Prof Maggie Snowling (University of Oxford) will give the next LuCiD seminar on Tuesday 4th February, 11-12.30 at the University of Manchester. She will share her research on Risk factors for poor reading: Implications for the relationship between dyslexia and developmental language disorder. The seminar is free to attend and will take place in room 5.05, Simon Building, University of Manchester.
Abstract
With learning to read as a backdrop, this seminar will discuss findings from a longitudinal study of children at high-risk of dyslexia either because of preschool speech and language difficulties or because of a first degree affected relative, followed from age 3 to 9 years. A focus on the preschool language profiles suggests that there are shared risk factors between familial dyslexia and developmental language disorder (DLD). The developmental picture is however more complex. It will be argued, in line with the critical age hypothesis, that children who enter school with a persistent speech or language impairment are most at risk of reading problems. A dyslexia outcome is associated with persistently poor phonology whereas children with DLD show more general language impairments from an early stage associated later with poor reading comprehension and poor mathematical skills.