Linguistic Deficits in Children With Reading Disabilities

Abstract

Although recent research into the nature of linguistic abilities and disabilities in children with developmental reading disorders points to phonological processing difficulties as the core deficit in this population, broader-based linguistic deficits have been described in several studies. In this study, children with a primary diagnosis of specific reading disability (RD) were compared on measures of oral language, phonological coding, reading, and spelling with a clinical contrast group of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and with a control group of children developing normally. The results of this study revealed that the RD group showed relatively depressed scores on measures of oral language and phonemic processing when compared with children in the ADHD group. The pattern of language deficits observed in this study clearly contributes to the converging evidence that deficient linguistic processes as measured by both phonological coding tasks and formal tests of oral language characterize the language of children with severe reading disability.