Research › Learning & Development
Motor-Perceptual Function in Children with Developmental Reading Disorders
STS Instructor Authored by Giuseppe A. Chiarenza
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Study at a glance
- Area
- Learning & Development
- Study type
- Observational study
- Authors
- Chiarenza GA
- Journal
- Journal of Learning Disabilities
- Year
- 1990
- Participants
- 17 (8 reading disorder, 9 controls)
- Population
- Children
- Protocol
- movement-related brain potentials during a skilled timing task
Key findings
- The poor readers took longer, made more errors and landed in the target window less often
- Brain potentials linked to motor planning, sensory processing and evaluating results differed in size and timing
- Interpreted as weaker planning and sensory processing and less efficient error correction
- Small sample of boys only
Ten-year-old boys with developmental reading disorders (8) were compared with typically reading boys of the same age (9) on a precise timing task: start an oscilloscope sweep with a self-paced movement and stop it inside a narrow time window. Movement-related brain potentials were recorded during the task. The reading-disordered group performed worse and showed altered brain responses at several stages of the action, which the author takes as evidence that reading disorders involve broad problems integrating planning, sensory processing and error correction.