This paper explores the nature of residual literacy and cognitive deficits in self-reported dyslexic Norwegian adults. The performance of 26 self-reported dyslexic adults was compared with that of a comparison group of 47 adults with no history of reading or spelling difficulties. Participants completed standardized and experimental measures tapping literacy skills, working memory, phonological awareness and rapid naming. Spelling problems were the most prominent marker of dyslexia in adults, followed by text reading fluency and nonword decoding. Working memory and phoneme awareness explained unique variance in spelling, whereas rapid automatized naming explained unique variance in reading fluency and nonword reading. The moderate to strong correlations between self-reported history, self-rating of current literacy skills and outcomes on literacy tests indicate that adults estimated their literacy skills fairly well. Results suggest that spelling impairments, more strongly than reading impairments, make adults perceive themselves as being dyslexic. A combination of three literacy and three cognitive tests predicted group membership with 90.4% accuracy. It appears that weaknesses in phoneme awareness, rapid automatized naming and working memory are strong and persistent correlates of literacy problems even in adults learning a relatively transparent orthography.

The aim of this study was to examine (a) the development of vocabulary and grammar in children with family-risk (FR) of dyslexia and their peers with no such risk (NoFR) between ages 1;6 and 6;0, and (b) whether FR-status exerted an effect on the direction of temporal relationships between these two constructs. Groups were assessed at seven time-points using standardised tests and parental reports. Results indicated that although FR and NoFR children had a similar development in the earlier years, the FR group appeared to perform significantly more poorly on vocabulary at the end of the preschool period. Results showed no significant effect of FR status on the cross-lagged relations between lexical and grammatical skills, suggesting a similar developmental pattern of cross-domain relations in both groups. However, FR status seemed to have a significantly negative association with vocabulary and grammar scores at age 6;0, resulting in language outcomes in favour of NoFR children.

The potential role of home literacy environment (HLE) in children's language development has been widely studied. However, data on the HLE of children with familial risk (FR) of dyslexia are limited. In this longitudinal study, we examined (a) whether amount of book exposure and reading interest at age 4 were different in samples of Norwegian FR and no FR‐children, respectively, (b) whether these home literacy‐related factors exerted different effects depending on family‐risk status on vocabulary and grammar skills at school entry age (6 years) and (c) whether they contributed independently to language outcomes at age 6, after controlling for the 4;6‐year language skills. Results showed no significant between‐group differences in book exposure and reading interest. Furthermore, while interest in reading did not affect vocabulary and grammar in either group, book exposure contributed to vocabulary skills only in the FR‐group by school entry. However, this longitudinal association was mediated by lexical skills at age 4;6, implying that the HLE has a positive indirect effect on later language development through its effect on early language. Thus, these findings can be taken to suggest that early intervention including exposure to various book‐reading activities for pre‐school FR‐children with poor expressive vocabulary is worth considering.

This study examined retrospectively the preschool cognitive and linguistic profiles and emergent literacy skills in four Norwegian dyslexic children. The aim was to identify prognostic indicators that were associated with the reading impairments observed in an earlier study of these children. In comparison to a control group of at-risk children who were normal readers at age 10, three of the four dyslexic children exhibited either stagnation or a decline in speech accuracy in the presence of a vocabulary growth spurt at age 2-3 years. Skills in phonological awareness seemed to vary inconsistently with both early speech development and emergent literacy across the four cases. Delayed development in emergent literacy turned out to be the most potent prognostic indicator of later reading disorders. The study was guided by lexical restructuring theories of dyslexia.