Skip to main content

A Connectionist Perspective on Reading and Its Difficulties

  • Chapter
Dyslexia: Advances in Theory and Practice

Part of the book series: Neuropsychology and Cognition ((NPCO,volume 16))

Abstract

Learning to read in an alphabetic system such as English involves both building a sight vocabulary and developing decoding skills. However, the goal of reading, is not merely printed word recognition but also comprehension. Comprehension of text requires the integration of word meanings within narrative structures, making appropriate use of contextual cues and inferences based on general knowledge. Put this way, learning to read is a considerable feat, even for the child who comes to the task well-prepared in terms of their spoken language ability.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Adams, M.J. (1990). Beginning to read — Thinking and Learning about Print. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, L. & Bryant, P.E. (1983). Categorising sounds and learning to read — a causal connection. Nature, 301, 419–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brady, S., Shankweiler, D. & Mann, V. (1983). Speech perception and memory coding in relation to reading ability. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 35, 345–367.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bruck, M. (1990). Word-recognition skills of adults with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia. Developmental Psychology, 26, 439–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruck, M. (1992). Persistence of dyslexies’ phonological awareness deficits. Developmental Psychology, 28, 874–886.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, B., Fielding-Barnsley, R., Ashley, L. & Larsen, K. (1997). Assessing the child’s contribution to reading acquisition: What we know and what we don’t know. In Blachman, B. (Ed.) Cognitive and Linguistic Foundations of Reading Acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp 265–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, R, & Butterworth, B. (1985). Phonological dyslexia and dysgraphia in a highly literate subject: a developmental case with associated deficits of phonemic processing and awareness. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 37A, 435–475.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castles, A. & Coltheart, M. (1992). Varieties of developmental dyslexia. Cognition, 47, 149–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castles, A. & Coltheart, M. (1996). Cognitive correlates of developmental surface dyslexia: a single case study. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 13(1), 25–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cataldo, S. & Ellis, N. (1988). Interactions in the development of spelling, reading and phonological skills. Journal of Research in Reading, 11, 86–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coltheart M., Masterson, J., Byng, S., Prior, M & Riddoch, J. (1983). Surface dyslexia. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 35, 469–495.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ehri, L.C. (1992). Reconceptualising the development of sight word reading and its relationship to recoding. In P.B. Gough, L.C. Ehri and R. Treiman (Eds). Reading Acquisition, 107–143. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum and Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehri, L.C. & Wilce, L.S. (1985). Movement into reading: is the first stage of printed word learning visual or phonetic? Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 163–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elbro, C., Borstrom, I & Peterson, D.K. (1997). Predicting dyslexia from kindergarten: The importance of distinctiveness of phonological representations of lexical items. Reading Research Quarterly.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, A. (1991). How early phonological development might set the stage for phoneme awareness. In Brady, S.A. & Shankweiler, D.P. (Eds.) Phonological processes in literacy: A tribute to Isabelle Liberman (pp. 97–117) NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frith, U. (1985). Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia. In K. Patterson, M. Coltheart and J. Marshall (Eds). Surface Dyslexia, 301–330. London: Routledge and Kegan-Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallagher, A., Frith, U. and Snowling, M. Early language skills in preschoolers at risk of dyslexia. Unpublished manuscript. MRC Cognitive Development Unit, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goswami, U. & Bryant, P.E. (1990). Phonological Skills and Learning to Read. London: Erlbaum and Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gough, P.B., & Tunmer, W.E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goulandris, A. & Snowling, M. (1991). Visual memory deficits: A plausible cause of developmental dyslexia? Evidence from a single case study. Cognitive Neuropsychology. 8, 127–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanley, J.R., Hastie, K. & Kay, J. (1992). Developmental surface dyslexia and dysgraphia: An orthographic processing impairment. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 44A, 285–320.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatcher, P., Hulme, C., & Ellis, A. W. (1994). Ameliorating early reading failure by integrating the teaching of reading and phonological skills: The phonological linkage hypothesis. Child Development, 65, 41–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hulme, C. & Roodenrys, S. (1995). Verbal working memory development and its disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36, 373–398.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hulme, C. & Snowling, M. (1988). The classification of children with reading difficulties. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 30, 391–406.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulme, C. & Snowling, M. (1992). Deficits in output phonology: An explanation of reading failure? Cognitive Neuropsychology, 9, 47–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, R.S. & Thompson, G.B. (1989). Is dependence on phonological information in children’s reading a product of instructional approach? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 40 131–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorm, A.F. & Share, D.L. (1983). Phonological reading and reading acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 4, 103–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juel, C. (1995). The messenger may be wrong, but the message may be right. Journal for Research in reading, 18, 146–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefly, D.L. & Pennington, B.F. (1996). Longitudinal Study of children at high family risk for dyslexia: the first two years. In M.L. Rice (Ed.) Toward a genetics of language. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Locke, J.L., Hodgson,J., Macaruso,P.,Roberts,J.,Lambrecht-Smith,S. & Guttentag, C. (1997). The development of developmental dyslexia. In Hulme, C. & Snowling, M. (Eds). Dyslexia: Biology, Cognition and Intervention London: Whurr (72–96).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovett, M. W., Borden, S. L., DeLuca, T., Lacreerenza, L., Benson, N. J., & Brackstone, D. (1994). Treating the core deficits of developmental dyslexia: evidence of transfer of learning after phonologically- and strategy-based reading programs. Developmental Psychology, 30, 805–822.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lundberg, I., Oloffson, A. and Wall, S. (1980) Reading and spelling skills in the first school years predicted from phonemic awareness skills in kindergarten. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 21, 159–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyytinen, H. (1997). In search of the precursors of dyslexia: A prospective study of children at risk for reading problems. In Hulme, C., & Snowling, M. (Eds). Dyslexia: Biology, Cognition and Intervention London: Whurr (97–107).

    Google Scholar 

  • Manis, F.R., Seidenberg, M.S., Doi, L.M., McBride-Chang, C. & Petersen, A. (1996). On the bases of 2 subtypes of developmental dyslexia. Cognition, 58(2), 157–95.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C & Manis, F.R. (1996). Structural invariance in the associations of naming speed, phonological awareness, and verbal reasoning in good and poor readers: A test of the double deficit hypothesis. Reading and Writing, 8(4), 323–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morton, J. & Frith, U. (1995). Causal modelling: a structural approach to developmental psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti and D. J. Cohen. (Eds). Manual of developmental psychopathology. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nation, K. & Snowling. M. (1997). Assessing reading difficuties: the validity and utility of current measures of reading skill. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 359–370.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nation, K., & Snowling, M. (in press). Individual differences in contextual facilitation:Evidence from dyslexia and poor reading comprehension. Child Development, 69

    Google Scholar 

  • Nation, K., & Snowling, M. (1998). Semantic processing and the development of word recognition skills: Evidence from children with reading comprehension difficulties. Journal of Memory & Language, 39, 85–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson, R. K., Wise, B., Johnson, M., Ring, J. (1997). The etiology and remediation of phonologically based word recognition and spelling disabilities: Are phonological deficits the “hole” story? In B. Blachman (Ed.), Foundations of reading acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum (pp 305–326).

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennington, B.F., Van Orden, G.C., Smith, S.D., Green, P.A. & Haith, MM. (1990). Phonological processing skills and deficits in adult dyslexic children. Child Development, 61, 1753–1778.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perfetti, C., Beck, I., Bell, L. & Hughes, C. (1987). Phonemic knowledge and learning to read are reciprocal: A longitudinal study of first grade children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 33, 283–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plaut, D., McClelland, J.L., Seidenberg, M.S. & Patterson, K. E. (1996). Understanding normal and impaired reading: Computational principles in quasi-irregular domains. Psychological Review, 103, 56–115.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pring, L., & Snowling, M. (1986). Developmental changes in word recognition: An information-processing account. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38A, 395–518.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rego, L. L., & Bryant, P. E. (1993). The connection between phonological, syntactic and semantic skills and children’s reading and spelling. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 13, 235–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rack, J, Hulme, C. & Snowling, M. (1993). Learning to read: A theoretical synthesis. In H. Reese (Ed.) Advances in child development and behavior. Vol. 24, 99–132. New York: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rack, J, Hulme, C., Snowling, M. & Wightman, J (1994). The role of phonology in young children learning to read words: The direct mapping hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 57, 42–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rack, J. P., Snowling, M. J. & Olson, R. K. (1992). The nonword reading deficit in dyslexia: a review. Reading Research Quarterly, 27, 29–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reed, C. (1989). Speech perception and the discrimination of brief auditory cues in reading disabled children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 48, 270–292.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scarborough, H.S. (1990). Very early language deficits in dyslexic children Child Development 61,1728–43.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seidenberg, M. (1992). Dyslexia in a computational model of word recognition in reading. In P.B. Gough, L. Ehri & R. Treiman (Eds.) Reading acquisition. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seidenberg, M. & McClelland, J. (1989). A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. Psychological Review, 96, 523–568.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seymour, P.H.K. (1986). A cognitive analysis of dyslexia._London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seymour, P.H.K. (1990). Developmental dyslexia. In M.W. Eysenck (Ed.) Cognitive psychology: An international review, 135–195. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seymour, P.H.K. & Evans, H.M.(1993). The visual (orthographic) processor and dyslexia. In Willows, D.M., Kruk, R.S. & Corcos, E. (Eds.) Visual processes in reading and reading disabilities, 317–346. Hillsdale, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shankweiler, D., Crain, S., Katz, L., Fowler, A.E., Liberman, A.M., Brady, S.A., Thornton, R., Lundquist, E., Dreyer, L., Fletcher, J.M., Stubing, K.K., Shaywitz, S.E. & Shaywitz, B.A. (1995). Cognitive profiles of reading disabled children: Comparison of language skills in phonology, morphology, and syntax. Psychological Science, 6, 149–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Share, D.L. (1995). Phonological recoding and self-teaching: sine qua non of reading acquisition. Cognition, 55, 151–218.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. (1987) Dyslexia: a cognitive developmental perspective. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. (1981). Phonemic deficits in developmental dyslexia. Psychological Research, 43, 219–234.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. (1995). Phonological processing and developmental dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading, 18, 132–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. (1996). Annotation: contemporary approaches to the teaching of reading. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 139–148.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M., Goulandris, N., Bowlby, M. and Howell, P. (1986). Segmentation and speech perception in relation to reading skill: a development analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 66, 780–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. & Hulme, C. (1989). A longitudinal case study of developmental phonological dyslexia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 6, 379–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. & Hulme, C. (1994). The development of phonological skills. Transactions of the Royal Society B, 346, 21–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M., Hulme, C. & Goulandris, N. (1994). Word recognition in developmental dyslexia: a connectionist interpretation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47A, 895–916.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M., Nation, K., Moxham, P., Gallagher, A. & Frith, U. (1997). Phonological processing deficits in dyslexic students: a preliminary account. Journal of Research in Reading, 20, 31–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M., van Wagtendonk, B. & Stafford, C. (1988). Object-naming deficits in developmental dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading, 11, 67–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K.E. (1991). Discrepancy definitions of reading disability: Has intelligence led us astray? Reading Research Quarterly, 26, 7–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K.E., Siegel, L.S. and Gottardo, A. (1997) Progress in the search for dyslexia sub-types, in Hulme, C. and Snowling, M. (Eds. Dyslexia: Biology, Cognition and Intervention. London: Whurr (ppl08–130)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stothard, S. E., & Hulme, C. (1995). A comparison of phonological skills in children with reading comprehension difficulties and children with decoding difficulties. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36, 399–408.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stuart, M. & Coltheart, M. (1988). Does reading develop in a sequence of stages? Cognition, 30, 139–181.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Swan, D. & Goswami, U. (1997) Object naming deficits in developmental dyslexia. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 56, 334–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Temple, C.M. & Marshall, J.C. (1983). A case study of developmental phonological dyslexia. British Journal of Psychology, 74, 517–533.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vellutino, F.R., & Scanlon, D.M. (1991). The pre-eminence of phonologically based skills in learning to read. In S. Brady & D. Shankweiler (Eds.) Phonological processes in literacy: a tribute to Isabelle Liberman Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wimmer, H. & Hummer, P. (1990). How German speaking first graders read and spell: Doubts on the importance of the logographic stage. Applied Psycholinguistics, 11, 349–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuill, N. & Oakhill, J. (1991). Children’s problems in text comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Snowling, M.J., Hulme, C. (1999). A Connectionist Perspective on Reading and Its Difficulties. In: Lundberg, I., Tønnessen, F.E., Austad, I. (eds) Dyslexia: Advances in Theory and Practice. Neuropsychology and Cognition, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4667-8_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4667-8_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5967-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4667-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics