Insights into the multi-factorial nature of reading difficulties
A study involving 97 Dutch-speaking children provides new evidence supporting a multifactorial view of developmental dyslexia (DD), challenging the traditional perspective that considers dyslexia primarily a phonological disorder. The findings reveal substantial heterogeneity among children with reading difficulties. While some poor readers showed no sensory-perceptual or attentional impairments, others displayed selective difficulties in temporal processing, attentional mechanisms, or noise exclusion. The analyses identified four major cognitive dimensions underlying reading performance, encompassing phonological and orthographic skills, rapid naming, visual temporal processing, multisensory attentional shifting, and executive control. A particularly significant finding emerged from the mediation analyses: visual spatio-temporal attention (Figure 1) affects reading ability indirectly through rapid naming. In other words, more efficient processing of rapidly changing visuo-spatial information is associated with better rapid naming performance,
which in turn supports reading development (Figure 2). Furthermore, visual spatio-temporal attention uniquely predicted reading and spelling outcomes, even after accounting for phonological and orthographic skills. These results suggest that developmental dyslexia cannot be explained by a single cognitive deficit but rather reflects the interaction of multiple neurocognitive factors. The study highlights the need for individualized assessment and intervention approaches that address the diverse cognitive profiles observed among children with reading difficulties.
Mancarella, M., Wouters, J., Facoetti, A., & Ghesquière P. (2026). Insights into the multi-factorial nature of reading difficulties: exploring phonological, visual, and attentional challenges in children. Journal of Communication Disorders, 119,106606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2025.106606
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021992425001133
