Synesthesia in children with difficulties in written language learning

Anahita Basirat (1) , Jean-Michel Hupé (2)

1 SCALab - Laboratoire Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives - UMR 9193
2 CERCO - Centre de recherche cerveau et cognition

We tested whether the acquisition of grapheme-color synesthesia during childhood is related to difficulties in written language learning by measuring whether it is more frequent in 79 children receiving speech and language therapy for such difficulties than in the general population of children (1.3%). By using criteria as similar as possible to those used in the reference study (Simner et al., 2009), we did not identify any synesthete (Bayesian 95% credible interval [0, 4.5]% for a flat prior). The odds of the null model (no difference between 0/79 and 1.3%) over alternative models is 28 (Bayes Factor). A higher prevalence of grapheme-color synesthetes among children with learning difficulties is therefore very unlikely, questioning the hypothesis of a link between synesthesia and difficulties in language acquisition. We also describe the difficulty of diagnosing synesthesia in children and discuss the need for new approaches to do so.

Domaines: Psychologie et comportements; Psychologie

Anahita Basirat, Jean-Michel Hupé. Synesthesia in children with difficulties in written language learning. Consciousness and Cognition, 2020, 82, ⟨10.1016/j.concog.2020.102951⟩. ⟨hal-03022466⟩