Profile of language and cognitive functions in children with dyslexia in speakers of Brazilian Portuguese.

OBJECTIVE: To verify the language and cognitive profile of children with dyslexia, contributing to the diagnosis of this condition in readers of a regular orthography, such as Brazilian Portuguese. METHODS: In this study, 47 children with dyslexia (GD) and two controlled groups, one composed of 41 age controls (GCI) and the other with 31 reading controls (GCL), participated. All children were submitted to a battery involving the above-mentioned abilities. RESULTS: GD demonstrated predominant deficits in phonological processing, which were not compatible with a delay in the development of such abilities, indicating an atypical development. The GD also obtained lower scores in both basic and more complex reading and writing skills (i.e., letters, words, pseudowords, and texts, respectively), as well as in other domains, such as language (syntactic processing and oral sentence comprehension), which may be a result of a deficit in phonological skills, that interfered with higher complexity linguistic skills. CONCLUSION: Phonological abilities demonstrated to be the main difficulty observed in children with dyslexia investigated in this study, corroborating previous studies in other languages. This demonstrates that, independently of the language regularity, phonological skills are fundamental to the diagnosis of developmental dyslexia.

Perfil de linguagem e funções cognitivas em crianças com dislexia falantes do Português Brasileiro / Profile of language and cognitive functions in children with dyslexia in speakers of Brazilian Portuguese

RESUMO Objetivo: Verificar o perfil de linguagem e de habilidades cognitivas de crianças com dislexia, contribuindo para o diagnóstico desse quadro em leitores de uma ortografia regular, como o português brasileiro. Métodos: Participaram do estudo 47 crianças com dislexia (GD), 41 crianças pareadas por idade (GCI) e 31 crianças pareadas por nível de leitura (GCL), e foram submetidas a uma bateria envolvendo tarefas que avaliaram as habilidades citadas acima. Resultados: Verificamos predomínio de alterações das habilidades de processamento fonológico no GD, não compatíveis com um desenvolvimento atrasado, mas sim com um desenvolvimento atípico. Nas tarefas de leitura e escrita, o GD apresentou pior desempenho desde as unidades mais básicas até as mais complexas em relação à leitura e escrita (letras, palavras e pseudopalavras, textos, respectivamente). Por fim, observamos prejuízo de outras habilidades de linguagem (processamento sintático e compreensão oral de sentenças), o que pode ser resultado de alterações nas habilidades fonológicas que influenciam o desempenho de habilidades linguísticas de maior complexidade. Conclusão: O perfil de alteração de habilidades fonológicas foi a principal dificuldade encontrada nas crianças com dislexia nesse estudo, sendo esse resultado compatível com investigações realizadas em outras línguas. Isso sugere que, independente da regularidade da língua, a avaliação das habilidades fonológicas é fundamental para o diagnóstico da dislexia.

ABSTRACT Objective: To verify the language and cognitive profile of children with dyslexia, contributing to the diagnosis of this condition in readers of a regular orthography, such as Brazilian Portuguese. Methods: In this study, 47 children with dyslexia (GD) and two controlled groups, one composed of 41 age controls (GCI) and the other with 31 reading controls (GCL), participated. All children were submitted to a battery involving the above-mentioned abilities. Results: GD demonstrated predominant deficits in phonological processing, which were not compatible with a delay in the development of such abilities, indicating an atypical development. The GD also obtained lower scores in both basic and more complex reading and writing skills (i.e., letters, words, pseudowords, and texts, respectively), as well as in other domains, such as language (syntactic processing and oral sentence comprehension), which may be a result of a deficit in phonological skills, that interfered with higher complexity linguistic skills. Conclusion: Phonological abilities demonstrated to be the main difficulty observed in children with dyslexia investigated in this study, corroborating previous studies in other languages. This demonstrates that, independently of the language regularity, phonological skills are fundamental to the diagnosis of developmental dyslexia.