Speaking of reading: The role of basic auditory and speech processing in the manifestation of dyslexia in children at familial risk

Deficits in phonological skills are generally acknowledged to relate to dyslexia. Knowledge about the phonological structure of language is extracted from the speech signal. Auditory and speech perception are thus often thought to be important for the development of apt phonological skills. Therefore, a link between dyslexia and auditory and speech processing is expected. Several studies have shown speech processing deficits in dyslexia to be present. Yet, most of these studies did not include children at familial risk with and without reading problems. It is of importance to do so, to exclude the possibility that speech processing deficits, like deficits in phonological processing, are shared between familial risk children with and without dyslexia. If the latter is the case, these deficits might not actually contribute to the manifestation of reading problems, but be a characteristic of familial risk instead. The studies in this thesis aimed to investigate whether auditory and speech processing are factors contributing to the manifestation of dyslexia, thereby taking familial risk status into account by including three groups of children: a control group without familial risk, a familial risk group without dyslexia, and a familial risk group with dyslexia. Studies were carried out on a behavioral as well as a neural level. The findings of the reported studies suggest that deficits in basic auditory processing relate to being at familial risk for dyslexia. Impeded speech processing, both on a neural and behavioral level, contributes to the manifestation of reading problems.