Phonological processing in students with developmental dyslexia, ADHD and intellectual disability

Abstract

Purpose: to compare the performance of students with dyslexia, intellectual disability and ADHD on the skills of phonological awareness, phonological access to the mental lexicon, and phonological working memory. Methods: this is a descriptive, cross sectional and quantitative study. The sample was composed of 32 students, divided into the following groups: G1 - students with dyslexia; G2 - students with ADHD; G3 - students with intellectual disability. The children were assessed on their skills of phonological awareness, phonological working memory, and phonological access to the mental lexicon. A descriptive and inferential analysis was made, using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: statistically significant differences were observed among the three groups on the phonological working memory skills for pseudowords, forward digit repetition, and backward digit repetition; phonological awareness on syllable level, phoneme level, test total score, and digits subtest of the rapid automatized naming test. Through the descriptive analysis, it was observed that G1 had the best results on all the skills assessed, followed by G2 and G3 Conclusion: differences were found on the skills of phonological working memory and phonological awareness among the groups of students presented with dyslexia, ADHD and intellectual disability.

Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming: The Mediating Effect of Word Reading and Spelling in Children with Developmental Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Mild Intellectual Disability

“…Contrary to what was mentioned in the literature, PA was associated with WR and SP in children with DD, ADHD, and mild ID, whereas Wilson and Lesaux [49] showed that adolescents with dyslexia can attain age-appropriate performances on reading measures, while still showing PA deficits. Contrary to literature, whereas Anjos, Barbosa, and Azoni [14] observed statistically significant differences among the three groups on the phonological WM skills for pseudowords, forward digit repetition, and backward digit repetition; PA on syllable level, phoneme level, test total score, and digits subtest of the RAN test, there is no difference between the three groups in the current studies on all parameters used in this study. This may be that in our educational system, especially at the first stages, the focus is on teaching children to read words, spell, and use different skills of phonology.…”

“…There are occasional reports of poor PA performance in ADHD groups (e.g., [14]), especially if the PA task employed is relatively time-consuming or imposes a relatively high level of working memory (WM) load. The general link between rapid automatized naming (RAN) and WR speed should be refined by the following note on RAN subtasks.…”

“…As for intellectual disability (ID), it is defined by difficulties in intellectual and adaptive functions, with early beginning in development. The difficulties in reading, as well as in recognizing letters and having reading fluency may be a consequence of alterations in oral language development [14, 15]. It is well known (e.g., [15]) that children become increasingly sensitive to smaller and smaller parts of words as they grow older.…”

“…According to the double-deficit hypothesis, PA and RAN are two separable sources of reading dysfunction [24]. Some authors (e.g., [15,[25][26][27][28]) indicate that PA is an area of weakness in children with ID of different etiologies.…”