Reading acquisition: a matter of erros ? From measures to training in dyslexic and poor readers. – READER

The ability to read is the foundation of human education and social progress. Yet we are far from having reached a full understanding of how expert reading skills are acquired. Despite adequate instruction, children and adults do not all reach expert reading skills, with implications for many activities in everyday life and consequences for academic success, professional and social integration. Understanding reading acquisition and its deficits represents thus a major societal issue. Concerning the cognitive factors underlying reading deficits, many non-verbal factors have been identified such as visual attention and executive functions like error monitoring. Error monitoring is crucial in a variety of situations as it allows individuals to detect and correct their own errors and avoid repeating them in the future.
The present project aims to examine the impact of error monitoring abilities on the development of expert reading skills and reading disorders. First, by combining different techniques (behavioral, electrophysiological and electropmyographic data), the proposal offers a systematic examination of the presence and magnitude of error monitoring impairment in adults with different kinds of reading deficits (i.e., dyslexic readers, poor readers characterized by a low exposure to print and a low socio-economic level). Second, the project will determine in a longitudinal study if error monitoring abilities measured before reading instruction constitute a good predictor of future reading skills in children. Third, we will combine a theoretical and a practical approach, by evaluating the impact of an error monitoring training program on reading skills in dyslexic children.
Taken together, the present findings will lead to a better characterization of developmental dyslexia relatively to other kinds of reading deficits. In the long term, the findings could improve the early identification of children at risk to develop reading difficulties as well as improve teaching methods for reading acquisition.