Double Dissociation Between Reading and Spelling Deficits

In two studies dissociations between reading and spelling skills were examined. Study 1 reports equally high prevalence rates for isolated deficits in reading (7%) or spelling (6%) in a representative sample (N = 2,029) of German-speaking elementary school children. In Study 2, children with isolated deficits were presented with the same words to read and spell. The double dissociation was replicated. Good readers/poor spellers named pseudohomophones as quickly as their corresponding words, and their phonological awareness skills were adequate, suggesting that their reading might be based on highly efficient decoding procedures. Poor readers/good spellers showed slow word naming and a clear slowing when reading pseudohomophones suggesting a reliance on intact orthographic representations in word reading. A deficit in rapid automatized naming in this group suggests problems in fast visual-verbal access. The profile of poor readers/poor spellers fits the double-deficit group in Wolf and Bowers's (1999) dyslexia theory.