Reading, Spelling, and Visual Lexical Decision in English: the Case of Spanish Children with Dyslexia

The primary challenge that children with dyslexia face is the difficulty in learning the alphabetic code and forming orthographic representations of words. Consequently, their reading and writing abilities lack fluidity. Given factors, it is possible that children with dyslexia may encounter difficulties when learning English as a Foreign Language. This research investigates the significance of lexical frequency and orthographic rime consistency in the reading and spelling processes of English as a Foreign Language among Spanish children diagnosed with dyslexia. The study included 36 participants aged between 9 and 12, of whom 16 were clinically diagnosed with dyslexia. Three tasks were designed using 28 English words, varying in lexical frequency and orthographic consistency: word reading aloud, spelling to dictation, and visual lexical decision. Our analysis focused on accuracy, indicating that children diagnosed with dyslexia consistently exhibited poorer performance across all tasks compared to their counterparts. While lexical frequency exerted an influence on both groups, orthographic consistency exclusively impacted the control group. The findings suggest that Spanish children with dyslexia predominantly depend on lexical frequency for reading and spelling in English. In contrast, typically developing children, in addition to frequency, also show sensitivity to orthographic consistency skills.