Subphonemic Sensitivity in Low Literacy Adults

The link between phonological abilities and reading skills has been well-established in both typical and atypical language development. However, the nature of the phonological deficits in poor readers remains a debated topic. While poor readers have been mostly assumed to have underspecified or “fuzzy” phonological representations (Tallal et al., 1998), the opposite alternative, over-specified phonological representations, has also been hypothesized (Serniclaes, 2006). To examine the two phonological hypotheses, the current study used the eye-tracking paradigm in the study of Dahan et al. (2001) to investigate individuals’ sensitivity to subphonemic information in young adults with a wide range of reading abilities. Our findings suggested a trend of higher sensitivity to subphonemic information in lower-ability readers, consistent with the over-specification hypothesis. In addition, our sample with a lower range of socio-economic status highlighted the need to take environmental factors into consideration for theoretical and practical purposes in reading acquisition