How early does morpho-lexical reading develop in readers of a shallow orthography?

In this research, lexical and morpho-lexical reading in Italian children aged 8 to 10 years was investigated. Children and control adults were administered two tasks on words and pseudowords: visual lexical decision and naming. Word frequency effects in both lexical decision and naming were found, both in children and adults. Pseudowords made up of roots and derivational suffixes were decided more frequently as possible words, and were named more quickly and accurately than matched pseudowords with no morphological constituency at all ages. These results show that morpho- lexical reading is available and efficient in young readers of a shallow orthography, with similar patterns in children and adults.