Universals and specifics of reading development in European languages. Cross Cultural Perspectives on Reading Disabilities

Many European languages use alphabetic orthographies, and these can vary extensively in their transparency, or letter-sound consistency. An important question in cross-linguistic research on literacy development concerns the impact that orthographic consistency may have on the neuropsychological predictors as well as on the patterns of alphabetic reading development. In this presentation, I report on a series of studies that directly compared reading development in English, with its inconsistent orthography, and Spanish, Czech and Slovak, all with relatively consistent orthographies. The studies tracked children’s reading development from kindergarten to the end of grade 2, and focused on the cognitive precursors and correlates of early word reading skills, on the growth patterns of silent and aloud reading skills, and on the pathways to reading comprehension. These studies demonstrate that while orthographic consistency affects the rate of alphabetic reading and spelling acquisition, these skills are underpinned by a language-general set of cognitive skills. The implications of these findings for the identification of children at risk of literacy difficulties, as well as for their remediation will be discussed.