What Children See Affects How They Read

Cornelissen, Piers L.; Bradley, Lynette; Fowler, Sue; Stein, John

doi:10.1111/j.1469-8749.1991.tb14959.x

Cited by 64 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…These results suggest that individuals with dyslexia are more sensitive to the visual features of text, and consequently have greater susceptibility to readinginduced fatigue. This direct causal link between vision and dyslexia is supported by findings that reading under demanding visual conditions, such as with small print, leads to declines in reading performance by dyslexic individuals (Cornelissen, Bradley, Fowler, & Stein, 1991;Skottun, 2001;O'Brien, Mansfield, & Legge, 2000). Furthermore, Cornelissen et al (1991) found that reading errors decreased with larger print size for reading disabled children with poor binocular control, suggesting a causal link between a stressed visual system and reading impairment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Computerized screening for visual stress in children with dyslexia

Singleton

Henderson

2007

Dyslexia

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Visual stress-a condition in which unpleasant visual symptoms are experienced when reading-has been reported to be more prevalent in dyslexic individuals but at the present time the relationship between dyslexia and visual stress remains controversial. ViSS, a computerized visual stress screener that incorporates reading-like visual search, has recently shown promise in studies with unselected samples of primary and secondary school children. This study investigated the use of ViSS with dyslexic children. Dyslexic children identified as having high visual stress showed significantly higher per cent increases in reading rate with a coloured overlay and reported significantly higher critical symptoms of visual stress, compared to dyslexic children with low visual stress. The same results were found for reading-age controls, indicating that ViSS can be equally effective with normal readers as well as with children with dyslexia. Compared to reading-age controls, dyslexic children were found to have significantly higher susceptibility to visual stress, significantly larger per cent increases in reading rate with an overlay, and significantly higher critical and non-critical symptoms of visual stress. Extrapolated to unselected population samples, the data also suggest that visual stress is more likely to be found in people with dyslexia than in people who do not have dyslexia. These results, which point to an important link between the two conditions, are discussed in relation to current theories that attribute visual stress to either a magnocellular dysfunction or cortical hyperexcitability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Computerized screening for visual stress in children with dyslexia

Singleton

Henderson

2007

Dyslexia

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“…They complain that letters seem to move around on the page, so that it is difficult to work out their order . The binocular instability also manifests itself in significantly more visual errors made by dyslexics than by controls when reading words written in reduced letter size (Cornelissen, Bradley, Fowler, & Stein, 1991) and text where letters are relatively close to each other (Atkinson, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive profiles of adult developmental dyslexics: theoretical implications

Reid¹,

Szczerbiński²,

Iskierka-Kasperek³

et al. 2006

Dyslexia

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The aim of this study was to establish cognitive profiles of dyslexic adults on tests developed within the three main theories of developmental dyslexia: phonological, visual magnocellular and cerebellar and to investigate which theory can account for these profiles. The sample consisted of 15 Polish university students or alumni with a formal diagnosis of dyslexia, without ADHD and 15 controls matched on education, age, gender, IQ and handedness. The results revealed a striking heterogeneity of profiles. Nine dyslexics exhibited only a phonological deficit; one a phonological and a visual magnocellular deficit; a further three a phonological and a cerebellar deficit; two either a cerebellar or a visual magnocellular deficit. None of the three main theories of dyslexia can account for all the cases studied here. It is suggested that the best account of these data is in terms of different sub-types of dyslexia with different underlying causes, such as phonological, visual magnocellular and cerebellar, or a combination of these. However, an account in terms of Ramus' (Trends, Neurosci. 2004; 27(12): 720-726) model, according to which the phonological deficit is a core deficit in dyslexia and other deficits (magnocellular and cerebellar), are just co-morbid markers without a causal relationship to dyslexics' literacy difficulties, cannot currently be ruled out.

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“…* However, very little research has investigated the potential effects of such manipulations (12,13). Here, we pursue this approach, which is motivated by behavioral evidence showing that dyslexics are abnormally affected by crowding (14)(15)(16)(17), a perceptual phenomenon with detrimental effects on letter recognition that is modulated by the spacing between letters (18,19).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia

Zorzi

Barbiero

Facoetti

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

268

219

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Although the causes of dyslexia are still debated, all researchers agree that the main challenge is to find ways that allow a child with dyslexia to read more words in less time, because reading more is undisputedly the most efficient intervention for dyslexia. Sophisticated training programs exist, but they typically target the component skills of reading, such as phonological awareness. After the component skills have improved, the main challenge remains (that is, reading deficits must be treated by reading more—a vicious circle for a dyslexic child). Here, we show that a simple manipulation of letter spacing substantially improved text reading performance on the fly (without any training) in a large, unselected sample of Italian and French dyslexic children. Extra-large letter spacing helps reading, because dyslexics are abnormally affected by crowding, a perceptual phenomenon with detrimental effects on letter recognition that is modulated by the spacing between letters. Extra-large letter spacing may help to break the vicious circle by rendering the reading material more easily accessible.

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What Children See Affects How They Read

Cited by 64 publications

References 27 publications

Computerized screening for visual stress in children with dyslexia

Computerized screening for visual stress in children with dyslexia

Cognitive profiles of adult developmental dyslexics: theoretical implications

Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia

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