Do children with dyslexia have a general auditory processing deficit, phonological processing deficit or semantic deficit: Insights from linguistic and non-linguistic tone perception in Cantonese-speaking children with Dyslexia

Abstract

Previous research hypothesized that children with dyslexia might have a general auditory processing deficit or phonological processing deficit. Recent studies showed that tone-speaking children with dyslexia had particular difficulties with lexical tone identification and tone identification ability uniquely predicted children’s word reading ability and dyslexia. This study compared discrimination of non-linguistic pitch contours that resembled Cantonese lexical tones, discrimination of Cantonese lexical tones, and identification of Cantonese lexical tones in (1) Cantonese-speaking children with dyslexia, (2) age-matched peers and (3) reading-matched children. Children with dyslexia performed poorer than age-matched children in all tasks. Their ability in pitch and tone discrimination was comparable to that of younger reading-matched peers. Tone identification ability was poorer than age-matched and reading-matched peers and uniquely predicted literacy skills and dyslexia. The results suggest that children with dyslexia are delayed in general auditory processing and phonological processing but semantic access appears to be their core deficit.