Influence of Verbal Working Memory Depends on Vocabulary: Oral Reading Fluency in Adolescents With Dyslexia
Abstract
Most research on dyslexia to date has focused on early childhood, while comparatively little is known about the nature of dyslexia in adolescence. The current study had two objectives. The first was to investigate the relative contributions of several cognitive and linguistic factors to connected‐text oral reading fluency in a sample of adolescents with dyslexia (n = 77). The second was to test the hypothesis that the effect of verbal working memory on connected‐text oral reading fluency is moderated by word‐level skills and/or vocabulary knowledge. The results suggest that many deficits associated with childhood dyslexia remain prominent in adolescence, but the nature of the relationships between key cognitive and linguistic predictors (i.e., word‐level reading, vocabulary, verbal working memory) and reading fluency appear to be different in adolescence. For example, while word‐level skills remain a significant predictor, the strength of the effect is relatively weak. In contrast, the data support an increased role for vocabulary and verbal working memory, including an interaction between these factors. The presence of an interaction can be interpreted as evidence that the influence of verbal working memory on connected‐text oral reading fluency in adolescents with dyslexia depends on individual differences in vocabulary knowledge. These results offer support for the changing nature of dyslexia across development, and suggest that researchers should study dyslexia in adolescents on its own terms, rather than treating it as an extension of reading problems in early childhood.
Number of times cited: 11
- Eric L. Oslund, Nathan H. Clemens, Deborah C. Simmons and Leslie E. Simmons, The direct and indirect effects of word reading and vocabulary on adolescents’ reading comprehension: Comparing struggling and adequate comprehenders, Reading and Writing, 31, 2, (355), (2018).
- K. Brooke Stafford‐Brizard, Pamela Cantor and L. Todd Rose, Building the Bridge Between Science and Practice: Essential Characteristics of a Translational Framework, Mind, Brain, and Education, 11, 4, (155-165), (2017).
- Stephanie L Haft, Chelsea A Myers and Fumiko Hoeft, Socio-emotional and cognitive resilience in children with reading disabilities, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 10, (133), (2016).
- Eddy Cavalli, Séverine Casalis, Abdessadek El Ahmadi, Mélody Zira, Florence Poracchia-George and Pascale Colé, Vocabulary skills are well developed in university students with dyslexia: Evidence from multiple case studies, Research in Developmental Disabilities, 51-52, (89), (2016).
- Wim Tops, Maaike Callens, Annemie Desoete, Michaël Stevens, Marc Brysbaert and Antony Bayer, Metacognition for Spelling in Higher Education Students with Dyslexia: Is There Evidence for the Dual Burden Hypothesis?, PLoS ONE, 9, 9, (e106550), (2014).
- Stephan Bender, Annet Bluschke, Gabriel Dippel, André Rupp, Matthias Weisbrod and Christine Thomas, Auditory post-processing in a passive listening task is deficient in Alzheimer’s disease, Clinical Neurophysiology, 10.1016/j.clinph.2013.05.026, 125, 1, (53-62), (2014).
- L. Todd Rose, Parisa Rouhani and Kurt W. Fischer, The Science of the Individual, Mind, Brain, and Education, 7, 3, (152-158), (2013).
- Elisabeth A.T. Tilanus, Eliane Segers and Ludo Verhoeven, Diagnostic profiles of children with developmental dyslexia in a transparent orthography, Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34, 11, (4194), (2013).
- Wim Tops, Ellen Verguts, Maaike Callens, Marc Brysbaert and Kevin Paterson, Do Students with Dyslexia Have a Different Personality Profile as Measured with the Big Five?, PLoS ONE, 8, 5, (e64484), (2013).
- Rebecca Wiseheart and Lori J. P. Altmann, Spoken sentence production in college students with dyslexia: working memory and vocabulary effects, International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, , (2017).
- Réka Vágvölgyi, Andra Coldea, Thomas Dresler, Josef Schrader and Hans-Christoph Nuerk, A Review about Functional Illiteracy: Definition, Cognitive, Linguistic, and Numerical Aspects, Frontiers in Psychology, 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01617, 7, (2016).
