A Comparison of Word Recognition Skills between Elementary Students with Reading Disabilities and Students without Disabilities: Focusing on Word Recognition Performance and Error Patterns

Kim, Ae Hwa; Kang, Eun Young

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2010;15(4): 632-647.

Ae Hwa Kim^` , and Eun Young Kang^`

김애화(Ae Hwa Kim)|강은영(Eun Young Kang)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
Several studies have focused on the empirical questions regarding whether students with reading disabilities show a delay in development or a qualitative difference from students without reading disabilities in various countries with shallow and deep orthographies. There are limited studies available that compare the word recognition skills of these 2 groups in Korea. The purpose of the present study was to compare the word recognition skills of students with reading disabilities to students without reading disabilities in Korea.
Methods
A total of 59 elementary students (26 students with reading disabilities and 33 students without reading disabilities) participated in a battery of five word recognition tests (high-frequency phonological change word,low-frequency regular word, low -frequency phonological change word, regular nonword, and phonological change nonword). A 2-way MANOVA of the group (2) by grade (2) was conducted, and the types of errors and their frequencies were analyzed.
Results
Major results are summarized as follows: First, word recognition performance showed significant differences in all 5 tests between groups. Second, the rates of nonword errors were much higher than whole word substitution errors in both groups. Third, the error rates of the regular words were higher in the final consonant phoneme position than other positions, and the replacement errors appeared most frequently in both groups. Fourth, regarding the rates of errors by phonological change rules, the errors in lengthened sound, palatalization and sound softening principles were most frequent, and the partial application of phonological change rules was occurred most often in both groups.
Discussion & Conclusion
To summarize, students with reading disabilities do not appear to show a delay in development, but rather a qualitative difference with students without reading disabilities.