19 General introduction 1 semantic abilities of children with dyslexia on word reading, pseudoword reading, and spelling. The second goal is to study whether strengthening the orthographic representations bymeans of a phonics through spelling intervention has positive effects on word reading, pseudoword reading, and spelling and if cognitive profiles (including phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, working memory, semantic abilities, and verbal learning and consolidation) influence response to intervention. Diagnosis of dyslexia in the Netherlands In the Netherlands, all children learn to read and spell by means of highly structured phonics reading and spelling instructions starting from grade 1. Since Dutch is a rather transparent language (see Landerl & Wimmer, 2008) most children benefit from these instructions and learn to read and spell at appropriate levels. However, some children do not reach appropriate levels. The Netherlands has a nation-wide protocol for diagnosis of and intervention for dyslexia (Blomert, 2006). The nation-wide protocol is recently revised based on developments in research and clinical practice and this renewed protocol (Tijms et al., 2021) was implemented in January 2022. Throughout the current study, the preceding protocol was used but the results of the present study will be related to the changes in the renewed protocol in the discussion section of this thesis. The protocol used in this thesis (Blomert, 2006) states that children with severe and persistent reading problems or combined reading and spelling problems can be referred to a specialized clinic for assessment (private institutes). Teachers have to prove that the persistent and severe reading problems or combined reading and spelling problems were at place during one and a half school year (word reading scores below 10th percentile or below 15th percentile combined with spelling scores below 10th percentile). Children visit the clinic at different moments in their school carriers (varying fromgrade 2 to grade 6). In the subsequent diagnosis, a phonological deficit needs to be evidenced and other explanations of reading or spelling problems need to be excluded by a certified clinical psychologist. This is in line with the definition of dyslexia in the International Dyslexia Association (2002). After formally being diagnosed with dyslexia, children in the Netherlands receive a free, in-service intervention in a specialized clinic that aims to help these children to learn to read and spell at age-appropriate levels. During and after the intervention word reading, pseudoword reading and word spelling levels are monitored to see whether the intervention is beneficial. Design and research questions For the purpose of this study, 99 files of Dutch childrenwith dyslexiaweremade available by a clinic for assessment and intervention of children with learning difficulties in the east of the Netherlands. Parents had given active consent to use the data collected
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