Impaired Reading Comprehension Research Articles

Examining Difficulties of Students with Hearing Impairments in Reading Comprehension According to Teacher Opinions

The aim of this study is to examine the problems faced by hearing impaired students in their reading comprehension skills based on teachers’ opinions. In this study, which was carried out with the qualitative research method, the data were obtained from semi-structured interviews. The participants were 10 classroom teachers working at Ankara Kemal Yurtbilir Hearing Impaired Primary School, and the data were analyzed using the inductive method. A total of 7 themes were determined from the findings. According to the research findings, reading comprehension skill is considered as an extremely important skill by all participants in the participation of students in educational process, academic success and participation in social life. Teachers stated that hearing impaired students do not have sufficient vocabulary, and they are insufficient in their suffix knowledge and usage. In addition, the participants stated that hearing impaired students experienced problems especially in the comprehension dimension of reading. All the teachers interviewed stated that the training program used was not prepared for students with hearing impairment, and that they needed a separate curriculum fort the hearing impaired. Training well-equipped personnel and providing educational materials are among the other notable expectations and suggestions.

Dissociating reading and auditory comprehension in persons with aphasia.

Language comprehension is often affected in individuals with post-stroke aphasia. However, deficits in auditory comprehension are not fully correlated with deficits in reading comprehension and the mechanisms underlying this dissociation remain unclear. This distinction is important for understanding language mechanisms, predicting long-term impairments and future development of treatment interventions. Using comprehensive auditory and reading measures from a large cohort of individuals with aphasia, we evaluated the relationship between aphasia type and reading comprehension impairments, the relationship between auditory versus reading comprehension deficits and the crucial neuroanatomy supporting the dissociation between post-stroke reading and auditory deficits. Scores from the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised from 70 participants with aphasia after a left-hemisphere stroke were utilized to evaluate both reading and auditory comprehension of linguistically equivalent stimuli. Repeated-measures and univariate ANOVA were used to assess the relationship between auditory comprehension and aphasia types and correlations were employed to test the relationship between reading and auditory comprehension deficits. Lesion-symptom mapping was used to determine the dissociation of crucial brain structures supporting reading comprehension deficits controlling for auditory deficits and vice versa. Participants with Broca's or global aphasia had the worst performance on reading comprehension. Auditory comprehension explained 26% of the variance in reading comprehension for sentence completion and 44% for following sequential commands. Controlling for auditory comprehension, worse reading comprehension performance was independently associated with damage to the inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, posterior inferior temporal gyrus, inferior occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus and posterior thalamic radiation. Auditory and reading comprehension are only partly correlated in aphasia. Reading is an integral part of daily life and directly associated with quality of life and functional outcomes. This study demonstrated that reading performance is directly related to lesioned areas in the boundaries between visual association regions and ventral stream language areas. This behavioural and neuroanatomical dissociation provides information about the neurobiology of language and mechanisms for potential future treatment interventions.

Automated Think-Aloud Protocol for Identifying Students with Reading Comprehension Impairment Using Sentence Embedding

The think-aloud protocol is a valuable tool for investigating readers’ cognitive processes during reading. However, its reliance on experienced human evaluators poses challenges in terms of efficiency and scalability. To address this limitation, this study proposes a novel application of natural language processing to automate the think-aloud protocol. Specifically, we use a sentence embedding technique to encode the stimulus text and corresponding readers’ responses into high-dimensional vectors, and the similarity between these embeddings serves as a feature. The properties of the feature are investigated for word-frequency-based and contextualized embedding models. Differences in the sentence embedding-based feature between poor comprehenders and normal readers are investigated. Using these features, seven machine learning models were trained to classify readers into normal and abnormal groups. The highest F1 score of 0.74 was achieved with the contextualized embedding and random forest classifier. This highlights the effectiveness of the embedding technique in extracting useful features for automating the think-aloud protocol for assessing reading comprehension abilities. The potential benefits of this automated approach include increased efficiency and scalability, ultimately facilitating the early diagnosis of reading comprehension impairment and individualized interventions.

3.12 Reading Without Eye Movements: Improving Reading Comprehension in Young Adults With ADHD

Impaired reading comprehension is a common complaint in ADHD that is accompanied by altered eye movement patterns. Here, we tested whether minimizing the need for eye movements during reading aids comprehension.

Reading Impairment in Adolescents with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

ABSTRACT Purpose To date, research on effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has focused on a broad range of cognitive impairments, but relatively few studies have examined effects of PAE on development of reading skills. Although PAE has been linked to poorer reading comprehension, it remains unclear whether this impairment is attributable to deficits in phonological processing, word reading, oral language skills, and/or executive functioning. Methods A comprehensive reading battery was administered to 10 adolescents with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS); 16 with partial FAS; 30 nonsyndromal heavily exposed; 49 controls. Results PAE was related to poorer reading comprehension but not to single-word reading or phonological processing, suggesting that the mechanics of reading are intact in adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders at this age. PAE-related impairment in reading comprehension was mediated, in part, by deficits in mastery of oral language skills, including vocabulary, language structure, and verbal fluency. Conclusions These results are consistent with research showing that reading comprehension in adolescence relies increasingly on linguistic comprehension abilities, especially once word reading becomes automatic and text complexity increases. Our findings suggest that reading-impaired adolescents with PAE will benefit from intervention programs targeting vocabulary knowledge, language structure, verbal fluency, and reading comprehension skills.

Commentary: The critical role of oral language deficits in reading disorders: reflections on Snowling and Hulme (2021).

Learning to read is a primary goal of early education, and considerable instructional time is focused on it. Most children respond well to this instruction and soon become accurate and fluent readers. But a small percentage of children find learning to read a significant challenge and often struggle educationally and psychologically as a result. In an earlier review, Snowling and Hulme (2012) argued that weaknesses in oral language development play a causal role in reading disorders such as dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment. They further proposed that these impairments should be recognized as distinct disorders within the DSM-5 classification system. In the current review, Snowling and Hulme (this issue) consider how risk factors at the biological, cognitive, and environmental levels combine to cause reading disorders. Again, they focus particular attention on oral language development and its critical role in reading success/failure.

Reading Comprehension Impairment in Children With Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1): The Need of Multimodal Assessment of Attention

Attention span, which has been shown to have an impact on reading quality in many other conditions, is one of the main cognitive disorders of neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The aim of this work is to observe the impact of attention on reading comprehension, in NF1 and non-NF1 children. A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted on 150 children (8-12 years old) with or without NF1 (75 NF1 vs 75 non-NF1; 72 female, 78 male), matched for age, sex, handedness, and reading level, thus forming a continuum from good to poor readers in both NF1 and non-NF1 groups. Children with intellectual deficiency or neurologic or psychiatric disorder were excluded. Attentional skills were assessed by combining a parent questionnaire (Child Behavior CheckList) and a performance-based assessment (Conner's Continuous Performance Test-Second Edition). Reading comprehension was assessed through a standardized reading comprehension test (ORLEC Lobrot). The performance-based attention scores were associated with text and sentence comprehension ability (P = .0235 and P = .0164, respectively), while indirect questionnaire attention scores were only associated with sentence comprehension (P = .0263). For both groups, the correlations between questionnaire and performance-based measures were low. We have shown that reading comprehension is greatly influenced by attention in NF1 and non-NF1, even if predictors of good reading comprehension also include IQ score and reading accuracy. Indirect observer-rated questionnaires and direct performance-based measures of attention do not assess the same variables, are linked to different components of reading skills, and are not interchangeable assessments of attention difficulties. Both assessments are complementary and must be used simultaneously, leading to recommendations that support multimodal assessment of attention.

Aphasia and acquired reading impairments: What are the high-tech alternatives to compensate for reading deficits?

People with aphasia (PWA) frequently present impairments in reading comprehension. Such impairments can be particularly debilitating due to the limitations and constraints they impose on everyday life. Recent technological advancements in the field of information and communication technologies offer many compensative tools for PWA. However, most technological tools are designed for patients with speech production impairments. Instruments addressing reading impairments associated with aphasia remain scarce and underrepresented in the scientific literature. To conduct a state-of-the-art review of the technologies currently available to PWA and acquired reading impairments. In particular, this review covers (1) research on technologies explicitly developed to compensate for reading difficulties associated with aphasia; and (2) research into which accessibility features included in mainstream high-tech systems are helpful for PWA when trying to access written material. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) international standard, the authors conducted a systematic review from 2009 to 2019. The databases inspected were Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, the Cochrane collection, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect and SpringerLink. Other research papers were included after checking the references of the selected papers. The review reveals that research on compensative devices for reading impairments largely neglects tools for individuals with aphasia and acquired reading difficulties. Most of the studies in this field are qualitative investigations of how patients with literacy difficulties tackle everyday tasks with the help of mainstream technology (e.g., smartphone applications). Therefore, this paper highlights the scarce high-tech alternatives that support text comprehension in PWA and acquired reading impairments, and suggests further work on the development of customized software for smartphones and personal computers. High-tech reading tools may help PWA to regain reading autonomy. PWA and acquired reading impairments employ a wide array of devices to overcome reading difficulties, which underlines the importance of reading in everyday life. However, the supports currently available are not yet flexible and accurate enough to answer their day-to-day needs. Thus, further work is necessary to enhance the compensative devices available to them. For instance, existing new technologies in the area of natural language processing (such as automatic text simplification) could potentially be used in compensative devices. What this paper adds What is already known on the subject Most research on high-tech compensative reading tools is focused on investigating how patients with aphasia and acquired reading impairments cope with their reading difficulties in everyday life by resorting to different types of technology. Yet, we still lack specific research on compensative reading technology for PWA. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This review shows that PWA with acquired reading impairments are offered limited options for accessing written content easily and autonomously-and those few resources that are available are not specifically designed for PWA. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Both aphasia and acquired reading impairments can vary in terms of both their severity and the associated typology of cognitive impairments. Therefore, it might be interesting to investigate flexible and highly adaptable reading support designed for them-and innovations in the field of information and communication technology might prove particularly fruitful.

Children born before 32weeks of gestation displayed impaired reading fluency, comprehension and spelling skills at 9years of age.

Our aim was to study whether prematurity, associated with prenatal and neonatal risk factors, affects specific literacy skills among school children born at a very low gestational age (VLGA) of <32weeks. The study group comprised 76 prospectively followed VLGA children born between November 1998 and November 2002 at Oulu University Hospital, Finland, and 51 term controls. The median gestational age of the VLGA children was 29.0 (24.1-31.9) weeks. All children were examined at a median age of 8.9 (8.0-9.9) years in Oulu between November 2007 and November 2011. Reading fluency, comprehension and spelling skills were evaluated using standardised tests for Finnish-speaking children. Very low gestational age children had significantly poorer test results in reading comprehension (median 6.9 vs 8.3, P=.014) and spelling (median 35.7 vs 38.0, P=.013) than term children. Furthermore, VLGA children more often performed below the 10th percentile normal values in spelling (P=.012) compared with term controls. Foetal growth restriction was associated with lower scoring in reading fluency (P=.023) and spelling (P=.004) among VLGA children. Very low gestational age school children performed poorer in reading comprehension and spelling than term children. In addition, poor foetal growth in VLGA children was associated with literacy problems.

Strategy-based reading comprehension therapy during early acquired brain injury rehabilitation: preliminary results

Introduction An evidence-based intervention and service delivery model for early acquired brain injury reading comprehension rehabilitation (involving multiple-strategy, hierarchical reading) was investigated with 3 clients <3 m post onset as part of their brain injury rehabilitation program. Materials and methods A multiple-baseline single case experimental design was used for each participant, with data analysed using Tau-U. Assessments of reading comprehension (impairment and activity level) were performed pre/post intervention, and at follow-up (3–6 months post-treatment). Participants’ perceptions of the intervention and service delivery model were captured via semi-structured interviews. Results All participants demonstrated improved reading comprehension post-intervention on all formal measures. At follow-up, reading comprehension was grossly maintained by 2 participants. The single case experimental design results (Tau-U) showed moderate-large intervention effect sizes for factual and inferential reading comprehension, two participants had significant (p = 0.01) changes. Participants reported overall positive experiences with the intervention. Conclusion The intervention and service delivery model were successfully implemented in clinical practice, and preliminary results show the intervention has clinical promise with an early acquired brain injury population. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Cognitive communication reading comprehension deficits occur following acquired brain injury and impact participation during rehabilitation and in the community. An evidence-based intervention for the early rehabilitation of cognitive communication reading comprehension deficits following acquired brain injury has been developed and trialled in clinical practice with adults <3 months post-acquired brain injury, via a series of single-case experimental designs. Improvements in reading comprehension skill and activity/participation occurred for all participants post-intervention; statistically significant changes occurred for 2 of 3 clients. Early rehabilitation of cognitive communication reading comprehension deficits can be successfully implemented as a component of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program.

Abstract TP402: Developing Evidenced Based Practice: A Proposal for an Impairment-Based Rehabilitation Program Using Computerized Therapy

Background: According to the National Aphasic Association (n.d.), about 25-45% of stroke survivors experience aphasia. Treatments for aphasia have several forms focusing on restoring impaired spoken language, written expression, or reading comprehension (American Speech Language Hearing Association, n.d.). Impairment-based therapy (IBT) has demonstrated to be an approach focusing on in-home training using specific linguistic forms which utilize technology (Galletta &amp; Barrett, 2014). Clinical Question/PICOT: In adult patients over 18 years of age, who recently experienced a stroke and diagnosed with aphasia, will the use of impairment- based therapy compared to standard treatment provide shorter recovery times from aphasia? Summary of Evidence: Eight studies included in the review of the evidence. Six randomized control trials, one meta-analysis, and one case study. Five articles supported evidence reflecting that impairment-based therapy can be useful in stroke recovery for aphasic patients. Two studies focused on the magnitude of impairment-based treatment in the community setting is clinically significant in the promotion of continuous therapy with a clinician. The case study investigated the effects of language therapy in first four months with aphasia. The evidence identified supports the proposal of using IBT with aphasic patients rehabilitation through computerized sessions in the community or home setting. Results: When incorporating the ACE Star Model, identifying issues relevant to the language and speech competence of aphasic patients as well as filling gaps in their existing communication therapy is essential. By developing an evidence-based practice (EBP) team comprised of clinicians , executive leaders and healthcare facilities, an evaluation of practice issues relevant to aphasic patients can occur. A pilot for practice change focusing on language and cognitive therapy tasks, a structured, personalized therapy will be provided using the digital application platform, Constant Therapy. Conclusion: By assessing preliminary results from the evidence-based project, this can be a benefit to patients with lifestyle intentions to improve cognitive, language and communication disorders associated with aphasia.

Perceptual span in individuals with aphasia

ABSTRACTBackground: Perceptual span refers to the field of effective vision during reading comprehension. It is determined by many factors, including reading proficiency. No studies have investigated the perceptual span in people with reading comprehension impairments due to aphasia.Aims: The present study examined whether perceptual span is smaller in individuals with aphasia than controls.Methods and Procedures: The task was a gaze-contingent moving windows paradigm during silent reading using an eye tracker. Data from 11 individuals with aphasia and 15 neurotypical controls were analyzed.Outcomes and Results: Perceptual span in individuals with aphasia was the fixated word plus one word to the right of fixation, whereas perceptual span in controls was the fixated word plus two words to the right of fixation.Conclusion: Individuals with aphasia have a smaller perceptual span than controls, which likely reflects increased effort during reading comprehension.

Recognizing Psychiatric Comorbidity With Reading Disorders.

Reading disorder (RD), a specific learning disorder (SLD) of reading that includes impairment in word reading, reading fluency, and/or reading comprehension, is common in the general population but often is not comprehensively understood or assessed in mental health settings. In education settings, comorbid mental and associated disorders may be inadequately integrated into intervention plans. Assessment and intervention for RD may be delayed or absent in children with frequently co-occurring mental disorders not fully responding to treatment in both school and mental health settings. To address this oversight, this review summarizes current knowledge regarding RDs and common comorbid or co-occurring disorders that are important for mental health and school settings. We chose to highlight RD because it is the most common SLD, and connections to other often comorbid disorders have been more thoroughly described in the literature. Much of the literature we describe is on decoding-based RD (or developmental dyslexia) as it is the most common form of RD. In addition to risk for academic struggle and social, emotional, and behavioral problems, those with RD often show early evidence of combined or intertwined Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition childhood disorders. These include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and other SLDs. The present review highlights issues and areas of controversy within these comorbidities, as well as directions for future research. An interdisciplinary, integrated approach between mental health professionals and educators can lead to comprehensive and targeted treatments encompassing both academic and mental health interventions. Such targeted treatments may contribute to improved educational and health-related outcomes in vulnerable youth. While there is a growing research literature on this association, more studies are needed of when to intervene and of the early and long-term benefits of comprehensive intervention.

The Scope and Nature of Reading Comprehension Impairments in School-Aged Children with Higher-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This study of 8-16-year-olds was designed to test the hypothesis that reading comprehension impairments are part of the social communication phenotype for many higher-functioning students with autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Students with HFASD (n = 81) were compared to those with high attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptomatology (ADHD; n = 39), or typical development (TD; n = 44), on a comprehensive battery of oral language, word recognition, and reading comprehension measures. Results indicated that students with HFASD performed significantly lower on the majority of the reading and language tasks as compared to TD and ADHD groups. Structural equation models suggested that greater ASD symptomatology was related to poorer reading comprehension outcomes; further analyses suggested that this relation was mediated by oral language skills.

An Examination of Reading Skills and Reading Outcomes for Youth Involved in a Crime Prevention Program

ABSTRACTThis study examined the incidence of reading impairments, the reading profiles, and the outcomes of a reading intervention for youth involved in a comprehensive crime prevention program. Rates of reading impairments were between 55% and 61%. Reading profiles for participants with reading comprehension impairments showed deficits in phonological decoding and word reading similar to a comparison group without behavioral risks. A subset of the prevention program participants and an age- and reading level–matched comparison group received a phonology- and word-focused reading intervention. Following the intervention, both groups showed reliable and academically meaningful improvements on word- and text-level reading outcomes. The comparison group tended to have higher scores on reading comprehension; however, both groups made significant gains in this area. The reading profiles and positive outcomes in this study suggest that word-focused reading remediation will be effective for youth at imminent risk for antisocial conduct and involvement with the criminal justice system.

Reading disorders and dyslexia.

Purpose of reviewWe review current knowledge about the nature of reading development and disorders, distinguishing between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading comprehension.Recent findingsChildren with decoding difficulties/dyslexia experience deficits in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming in the preschool years and beyond. These phonological/language difficulties appear to be proximal causes of the problems in learning to decode print in dyslexia. We review data from a prospective study of children at high risk of dyslexia to show that being at family risk of dyslexia is a primary risk factor for poor reading and children with persistent language difficulties at school entry are more likely to develop reading problems. Early oral language difficulties are strong predictors of later difficulties in reading comprehension.SummaryThere are two distinct forms of reading disorder in children: dyslexia (a difficulty in learning to translate print into speech) and reading comprehension impairment. Both forms of reading problem appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. Implications for screening and for the delivery of robust interventions for language and reading are discussed.

Neuro-cognitive mechanisms of simultanagnosia in patients with posterior cortical atrophy.

Posterior cortical atrophy is dominated by progressive degradation of parieto-occipital grey and white matter, and represents in most cases a variant of Alzheimer's disease. Patients with posterior cortical atrophy are characterized by increasing higher visual and visuo-spatial impairments. In particular, a key symptom of posterior cortical atrophy is simultanagnosia i.e. the inability to perceive multiple visual objects at the same time. Two neuro-cognitive mechanisms have been suggested to underlie simultanagnosia, either reduced visual short-term memory capacity or decreased visual processing speed possibly resulting from white matter impairments over and above damage to cortical brain areas. To test these distinct hypotheses, we investigated a group of 12 patients suffering from posterior cortical atrophy with homogenous lesion sides in parieto-occipital cortices and varying severity of grey and white matter loss. More specifically, we (i) tested whether impaired short-term memory capacity or processing speed underlie symptoms of simultanagnosia; (ii) assessed the link to grey and white matter damage; and (iii) integrated those findings into a neuro-cognitive model of simultanagnosia in patients with posterior cortical atrophy. To this end, simultaneous perception of multiple visual objects was tested in patients with posterior cortical atrophy mostly with positive Alzheimer's disease biomarkers and healthy age-matched controls. Critical outcome measures were identification of overlapping relative to non-overlapping figures and visuo-spatial performance in tests sensitive to simultanagnosia. Using whole report of briefly presented letter arrays based on the mathematically formulated 'Theory of Visual Attention', we furthermore quantified parameters of visual short-term memory capacity and visual processing speed. Grey and white matter atrophy was assessed by voxel-based morphometry analyses of structural magnetic resonance data. All patients showed severe deficits of simultaneous perception. Compared to controls, we observed a specific slowing of visual processing speed, while visual short-term memory capacity was preserved. In a regression analysis, processing speed was identified as the only significant predictor of simultaneous perception deficits that explained a high degree of variance (70-82%) across simultanagnosia tasks. More severe slowing was also indicative for more severe impairments in reading and scene comprehension. Voxel-based morphometry yielded extensive reductions of grey and white matter in parieto-occipital and thalamic brain areas. Importantly, the degree of individual atrophy of white matter in left superior parietal lobe, but not of any grey matter region, was associated with processing speed. Based on these findings, we propose that atrophy of white matter commonly observed in posterior cortical atrophy leads to slowing of visual processing speed, which underlies the overt clinical symptoms of simultanagnosia.

Bringing the Simple View of Reading to the clinic: Relationships between oral and written language skills in a clinical sample

PurposeThe Simple View of Reading (SVR) predicts subtypes of reading disorder based on weaknesses in word recognition, listening comprehension, or both. This practice-based research study explores predictions of the SVR within a clinical practice setting. MethodThe study is a retrospective analysis of 112 assessment records from school-aged children (aged 6.0–16.7) referred for speech-language evaluation. Available scores within four areas (listening comprehension, word recognition, reading comprehension, and oral expression) were extracted and then converted to composites. Composite scores were used to categorize children into SVR subtypes. We examined the distribution of children across subtypes and the relationships among the four constructs. ResultsChildren were distributed across all SVR subtypes, but few had impairments only in word recognition. Children with impairments in listening comprehension or word recognition showed poorer reading comprehension than those that did not, but there was imperfect prediction of reading comprehension impairment at an individual level. There were more significant correlations among constructs for younger children. Oral expression and listening comprehension were closely related across analyses. ConclusionsThe SVR is a clinically useful model for capturing variation and explaining relationships among oral and written language in school-age children.

Strategies for Increasing Reading Comprehension Skills in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review of the Literature

Abstract As the number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) being prepared for statewide assessment rises, there is increased demand for effective instructional strategies to improve reading comprehension scores in these students. The authors synthesized the findings of 15 studies, which included 88 school-aged students identified with ASD The studies were conducted between 1989 and 2015. Findings indicate that Direct Instruction (DI) and graphic organizers have positive effects, while cooperative learning, anaphoric cueing, and question generation show promise. Electronic supported text shows little to no effect on reading comprehension measures in students with ASD. Keywords: autism, autism spectrum disorder, cooperative learning, direct instruction, reading comprehension, reading instruction, reading strategies ********** Reading comprehension is the act of gaining meaning from print. It is a complex task that requires the integration and coordination of numerous high-level cognitive processes, necessitating active reader engagement (Cain, Oakhill & Bryant, 2004; Garcia-Madruga, et al., 2013; Nation, Adams, Bowyer-Crane, & Snowling, 1999; Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). Reading comprehension continues to be an area of weakness for students with ASD, though it is considered to be an essential component of developing literacy (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), 2000). It is now thought that as many as 70% of individuals with ASD have average to above average intelligence (Chakrabarti & Fombonne, 2005), but levels of reading comprehension for students with ASD have been reported as significantly lower than peers, even when groups are matched for reading accuracy and IQ (Brown, Oram-Cardy, & Johnson, 2013; Frith & Snowling, 1983). As with other individuals with disabilities, performance on reading comprehension tasks is correlated to individual's verbal ability (Snowling & Frith, 1986), however, there are factors related to reading comprehension that are unique to individuals with ASD. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by impairments in social interaction and communication, as well as restricted, repetitive, stereotyped patterns of behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In the 2012-2013 school year, there were 498,000 students aged 3-21 years in the US receiving educational services for Autism under IDEA. This represents an average annual increase of over 36,000 students since the 2002-2003 school year when 137,000 students were receiving services in this category (U.S. Department of Education, 2013). Some individuals with ASD will be dependent on life-long support and care, while others perform at levels comparable with their typically developing peers in academic settings and go on to graduate from college (Estes, Rivera, Bryan, Cali, & Dawson, 2011). Although individuals with ASD share common characteristics, they also exhibit a wide range of capabilities and strengths Many higher-functioning, school-aged children with ASD are placed in classrooms with typically developing peers and are working toward similar academic goals in the general education curriculum (Estes et al., 2011). Impaired reading comprehension, especially when paired with normative reading accuracy, has been reported as a specific area of deficit for individuals with ASD (Nation, Clarke, Wright, & Williams, 2006). That is, individuals with ASD often are able to read text fluently without substantial comprehension of what they have read. Individuals with ASD also show mild deficits in semantic knowledge (Brown et al., 2013). A correlation does exist between semantic knowledge and reading comprehension and this may impact reading comprehension for some individuals with ASD. Saldana & Frith (2007) demonstrated that individuals with ASD could make inferences when a limited amount of text is presented, but had difficulty when integrating specific knowledge with a global text. …

What component of executive functions contributes to normal and impaired reading comprehension in young adults?

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to examine what component of executive functions (EF) – planning and working memory – predicts reading comprehension in young adults (Study 1), and (b) to examine if less skilled comprehenders experience deficits in the EF components (Study 2). In Study 1, we assessed 178 university students (120 females; mean age=21.82 years) on planning (Planned Connections, Planned Codes, and Planned Patterns), working memory (Listening Span, Digit Span Backward, and Digit Memory), and reading comprehension (Nelson–Denny Reading Test). The results of structural equation modeling indicated that only planning was a significant predictor of reading comprehension. In Study 2, we assessed 30 university students with a specific reading comprehension deficit (19 females; mean age=23.01 years) and 30 controls (18 females; mean age=22.77 years) on planning (Planned Connections and Crack the Code) and working memory (Listening Span and Digit Span Backward). The results showed that less skilled comprehenders performed significantly poorer than controls only in planning. Taken together, the findings of both studies suggest that planning is the preeminent component of EF that is driving its relationship with reading comprehension in young adults.