Specific effects of working memory training on the reading skills of Chinese children with developmental dyslexia.

Juanhua Yang,Jun Peng,Dake Zhang,Lei Mo,Liling Zheng,Xuchu Weng

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0186114

Juanhua Yang, Jun Peng + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186114

Copy DOI

Abstract

Most research on working memory (WM) training for children with developmental dyslexia (DD) has focused on western alphabetical languages. Moreover, most of these studies used a combination of training tasks targeting a variety of WM components, making it difficult to determine whether WM training generates a general improvement in overall reading, or improves specific cognitive skills corresponding to the WM components that are targeted in training. We tested the general and specific effects of WM training on the reading skills of 45 Chinese children with DD, grades 3 to 5. In Experiment 1, the experimental group received a program targeting the verbal WM component; in Experiment 2, the experimental group was trained with a program targeting visuospatial WM. In both experiments the control group played a placebo video game. In Experiment 1, the experimental group outperformed the control group on the visual rhyming task, which is highly correlated with verbal WM. In Experiment 2, the experimental group outperformed the control group on the orthographic awareness test, which is highly correlated with visuospatial WM. Furthermore, in both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2, the experimental groups outperformed the control groups on the fast word naming test, which is highly related to both visuospatial WM and verbal WM. Results indicated that WM training improved specific reading-related cognitive skills that are highly correlated with the specific WM components that were the target of training.

Highlights

At present, interventions for dyslexia are an important focus of working memory (WM) training research
The above results suggested that visuospatial WM training did not improve the phonological awareness of the experimental group because the visuospatial WM training was related to the visuospatial sketchpad component of WM, not the phonological loop component
In Experiments 1 and 2, we found that after 15 days of phonological WM training (Experiment 1) and visuospatial WM training (Experiment 2), the experimental group performed better on the phonological awareness test (Experiment 1) and the orthographic awareness test (Experiment 2) than before training

Summary

Introduction

Interventions for dyslexia are an important focus of WM training research. Dyslexia has been defined as a difficulty interpreting written language caused by core deficits in phonological awareness, independent of intelligence, educational level, and socioeconomic status [1,2,3]. Dyslexia is the most common developmental disorder, accounting for about 5%15% of the school-age population in American [4]. Dyslexia is just as common among Chinese children [5], suggesting that the disorder is evident in children learning to read non-alphabetic as well as alphabetic languages.

Methods

Results

Conclusion