M
11.15
a
3
2.89
SD
Word
a
3
10.74a
10.743
2.45
reading
(WORD)
Mean
SS
SD
Note
all F ratios
Means
p<.05
level
84.80a
84.803
97.26b
85.20
11.85
11.90
15.33
are significant
at the .001
the same superscript

having
or Games-Howell
on Tukey
a
3
102.22b
10.42
104.89b
6.95
level.
are not significantly

post hoc tests.
different
at the
Language
108
Development
and
Reading
Disabilities
were
standard
that the groups
scores,
showing
Design
=
=
MSe
matched
for nonverbal
7.39).
1.76,
ability (F[4,91]
TESTS
AND
well
PROCEDURES
to pro
on a battery of tests designed
of spoken
and written language
vide a broad characterisation
skills of the participants.
processing
of the Wechsler
Nonverbal
The Block
Design
ability.
- ZZJLJK
was adminis
Scale
Children
1992)
(Wechsler
Intelligence
for
In
this
the child was
tered as a measure
of nonverbal
task,
ability.
The
children
were
tested
to reconstruct
two dimensional
using red and
patterns
for use with children age 6 to
blocks. This test is designed
16 years and has a split-half reliability for children age 15 of .92.
The Long Form of the
skills.
Language
Receptive
vocabulary.
British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS)
(Dunn,
Dunn, Whetton,
In this test, the
and Pintilie 1982) assesses
vocabulary.
receptive
asked
white
a picture from a selection

of four that most closely
The test is standard
the word spoken by the examiner.
in
3
17 years and has a
ized on children
from
to
ranging
age
15-16
of.91.
for
children
split-half reliability
aged
child
chose
matched
This
Expressive
vocabulary.
taken from the Snowling
picture
and Stafford 1988),
Wagtendonk,
Graded Naming Test (McKenna
and
a range
posite measure
provided
six easy items

test comprised
test (Snowling,
van
naming
and the first 24 items of the
1983). This com
Warrington
of pictures
suitable
thought
for a wide range of abilities.
The Clinical
Evaluation
Sentence
of Language
processing.
- Revised (CELF-R)
Fundamentals
1986)
(Semel, Wiig, and Secord
subtest was used to measure
Sentences
Recalling
grammatical
sensitivity.
ing length
for children
to 16 of .80.
In this test, the child repeated

a sentence
of increas
and syntactic
This
test
is
standardized
complexity.
age
PHONOLOGICAL
5 to 18 and
PROCESSING
has a reliability
for children
age
15
SKILLS
Nonword
To assess
children's
repetition.
ability to repeat
unfamiliar
we administered
the Children's
Nonword
words,
Test
et
al.
This
test
com
(CN
(Gathercole
1994).
Repetition
Rep)
40
non
words
with
10
items
of
and
five
two,
three,
four,
prised
and "blonterstaping").
The test-retest re
(e.g., "ballop"
for
children
in
the
5
to
7
was
.77. The non
liability
age range
words were presented
via audiotape
to all the groups except the
syllables
who
dyslexies,
was important
the nonwords
after the experimenter.
It
repeated
to include
nonword
because
this test
repetition
Is Dyslexia
Impairment?
109
was thought to be too sensitive to underlying

difficul
language
ties (Bishop, North, and Donlan
1996).
awareness
skills were exam
Spoonerisms.
Phonological
ined using a version
In this
of a test devised
Perin
(1983).
by
the initial sounds
from the be
test, the child had to transpose
bear > badding
ginning of two spoken words (e.g., paddington
ton pear; hot dogs > dot hogs). Eleven different two-word
items
were
in this test. One
for each
point was allocated
on
that
word
order
condition
phoneme
transposed
correctly
was respected.
The maximum
score
on
this
test
is 22.
possible
The test has an internal reliability for children age 15 to 16 of .79
presented
(Stothard
LITERACY
et al. 1998).
SKILLS
The Wechsler
(WORD)
(Wechsler
Objective Reading Dimensions
to provide
of current literacy
measures
1993) was administered
attainment.
This test contains
three subtests:
Word
Single
and
All
the
Recognition,
Spelling,
Reading
Comprehension.
subtests
were
entered
into the analyses

to investi
individually
The WORD
is standardized
on
differences.
gate possible
group
the ages of 6 and 16 years and has a split-half
children between
.91 for
for children
reliability
age 15 to 16 of .88 for reading,
spelling, and .82 for reading comprehension.
In this test, the participant
Nonword
read a set of
reading.
and 10 two-syllable
nonwords
10 one-syllable
(e.g. "blem",
Test (Snowling,
from the Graded Nonword
"tegwop")
Reading
(1
1996). Five more difficult nonwords
Stothard, and MacLean
were
two- and 4 three-syllable
nonwords,
e.g., "pragendent")
added
to increase the level of difficulty. This test has a split-half
reliability for children age 15 to 16 of .77.
In order to examine
the participants'
Nonword
spelling.
unfamiliar
20 one- and
words,
they spelled
ability to encode
Written spellings
were considered
cor
two- syllable nonwords.
re
in the target were correctly represented
rect if all the sounds
was selected.
gardless of which grapheme
in a single
All the children were tested individually
either at the university lab, their school, or their home.
session,
RESULTS
performance
profile of the children
controls
and
their
age-matched
groups
The
from the three clinical

the test battery
across
110
Language
Development
and Reading
Disabilities
is shown
in figure 1, expressed
in terms of z scores relative
to
the mean and SD of the younger
controls. A number
of impor
tant differences
in profile can be seen. First, the Persistent
SLI
were impaired
across
all tasks and showed
group
especially
deficits
in
sentence
and
nonword
whereas
strong
repetition,
the Resolved
SLI group
showed
mild
for
only
impairments
their age on spoken
tasks
but
language
poorer
reading,
and phonological
than their oral skills pre
awareness
spelling,
dicted.
the dyslexic
children
at the same
Second,
performed
level as those with Resolved
SLI on tests of spoken
language
and in reading
but they were impaired
in
comprehension
and
awareness.
reading,
spelling,
phonological
As performance
approached
ceiling in the CA-control
group
on many of the tests administered,
transformations
were con
ducted
on all variables
that departed
from normality
or homo
Figure
1.
Performance of dyslexie, resolved SU, persistent SU, and

CA-controls across tests of spoken and written language;
scores are standardized against the mean and SD
of R
controls.
Is Dyslexia
Impairment?
Ill
and Fidell 1996). Reflect and

(see Tabachnik
geneity of variance
were applied
to the following
tests:
square root transformations
Sentence
Nonword
WORD
Repetition,
Repetition,
Spelling,
WORD
Nonword
and Nonword
Comprehension,
Reading,
Reflect and logarithm transformations

were applied
to
Spelling.
WORD
and
the
of
as
results
However,
Reading
Spoonerisms.
the analyses
data only differed marginally
using transformed
from those on raw data, analyses
on raw data are reported here.
variance
Multivariate
of
were conducted
for
analyses
separately
the spoken
and written
ANOVAs
ses, univariate
tests. Following
these analy
language
and multiple comparisons
were under
taken using
HSD
for variables
with homogeneous
Tukey's
variances.
When
of
variance
was present,
the
heterogeneity
Games
and Howell
the
tests
were
Since
post-hoc
applied.
pre
low statistical
sent study had relatively
power, effect sizes are
to
the
mean
and
the
relative
SD
of
reported
younger controls, to
differences.
clarify marginal
group
and
and
Table II shows the performance

of the three clinical groups
the two comparison
across
the spoken
groups
language
tasks. The MANOVA

on the lan
phonological
processing
tests indicated
that there were significant
guage
group differ
tasks A(20, 289) = 7.14, pc.001.
The adolescents
ences across
with dyslexia
at the same level as the
generally
performed
SLI group and the CA-controls,
and were superior
Resolved
to
the Persistent
SLI group
and younger
controls.
In turn, the
Persis-tent SLI group scored below the level of the Resolved
SLI
of
the
oral
tests.
on
most
language
group
that there were significant
Univariate
tests showed
group
= 21.56, MSe - 187.05,
difference in receptive
(F[4,91]
p c.001)
= 14.46,
and expressive
MSe = 13.06,
(F[4,91]
vocabulary
in
the
<.001
Post-hoc
demonstrated
case
of both re
).
analyses
p
with
and
that
the
adolescents
ceptive
expressive
language
dyslexia performed
and the CA-controls
at the same
and
level
as the Resolved
better than the Persistent
SLI group
and the
SLI
younger controls. There were also significant group differences

This
in Sentence
(F (4,91)=7.81,
MSe=57.86,
p<.001).
Repetition
revealed
that
the
and Howell
time, Games
post-hoc
analyses
than
less
well
the
Persistent SLI group performed
significantly
other four groups, while there was no significant difference be
of the dyslexic,
Resolved
the performance
SLI, younger,
controls.
on both phono
differences
There were significant
group
=
= 19.07,
tasks:
7.25, MSe
F[4,91]
logical
(Spoonerisms:
= 21.51,
=
MSe
Nonword
12.26,
F[4, 91]
p <.001;
Repetition
tween
and older
112
Language
Table
II.
tests
language
Mean
Development
scores
and Reading
on standardised
for adolescents
RA-
impairment,
and
Resolved
experimental
of dyslexia,
CA-
spoken
specific
language
controls.
Persistent
(m= 20)
SLI
(n = 19)
SLI
(n = 20)
122.90a
120.89"
104.60b
Dyslexic
Receptive
and
a history
with
Disabilities
Young
Older
Controls
Controls
(n = 18)
( = 19)
Vocabulary
(BPVS)1
92.61b
127.84"
SD
12.03
14.87
15.06
12.58
13.53
Range
100-141
88-140
76-131
72-112
96-147
22.00"
Expressive
Vocabulary
(Naming)2
M
19.95"
20.11"
15.25b
15.00b
SD
3.87
3.36
3.84
3.53
3.40
Range
13-26
13-26
9-24
7-21
15-27
66.60
66.68
57.15
66.67
67.74
Sentence
Repetition3
SD
6.54
Range
Nonword
6.51
11.67
4.00
6.79
54-76
54-77
26-77
60-74
57-78
33.50"
32.21"
25.90b
34.06"
35.16"
Repetition4
SD
3.85
4.28
6.88
4.20
2.85
Range
25-39
23-39
12-36
27-39
30-39
15.35"c
16.79"b
12.35e
12.35c
17.38"b
19.53b
SD
4.22
3.63
6.63
3.79
2.12
Range
7-21
11-22
0-20
8-22
15-22
Spoonerisms5
Note
all F-ratios
Means
are significant
level.

superscript
or Games
and Howell
post hoes.
having
level on Tukey
p<.05
1 Raw
2
score
Maximum
4
at .001
the same
Maximum
= 40
= 30
5- Maximum
3 Maximum
different
at the
= 25
= 24
revealed
that on the Spoonerisms
p < .001). Post-hoc
analyses
at
a
task, CA-controls
performed
higher level than the adoles
cents with dyslexia
and the Persistent
SLI group. The Resolved
SLI
made
more
missed
just
did not
errors
than
significance
differ from one
the CA-controls
but the difference
= .058). The three clinical
(p
groups
another
but performed
at the same
Is Dyslexia
Impairment?
113
level as younger
controls.
The analysis
of between-group
dif
ferences in nonword
revealed
that
the
the
repetition
dyslexies,
Resolved
SLI group, and the two sets of controls performed
at
a comparable
level which was higher than that achieved
by
the Persistent
SLI group.
a range effect here may
However,
have obscured
true group
differences.
It is notable
that, in
terms of absolute
level of performance,
both adolescents
with
and
those
with
Resolved
SLI
scored
less
well
than
dyslexia
controls
some
five years
younger
(effect
sizes
were
-.13
and
-.43, respectively).
The performance
of the groups
across the literacy tasks is
shown in table III. MANOVA
on these tests indicated
that there
was a significant main effect of group, A(20, 290) = 5.34, p <.001,
confirmed
on all the written language
by univariate
analyses
tasks. Importantly,
tests revealed
a different picture
follow-up
of group differences to that seen on the spoken
mea
language
sures. There were significant
main effects of group in single
word reading (F[4, 91] = 8.59, MSe = 35.64, p <.001 and spelling
= 11.60, MSe = 25.14,

p <.001). In the case of single word
the
for their age and
reading,
dyslexic
group were impaired
at
the
same
level
as
the
Persistent
SLI
performed
group and the
controls
without
a
of
The
younger
history
language
delay.
Resolved
SLI group
read
more words
than
the
correctly
SLI and the dyslexic
Persistent
this
latter
groups,
although
difference
failed to reach conventional
levels
of significance
In
the
adolescents
with
once again
<.08).
(p
spelling,
dyslexia
at
the
same
level
as
the
Persistent
SLI
performed
group and the
(F[4,91]
controls.
Their performance
was significantly
below
younger
that of the Resolved
SLI and the CA-control
groups.
There were also significant
main effects of group for non
word reading (F [4, 91] = 7.06, MSe = 23.12, p <.001) and for non
word spelling (F[4, 91] = 10.30, MSe = 9.95, p <.001). In nonword
controls per
reading, the three clinical groups and the younger
formed
similar
with
at a statistically
SLI had
Resolved
a less
level, but it is clear that those

severe impairment
(effect sizes
were -.09 for Resolved
and -.92 for
SLI, -74 for dyslexies,
Persistent SLI). Indeed, only the dyslexies and Persistent SLI per
formed significantly
less well than CA-controls.
The dyslexies
at a comparable
also performed
level to the Persistent
SLI and
younger controls on nonword

spelling. Once again, the resolved
those of the adolescents
with
SLI group attained scores between
and the CA-controls
and between-group
differences
dyslexia
Effect sizes were -.47 for
were marginally
(p <.063).
significant
dyslexies,
-.45 for Resolved
SLI and -1.04
for Persistent
SLI.
114
Language
Table
III.
history
Mean
Development
scores
of dyslexia,
on written
specific
language
impairment,
Persistent
SLI
( = 19)
(
(n = 20)
word
tests
language
Resolved
Dyslexic
Single
and Reading
SLI
(n = 20)
Disabilities
for adolescents
RA-
and
with
CA-controls.
Young
Older
Controls
Controls
(n == 18)
(tt
18)
(n = 19)
reading
(WORD: Raw)
M
41.853
Range
48.84a
41.94a
41.00a
50.21b
6.54
5.13
8.23
5.53
2.90
26-49
31-52
22-52
31-49
40-53
30.70a
40.05e
40.05c
SD
Spelling
(WORD raw)
M
35.68bc
33.25ab
32.44ac
SD
5.15
5.23
6.09
4.98
3.01
Range
Range
20-40
27-46
22-43
22-38
33-47
28.00a
29.58a
Reading
Reading
Comprehension
(WORD raw)
M
28.80a
24.25b
23.67b
3.85
3.64
4.60
4.67
4.09
22-35
18-34
13-30
14-30
18-35
16.85ab
20.00ab
r<
vdo O
20.44ab
23.16b
SD
4.25
5.08
6.55
4.85
2.12
Range
Range
6-22
6-25
4-25
5-25
17-25
12.75abc
15.32bcd
SD
2.90
2.89
5-17
9-19
SD
Range
Range
Nonword
Von word
Von word
Nonword
Reading1
Spelling1
Range
Range
Note
all F-ratios
are significant
at .001
11.15a
11.15s
14.06e
14.06c
4.56
2.80
1.94
1-18
9-18
11-20
level.
Means
the same superscript

having
level on Tukey
or Games
and Howell
p<.05
post hoes.
1 Maximum
= 25
Finally, a significant main effect

the reading comprehension
subtest
<.001
In
this
).
case, the dyslexic
p
ment and gained
scores
comparable
and CA-controls.
The Persistent
groups
did significantly
less well
17.1 ld
different
at the
of group was also found on

(F[4, 91] = 8.01, MSe = 17.49,
showed
no impair
readers
to those
SLI
and
with Resolved
younger
but in line with each
SLI
control
other.
Is Dyslexia
Impairment?
115
DISCUSSION
The
of adolescents
with childhood
of
comparison
diagnoses
and
revealed
similarities
dyslexia
specific language
impairment
as well as differences
between
the groups
on tests of spoken
and written language
differences
be
processing.
Interestingly
tween
adolescents
with dyslexia
and those with Resolved
and
Persistent SLI turned on the kind of processing
domain
tapped
tasks with which they were assessed.
by the various
Dyslexic
readers were indistinguishable
from age-matched
controls and
those
with
resolved
on oral language
tasks
language
problems
and grammatical
mea
tapping vocabulary
sensitivity
arguably
sures of general
both adoles
However,
language
competence.
cents with dyslexia
and those with Resolved
SLI did less well
than expected
for their age on Spoonerisms,
a test requiring ex
awareness.
A similar pattern of results was
repetition, although
group differences did not
reach conventional
level of significance.
On all of these oral lan
the group with Persistent
SLI were impaired
guage measures,
for their age and, at best, performed
as
well as younger
only
children some five years their junior.
On tests of written language,
the profile of the groups
re
plicit phonological
seen for nonword
vealed
a somewhat
altered
the fact that the

perspective.
Despite
from
the
Resolved
SLI
dyslexic
group
indistinguishable
on
were
more
in
tasks, they
group
spoken
language
impaired
and
nonword
Indeed
on
all
these
reading,
spelling,
reading.
as poorly as those with Persistent SLI and
tasks, they performed
the severity of their written lan
controls, confirming
younger
disorder.
On
basic
tests
of
guage
reading and spelling, the perfor
mance of the group with Resolved
SLI was slightly impaired
in
relation to age-matched
controls, and they were almost as poor as
with dyslexia
in nonword
adolescents
In the introduc
spelling.
were
two different hypotheses

about the relationship
tion, we posed
between dyslexia and SLI. These results force us to reject a strong
version of the hypothesis
that dyslexia is a form of Resolved
SLI.
the
readers
like
those
whose
Although
dyslexic
performed
early
difficulties had resolved
on tests of oral language,
language
they
did demonstrably
less well on tests of reading and spelling. On
these tests, they performed more like those with persisting prob
their reading
was better.
lems,
although
comprehension
of the group similarity is that
Arguably, a better characterization
the group with Resolved
SLI has residual
phonological
process
but they
ing difficulties that affect their ability to spell nonwords
have
developed
literacy skills in the normal
range.
Language
116
Development
and Reading
Disabilities
Our second hypothesis

was that SLI is a risk factor for read
by both the
ing difficulties. The shared difficulties encountered
task and
SLI and dyslexic
Resolved
group on the Spoonerisms
the
with
this
idea.
in nonword
are
consistent
However,
spelling
not
failure
is
fact that the Resolved
SLI group avoided
reading
would
within this view. The implication
easily accommodated
be that children
with
Resolved
SLI
have
weaknesses
children
with
that
dyslexic
argued
for phonological
compensate
than
reading
development
a greater
to
capacity
the
of
course
during
Nation
and
dyslexia.
children can learn to
(1998) have
Snowling
read by relying on global strategies underpinned
by vocabulary
nonword
for word
reading
despite
persisting
recognition,
and Olson 1992). It seems unlikely that
deficits (Rack, Snowling,
than
could
do this more effectively
the Resolved
SLI group
were
those in the dyslexic group because
indistinguishable
they
tasks administered.
from them on the spoken language
that
An alternative
is
dyslexic children carry the
hypothesis
children who have
risk
of
as
same
dyslexia
language-impaired
also have some,
readers
deficits. However,
dyslexic
phonological
A
candidate
area of
as yet unidentified,
additional
impairment.
be in creating links between

print and pronun
difficulty would
ciation, a difficulty that goes beyond
phonology
per se. A num
in
ber of recent theories suggest just such a deficit in dyslexia
(Wolf
representations
developing
orthographic
word-specific
and Bowers 1999; Wimmer, Mayringer,
and Landerl 1998).
It is important to note that the present study departs from oth
and dyslexic children
ers that have compared
language-impaired
in the age of the sample
tested. Kamhi and Catts (1986) investi
gated groups of much younger children, age 6 to 8 years, and it is
SLI group would

not have
at
this
for language
stage. Figure 2
impairment
shows the profile of the dyslexic group against that of those with
data
at four years (i.e., pooling
preschool
language
impairment
in
from the Resolved
and Persistent SLI groups).
When viewed
relevant
to note
that our Resolved
filled the criteria
this way, the profiles of the two groups

are strikingly similar;
while the adolescents
with dyslexia had more significant spelling
and better developed
both
problems
comprehension,
reading
in
showed
deficits
in
awareness
and
the
use
groups
phonological
of phonological
reading and spelling strategies.
These findings provide
some confirmation
for the hypothe

sis posed
above.
and
children
SLI
Therefore, dyslexic
carry the
same risk of dyslexia,
deficits.
It
seems,
namely
phonological
that dyslexic children use higher-order
skills
however,
language
as a compensatory
resource
read
(as revealed
by their superior
Is Dyslexia
0
CD
cc
o
o
O
o
QQ.
oc
U)
w
Figure 2.
CO
"D
"O
1
i_
o
O
u
T3
0
vu
CO
CD
0
0
cc
(0
0
TD
u
X
U_
O
o
CD
0
w
Q.
Q
Q.
(O
(J)
CO
Impairment?
CO
TD
i
O
5
z
"O
TJ
CO
CD
So.
CC
DC
117
CO
"O
1
o
5
z
"03
Q.
CO
C/D
Performance of dyslexie
dyslexic children relative to the whole
sample of adolescents who had a language impairment at
4 years (SLI combined).
A consequence
of their greater reliance on
ing comprehension).
context is that they develop
less well-specified
orthographic
than those who rely less on top-down
representations
process
children.
ing to learn to read, such as language-impaired
When sampling
differences are taken into consideration,
it is
clear that the present findings align well with those of Kamhi
and Catts (1986)
who found that dyslexic
children
and those
with persisting
both
language
impairments
performed
poorly
on phonological
tasks and in nonword
processing
reading.
the superior
However,
SLI confirms the view
of the group with Resolved

at which oral language
im
of
predictor
prognosis.
performance
that the age
resolve is an important
pairments
A limitation
of the present study was
children
classified
into the three clinical
Indeed,
the
results
children
that the numbers

of
were
small.
groups
differ somewhat
from those
language
from whom we selected
the present groups
impaired
(Stothard et al. 1998). The lower statistical power in the present
differences
fre
study means that between-group
performance
failed
to reach
conventional
levels
of significance
quently
118
Language
Development
and Reading
Disabilities
there were distinct trends pointing to nonword

although
and spelling deficits in those with Resolved
SLI. These
the
to
issues
definition
of
point
diagnostic
surrounding
and lead us to be cautious
about our interpretation.
We
reading
findings
dyslexia
suggest
that the concept of a dyslexic spectrum may be one with consid
erable clinical utility that circumvents
the issue of fuzzy category
We propose
that a dimension
of phonological
boundaries.
pro
is at the core of this spectrum
(cf. Stanovich
cessing impairments
and Siegel 1994). The impact of these impairments

will be modi
fied both by language
resources
outside
of the phono
processing
domain
and
more
(Nation
1998),
logical
general
Snowling
such as processing
cognitive resources
speed, and aspects of at
tention control.
The
of the present
findings
the
factors
that place
considering
study make clear that, when

a child at risk of dyslexia,
it is
to
take
view
of
the
demands
of
a
important
developmental
to
In
it
read.
is
to
consider
how
learning
particular,
necessary
difficulties impact on children's
language
reading development
at different stages, placing
them at differential risk of dyslexia.
to read is an interactive
that draws
not only
Learning
process
on phonology,
but also on other language
as well
resources
et
al.
As
have
others
(Plaut
1996).
argued, language
impairment
outcome
places a child at risk of reading failure, but a dyslexic
is not the only scenario for children from this population.
An in
teraction of their language
and
will
weaknesses
deter
strengths
mine their outcome,
which will be more favorable
in the context
of appropriate
intervention
1996).
(Snowling
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This
from Wellcome
study was carried out with support
grant
to the second
author.
Ian Walker
was sup
040195/Z/93/A
Vacation
We thank Sue
ported
by a Wellcome
scholarship.
Stothard
and Dorothy
for help at various
Bishop
stages in the
research and Janice Brown, who assisted
in data collection
sup
ported
by a vacation
award
from the Nuffield
Foundation.
Address correspondence
to: Margaret J. Snowling, Department of
Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD (mjsl9@york.ac.uk);
Dr. Nata Goulandris, Department of Human Communication
Science,
Dr. Ian Walker,
University College London, (a.goulandris@ucl.ac.uk);
Max Planck Institute
of Cognitive
Neuroscience
(MEG
group),
D-04828 Bennewitz, Germany (walker@cns.mpg.de).
Is Dyslexia
Impairment?
119
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IS DYSLEXIA A FORM OF SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT?

Two groups of adolescents with a childhood history of language impair

age as those in the clinical groups, and a younger comparison group of

Copyright 2000 by The International Dyslexia Association

apparent. In reading and spelling, adolescents with dyslexia performed

of these findings are discussed.

(SLI) and developmental

ders exist on a continuum

a Form of Specific Language

have been shown

a Form of Specific Language

to the dyslexic and the persistent SLI

the same superscript

are not significantly

a picture from a selection

six easy items

In this test, the child repeated

a Form of Specific Language

was thought to be too sensitive to underlying

in this test. One

into the analyses

from the three clinical

Performance of dyslexie, resolved SU, persistent SU, and

a Form of Specific Language

and Fidell 1996). Reflect and

Reflect and logarithm transformations

Table II shows the performance

tasks. The MANOVA

better than the Persistent

younger controls. There were also significant group differences

are not significantly

a Form of Specific Language

= 11.60, MSe = 25.14,

level, but it is clear that those

younger controls on nonword

-.45 for Resolved

SLI and -1.04

the same superscript

Finally, a significant main effect

of group was also found on

a Form of Specific Language

the fact that the

two different hypotheses

literacy skills in the normal

Our second hypothesis

be in creating links between

SLI group would

that our Resolved

filled the criteria

this way, the profiles of the two groups

for the hypothe

a Form of Specific Language

of the group with Resolved

that the numbers

there were distinct trends pointing to nonword

and Siegel 1994). The impact of these impairments

study make clear that, when

from the Nuffield

a Form of Specific Language

Journal of Speech and Hearing

L. C. 2000. Speech and Language

Research to Practice. Hove: