A comprehensive evaluation of lexical reading in Italian developmental dyslexics

Italian developmental dyslexic readers show a striking length effect and have been hypothesised to rely mostly on nonlexical reading. Our experiments tested this hypothesis by assessing whether or not the defi cit underlying dyslexia is specifi c to lexical reading. The effects of lexicality, word frequency and length were investigated in the same group of children in four separate experiments. Although dyslexics were slower and less accurate than skilled readers and had large length effects, they showed lexicality and word frequency effects in both reading aloud and lexical decision. In a crossexperiment comparison, we show that a single global factor explains a large proportion of the difference in reading performance between dyslexic and skilled readers. This factor may indicate a defi cit at a prelexical level of analysis. Lexical activation seemed spared in the dyslexic children based on the effects of lexicality and frequency. These fi ndings contrast the hypothesis that Italian dyslexics primarily engage in nonlexical reading.