84 Chapter 4 scores (Minformation = 10.50, SDinformation = 2.42, Msimularities = 12.25, SDsimularities = 2.83, Mvocabulary = 11.31, SDvocabulary = 2.32, Mcomprehension = 11.58, SDcomprehension = 2.41). Themean age of the children in the control groupwas 8.88 years (SD = .89). Childrenwere in grade 2 (n = 25), grade 3 (n = 52), and grade 4 (n = 28). All children had semantic abilities within the normal range both in total scores (M = 101.67, SD = 13.84) and standardized subtest scores (Minformation = 10.40, SDinformation = 2.63, Msimularities = 10.98, SDsimularities = 2.81, M vocabulary = 10.46, SD vocabulary = 2.82, Mcomprehension = 9.34, SDcomprehension = 2.81). The fact that both groups scored within the normal range on the four measures of the semantic ability seems to converge with the aptitude-achievement discrepancy model that defined dyslexia as a discrepancy between rather normal intelligence and weak reading scores (Fletcher et al., 2007). Procedure With respect to the recruitment of the control group, six schools for mainstream primary education throughout the Netherlands were asked by letter and telephone to participate in the present study. When a school agreed to participate, parents gave active consent to let their child participate in the present study. With respect to the group of children with dyslexia, the data from the current study was based on existing data collected by a clinic for assessment and intervention of children with learning disorders. All children were tested between 2009 and 2013 in two consecutive mornings by clinicians on rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, verbal working memory, pseudoword decoding, word decoding, spelling, and semantic abilities. Two or three weeks after the assessment, the phonics through spelling intervention started. After the intervention, all participants were subjected to the posttest, including pseudoword decoding, word decoding, and spelling measures. All children from the control group were tested once, during one school day. Measures Outcome measure Spelling Spelling was measured with the standardized “PI word dictation” (Geelhoed & Reitsma, 1999). In this task, childrenwere asked towrite singleDutchwords correctly. The dictation consisted of 135 words, divided into 9 blocks of 15 words. First, a sentence was read aloud and afterwards, the target word was repeated. The test was terminated when a child failed to write at least eight words correctly within one block. The number of correctly written words was counted. There were two versions available of the test (version A and
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