Abstract

PAIVA, Maria das Graças Vasconcelos. Reading disabilities: theory and diagnostics. Temas psicol. [online]. 2002, vol.10, n.3, pp. 269-283. ISSN 1413-389X.

The present paper is a review of the available literature on reading disabilities in children, taking into consideration the historical features related to the dyslexia and to the current difficulties in the acquisition of reading skills. The text is organized in two parts. The first one deals mechanisms of word recognition, the ability to divide break down the verbal material into units smaller than the syllable, the metaphonological awareness, and the phonological working memory. Concerning the cognitive aspects of reading, this paper emphasizes the need of establishing the difference between the specific and the non-specific factors involved in such activity. The second part focuses on the diagnostic of reading disabilities including phonological working memory tests, language tests and metaphonological pseudo words segmentation tests.

Keywords : reading theory; diagnostic; metaphonological tests.