Reading and Listening Comprehension in Individuals With Down Syndrome and Word Reading–Matched Typically Developing Children

Author(s):  
Alison Prahl ◽  
C. Melanie Schuele

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the reading comprehension and listening comprehension performance of English-speaking children with Down syndrome (DS) compared with word reading–matched typically developing (TD) children. Method: Participants included 19 individuals with DS ( M age = 17;2 [years;months], range: 11;1–22;9) and 19 word reading–matched TD children ( M age = 7;2, range: 6;6–8;1). Participants completed three norm-referenced measures of reading comprehension and three norm-referenced measures of listening comprehension. Dependent variables were raw scores on each measure, with the exception of scaled scores on one reading comprehension measure. Results: Independent-samples t tests with Bonferroni-adjusted alpha levels of .008 revealed a significant between-groups difference for two of three reading comprehension measures. The mean raw scores were lower for the DS group than the TD group, with large effect sizes. Independent-samples t tests with Bonferroni-adjusted alpha levels of .008 revealed a significant between-groups difference for three of three listening comprehension measures. The mean raw scores on the three measures were lower for the DS group than the TD group, with large effect sizes. Conclusions: The DS group, despite being matched on word reading to the TD group, demonstrated reduced reading comprehension skills as compared with the TD group. Thus, as individuals with DS acquire word reading skills, it appears that they are unable to translate word reading success to achieve reading comprehension at the expected level (i.e., as indexed by typical readers). The between-groups differences in listening comprehension suggest that deficits in listening comprehension likely are a barrier to reading comprehension proficiency for children with DS. Listening comprehension may be a malleable factor that can be targeted to improve reading comprehension outcomes for individuals with DS.

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 348-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivy N. Y. Tang ◽  
Carol K. S. To ◽  
Brendan S. Weekes

PurposeInference-making skills are necessary for reading comprehension. Training in riddle appreciation is an effective way to improve reading comprehension among English-speaking children. However, it is not clear whether these methods generalize to other writing systems. The goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between inference-making skills, as measured by riddle appreciation ability, and reading comprehension performance in typically developing Cantonese-speaking children in the 4th grade.MethodForty Cantonese-speaking children between the ages of 9;1 (years;months) and 11;0 were given tests of riddle appreciation ability and reading comprehension. Chinese character reading and auditory comprehension abilities were also assessed using tests that had been standardized in Hong Kong.ResultsRegression analyses revealed that riddle appreciation ability explained a significant amount of variance in reading comprehension after variance due to character reading skills and auditory comprehension skills were first considered. Orthographic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic riddles were also significantly correlated with reading comprehension.ConclusionRiddle appreciation ability predicts reading comprehension in Cantonese-speaking 4th-grade children. Therefore, training Cantonese speakers in riddle appreciation should improve their reading comprehension.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 828
Author(s):  
Maja Roch ◽  
Kate Cain ◽  
Christopher Jarrold

Reading for meaning is one of the most important activities in school and everyday life. The simple view of reading (SVR) has been used as a framework for studies of reading comprehension in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). These tend to show difficulties in reading comprehension despite better developed reading accuracy. Reading comprehension difficulties are influenced by poor oral language. These difficulties are common in individuals with DS and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but they have never been compared directly. Moreover, the components of reading for comprehension have rarely been investigated in these populations: a better understanding of the nature of reading comprehension difficulties may inform both theory and practice. The aim of this study was to determine whether reading comprehension in the two populations is accounted for by the same component skills and to what extent the reading profile of the two atypical groups differs from that of typically developing children (TD). Fifteen individuals with DS (mean age = 22 years 4 months, SD = 5 years 2 months), 21 with ASD (mean age = 13 years 2 months, SD = 1 year 6 months), and 42 TD children (mean age = 8 years 1 month, SD = 7 months) participated and were assessed on measures of receptive vocabulary, text reading and listening comprehension, oral language comprehension, and reading accuracy. The results showed similar levels in word reading accuracy and in receptive vocabulary in all three groups. By contrast, individuals with DS and ASD showed poorer non-word reading and reading accuracy in context than TD children. Both atypical groups showed poorer listening and reading text comprehension compared to TD children. Reading for comprehension, investigated through a homograph reading accuracy task, showed a different pattern for individuals with DS with respect to the other two groups: they were less sensitive to meaning while reading. According to the SVR, the current results confirm that the two atypical groups have similar profiles that overlap with that of poor comprehenders in which poor oral language comprehension constrains reading for comprehension.


2021 ◽  
pp. 073194872198997
Author(s):  
Philip Capin ◽  
Eunsoo Cho ◽  
Jeremy Miciak ◽  
Greg Roberts ◽  
Sharon Vaughn

This study investigated the word reading and listening comprehension difficulties of fourth-grade students with significant reading comprehension deficits and the cognitive difficulties that underlie these weaknesses. Latent profile analysis was used to classify a sample of fourth-grade students ( n = 446) who scored below the 16th percentile on a measure of reading comprehension into subgroups based on their performance in word reading (WR) and listening comprehension (LC). Three latent profiles emerged: (a) moderate deficits in both WR and LC of similar severity (91%), (b) severe deficit in WR paired with moderate LC deficit (5%), and (c) severe deficit in LC with moderate WR difficulties (4%). Analyses examining the associations between cognitive attributes and group membership indicated students with lower performance on cognitive predictors were more likely to be in a severe subgroup. Implications for educators targeting improved reading performance for upper elementary students with significant reading difficulties were discussed.


This research aimed to investigate the effect of employing the RAP as a strategy to develop the reading comprehension skills among seventh graders in Gaza governorates. For the purpose of the study, the quasi-experimental approach was used on a sample of (80) female students from Rafah Martyrs' Preparatory Girls' School divided into two equivalent groups. The experimental group included (44) female students, while the control one included (36) female students. The tools of data collection were a checklist of reading comprehension skills and reading comprehension test. To analyze the collected data, t-test was conducted. Furthermore, to examine the effectiveness of RAP strategy in developing reading comprehension skills, the effect size was measured. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences at (0.05 ≥ (in the mean scores of the reading comprehension skills in favor of the experimental group. In light of these results, the researchers recommended that English teachers use RAP strategy to develop reading comprehension skills for students.


Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Valeria Abusamra ◽  
Micaela Difalcis ◽  
Gisela Martínez ◽  
Daniel Low ◽  
Jesica Formoso

Reading comprehension is a fundamental resource for educational and social development. It is a skill that brings into play a diverse and complex set of processes and cognitive functions based on building a mental representation of a given text. We set out to study how different domain-general and linguistic abilities explain text comprehension in a population of secondary school students with low educational opportunities. The sample consisted of 45 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 15 from two secondary schools in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Each participant was evaluated both in-group and individually for three sessions during school hours. A text comprehension screening test and a battery of tasks that measure different underlying cognitive processes were administered. Using multiple linear regression, we found that vocabulary, non-word reading, and verbal inhibition are the skills that best explain reading comprehension skills. Understanding how much different domain-general and linguistic subprocesses are associated with text comprehension is key to designing effective interventions that are also grounded in theory.


Author(s):  
Sandra Levey ◽  
Henriette W. Langdon ◽  
Deborah Rhein

A number of factors were examined to determine which were associated with 40 bilingual Spanish/English–speaking children's sentence reading comprehension (SRC). In our study, 40 bilingual Spanish/English–speaking children, age ranged from 8.07 to 14.96 years, completed nonword repetition, spoken language, receptive vocabulary, single word reading (SWR), and novel word discrimination tests, with all language and reading tests administered in English. Parents' occupations, the report of the language used in interaction with friends (English vs. Spanish), age, and academic grade were also considered as possible factors for SRC. Our results found that receptive vocabulary and SWR accounted for intact SRC. Findings revealed that 13 of the 40 bilingual children (32.5%) presented with SRC difficulties. However, only 2 of these 13 children were identified with reading difficulties prior to their participation in this study, suggesting that early screening is essential to prevent later literacy difficulties.


2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhichao Xia ◽  
Linjun Zhang ◽  
Fumiko Hoeft ◽  
Bin Gu ◽  
Gaolang Gong ◽  
...  

The ability to read is essential for cognitive development. To deepen our understanding of reading acquisition, we explored the neuroanatomical correlates (cortical thickness; CT) of word-reading fluency and sentence comprehension efficiency in Chinese with a group of typically developing children ( N = 21; 12 females and 9 males; age range 10.7–12.3 years). Then, we investigated the relationship between the CT of reading-defined regions and the cognitive subcomponents of reading to determine whether our study lends support to the multi-component model. The results demonstrated that children’s performance on oral word reading was positively correlated with CT in the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG), left inferior temporal gyrus (LITG), left supramarginal gyrus (LSMG) and right superior temporal gyrus (RSTG). Moreover, CT in the LSTG, LSMG and LITG uniquely predicted children’s phonetic representation, phonological awareness, and orthography–phonology mapping skills, respectively. By contrast, children’s performance on sentence-reading comprehension was positively correlated with CT in the left parahippocampus (LPHP) and right calcarine fissure (RV1). As for the subcomponents of reading, CT in the LPHP was exclusively correlated with morphological awareness, whereas CT in the RV1 was correlated with orthography–semantic mapping. Taken together, these findings indicate that the reading network of typically developing children consists of multiple sub-divisions, thus providing neuroanatomical evidence in support of the multi-componential view of reading.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002221942110232
Author(s):  
Miao Li ◽  
John R. Kirby ◽  
Esther Geva ◽  
Poh Wee Koh ◽  
Huan Zhang

This study examined (a) the identification of various reading groups across languages in Chinese (L1) adolescents learning English as a second language (ESL), in terms of their word-reading and reading comprehension skills, (b) overlap in reading group membership across languages, and (c) the performance of the various reading groups on reading-related language comprehension measures in English. The participants were 246 eighth-grade students from an English-immersion program in a middle school in China. Latent profile analysis identified three reading groups in each language: (a) a typically developing reader group with average or above-average word-reading and reading comprehension, (b) a group with poor decoding/word-reading skills and weak reading comprehension, and (c) a group with poor reading comprehension in the absence of poor decoding/word reading. The overlap in profile characteristics across languages for typically developing readers and poor decoders was high (about 68% for typically developing readers and 54% for poor decoders), whereas the overlap for being poor comprehenders in each language was moderate (about 37%). Furthermore, poor decoders in either language performed more poorly than the typically developing and poor comprehender groups on word reading in the other language, while poor comprehenders in either language performed more poorly than the typically developing and poor decoder groups on reading comprehension in the other language. The comparison of the reading groups’ performance on English reading-related language comprehension measures showed that poor comprehenders and poor decoders performed worse than typically developing readers. Implications for identification and instruction of ESL children with reading difficulties are discussed.


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