This chart shows the number of pseudowords identified correctly by 7- to 14-year-olds with and without reading disabilities. Note that 13- and 14-year-olds with reading disabilities correctly identified no more items than did typical 7- and 8-year-olds. The poor phonological recoding skills of children with reading disabilities lead them to have special difficulty with pseudowords that, because they are totally unfamiliar, can be pronounced only by using phonological recoding. (Data from Siegel, 1993)