WORLD DYSLEXIA FORUMBest practice in the teaching of reading and writing. How teachers can help children with

specific learning difficulties

The roots of dyslexia in French

Report by José MoraisUniversité Libre de Bruxelles – ULB

French Report

At the behavioural level, dyslexia is the selective impairment of the ability of written word identification

Text(words 1, 2, 3, ...)

Written word identification(recovery of lexical phonological

& orthographic forms as well as lexical meaning)

Text comprehension

Cognitive and linguisticCapacities

(used in oral language

communication)

Knowledge of grapheme-phoneme

correspondencesand of ortographic

word structures

Dyslexia

Written word identification

Comprehension in reading

Cognitive and linguistic capacities

Hyperlexia

Written word identification

Comprehensionin reading

Cognitive and linguistic

capacities

Levels of description :

Neurological <—> Cognitive <—> Behavioural

the only one that gives a meaningful account of dyslexia and that can, presently, inspire

efficient measures helping to prevent, diagnose and reeducate dyslexic children

French Report

Not all children presenting difficulties or delays in learning to read and write are dyslexics

French ReportFluss et al. (2009)

20 schools in Paris, more than 1,000 children, almost all from 2d grade; high, medium and low s-e level

12.7% were poor readers (P)

word pseudoword text Poor Good Poor Good Poor Good

11.5% 40.3% 20.0% 81.4% 10.6% 47.2%

text comprehensionPoor Good11% 53%

French Report

Fluss et al. (2009)

although the 3 socio-economic levels were equally represented in the whole sample,

poor readers were 3.3% from high level10.9% from medium

and 24.2% from low

French Report

Conditions of learning to read in the alphabetic system of writing:

1.The discovery of the alphabetic principle

2.The progressive mastery of the orthographic code of the language

3.The constitution of an orthographic lexicon

French ReportLearning to read in FrenchSPRENGER-CHAROLLES ET AL. (1998): % of correct

responsesRegular Words Irregular words Pseudowords

1e 88.6 33.3 70.1 2e 94.0 58.8 79.13e 98.9 82.9 94.84e 97.0 84.2 89.4

SPRENGER-CHAROLLES ET AL. (2003):Decoding abilities account the most for variance in

word reading

French Report

Learning to read in FrenchBOSSE ET AL. (2007):VISUAL ATTENTION SPAN: NUMBER OF DISTINCT VISUAL

ELEMENTS THAT CAN BE PROCESSED IN A SINGLE GLANCE

BOSSE & VALDOIS (2009):400 CHILDREN; % OF 5-LETTER STRINGS CORRECTLY

IDENTIFIED:

1RST GRADE: 7.3%3D GRADE: 33.5%5TH GRADE: 46.7%

Strongest contribution to word reading:in 1st grade, phonemic awareness; in 3d and 5th grade, visual processing span

French ReportLearning to read in French, in dyslexics and

poor readers— Deficits in phonemic awarenessFluss et al. (2009): phonemic awareness accounted

for about 50% of the varianceSprenger-Charolles et al. (2009): dyslexics from a

special institution, compared to good readersIrregular words: both about 20% correct responses

Dyslexics (9 yrs) Good readers (7 yrs)

Short PW: 56% 67%Long PW: 20% 43%—> importance of decoding phonological abilities

Visual orthographic processing: Bosse et al. (2007) 68 dyslexics: age 11:6 ; reading age: 7:11

Visual span: dyslexics: 26%, good readers: 60%Prado et al. (2007):

French Report

French ReportCHETAIL & MATHEY (2008)

Color = Syll. yes no

Carotte Carotte CarotteCarton Carton Carton

Ecalle et al. (2009)

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French Report

French ReportRecommendations1. Research: join researchers and clinicians;

compare training programs2. Teaching: prepare teachers (theoretically and

practically) according to recent scientific advances

3. Diagnostics and intervention: determine reader’s profile; intervene specifically on impaired abilities

4. Prevention and training: target phonological abilities and/or visual processing

5. Compensatory means: use for ex. vocal recognition

French ReportAcknowledgments• Catherine Billard (neurologue / pédiatre, Hôpital Bicêtre)• Aurélie Périot et M. Chatriot (orthophoniste et pédiatre, SESSAD

Dysphasia, Paris 11e)• Françoise Chetail (chercheur post-doctoral et psycholinguiste,

Université Libre de Bruxelles – ULB)• Jean Ecalle (Laboratoire Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, EA 3082,

Université Lyon 2, Bron)• Michel Fayol (Université Blaise Pascal, CNRS UMR 6024, Clermont-

Ferrand)• Willy Serniclaes (Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, CNRS UMR

825, Paris-75270)• Liliane Sprenger-Charolles (idem)• Monique Touzin (Ecole d’Orthophonie de Paris et orthophoniste)• Sylviane Valdois (Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition,

CNRS, Université Pierre Mendès-France, Grenoble)• Johannes Ziegler (Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS UMR

6146, Marseille)

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Books with extensive syntheses:

• C. Billard & M. Touzin (coord.) – « Etat des connaissances sur les troubles des apprentissages » (2003), 1000 pages, écrit par 75 experts européens, téléchargeable gratuitement sur « arta.fr » (Association pour la Recherche sur les Troubles des Apprentissages), plus CD-Rom.

• INSERM (2007). Dyslexie, dysorthographie, dyscalculie. Bilan des données scientifiques. Rédigé par 15 experts (800 pages).