Deficits of visual search in Chinese children with dyslexia. (3rd April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Sisi; Wang, Li‐Chih; Liu, Duo
• Is Part Of: Journal of research in reading. Volume 42:Number 2(2019)
• Page Start: 454
• Page End: 468
• Publication Date: 2019-04-03
• Subjects: dyslexia -- visual–spatial attention -- Chinese reading -- literacy development; Reading -- Research -- Periodicals; Reading -- Periodicals; 418.4
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9817.12277
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0141-0423

Abstract

Abstract : Background: There is emerging evidence that individuals with developmental dyslexia show deficits in visual–spatial attention. This study focused on visual searches and examined whether visual search deficits would be found in Chinese children with dyslexia. More importantly, we examined the associations between dyslexia and distinct types of visual searches, to determine whether deficits are specific to some visual searches but not others. Methods: The dyslexic children and their age‐matched typical peers completed both the inefficient and relatively efficient search tasks. Results: The dyslexic children were generally impaired in visual searches, although the deficit in inefficient searches was more severe than in efficient searches. After phonological awareness, working memory and nonverbal IQ were considered; inefficient searches were found to be selectively impaired. Conclusions: These findings suggest that visual search deficits in dyslexia are universal across alphabetic and logographic writing systems. They highlight the importance of further study on the role of top‐down attention on reading. Highlights: What is already known about this topic Reading difficulties are related to impairment of visual–spatial attention. Dyslexic readers of alphabetic orthographies show deficits in visual searches, especially inefficient searches. Visual skills are particularly important for reading in Chinese, a logographic writing system known for visual complexity and lacking of grapheme–phoneme correspondence. What this paper adds Chinese children with dyslexia showed impaired visual searches compared with typically developing children. Deficits of dyslexic children were more severe in inefficient searches than in efficient ones. After phonological awareness and working memory were considered, visual search dysfunction of dyslexic Chinese children was specific to the inefficient searches. Implications for theory, policy or practice Inefficient visual search skill is uniquely related to dyslexia in Chinese beyond phonological awareness, supporting sensory‐cognitive accounts of dyslexia. Selective impairment in inefficient searches underscores the importance to study top‐down attentional mechanism in reading.