Visuospatial deficits of dyslexic children

BACKGROUND: The visuospatial deficit is recognized as typical for dyslexia only in some definitions. However problems with visuospatial orientation may manifest themselves as difficulties with letter identification or the memorizing and recalling of sign sequences, something frequently experienced by dyslexics. MATERIAL/METHODS: The experimental group consisted of 62 children with developmental dyslexia. The control group consisted of 67 pupils with no diagnosed deficits, matched to the clinical group in terms of age. We used the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), the Spatial Span subtest from the Wechsler Memory Scale – third edition (WMS – III), the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test in order to analyze visuospatial functioning. RESULTS: The results show that dyslexics experienced problems with visuospatial functioning, however only while performing difficult tasks. Significant group differences were found for the Clock Drawing Test, Spatial Span – Backward and the precision of figure coping in the Rey-Osterrieth Test. In addition, the results of dyslexic boys were lower than those obtained by all other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide support for the hypothesis concerning visual deficit as characteristic for dyslexia.