The mathematics skills of children with reading difficulties

Although many children with reading difficulty (RD) are reported to struggle with mathematics, little research has empirically investigated whether this is the case for different types of RD. This study examined the mathematics skills of third graders with one of two types of RD: dyslexia (n = 18) or specific reading comprehension difficulty (n = 22), as contrasted to a comparison group (n = 247). Children's performance on arithmetic fact fluency, operations, and applied problems was assessed using standardized measures. The results indicated that children with dyslexia experienced particular difficulty with arithmetic fact fluency and operations: they were 5.60 times and 8.54 times more likely than other children to experience deficits in fact fluency and operations, respectively. Our findings related to arithmetic fact fluency were more consistent with domain-general explanations of the co-morbidity between RD and mathematics difficulty, whereas our findings related to operations were more consistent with domain-specific accounts.     

Longitudinal correlates of reading comprehension difficulties in Chinese children

The present study explored the early predictors of reading comprehension difficulties in Chinese children. We originally recruited 290 Beijing and 154 Hong Kong children and further selected from each sample those (30 from Beijing and 22 from Hong Kong sample) in the lowest 25 % on reading comprehension tests across the last two consecutive testing years (Beijing: ages 9 and 10; Hong Kong: ages 8 and 9) as poor comprehenders. These groups were matched to a group of children from the same sample whose reading comprehension was above 30 % across the two final years and matched on mothers’ education levels, age, nonverbal reasoning at age 4, and Chinese word reading across the same final two consecutive years. We then examined early linguistic/cognitive skills at ages 5–9 that could distinguish the poor and typically developing groups in each city separately. Compared to the control group, poor comprehenders from both samples performed significantly and consistently worse on word reading at early ages, and generally worse on morphological compounding awareness, phonological awareness, and vocabulary knowledge from ages 6 and onwards. In addition, lexical tone sensitivity across ages and grammatical sensitivity (administered at age 5 only) failed to distinguish the two groups for the Beijing sample but did for Hong Kong children.     

The use of microcomputer technology in a modular approach to reading and reading difficulties

This paper outlines the theoretical framework of a two-year two cohort study of inter-related modules to model reading in 300 grades 4, 5 and 6 readers, and describes the specially designed microcomputer programs written in Turbo Pascal to implement this modular approach. In brief, the modular approach postulates the interrelated phonological, morphological modules in processing words and sentence/paragraph processing. These three modules or components are subserved by 10 measurable tasks all implemented on the microcomputer (IBM-PC compatible) with reaction time measures as indices of the different facets of verbal efficiency. Statistical analyses of the large data sets for Phase 1 show the linear structural equation modelling fits the data reasonably well. In particular, the morphology task consistently explains between 32% to 44% of the variance in reading performance in the three grades. The findings lend themselves to specific approaches to habilitation in the different components or sub-components.This study was supported by a grant (No. 410-86-0048) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to Che Kan Leong. Simon Lock and Jacky Lau were responsible for the microcompurter programming. Edward Danskin, Melvin Kelley, Donald Simmons, Louise Sellinger, Kristin Strauss and Tara Wiley carried out the experimentation with individual children in the schools. The cooperation of the principals, the teachers and the subjects was greatly appreciated. Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. C. K. Leong, Department for the Education of Exceptional children, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada, S7N OWO.     

Reading improvement in English- and Hebrew-speaking children with reading difficulties after reading acceleration training

A reading acceleration program known to improve reading fluency in Hebrew-speaking adults was tested for its effect on children. Eighty-nine Hebrew- and English-speaking children with reading difficulties were divided into a waiting list group and two training groups (Hebrew and English) and underwent 4 weeks of reading acceleration training. Results of pre- and post-testing of reading abilities point to a significant main effect of the test, demonstrating improvements in silent contextual reading speed, reading comprehension, and speed of processing in both Hebrew and English training groups as compared to their performance before the intervention. This study indicates that the Reading Acceleration Program might be an effective program for improving reading abilities in children, independent of language.     

The role of reading difficulties in the associations between task values,efficacy beliefs,and achievement emotions

Reading and Writing - The aim of this study was to examine the situational associations of reading-related task values and efficacy beliefs with achievement emotions, and whether these associations...     

The role of sentence recall in reading and language skills of children with learning difficulties

The present study explores the relationship between sentence recall and reading and language skills in a group of 7–11-year-old children with learning difficulties. While recent studies have found that performance on sentence recall tasks plays a role in learning, it is possible that this contribution is a reflection of shared resources with working memory. In order to investigate whether sentence recall was uniquely associated with reading and language skills, differences associated with IQ and working memory capacity were statistically controlled. A sample of 72 children was tested on measures of verbal complex memory, verbal short-term memory, sentence recall, expressive vocabulary, verbal and performance IQ, reading and language skills. Both sentence recall and verbal complex memory shared unique links with reading skill, and sentence recall was uniquely associated with language skills. This finding indicates that resources in long-term memory also play an important diagnostic role in reading and language abilities. The implications for educational practice are discussed.     

A longitudinal study of mathematical competencies in children with specific mathematics difficulties versus children with comorbid mathematics and reading difficulties

Mathematical competencies of 180 children were examined at 4 points between 2nd and 3rd grades (age range between 7 and 9 years). Children were initially classified into one of 4 groups: math difficulties but normal reading (MD only), math and reading difficulties (MD-RD), reading difficulties but normal math (RD only), and normal achievement in math and reading (NA). The groups did not differ significantly in rate of development. However, at the end of 3rd grade the MD only group performed better than the MD-RD group in problem solving but not in calculation. The NA and RD only groups performed better than the MD-RD group in most areas. Deficiencies in fact mastery and calculation fluency, in particular, are defining features of MD, with or without RD.     

A comprehension intervention for children with reading comprehension difficulties

Abstract

Many students in Australian schools today experience difficulty understanding read text beyond Year 3 despite early intervention and rich learning experiences. Often the first indications that such students may have reading comprehension difficulties is from poor performance on comprehension tests in fourth grade. After Year 3 the written text becomes more complex and there is an increasing emphasis on reading comprehension. Less skilled comprehenders experience difficulties because they often use inefficient memory strategies and do not normally visualise story content. Readers with comprehension difficulties can be taught to construct mental imagery that will enable them to link verbal and imaginal information more efficiently into their working memory by reducing the cognitive load. The indications are that engaging readers in elaborative questioning and discussion of the text improves reader's own language and mental imagery as well as enhancing comprehension of read text. For readers who have struggled for years and have developed a resistance to reading, a literacy tutoring intervention framework that focuses on a personalised responsive relationship‐based approach to reading, combined with interesting text and student choice of appropriate material, can facilitate improved reading. The Comprehension of the Narrative intervention program is an example of a multiple strategy training intervention program that utilises explicit strategy instruction in a framework of measured stages while also increasing the level and complexity of the reading texts used. It has been shown that participating students are enabled to build on previously mastered skills and develop more effective higher order comprehension outcomes through focused dialogue with trained tutors.     

The prevalence of psychiatric disorder in children attending a school for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties

The research presented in this article suggests that young people attending schools for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties are more likely to experience concurrent psychiatric disorders (comorbidity) than their peers in mainstream schools. Dr Cassidy (Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry), Dr James (Consultant and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) and Dr Wiggs (Research Psychologist) used questionnaires and interviews with parents and teachers, together with pupil self-reporting, to gather their data. The two-stage investigation suggested that 89% of the adolescents in one school for pupils with EBD met established criteria for the diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder. Conduct disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) emerged as the most common psychiatric difficulties, but emotional disorders were also prominent in the data. These untreated problems are likely to have significant long-term implications for the psychological and educational development of the pupils concerned, and the authors speculate on some of the ways in which psychiatric and education services might work together in order to improve the outlook.     

Classroom activities and engagement for children with reading and writing difficulties

A multiple case study is reported aiming at comparing the degree of taking part and being engaged in classroom activities for children with and without reading and writing difficulties. Observations are made of 23 pupils with reading and writing difficulties (seven with a diagnosis of dyslexia), and 23 pupils in a control group; the observations concern accessibility to, taking part in, engagement and received help in classroom activities. The result is discussed in relation to the two goals in Swedish schools: ‘goals to attain’ and ‘goals to aim for’. A conclusion is that the two goals for the instruction in Swedish language involve a dilemma for teachers, since all children are expected to reach the ‘goals to attain’, while instruction is expected to be directed towards ‘goals to aim for’.     

Clock reading: an underestimated topic in children with mathematics difficulties

Recent studies have shown that children with mathematics difficulties (MD) have weaknesses in multiple areas of mathematics. Andersson, for example, recently found that children with MD perform significantly worse than other children on clock reading tasks. The present study builds on this recent finding and aims at a more profound understanding of the difficulties that children with MD experience with telling time. Therefore, clock reading abilities of 154 children with MD were compared to the abilities of 571 average achieving children, and a qualitative error analysis was performed. The results of this study confirm the earlier findings of Andersson that children with MD perform worse on clock reading than average achieving children and also show that children with MD especially struggle with the combination of procedural and retrieval strategies that are needed to read complex 5-min and 1-min clock times. Children with MD make more errors, which reflects immature counting strategies and deficits in memory retrieval. This finding is in line with Geary's theory of subtypes in MD, which argues that children with MD have problems with mathematical procedures and semantic memory retrieval.     

Children's difficulties in reading comprehension

This paper outlines a number of studies that have investigated the difficulties experienced by children who have a specific comprehension problem: Those who have adequate word recognition skills but who, nevertheless, have difficulty understanding text. In the studies I will discuss, the performance of a group of skilled comprehenders was compared with that of a less-skilled group. The first set of studies show that the poor comprehenders have difficulty in integrating information in a text and in making inferences. A further set of studies suggests that, although such children do not have any straightforward short-term memory problem, they may have difficulty in holding and manipulating information in working memory as they are reading. A final study shows that the comprehension of the less-skilled children can be improved by a series of short training sessions that stress making inferences and integrating information in text. This finding suggests that a working-memory deficit may only be one aspect of the less-skilled comprehenders' problem.     

Functional reading difficulties in Denmark

In this first Danish study of adult reading skills, 1124 adults between 18 and 67 years of age participated in an interview about reading habits and skills, and 445 were tested individually at home using six common texts. Great care was taken to ascertain that subjects were representative of the whole adult population and that the texts covered most types of everyday reading. Three percent of the participants were found to have severe functional reading difficulties and a further 9 percent to have moderate difficulties. Regression analyses found several unique predictors of reading difficulties: age (adults over 45 years reading more poorly than younger adults), limited basic education, no vocational training nor higher education, and a small amount of reading needed at work. The rate of poor readers was about four times higher among persons with low income than among others. Men and women read equally well although men tended to rate themselves lower as readers than women did. Methodological issues and some educational implications are discussed.     

Early reading instruction for children with reading difficulties: meeting the needs of diverse learners

Several multiple-probe-across-participants design studies were employed to evaluate the effectiveness of a supplemental tutoring intervention using Read Well (Sprick, Howard, & Fidanque, 1998-2000). In Year 1, we conducted two studies with 7 first-, second-, and third-grade children (1 girl and 6 boys), who were classified as having learning disabilities, having attention-deficit disorder, or being English language learners and were identified by their teachers as poor readers. The results of the two studies indicated that 3 of the 5 children who received Read Well instruction showed improvement in passage fluency. Student performance on other measures of reading and comprehension was varied. Differences in student characteristics and in the amount of Read Well instruction received (2 to 7 weeks) seemed to account for the differences in performance. In Year 2, we implemented the same tutoring intervention for a longer duration (up to 16 weeks) and included 5 children in second and third grades (2 girls and 3 boys) with reading difficulties. Two of these children had previously participated in the Year 1 studies. The results indicated growth in reading, spelling, and comprehension for most children. Overall, the findings from Year 1 and 2 studies indicate the benefits of increased instructional intensity and duration for children who struggle with emerging reading skills.     

Enhancing the early literacy development of children at risk for reading difficulties

Abstract

This paper reviews the dynamic and interactive links between the development of children's language, phonological awareness, and reading. Some of the key issues explored are procedures to enhance children's language development, decoding and word recognition skills, along with some relevant assessment and programming strategies that can facilitate children's early reading development. In particular, the paper supports the suggestion that deficits in phonological awareness are often a consequence of slow vocabulary development (a classic marker of language delay) and that teachers need to be able to adapt their language and dialogue interactions for children with language delays.