107 Compensatory role of verbal learning and consolidation in reading and spelling 5 Role of verbal learning and consolidation in reading and spelling Throughout the years, a lot of reseach has been done on memory-related functions among children with dyslexia, with verbal working memory receiving most attention. Previous research showed that children with dyslexia have verbal working memory problems, which are related to deficiencies in their literacy development (Kastamoniti et al., 2018). To be more specific, problems in verbal working memory lead to unstable representations and thus inefficient activation of the semantic features of words (Lukatela et al., 1998). Therefore, working memory is also related to semantic development (Gathercole, 1995). In the case of unstable phonological representations, repetition and rehearsal could lead to better outcomes as these processes stimulate the specificity of the lexicon. However, as verbal working memory itself can only store and retrieve phonological information for a limited amount of time, it has been suggested that stimulating the specificity of the lexicon itself lies not somuch in the verbal working memory system, but in the storage of phonological information in long-term memory (e.g., Elbro & Jensen, 2005; Mayringer and Wimmer, 2000). Two processes that are involved in acquiring and storing verbal information in longterm memory are verbal learning and consolidation. Verbal learning can be seen as a process of maintaining as much verbal information as possible in working memory for a short period (Kibby, 2009) with the help of repetition and rehearsal to store the verbal information properly (Van Strien, 1999). Research regarding the role of verbal learning showed that school-aged 6 to 13-year-old children with dyslexia learn verbal information less efficiently compared to controls in paired associate learning (Elbro & Jensen, 2005; Litt & Nation, 2014; Mayringer &Wimmer, 2000; Messbauer & De Jong, 2003; 2006, Wang et al., 2017) and verbal list learning (Kibby, 2009; Kramer et al., 2000; Tijms, 2004; Van Strien, 1999). Only Kibby (2009) found no differences in verbal learning ability between 9 to 13-year-old children with dyslexia and typically developing controls. Research on verbal learning tasks showed that children with dyslexia between 6 and 13-years old indeed benefit from rehearsal and external updating, although they profit less from it than controls (Elbro & Jensen, 2005; Kibby, 2009; Kramer et al., 2000; Litt & Nation, 2014; Mayringer & Wimmer, 2000; Messbauer & De Jong, 2003, 2006; Wang et al, 2017). It can be concluded that children with dyslexia may have a less efficient rehearsal and encodingmechanism, whichmay limit the acquisition of higher quality representations of already known words (Elbro & Jensen, 2005). After learning, new verbal material needs to be remembered over time. This is called verbal consolidation. The consolidation of this information in 8 to 13-year-old children with dyslexia is comparable with controls of the same age (Kibby, 2009; Kramer et al., 2000; Messbauer & De Jong, 2003; Van Strien, 1999;) and the same reading age (2 years
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw