| A recent theory proposed by Goswami et al (2002), dubbed the P-Center hypothesis, posits that the characteristic cognitive and behavioral patterns observed in developmental dyslexia are a result of low-level auditory impairments. Previous studies have found that children with developmental dyslexia perform worse on P-center perception tasks when compared to chronological age matched controls, younger reading level controls have intermediate thresholds, and this deficit has also been observed in children with specific language impairment. The current study found similar trends in children aged between 7-16, in that children with dyslexia and dyslexia with additional language difficulties had less sensitive mean thresholds on the P-center perception tasks than chronological age matched controls. If these trends persist, then more ecologically valid stimuli and more sophisticated methods should be used to explore the P-center deficit in children with developmental dyslexia. |
