A longitudinal study of phonological processing skills and reading in bilingual children

French/English bilingual children (N=40) in French language schools participated in an 8-month longitudinal study of the relation between phonological processing skills and reading in French and English. Participants were administered measures of phonological awareness, working memory, naming speed, and reading in both languages. The results of the concurrent analyses show that phonological awareness skills in both French and English were uniquely predictive of reading performance in both languages after accounting for the influences of cognitive ability, reading ability, working memory, and naming speed. These findings support the hypothesis that phonological awareness is strongly related to beginning word reading skill in an alphabetic orthography. The results of the longitudinal analyses also suggest that orthographic depth influences phonological factors related to reading

Poor written and oral text comprehension in third grade children. A multiple case study

In this multiple case study we analyzed oral text comprehension, reading profiles and underlying cognitive abilities (attention, executive functions, working memory, narrative memory, rapid automatized naming and vocabulary) of 9 children identified as poor written text comprehenders after a school screening on 75 third grade children. Four out of the 9 children were named Language-Minority (L-M) children, since they had immigrant parents. The remaining 5 children were born in Italy from Italian parents. The comparisons of the two subgroups suggested that the lexical route of reading was particularly impaired in the L-M subgroup and that written text comprehension was weakened by restricted vocabulary which, in turn, was not supported by efficient phonological short-term memory. In a second type of data analysis we examined the individual profiles of the 9 children, irrespective of their belonging to the L-M or Italian subgroups, and identified different patterns of associations among reading performance, written text comprehension and oral text comprehension. The findings showed that poor text comprehension always co-occurred with word and/or text reading difficulties which, in turn, were associated to slow naming and weak verbal working memory. Moreover, when children had both written and oral text comprehension difficulties, not only verbal working memory was impaired but also narrative memory, suggesting a weakness in the episodic buffer (Baddeley 2000; 2010). The implications of poor working memory associated to slow naming and/or weak episodic buffer for text comprehension are discusse

Genetic Covariance Structure of Reading, Intelligence and Memory in Children

This study investigates the genetic relationship among reading performance, IQ, verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) in a sample of 112, 9-year-old twin pairs and their older siblings. The relationship between reading performance and the other traits was explained by a common genetic factor for reading performance, IQ, WM and STM and a genetic factor that only influenced reading performance and verbal memory. Genetic variation explained 83% of the variation in reading performance; most of this genetic variance was explained by variation in IQ and memory performance. We hypothesize, based on these results, that children with reading problems possibly can be divided into three groups: (1) children low in IQ and with reading problems; (2) children with average IQ but a STM deficit and with reading problems; (3) children with low IQ and STM deficits; this group may experience more reading problems than the other two

Synergies between processing and memory in children's reading span.

Previous research has established the relevance of working memory for cognitive development. Yet the factors responsible for shaping performance in the complex span tasks used to assess working memory capacity are not fully understood. We report a study of reading span in 7- to 11-year old children that addresses several contemporary theoretical issues. We demonstrate that both the timing and the accuracy of recall are affected by the presence or absence of a semantic connection between the processing requirement and the memoranda. Evidence that there can be synergies between processing and memory argues against the view that complex span simply measures the competition between these activities. We also demonstrate a consistent relationship between the rate of completing processing operations (sentence reading) and recall accuracy. At the same time, the shape and strength of this function varies with the task configuration. Taken together, these results demonstrate the potential for reconstructive influences to shape working memory performance among children

Working memory: Is it the new IQ?

Working memory, our ability to process and remember information, is linked to a range of cognitive activities from reasoning tasks to verbal comprehension. There is also extensive evidence of the relationship between working memory and learning outcomes. However, some researchers suggest that working memory is simply a proxy for IQ and does not make a unique contribution to learning outcomes. Here we show that children's working memory skills at 5 years of age was the best predictor of reading, spelling, and math outcomes six years later. IQ, in contrast, accounted for a smaller portion of unique variance to reading and math skills, and was not a significant predictor of spelling performance. Our results demonstrate that working memory is not a proxy for IQ, but rather represents a dissociable cognitive skill with unique links to learning outcomes. Critically, we find that working memory at the start of formal education is a more powerful predictor of subsequent academic success than IQ. This result has important implications for education, particularly with respect to developing intervention and training. It appears that we should target our efforts in developing working memory skills in order to see gains in learning

Training Programme Impact in Improving the Working Memory of Students with Learning Disabilities in Reading Arabic

The study aimed to investigate the effect of a training program on improving working memory for students with learning difficulties in reading Arabic. The study sample consisted of (10) students with learning disabilities from Basic Education students from the fifth and sixth grades, and those between the ages (10-11) years as a pilot group and (10) students from the same stage and of the same age as a control group. The researcher used a working memory battery, Raven Test, and a training program he prepared to achieve the study goal. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences in the fields of working memory scale between the members of the experimental and control groups in the dimensional measurement, and in favor of the experimental group to which the training program was applied, by applying the measure of working memory in its three fields. The results also showed that there are statistically significant differences between the pre and post measurements of the areas of the working memory scale in favor of the post application, and for the benefit of the experimental group,This confirms the effectiveness of the training program used. Some recommendations were suggested

Reading Performance is Predicted by More Than Phonological Processing

We compared three phonological processing components (phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming and phonological memory), verbal working memory, and attention control in terms of how well they predict the various aspects of reading: word recognition, pseudoword decoding, fluency and comprehension, in a mixed sample of 182 children ages 8–12 years. Participants displayed a wide range of reading ability and attention control. Multiple regression was used to determine how well the phonological processing components, verbal working memory, and attention control predict reading performance. All equations were highly significant. Phonological memory predicted word identification and decoding. In addition, phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming predicted every aspect of reading assessed, supporting the notion that phonological processing is a core contributor to reading ability. Nonetheless, phonological processing was not the only predictor of reading performance. Verbal working memory predicted fluency, decoding and comprehension, and attention control predicted fluency. Based upon our results, when using Baddeley’s model of working memory it appears that the phonological loop contributes to basic reading ability, whereas the central executive contributes to fluency and comprehension, along with decoding. Attention control was of interest as some children with ADHD have poor reading ability even if it is not sufficiently impaired to warrant diagnosis. Our finding that attention control predicts reading fluency is consistent with prior research which showed sustained attention plays a role in fluency. Taken together, our results suggest that reading is a highly complex skill that entails more than phonological processing to perform well

High working memory performers have efficient eye movement control systems under Reading Span Test

Controlled eye movements are critical in performing highly goal oriented behavior such as text reading. Previous studies have examined the relationship between working memory capacity and eye movement control during working memory task. However, the results were inconsistent, due to a methodological issue including the predictability of target location. In the present study, we used Japanese version of reading span test, where the position of to-be-remembered word is not predictable so that more efficient attentional control is required, and investigated how working memory capacity contributes to eye movement control during reading span test. Results based on total fixation time revealed that highworking memory performers efficiently control or shift their attention under high memory load

The role of visuo-spatial and verbal working memory in L2 Japanese reading proficiency

Verbal working memory is recognized as a strong predictor of L2 reading development in the area of learning new vocabulary, reading comprehension, and overall L2 proficiency in alphabetic languages such as English. However, few studies have addressed if the same is true in logographic languages such as Japanese. Previous literature has indicated that phonology plays a weaker role in reading Japanese than alphabetic languages and that visual information is often processed for semantic rather than phonetic information. Based on these findings, it was hypothesized that visuo-spatial working memory would display a stronger relationship with Japanese reading proficiency than verbal working memory. This study investigated the relationship between (a) visuo-spatial working memory and Japanese reading proficiency and (b) verbal working memory and Japanese reading proficiency. Thirty learners of Japanese as a foreign language had their visuo-spatial working memory assessed using a spatial span task and a dual 3-back task. Their verbal working memory was assessed using an automated reading span task. Participants also took a Japanese cloze test and proficiency self-rating questionnaire to indicate their reading proficiency. Correlations were not found between the visuo-spatial working memory tasks and the Japanese cloze test, but a weak correlation was found between the verbal working memory task and the Japanese cloze test. Since the reading assessment used in this study had questionable validity, the hypothesis and research questions for this study could not be fully addressed. Suggestions are made for refining assessment tools and using other techniques to help us better understand of the relationship between working memory measures and Japanese reading proficiency

Working memory in children with reading and/or mathematical disabilities

Elementary school children with reading disabilities (RD; n = 17), mathematical disabilities (MD; n = 22), or combined reading and mathematical disabilities (RD+MD; n = 28) were compared to average achieving (AA; n = 45) peers on working memory measures. On all working memory components, 2 (RD vs. no RD) x 2 (MD vs. no MD) factorial ANCOVAs revealed clear differences between children with and without RD. Children with MD had lower span scores than the AA children on measures of the phonological loop and the central executive. A significant interaction effect between RD and MD was found only for listening recall and had a small, partial effect size. In addition, analyses showed that the best logistic regression model consisted of a visuospatial and a central executive task. The model significantly distinguished between the AA and clinical groups and between the MD and RD+MD groups. Evidence was found for domain-general working memory problems in children with learning disabilities. Management of working memory loads in structured learning activities in the classroom, at home, or during therapy may help these children to cope with their problems in a more profound manner