**4. Reading‐related cognitive deficits in dyslexia and emotional problems**

Although developmental dyslexia has traditionally been defined as an unexpected disorder in reading, accumulated evidence suggests that students with developmental dyslexia can show a range of reading‐related cognitive deficits [24]. Students with reading disabilities have numerous lags in several cognitive (e.g., phonological awareness, rapid naming, verbal and visual‐spatial working memory, and executive processing) and academic (e.g., pseudoword reading, spelling, and vocabulary) areas, compared to average reading students. However, reading speed/fluency is considered the main indicator of dyslexia in the Spanish language, whereas reading accuracy is relatively intact [24–28]. Furthermore, some studies [29, 30] have shown that the percentages of dyslexic subtypes in Spanish and opaque orthographies are quite different. Specifically, between 45.5 and 53% were classified as surface dyslexics, and between 18 and 22.8% were classified as phonological dyslexics, respectively.

The most important breakthrough was probably the discovery that the link between oral language and written language resided in the phonological structure of speech. Thus, children with dyslexia commonly present difficulties in acquiring phonological awareness. Because reading acquisition requires the child to learn the phoneme‐grapheme correspondences, problems with phonological information lead to difficulties in reading acquisition. Different studies carried out in the Spanish language using reading‐age‐ and chronological‐age‐matched designs have also found a deficit in phonological awareness in children with dyslexia [25, 26, 30–34]. However, some studies [34–36] have shown that the origin of this phonological deficit is a deficit in speech perception, as they also found temporal‐processing problems in speech perception in children with dyslexia [35].

In addition to segmental phonology, recent studies have shown the role of suprasegmental phonology or prosody, such as skills in detecting accents, pauses, or intonation, in the population with dyslexia. For example, one recent study [37] showed that Spanish children with dyslexia performed worse on stress awareness in words and pseudowords than control children.

Naming speed, defined as the ability to name highly familiar visual stimuli as fast as possible, has been shown to be a strong concurrent and longitudinal predictor of reading ability in both consistent and inconsistent orthographies (see review [38]). In addition, many studies have indicated that reading disabilities appear to be accompanied by impairments in naming speed, and these impairments are found regardless of the orthography of the language in which children learn to read. Several studies carried out in Spanish have shown that naming speed tasks (e.g., rapid automatized naming) are capable of discriminating between children with dyslexia and reading‐age‐ and chronological‐age‐matched typical readers [26, 39–42].

Other studies have shown that children with dyslexia who show both phonological and naming speed deficits have greater reading difficulties than those with only one deficit [41, 43, 44].

Processes related to memory, specifically verbal working memory and phonological short‐term memory, have been some of the most extensively researched cognitive processes in children with reading disabilities in the past 30 years. Recent studies carried out in Spanish [26, 30, 33] indicated that children with reading disabilities showed impairments on short‐term measures requiring the recall of digit sequences or repetition of Latin words, and on working memory measures requiring the simultaneous processing and storage of digits within sequences and final words from unrelated sentences.

**4. Reading‐related cognitive deficits in dyslexia and emotional problems**

Although developmental dyslexia has traditionally been defined as an unexpected disorder in reading, accumulated evidence suggests that students with developmental dyslexia can show a range of reading‐related cognitive deficits [24]. Students with reading disabilities have numerous lags in several cognitive (e.g., phonological awareness, rapid naming, verbal and visual‐spatial working memory, and executive processing) and academic (e.g., pseudoword reading, spelling, and vocabulary) areas, compared to average reading students. However, reading speed/fluency is considered the main indicator of dyslexia in the Spanish language, whereas reading accuracy is relatively intact [24–28]. Furthermore, some studies [29, 30] have shown that the percentages of dyslexic subtypes in Spanish and opaque orthographies are quite different. Specifically, between 45.5 and 53% were classified as surface dyslexics, and

The most important breakthrough was probably the discovery that the link between oral language and written language resided in the phonological structure of speech. Thus, children with dyslexia commonly present difficulties in acquiring phonological awareness. Because reading acquisition requires the child to learn the phoneme‐grapheme correspondences, problems with phonological information lead to difficulties in reading acquisition. Different studies carried out in the Spanish language using reading‐age‐ and chronological‐age‐matched designs have also found a deficit in phonological awareness in children with dyslexia [25, 26, 30–34]. However, some studies [34–36] have shown that the origin of this phonological deficit is a deficit in speech perception, as they also found temporal‐processing problems in speech

In addition to segmental phonology, recent studies have shown the role of suprasegmental phonology or prosody, such as skills in detecting accents, pauses, or intonation, in the population with dyslexia. For example, one recent study [37] showed that Spanish children with dyslexia performed worse on stress awareness in words and pseudowords than control children. Naming speed, defined as the ability to name highly familiar visual stimuli as fast as possible, has been shown to be a strong concurrent and longitudinal predictor of reading ability in both consistent and inconsistent orthographies (see review [38]). In addition, many studies have indicated that reading disabilities appear to be accompanied by impairments in naming speed, and these impairments are found regardless of the orthography of the language in which children learn to read. Several studies carried out in Spanish have shown that naming speed tasks (e.g., rapid automatized naming) are capable of discriminating between children with dyslexia and reading‐age‐ and chronological‐age‐matched typical readers [26, 39–42].

Other studies have shown that children with dyslexia who show both phonological and naming speed deficits have greater reading difficulties than those with only one deficit [41, 43, 44]. Processes related to memory, specifically verbal working memory and phonological short‐term memory, have been some of the most extensively researched cognitive processes in children with reading disabilities in the past 30 years. Recent studies carried out in Spanish [26, 30, 33] indicated that children with reading disabilities showed impairments on short‐term measures

between 18 and 22.8% were classified as phonological dyslexics, respectively.

perception in children with dyslexia [35].

48 Learning Disabilities - An International Perspective

In recent years, a growing body of evidence suggests that children and adolescents with developmental dyslexia also manifest difficulties with executive functioning. Executive function is a multidimensional construct involving skills such as planning, initiation, working memory, self‐control (inhibition and monitoring of performance), processing speed, attention, and task switching, all of which are important in the deliberate control of goal‐oriented actions [45]. Some studies [46, 47] using behavioral rating questionnaires of executive functioning showed that children and adolescents with dyslexia were rated by both parents and teachers as having more frequent executive function problems in day‐to‐day life, with these difficulties centering on metacognitive processes (initiation, working memory, planning, task monitoring, and planning organization), rather than on the regulation of emotion and behavior.

Recent studies [48, 49] revealed that dyslexia persists into adulthood. In general, these studies showed that Spanish adults with dyslexia present problems in reading words, pseudowords, reading comprehension, fluency, and reading motivation. In addition, Spanish‐dyslexic adults, as in opaque orthographies, continue to have difficulties on phonological awareness tasks, rapid naming, short‐term memory, working memory, executive functioning, reading, and spelling.

In recent decades, a large body of research has focused on the cognitive consequences of dyslexia. However, less research has focused on analyzing the motivational consequences of dyslexia, even though expanded cognitive‐learning models have included motivational beliefs. Some studies [49–51] have shown that children with dyslexia have a more negative self‐concept, experience greater feelings of helplessness, avoid reading activities, and show less emotional self‐regulation. In addition, two very distinct attributional profiles in students with learning disabilities (the helplessness profile and the adaptive profile) have been described [52].

More specifically, a recent study [53] using a reading self‐report scale showed that children with dyslexia had more negative perceptions of themselves as readers: they saw themselves as less competent in reading, had more difficulty with reading, and liked to read less than their peers. Therefore, children with developmental dyslexia may be less motivated to engage in reading activities. Likewise, teachers of children with dyslexia consider that they have less reading motivation, both extrinsic and intrinsic, than their average peers, and that they are less engaged in reading activities [54].
