Dyslexia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Dyslexia, including details on learning, reading, education, teaching, treatment.

The influence of working memory on reading growth in subgroups of children with reading disabilities.

Swanson HL, Jerman O

Department of Educational Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA. lee.swanson@ucr.edu

This 3-year longitudinal study determined whether (a) subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) (children with RD only, children with both reading and arithmetic deficits, and low verbal IQ readers) and skilled readers varied in working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) growth and (b) whether growth in an executive system and/or a phonological storage system mediated growth in reading performance. A battery of memory and reading measures was administered to 84 children (11-17 years of age) across three testing waves spaced 1 year apart. The results showed that skilled readers yielded higher WM growth estimates than did the RD groups. No significant differentiation among subgroups of children with RD on growth measures emerged. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that WM (controlled attention), rather than STM (phonological loop), was related to growth in reading comprehension and reading fluency. The results support the notion that deficient growth in the executive component of WM underlies RD.

Published 17 April 2007 in J Exp Child Psychol, 96(4): 249-83.
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