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SUMMARY:Towards Understanding the Brain Basis of Developmental Dyslexia: A
  Cross-Language Approach - Prof. Usha Goswami\, Centre for Neuroscience in
  Education\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20091112T170000Z
DTEND:20091112T183000Z
UID:TALK20196@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Catherine Davies
DESCRIPTION:In this talk\, I will provide a theoretical overview at the co
 gnitive level of reading acquisition and developmental dyslexia across lan
 guages. Phonological awareness is a strong predictor of reading developmen
 t\, and develops at three linguistic levels. These are the levels of the s
 yllable\, the rhyme and the phoneme. I will develop the hypothesis that sy
 llabic representation is basic to many languages\, and that children’s a
 bility to recognise syllables and rhymes precedes learning a particular sp
 elling system. I will argue that this developmental view can readily expla
 in cross-language differences in reading acquisition. I will then argue th
 at it can also explain cross-language differences in the manifestation of 
 developmental dyslexia. I will suggest that some of the processes underpin
 ning language acquisition are disrupted in developmental dyslexia\, and th
 at this leads to deficits in the development of phonological representatio
 n before literacy is acquired. This causes characteristic and persistent p
 roblems in tasks reliant on the phonological system such as short-term mem
 ory and speeded naming\, and also causes later literacy problems. Accordin
 g to this theoretical analysis\, dyslexic children in all languages should
  have an underlying deficit that impairs their acquisition of syllabic str
 uctures. I will suggest that a plausible candidate is basic auditory proce
 ssing of the rhythmic structure of speech and nonspeech sounds. I will pre
 sent evidence that rhythmic processing is impaired in dyslexic children ac
 ross languages\, and suggest ways in which this might impair the adequate 
 development of the phonological system.
LOCATION:GR05\, English Faculty\, 9 West Road (Sidgwick Site)
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