Linking memory and language: Evidence for a serial-order learning impairment in dyslexia.
Dyslexia in adults is tied to a core long-term problem with remembering the order of sounds.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Louisa and her team asked adults with dyslexia to learn made-up words.
The words were short, like "glimber," and the adults heard them many times.
Later, the team checked who still knew the order of sounds in each word.
What they found
The dyslexic group could not hold the sound order in long-term memory.
They also had trouble turning the new words into real-like words in their mind.
Yet, after one month, they still remembered the words they had learned — just not the exact order.
How this fits with other research
Trecy et al. (2013) showed the same adults also fail on short-term order memory.
Together, the two papers trace one clear line: dyslexia is not just about sounds; it is about keeping order.
Aldaqre et al. (2015) looked at word learning in autistic adults.
They found a different hurdle — salient distractors — showing order is not every adult learner’s problem.
Why it matters
If your client has dyslexia, do not just drill phonics.
Add order games: clap rhythms, repeat bead patterns, or use apps that ask "What came third?"
Strengthening serial-order memory may boost the way new words stick.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Start each session with a 2-minute sound-sequence recall warm-up: say three nonsense syllables and ask the client to repeat them backwards.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present study investigated long-term serial-order learning impairments, operationalized as reduced Hebb repetition learning (HRL), in people with dyslexia. In a first multi-session experiment, we investigated both the persistence of a serial-order learning impairment as well as the long-term retention of serial-order representations, both in a group of Dutch-speaking adults with developmental dyslexia and in a matched control group. In a second experiment, we relied on the assumption that HRL mimics naturalistic word-form acquisition and we investigated the lexicalization of novel word-forms acquired through HRL. First, our results demonstrate that adults with dyslexia are fundamentally impaired in the long-term acquisition of serial-order information. Second, dyslexic and control participants show comparable retention of the long-term serial-order representations in memory over a period of 1 month. Third, the data suggest weaker lexicalization of newly acquired word-forms in the dyslexic group. We discuss the integration of these findings into current theoretical views of dyslexia.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2015.06.012