Distinguishing between these two theoretical accounts
is crucial to informing our understanding of the relationship
between PAL deficits and the reading and spelling difficulties
characteristic of dyslexia. Learning to read and
spell undoubtedly requires the establishment of orthography-
phonology mappings, yet it is unclear whether the
mappings themselves impede learning in dyslexia. If PAL
deficits reflect difficulties with crossmodal associative
learning, this would provide evidence for a dyslexic deficit
that is specifically implicated in learning to read (via the
formation of orthography-phonology mappings). On the
other hand, if PAL deficits arise from the phonological demands
of the tasks, this would suggest that PAL deficits
are neither a reflection of poor associative learning, nor
specific to reading. In other words, the difficulties children
with dyslexia experience in the acquisition of orthographyphonology
mappings would be viewed as a manifestation
of underlying phonological deficits, rather than a difficulty
learning the mappings themselves. Moreover, these phonological
deficits would be expected to compromise the
development of both written and oral language skills
(e.g., expressive word learning), when these skills rely on the integrity of the phonological system.