Phonology and literacy: follow-up results of the Utrecht dyslexia and specific language impairment project

This chapter assesses the relationship between phonology and literacy by comparing children at family risk of dyslexia, children with SLI, and typically developing children on preschool phonological measures and literacy and phonological skills at eight years of age. As expected, 37% of the family-risk group and half of the SLI group show literacy difficulties. Surprisingly, there are no clear connections between the preschool phonological measures and literacy outcomes. The SLI group generally obtained the lowest scores on the phonological measures, followed by the family-risk group, but these were not necessarily linked to literacy outcome. In contrast, non-word repetition and rapid serial naming at 8 years of age do show a relationship with literacy outcome, as well as group. The study thus 1) shows similarities and differences between the family-risk and SLI groups, 2) confirms that phonology is a multidimensional skill that can affect literacy in different ways, 3) points to compensatory domains across time and thus 4) can be accommodated within multi-risk models of dyslexia and SLI.