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Recent research has stated that early oral language acquisition difficulties are related to reading and writing difficulties. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) experience difficulties with several dimensions of language. In this study we focus on the specific difficulties of children with DLD in spelling. We examine the impact of lexicality and length in written production of Spanish‐speaking children with DLD. A total of 18 children with language difficulties (Mage = 8;4) were compared with age‐matched children (Mage = 8;2). Participants completed a spelling‐to‐dictation task of words and pseudo‐words, where length was manipulated. A digital tablet was used to collect data and obtain measures of accuracy, latencies and total writing durations. Results showed that children with DLD produced more errors, longer latencies and longer writing durations than age‐matched children. Regarding accuracy, analysis of the errors shows that children in the control group produce few errors, most being substitutions, while children with DLD made more errors and of more varied categories. Moreover, they were more affected by length on writing accuracy than the control group. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject: Children with language difficulties are more likely to present reading difficulties. There are fewer studies analysing the impact of oral language difficulties in writing skills. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: The study suggests that children with oral language difficulties also have impairments in spelling, impacting on accuracy, duration and reaction time, possibly related to poor phonological working memory. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: This study highlights the need to emphasize early oral intervention and language‐related processing skills to help prevent written language difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The expressiveness during reading is essential for a fluent reading. Reading prosody has been scarcely studied in an experimental manner, owing to the difficulties in taking objective and direct measures of this reading skill. However, new technologies development has made it possible to analyse reading prosody in an experimental way. Prosodic patterns may vary, not being the same at the beginning of the reading learning process as in adulthood. They may also be altered in disorders such as dyslexia, but little is known about the prosodic characteristics and reading fluency of people with neurodegenerative diseases that cause language impairment, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Aims: The aim of this work was to study reading fluency in PD considering the prosodic characteristics of its reading. Methods & Procedures: The participants were 31 Spanish adults with PD and 31 healthy controls, aged 59–88 years. Two experimental texts were designed that included declarative, interrogative, and exclamatory sentences and experimental verbs and nouns. The manipulability level of the nouns and the motor content of the verbs were considered. The reading of the participants was recorded and analysed with Praat software. Outcomes & Results: A longer reading duration and a greater number of pauses, especially in verbs, were found in the PD group, which also showed less pitch variation than the control group in the experimental sentences. The control group showed a big initial rise in declarative and interrogative sentences, as well as a stronger final declination in declarative and exclamatory ones, when compared to the PD group. Conclusions & Implications: The use of experimental methodologies for the analysis of reading fluency allows learning more about the prosodic characteristics of people with different pathologies, such as PD. Scarce pitch variability found in the analysis, together with the great number of pauses and the longer reading duration, leads to poorly expressive reading, which compromises fluency in PD. The exhaustive evaluation of the reading fluency of PD patients will make it possible to design more complete assessment methods that will favour the diagnosis and early detection of this pathology. What this study adds: What is already known on this subject: • The speech of people with Parkinson's disease (PD) is often impaired by the appearance of hypokinetic dysarthria. The language of people with PD is usually affected with the progression of the disease, with lexico‐semantic impairment which mainly affects verbs. Previous literature on reading fluency in PD usually considers reading speed and accuracy, neglecting prosody. Other neurodegenerative diseases with language impairment, such as Alzheimer's disease, commonly cause reading fluency problems. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: • This study provides direct and objective measures of the reading fluency (speed, accuracy and prosody) in patients with PD, by the design of experimental texts. Reading fluency characteristics were found to be altered in these patients, especially in pitch variations and reading duration. The reading of Parkinson's patients showed a more flattened pitch. In addition, a greater number of pauses and longer reading durations were also found in the reading of verbs compared to the control group. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: • The use of experimentally created texts makes it possible to analyse the influence of different psycholinguistic variables (frequency, length, motor content, manipulability) on reading fluency, and how the processing of these stimuli could be affected in PD. The objective analysis of the reading fluency characteristics in PD allows the design of more specific evaluation and diagnostic tasks. More complete assessment methods may allow the early detection of the disease. In the same way, it may favour a differential diagnosis with other neurodegenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]