LEXICAL DECISION AND NAMING TIMES OF YOUNG DISABLED READERS WITH FUNCTION AND CONTENT WORDS

Abstract

Naming of printed words was found to be more difficult relative to lexical decisions for disabled readers than for normal readers. This finding was interpreted in terms of a phonological recoding deficit in disabled readers. There was also evidence that disabled readers, but not normal readers, have greater difficulty reading function words than content words. It was hypothesised that the low‐imagery value of function words could be responsible for the difficulty which disabled readers have with function words. No evidence was found of qualitative differences in reading processes between specific reading retarded and general reading backward groups. 1988 Australian Psychological Society