Abstract
Recent achievement research suggests that executive function (EF), a set of regulatory processes that control both thought and action necessary for goal-directed behavior, is related to typical and atypical reading performance. This project examines the relation of EF, as measured by its components, Inhibition, Updating Working Memory, and Shifting, with a hybrid model of reading disability (RD). Our sample included 420 children who participated in a broader intervention project when they were in KG-third grade (age M = 6.63 years, SD = 1.04 years, range = 4.79–10.40 years). At the time their EF was assessed, using a parent-report Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), they had a mean age of 13.21 years (SD = 1.54 years; range = 10.47–16.63 years). The hybrid model of RD was operationalized as a composite consisting of four symptoms, and set so that any child could have any one, any two, any three, any four, or none of the symptoms included in the hybrid model. The four symptoms include low word reading achievement, unexpected low word reading achievement, poorer reading comprehension compared to listening comprehension, and dual-discrepancy response-to-intervention, requiring both low achievement and low growth in word reading. The results of our multilevel ordinal logistic regression analyses showed a significant relation between all three components of EF (Inhibition, Updating Working Memory, and Shifting) and the hybrid model of RD, and that the strength of EF’s predictive power for RD classification was the highest when RD was modeled as having at least one or more symptoms. Importantly, the chances of being classified as having RD increased as EF performance worsened and decreased as EF performance improved. The question of whether any one EF component would emerge as a superior predictor was also examined and results showed that Inhibition, Updating Working Memory, and Shifting were equally valuable as predictors of the hybrid model of RD. In total, all EF components were significant and equally effective predictors of RD when RD was operationalized using the hybrid model.
Highlights
Moving away from a focus on general intelligence, achievement research has shifted to an emphasis on other cognitive and behavioral correlates of academic achievement, including selfregulation
We examined the link between the three components of executive function (EF), consisting of Inhibition, Updating Working Memory, and Shifting (e.g., Miyake et al, 2000), and a hybrid model of reading disability (RD) (Waesche et al, 2011; Spencer et al, 2014; Schatschneider et al, 2016)
The relation between Updating Working Memory and RD has been extensively explored in the literature (e.g., Sesma et al, 2009), less work has been done examining the relation of Inhibition and Shifting with RD
Summary
Moving away from a focus on general intelligence, achievement research has shifted to an emphasis on other cognitive and behavioral correlates of academic achievement, including selfregulation. Executive function (EF) comprises the skills required for an individual to work toward a goal and make judgments in novel, unforeseen situations and includes regulation of both thought and action. Examples of these self-directed skills include planning ahead, problem solving, decision making, attention maintenance and direction, emotional regulation, and behavioral control (Sesma et al, 2009). Research has shown support for EF as an independent yet unitary construct in younger children in both pre-kindergarten and kindergarten (Miyake and Friedman, 2012; Fuhs et al, 2014). Many EF tasks that tap presumably separate EFs are not significantly correlated (Miyake et al, 2000; Banich, 2009), which may further indicate the existence of multiple EF constituents
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