Children who experience difficulties in learning to read have poor phonological awareness?

Many educational psychologists think that children who experience difficulties in learning to read have poor phonological awareness (ability to hear the different sounds within words). They claim that dyslexia is caused by a phonological deficit in those children affected, whilst accepting that other factors (e.g. poor short term memory) can make the condition worse.
Note: Dyslexia is defined as 鈥渁 learning disorder marked by impairment of the ability to recognize and comprehend written words鈥?
(i) Which one of the following statements will be true if the theory of these educational psychologists is correct?
A Children with a phonological deficit will become dyslexic.
B A phonological deficit is the root cause of dyslexia.
C Dyslexia is the result of poor phonological awareness only when combined with other problems.
D Non-dyslexic children will have no phonological deficit.
E Poor phonological awareness is often accompanied by poor short term memory.

The correct answer is B + C
Justification
According to the theory, the cause of dyslexia is (lack of/ reduced) phonological awareness. While
other factors can exacerbate the condition, there are no grounds for inferring that they can
themselves cause it. The root cause is therefore a phonological deficit.
Distractors
A confuses a necessary with a sufficient condition, as the theory neither states nor implies that
everyone with a phonological deficit will be dyslexic. The statement 鈥業f X is dyslexic, then X will have
a phonological deficit鈥?does not imply the converse 鈥業f X has a phonological deficit, X will be dyslexic鈥?
The theory only tells us that other factors can exacerbate the condition. They are therefore not
necessary conditions and therefore should not be stated as part of the overall definition, as they are
in C.
As with A, D entails the assumption that a phonological deficit is a sufficient condition for dyslexia,
when the theory only implies that it is necessary. The theory is therefore consistent with the claims 鈥榅
has a phonological awareness鈥?and 鈥榅 does not have dyslexia鈥?
E cannot be derived from the theory as it stands. It could be postulated but would require further
experimental evidence to determine. (In fact it is often the case that there is a correlation, but this is
in no way derivable from the theory.)

Phonological awareness is the conscious sensitivity to the sound structure of language. It includes the ability to auditorily distinguish parts of speech, such as syllables and phonemes. The ability to blend and segment phonemes is critical to the development of decoding and spelling skills. Phonological awareness is an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability and has, therefore, been the focus of much research. Phonological awareness is often confused with phonics, but it is different. Phonics requires students to match sounds with letters or letter patterns and use these to say words. Phonological awareness is only related to sounds; letters are not part of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness.
"Phonological awareness" is demonstrated by awareness of sounds at three levels of sound structure: syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes. For example, the word football contains two syllables, /f蕣t/ and /b蓱l/.
The syllable /f蕣t/ has an onset, /f/ and a rime, /蕣t/. The individual phonemes in /f蕣t/ are /f/, /蕣/, and /t/. Phonological awareness is further demonstrated by manipulating these sounds, such as by clapping the syllables in the word.
Phonological awareness is developed through a variety of activities that expose students to the sound structure of the language and teach them to manipulate it. Specific activities, like clapping the sounds in words and blending phonemes to say words, as well as less directed activities like songs and nursery rhymes are important developing this auditory skill. Research has also shown that students learn phonological awareness in the context of activities that do involve letters and sometimes even spelling. Although phonological awareness is technically only about sounds, research demonstrates the utility of doing phonological awareness practice in the context of reading activities.