What the word processing skills of prelingually deafened readers tell about the roots of dyslexia

The present experiment represents an attempt to learn from the comparison of dyslectic readers, prelingually deafened readers, and a control group of typically developing hearing readers, in four particular areas, about factors determining their reading skills. Twenty-three students with diagnosed dyslexia (mean grade level 9.7 [1.53]), 20 students with prelingual deafness (mean grade level 8.9 [1.33]), and a control of 41 typically developing hearing students (mean grade level 8.9 [1.43]) participated in the study. Four distinct areas were examined which included: (a) the rapid, repetitive execution of two simple, familiar motor actions; (b) the rapid, consecutive judgment of the identicalness of two digit stimuli; (c) the rapid, consecutive, perceptual processing of word pairs; and (d) the rapid, consecutive, conceptual processing of word pairs. Findings obtained from the comparison of the three participant groups in the four tested areas indicate that the reading difficulties of dyslectic readers and prelingually deafened readers have different sources, neither of which are directly, causally related to a phonological processing deficit.