Effects of fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance

Abstract

Reading disability (RD) typically consists of deficits in word reading accuracy and/or reading comprehension. While it is well known that word reading accuracy deficits lead to comprehension deficits (general reading disability, GRD), less is understood about neuropsychological profiles of children who exhibit adequate word reading accuracy but nevertheless develop specific reading comprehension deficits (S-RCD). Establishing the underlying neuropsychological processes associated with different RD types is essential for ultimately understanding core neurobiological bases of reading comprehension. To this end, the present study investigated isolated and contextual word fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance in 56 9-to 14-year-old children [21 typically developing (TD), 18 GRD, and 17 S-RCD]. Results indicated that TD and S-RCD participants read isolated words at a faster rate than participants with GRD; however, both RD groups had contextual word fluency and oral language weaknesses. Additionally, S-RCD participants showed prominent weaknesses in executive function. Implications for understanding the neuropsychological bases for reading comprehension are discussed. KeywordsExecutive function; Fluency; Oral language; Reading comprehension; Reading disabilities It is well established that many children and adolescents have inadequate reading comprehension (NAEP, 2003). Because comprehension of text is the ultimate goal of the reader, difficulty in reading comprehension has far-reaching consequences not just for school achievement but also for a student's future educational and occupational opportunities. Until recently, many researchers assumed that bottom-up skills (word recognition and decoding) were the predominate reason for difficulty with reading comprehension. Indeed, various independent researchers have demonstrated that if a reader is seriously deficient at decoding and recognizing words, this will necessarily impede successful comprehension (see Lyon,Correspondence to: Laurie E. Cutting. 1995;Torgesen, 2000). Furthermore, it is thought that not just accuracy in bottom-up skills is important but also their efficiency or speed as well. Slow word reading increases demands placed on other processes, such as working memory, which in turn poses difficulties for comprehending connected text and thus creates a processing bottleneck (e.g., Perfetti & Hogaboam, 1975;Perfetti, Marron, & Foltz, 1996;Wolf & Katzir-Cohen, 2001;Shankweiler, 1999). NIH Public AccessOther lines of research, however, suggest that reading comprehension deficits can arise for multiple distinct reasons, which include, but are not limited to, weaknesses in bottom-up skills (Cain & Oakhill, 2006;Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 1999;Biancarosa & Snow, 2004;Catts, Hogan, Adof, & Barth, 2003a;Leach, Scarborough, & Rescorla, 2003; McCardle, Scarborough, & Catts, 2001;Nation & Snowling, 2000Scarborough, 1990Scarborough, , 2005Snow, 2002). This is especially illustrated by the population of childre...

School performance at the end of elementary school: Contributions of intelligence, language, and executive functions

“…This finding may be related to the age and educational level of the participants. In other words, oral language in general, and, specifically, PA and vocabulary are important predictors (regarded as precursors) of reading proficiency (Capovilla & Dias, 2008;Cutting et al, 2009;Dias & Seabra, 2012;Kairaluoma et al, 2013;Mokhtari & Niederhauser, 2013;Scarborough, 2009;Seabra & Dias, 2012a;Skibbe et al, 2008). Reading skills, in turn, are developed during the elementary years (EF-I in Brazil), and they are also related to school performance .…”

“…The association between oral language and academic performance, more specifically reading performance, is already well established and widely explored in the literature (Cutting, Materek, Cole, Levine, & Mahone, 2009;Monteiro & Soares, 2014;Seabra & Dias, 2012a;Skibbe et al, 2008). There is evidence of the particular contribution of specific oral language and reading skills, i.e., Phonological Awareness (PA, ability to identify and manipulate sound segments in words), to word recognition and contribution of vocabulary (a set of words which convey a meaning) to reading comprehension (Seabra & Dias, 2012a).…”

Metacognição e funções executivas: relações entre os conceitos e implicações para a aprendizagem

“…Alguns estudos concluem que é o sistema executivo central da memória de trabalho o fator diretamente relacionado com a compreensão (Carretti, Borella, Cornoldi, & De Beni, 2009;Carretti, Cornoldi, De Beni, & Romanò, 2005;De Beni & Palladino, 2000;Swanson & Jerman, 2007). Nessa mesma direção, Cutting et al (2009) verificaram um desempenho significativamente inferior nas funções executivas entre crianças com dificuldades específicas na compreensão. Em estudo que testou a correlação entre tarefas de leitura e diferentes funções neuropsicológicas, Salles e Corso (2011) verificaram que, considerando a tarefa de compreensão leitora, as correlações significativas mais altas ocorreram com uma tarefa de funções executivas.…”

“…Ao mesmo tempo, as dificuldades de aprendizagem aparecem, em diferentes estudos, relacionadas a falhas ou ao atraso no desenvolvimento dessas capacidades de planejamento, monitoramento e controle da própria atividade (Cutting, Materek, Cole, Levine, & Mahone, 2009;Cypel, 2006;Fletcher, Lyons, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2009;Van der Sluis, Jong, & Van der Leij, 2006). Da perspectiva da Neuropsicologia, são as funções executivas que respondem por tais capacidades.…”

Cognitive demands of processing expository text: Pedagogical implications for enhancing coherent text base among less skilled readers

“…Indeed, it is not always the case that individuals who are good readers are necessarily good passage comprehenders (e.g., Cain & Oakhill, 2006;Catts, Adlof, & 2006;Cutting, Materek, Cole, Levine, & Mahone, 2009). This support the idea that reading comprehension is much more complex, requiring both the coordination and the integration of other components of cognitive skills over and above single word identification.…”