Comparative study of linguistic and reading skills between a group of children with specific language impairment and a group of children with dyslexia

Abstract

Reading is a fundamental process of school learning, which requires a broad group of skills, including language skills such as phonological awareness, vocabulary and the individual reading skills themselves, such as decoding and reading comprehension. There is one group that presents reading difficulties, children with dyslexia, and another group that have been identified as at risk for reader learning, children with specific language disorder (TEL). There are several studies and theories that have sought a relationship between both sides.

Objective: To determine and compare the performance of Spanish-speaking children with TEL and dyslexia in language and reading skills, and determine the impact of these skills in the reading process.

Methods: The sample is composed of 55 children of 2nd grade, 31 with TEL and 24 with dyslexia. The linguistic skills evaluated were phonological awareness and vocabulary, alongside the reading skills, decoding and reading comprehension.

Results: The results show that both linguistic and reading skills are diminished in both groups. The group with dyslexia has a significantly lower performance in reading skills, while in language skills no significant differences are observed. In addition, a positive correlation was found between phonological awareness and decoding, and the latter with reading comprehension in both groups. Only in the group with TEL is phonological awareness correlated to reading comprehension, whereas in the dyslexic children’s group this relationship occurs only with decoding.

Conclusions: The results of this study help establish that both sides are not totally different as they have similar manifestations especially in the performance of the linguistic abilities and in the relation of these with the reading. Yet, the difference is mainly due to reading skills where the group of children with dyslexia has a lower performance than children with TEL.