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Two additional measures augment these tests by their modeling which predict30 Learning Related Vision Problemsassociation with reading problems, namely, cerebellar function (postural stability) and temporal processing (rapid naming).141-142 The Dyslexia Screening Test provides a profile of relative processing strengths and weaknesses that can be used to guide the formation of specific remedial programming.3 Phonological ProcessingMany children with reading disabilities have deficiencies in their ability to process phonological information.144 An awareness of phonemes is necessary to grasp the alphabetic principle that underlies our system of written language. The ability to identify the different sounds that make words and to associate these sounds with written words is essential for reading development.Phonological awareness tests determine the level of knowledge about the spoken sounds in words. In addition to identifying these sounds and the ability to make grapheme-phoneme correspondence matches, there must also be the skill to manipulate them. Manipulations involving segmenting words into their constituent sounds, rhyming words, and blending sounds to make words are also essential to the reading process.A brief assessment of phonological processing skill can be beneficial in determining the relative influence of phonological deficits compared to visual efficiency problems and/or visual information processing deficits in explaining the essential nature of the reading deficiency.Standardized tests that are available to analyze phonological processing abilities:¾ Phonemic Segmentation subtest of the Dyslexia Screening Test (DST)¾ Rhyme subtest of the Dyslexia Screening Test (DST)¾ Nonsense Passage Reading subtest of the Dyslexia Screening Test (DST)¾ Rosner Test of Auditory Analysis Skills (TAAS)¾ Phonological Awareness Test-2 (PAT-2)¾ Test of Phonological Awareness Skills (TOPAS).The Care Process 31The Phonemic Segmentation subtest assesses the ability to break down a word into its constituent sounds, and to manipulate those sounds by a syllable deletion task (for example, "can you say 'panda' without the /da/"). The Rhyme subtest requires the ability to determine if two spoken words rhyme. The Nonsense Passage subtest mixes pseudowords (regular non-words, words that are spelled and can be pronounced as if they were real words by applying the standard rules of phonics, for example, mib, gruny, drack) with real words in an oral reading passage. Specific difficulties in reading the pseudowords indicate problems with phonetic analysis. The Rosner Test uses a syllable deletion task. The Phonological Awareness Test-2 utilizes rhyming, syllable deletion, phoneme segmentation (dividing words into syllables), phoneme substitution and sound blending to assess phonological awareness.The Test of Phonological Awareness has four subtests (rhyming, incomplete words, sound sequencing, and sound deletion) that measure three areas of phonological awareness: sound sequencing, phoneme blending, and phoneme segmentation. 4. Magnocellular Pathway FunctionResearch has shown that a deficient magnocellular pathway is associated with reading disabilities. Several convergent lines of psychophysical,145-149electrophysiological,150-151 and anatomical150 evidence support this conclusion. Compared with normal readers, the population of disabled readers has prolonged visual persistence in response to stimuli of low spatial frequency, lower contrast sensitivity at low spatial frequencies, reduced flicker sensitivity, poorer temporal resolution and integration, anomalous time course and strength of metacontrast masking functions, and reduced effects of flicker masking.
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