Phonological awareness in reading-disabled adults

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Abstract
Two groups of reading disabled adults, distinguished in terms of degree of reading retardation, were assessed on a variety of surface metalinguistic skills, and compared to able readers. The disabled groups showed deficiencies in; reading non‐words, phoneme reversal in simple words, phonetic encoding of spoken words in a continuous recognition task, and serial recall of words. They were no worse than controls in phonetic encoding of non‐words in continuous recognition and in the effects of acoustic confusion on serial recall. Overall the results suggest a lack of sensitivity to surface features of language, combined with the potential to focus on sound when item characteristics and task demands invite such focus. The picture of metalinguistic processes in these subjects is very similar to that found in children with reading problems, indicating that reading ability and metalinguistic skills are non‐independent over a substantial developmental period.