The Nonword-Reading Deficit of Disabled Readers: A Developmental Interpretation

This article presents empirical evidence challenging the received wisdom that a nonword-reading deficit is a characteristic trait of disabled readers. On the basis of 2 large-scale empirical studies using the reading-level match design, we argue that a nonword-reading deficit is the consequence of normal developmental differences in word-specific knowledge between disabled readers and younger normal readers (both groups being matched on real-word reading). The first study shows that the nonword-reading deficit varies as a function of age and reading level and that this deficit is not typical for disabled readers. The second study demonstrates that a nonword-reading deficit crucially depends on the sensitivity of the matching word reading task to detect age-related differences in word-specific knowledge between disabled and normal readers. We clarify how these findings can be interpreted within the current framework of the phonological deficit hypothesis and discuss implications for theories of reading development.