Slide presentation World Dyslexia Forum 2010 'The roots of dyslexia in French' by Professor José Morais For all films: http://di-videos.org/player/worlddyslexiaforum/2010/#/lg/EN/

1. WORLD DYSLEXIA FORUM
Best practice in the teaching of reading and
writing. How teachers can help children with
specific learning difficulties
The roots of dyslexia in French
Report by José Morais
Université Libre de Bruxelles – ULB

2. French Report
At the behavioural level, dyslexia is the
selective impairment of the ability of
written word identification

3. Text
(words 1, 2, 3, ...)
Written word identification
(recovery of lexical phonological
& orthographic forms
as well as lexical meaning)
Text comprehension
Cognitive
and linguistic
Capacities
(used in oral
language
communication)
Knowledge of
grapheme-phoneme
correspondences
and of ortographic
word structures

4. Dyslexia
Written word
identification
Comprehension
in reading
Cognitive and
linguistic
capacities

5. Hyperlexia
Written word
identification
Comprehension
in reading
Cognitive
and linguistic
capacities

6. Levels of description :
Neurological <—> Cognitive <—> Behavioural
the only one that gives a meaningful account
of dyslexia and that can, presently, inspire
efficient measures helping to prevent,
diagnose and reeducate dyslexic children

7. French Report
Not all children presenting difficulties or
delays in learning to read and write are
dyslexics

8. French Report
Fluss et al. (2009)
20 schools in Paris, more than 1,000 children,
almost all from 2d grade; high, medium and low s-e
level
12.7% were poor readers (P)
word pseudoword text
Poor Good Poor Good Poor Good
11.5% 40.3% 20.0% 81.4% 10.6% 47.2%
text comprehension
Poor Good
11% 53%

9. French Report
Fluss et al. (2009)
although the 3 socio-economic levels were
equally represented in the whole sample,
poor readers were 3.3% from high level
10.9% from medium
and 24.2% from low

10. French Report
Conditions of learning to read in the
alphabetic system of writing:
1.The discovery of the alphabetic principle
2.The progressive mastery of the
orthographic code of the language
3.The constitution of an orthographic lexicon

11. French Report
Learning to read in French
SPRENGER-CHAROLLES ET AL. (1998): % of correct
responses
Regular Words Irregular words Pseudowords
1e 88.6 33.3 70.1
2e 94.0 58.8 79.1
3e 98.9 82.9 94.8
4e 97.0 84.2 89.4
SPRENGER-CHAROLLES ET AL. (2003):
Decoding abilities account the most for variance in
word reading

12. French Report
Learning to read in French
BOSSE ET AL. (2007):
VISUAL ATTENTION SPAN: NUMBER OF DISTINCT VISUAL
ELEMENTS THAT CAN BE PROCESSED IN A SINGLE
GLANCE
BOSSE & VALDOIS (2009):
400 CHILDREN; % OF 5-LETTER STRINGS CORRECTLY
IDENTIFIED:
1RST GRADE: 7.3%
3D GRADE: 33.5%
5TH GRADE: 46.7%
Strongest contribution to word reading:
in 1st grade, phonemic awareness;
in 3d and 5th grade, visual processing span

13. French Report
Learning to read in French, in dyslexics and
poor readers
— Deficits in phonemic awareness
Fluss et al. (2009): phonemic awareness accounted
for about 50% of the variance
Sprenger-Charolles et al. (2009): dyslexics from a
special institution, compared to good readers
Irregular words: both about 20% correct responses
Dyslexics (9 yrs) Good readers (7
yrs)
Short PW: 56% 67%
Long PW: 20% 43%
—> importance of decoding phonological abilities

14. Visual orthographic processing: Bosse et al. (2007)
68 dyslexics: age 11:6 ; reading age: 7:11
Visual span: dyslexics: 26%, good readers: 60%
Prado et al. (2007):
French Report

15. French Report
CHETAIL & MATHEY (2008)
Color = Syll.
yes no
Carotte Carotte Carotte
Carton Carton Carton

16. Ecalle et al. (2009)
French Report

17. French
Report

18. French Report
Recommendations
1. Research: join researchers and clinicians;
compare training programs
2. Teaching: prepare teachers (theoretically and
practically) according to recent scientific
advances
3. Diagnostics and intervention: determine reader’s
profile; intervene specifically on impaired abilities
4. Prevention and training: target phonological
abilities and/or visual processing
5. Compensatory means: use for ex. vocal
recognition

19. French Report
Acknowledgments
• Catherine Billard (neurologue / pédiatre, Hôpital Bicêtre)
• Aurélie Périot et M. Chatriot (orthophoniste et pédiatre, SESSAD
Dysphasia, Paris 11e)
• Françoise Chetail (chercheur post-doctoral et psycholinguiste,
Université Libre de Bruxelles – ULB)
• Jean Ecalle (Laboratoire Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, EA 3082,
Université Lyon 2, Bron)
• Michel Fayol (Université Blaise Pascal, CNRS UMR 6024, Clermont-
Ferrand)
• Willy Serniclaes (Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, CNRS UMR
825, Paris-75270)
• Liliane Sprenger-Charolles (idem)
• Monique Touzin (Ecole d’Orthophonie de Paris et orthophoniste)
• Sylviane Valdois (Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition,
CNRS, Université Pierre Mendès-France, Grenoble)
• Johannes Ziegler (Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS UMR
6146, Marseille)

20. French Report
Books with extensive syntheses:
• C. Billard & M. Touzin (coord.) – « Etat des
connaissances sur les troubles des
apprentissages » (2003), 1000 pages, écrit par 75
experts européens, téléchargeable gratuitement
sur « arta.fr » (Association pour la Recherche sur
les Troubles des Apprentissages), plus CD-Rom.
• INSERM (2007). Dyslexie, dysorthographie,
dyscalculie. Bilan des données scientifiques.
Rédigé par 15 experts (800 pages).