Behavioral and Cortical Indices of Typical and Atypical Development of Reading and Spelling Skills in Children : Evidence from Different Orthographies ; Behaviorale und kortikale Indikatoren der typischen und atypischen Entwicklung von Lese-und Rechtschreib-Fertigkeiten bei Kindern ; Ergebnisse aus verschiedenen Orthographien

Are reading and spelling two sides of the same coin: in the acquisition of literacy? Or are they separate processes that have little in common? While these questions have been adequately addressed and evidence has become reasonably well established for European languages, little empirical research has been conducted for the Semitic languages, namely the Arabic language. The current thesis comprises three studies which generally aimed to identify some cortical and behavioral indices of typical and atypical development of fluent reading and spelling in children from different orthographies, namely Arabic and German. In study I, the developmental course of the relationship between fluent reading and spelling in the first three years of learning Arabic has been investigated with a consideration to evaluate potential gender differences. Analysis of data showed significant developments in literacy skills across age and a significant male advantage in literacy measures pronounced only in first graders. Further analysis of first grade data indicates a potential role of visualization and spatial abilities in the interplay between fluent reading and spelling in the early stages of literacy acquisition, but not in later grades. High correlations were found between fluent reading and spelling and, interestingly, spelling accuracy develops earlier than fluent reading, suggesting that spelling drives both the alphabetic and orthographic phases in learning Arabic. In study II, a representative sample of 1106 Arabic-speaking third graders were screened for their fluent reading and spelling abilities and their general level of functioning. Based on a two year behind grade level as a cut-off score, the prevalence of dyslexic children was estimated to be 8.1%. Based on the 16 percentile, the overall prevalence of the three impaired groups - good readers-poor spellers, poor spellers-good readers, poor readers-poor spellers - was 1.1%, .9% and 12.6%, respectively. The estimated incidence rate (8%-15%) of children suffering reading ...