normal readers had activity in left frontal brain regions, whereas only normal readers had

activity in left temporo-parietal cortex. During letter matching performance for an

orthographic task, while normal readers showed activity throughout extrastriate cortex,

dyslexic readers had little activity in that region. Their findings suggest that children with

RD may be characterized by disruptions in the neural bases of both phonological and

orthographic processes (Temple et al., 2000).

Rapid naming

 Rapid naming is the ability to recall quickly and to verbalize the name of a

presented object. Naming speed is typically assessed by Rapid Automatic Naming Test

(RAN; Denckla & Rudel 1974, 1976), which requires children to name familiar colors,

pictured objects, digits, and letters (Wagner & Togeson, 1987, as cited in Manis et al.,

1999). Originally, Denckla and Rudel (see Clark & Uhry, 1995) found that the length of

time it took to name these stimuli varied with age and reading ability. Older children

were able to name quicker than younger children, and children with higher reading ability

were quicker that poor readers. This hypothesis was confirmed through continuing

studies. Recently, there is a growing consensus that RAN is highly correlated with

reading ability (e.g., Bowers & Swanson, 1991; Wolf, 1991) and serves as an accurate,

early, time-efficient predictor of reading achievement (Bowers & Wolf, 1993; Wolf,

1991). Over the last two decades, an extensive body of research indicated that rapid-

naming skill is strongly related to reading development (Badian, 1993; Bowers, 1996;

Wolf, Bally, & Morris, 1986; Wolf & Bowers, 1999). Unfortunately, researchers have

provided mixed findings, and such findings vary greatly across studies. For example, the

relationship between rapid-naming and phonological deficits in RD becomes a subject of