Bempen or Bemben: Differences Between Children At-Risk of Dyslexia and Children With SLI on a Morpho-Phonological Task.

This study assesses morpho-phonological alternation in plural formation by 5-year-old Dutch children with a familial risk of dyslexia, children with specific language impairment (SLI), and typically developing children. The morpho-phonological process investigated is the voicing alternation in Dutch singular-plural pairs such as bed [t] 'bed' ~ bedden [d] 'beds'. Results on a plural formation task showed that the at-risk group, like the control group, produced more correct plurals in real words than the SLI group, and was sensitive to lexical frequency. However, the at-risk group patterned with the SLI group on nonword stimuli, repeating fewer correct singulars and producing fewer plurals. The SLI group's performance was further characterized by production difficulties affecting clusters, difficulties with morphological inflection, and possibly reduced sensitivity to lexical frequency and distributional patterns. These findings support the phonological deficit hypothesis of dyslexia and suggest that dyslexia and SLI should be considered separate disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]