Executive Function: Association with Multiple Reading Skills

Executive function (EF) is related to reading. However, there is a lack of clarity around (a) the relative contribution of different components of EF to different reading components (word reading, fluency, comprehension), and (b) how EF operates in the context of known strong language predictors (e.g., components of the Simple View of Reading or SVR), and other skills theoretically related to reading (e.g., vocabulary, processing speed) and/or to EF (e.g., short-term memory, motor function). In a large sample of 3rd to 5th graders oversampled for struggling readers, this paper evaluates the impact of EF derived from a bifactor model (Cirino, Ahmed, Miciak, Taylor, Gerst, & Barnes, 2018) in the context of well-known covariates and demographics. Beyond common EF, five specific factors (two related to working memory, and factors of fluency, self-regulated learning, and behavioral inattention/metacognition) were addressed. EF consistently showed a unique contribution to already-strong predictive models for all reading outcomes; for reading comprehension, EF interacted with SVR indices (word reading and listening comprehension). The findings extend and refine our understanding of the contribution of EF to reading skill.

A Dominance Analysis Approach to Determining Predictor Importance in Third, Seventh, and Tenth Grade Reading Comprehension Skills

The purpose of the present study was to investigate and rank order by importance the contributions of various cognitive predictors to reading comprehension in third, seventh, and tenth graders. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that for third grade, the best fit was a four-factor solution including Fluency, Verbal Reasoning, Nonverbal Reasoning, and Working Memory factors. For seventh and tenth grade, three-factor solutions with Fluency, Reasoning, and Working Memory factors were the best fit. The three and four-factor models were used in separate dominance analyses for each grade to rank order the factors by predictive importance to reading comprehension. Results indicated that Fluency and Verbal Reasoning were the most important predictors of third grade reading comprehension. For seventh grade, Fluency and Reasoning were the most important predictors. By tenth grade, Reasoning was the most important predictor of reading comprehension. Working Memory was the least predictive of reading comprehension across all grade levels. These results suggest that inferential reasoning skills become an important contributor to reading comprehension at increasing grade levels.

Executive Functions and Response to Intervention: Identification of Students Struggling with Reading Comprehension

Inadequate responders demonstrate significant risk for learning disabilities. Previous investigations of the cognitive profiles of inadequate and adequate responders have not included measures of executive functions (EF), which have well-documented associations to reading comprehension. We evaluated EF performance on a common factor comprised of shared variance across tasks as well as five separable EF factors in the context of an intensive reading intervention for struggling fourth graders. To determine if EF performance at pretest is associated with subsequent responder status, we compared EF performance of three subgroups of students: inadequate and adequate responders and typical students not at-risk for reading disabilities. Results of discriminant function analyses and linear regression models comparing groups were largely null; EF performance at pretest demonstrated only small associations with responder status. These results suggest that the assessment of EF may have limited value in predicting which individual students will respond to intensive reading interventions.

Dialect variation, dialect-shifting, and reading comprehension in second grade

The purpose of this study was to examine second graders' (n=680) changing spoken nonmainstream American English (NMAE) use in relation to their oral language and reading comprehension achievement. Fall NMAE production was negatively associated with fall achievement scores. NMAE production generally decreased from fall to spring. Students who qualified for the US Free and Reduced Lunch program (FARL) and who had stronger language skills were more likely to decrease their NMAE use (i.e., dialect shifting) than their peers who did not qualify for FARL or their peers with weaker language skills. Dialect shifting for a sub-sample of 102 students who used substantial amounts of NMAE at the beginning of the school year was predicted by school context, controlling for reading and language skills - in general, students who attended more affluent schools dialect shifted to a greater extent than did their peers who attended higher poverty schools. Greater dialect shifting in this group predicted gains in reading comprehension from fall to spring.

Reading Expressively and Understanding Thoroughly: An Examination of Prosody in Adults with Low Literacy Skills

The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between prosody, which is the expressive quality of reading out loud, and reading comprehension in adults with low literacy skills compared to skilled readers. All participants read a passage orally, and we extracted prosodic measures from the recordings. We examined pitch changes and how long readers paused at various points while reading. Finally, for the adults with low literacy skills, we collected information on decoding, word recognition, and reading comprehension. We found several interesting results. First, adults with low literacy skills paused longer than skilled readers and paused at a substantially greater number of punctuation marks. Second, while adults with low literacy skills do mark the end of declarative sentences with a pitch declination similar to skilled readers, their readings of questions lack a change in pitch. Third, decoding and word recognition skills were related to pauses while reading; readers with lower skills made longer and more frequent and inappropriate pauses. Finally, pausing measures explained a significant amount of variance in reading comprehension among the adults with low literacy skills.

Language Proficiency, Reading Comprehension and Home Literacy in Bilingual Children: The Impact of Context

Numerous studies on reading comprehension with monolingual children have shown that oral language, such as vocabulary, is an important factor in predicting reading comprehension success. However, few studies have looked at the reading comprehension performance of bilinguals, and less is known about the contributors to its success, linguistic or otherwise. Based on previous research showing weaker oral language among bilingual children, the goals of the present study are to examine how bilinguals perform in reading comprehension, along with possible contributors such as oral language and home literacy practices, in comparison with their monolingual peers. Participants were 82 children in the third grade who completed standardized language measures assessing vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension and whose parents completed a home literacy questionnaire. Bilingual children's reading comprehension was comparable to monolinguals despite having lower language, and bilingual parents reported reading rate was higher than that of the monolinguals. Moreover, the contributors to this success in reading comprehension were different for the bilingual group, with oral language and home literacy playing a role. Overall, this suggests bilinguals are unique from monolinguals in the manner in which they make use of the resources available to them, linguistic and otherwise, to achieve reading comprehension success.

Synthetic phonics and decodable instructional reading texts: How far do these support poor readers?

This paper presents data from a quasi-experimental trial with paired randomisation that emerged during the development of a reading scheme for children in England. This trial was conducted with a group of 12 children, aged 5-6, and considered to be falling behind their peers in reading ability and a matched control group. There were two intervention conditions (A: using mixed teaching methods and a high percentage of non-phonically decodable vocabulary; P: using mixed teaching methods and low percentage of non-decodable vocabulary); allocation to these was randomised. Children were assessed at pre- and post-test on standardised measures of receptive vocabulary, phoneme awareness, word reading, and comprehension. Two class teachers in the same school each selected 6 children, who they considered to be poor readers, to participate (n = 12). A control group (using synthetic phonics only and phonically decodable vocabulary) was selected from the same 2 classes based on pre-test scores for word reading (n = 16). Results from the study show positive benefits for poor readers from using both additional teaching methods (such as analytic phonics, sight word vocabulary, and oral vocabulary extension) in addition to synthetic phonics, and also non-decodable vocabulary in instructional reading text.

EXPRESS: The Effect of Sudden-Onset Distractors on Reading Efficiency and Comprehension

Reading is an essential skill that requires focused attention. However, much reading is done in non-optimal environments. These days, much reading is done on digital devices or with a digital device nearby. These devices often introduce momentary distractions during reading, interrupting with alerts, notifications, and pop-ups. In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated how such momentary distractions impact reading. Participants read paragraphs while their eye movements were monitored. During half of the paragraphs, distractions appeared periodically on the screen that required a response from the participants. In experiment 1, the distractions were arrows that the participant had to respond to and then could immediately forget. In experiment 2, the participants performed a 1-back task that required them to remember the identity of the last distractor. Compared to the no-distraction condition, the respond-and-forget distractors of experiment 1 had minimal impact on reading behavior and comprehension, but the working-memory-load distractors of experiment 2 led to increased re-reading and decreased reading comprehension. It seems a simple pop-up does not disrupt reading, but a message you must remember will.

Establishing a Reading Mindset Measure: A Validation Study

Much attention has been given to the development and validation of measures of growth mindset and its impact on learning, but the previous work has largely been focused on general measures of growth mindset. The present research was focused on establishing the psychometric properties of a Reading Mindset (RM) measure among a sample of upper elementary school students and validating the measure via its relations with standardized measures of word reading and comprehension. The RM measure was developed to capture student beliefs about their ability, learning goals, and effort during reading. Item Response Theory (IRT) was used to select items that optimally measured the RM measure from a pool of existing items from previous research (Petscher et al., 2017). The final five-item RM measure predicted reading comprehension outcomes above and beyond the effects of word reading, indicating that this measure may be an important tool for diagnosing non-cognitive areas of improvement for developing readers. The implications, limitations, and future directions for expanding upon the measure were discussed.

A systematic review of factors that impact reading comprehension in children with developmental language disorders

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have a high rate of co-occurring reading difficulties. The current study aims to (i) examine which factors within the Active View of Reading (AVR; Duke & Cartwright, 2021) apply to individuals with DLD and (ii) investigate other possible factors that relate to reading comprehension ability in individuals with DLD, outside the components in the AVR. Electronic database search and journal hand-search yielded 5058 studies published before March 2022 related to reading comprehension in children with DLD. 4802 articles were excluded during abstract screening, yielding 256 studies eligible for full-text review. Following full-text review, 44 studies were included and further coded for demographics, language of assessment, description of reported disabilities, behavioral assessment, and reading comprehension assessment. While the results aligned with the AVR model, three additional factors were identified as significantly relating to reading comprehension abilities in children with DLD: expressive language (oral and written), question types of reading assessment, and language disorder history. Specifically, expressive language was positively associated with reading comprehension ability, while resolved DLD showed higher reading comprehension abilities than persistent DLD. Furthermore, children with DLD may face additional difficulties in comprehending inference-based questions. This study provides factors for researchers, educators, and clinical professionals to consider when evaluating the reading comprehension of individuals with DLD. Future research should further explore the relative importance of factors of the AVR to reading comprehension outcomes throughout development.

The Effect of Narrative Intervention on Spoken Narrative and Reading Comprehension Abilities in Farsi-Speaking Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show prominent deficits in pragmatic aspects of language such as spoken narrative. Deficits in spoken narrative in school years lead to deficits in reading comprehension. Therefore, this randomized clinical trial research examined the influence of narrative intervention on spoken narrative and reading comprehension abilities in children with ASD.

Methods

In the current double-blind, randomized clinical trial study, 21 students with ASD from second to seventh grade participated in the study. Two intervention methods were provided three times a week and a total of 24 sessions of 45 minutes. The experimental group received the Supporting Knowledge in Language and Literacy (SKILL) program and the control group received Traditional Language Therapy (TLT). The score of macrostructures, microstructures, perspective-taking index, narrative complexity, Story knowledge index, and reading comprehension score were measured pre and post-intervention. ANCOVA was used for between- within-group comparisons analysis.

Results

The experimental group indicated significant improvement in macrostructure (P < 0.001, η2 = 0.614), microstructure (P = 0.012, η2 = 0.303), narrative complexity (P < 0.001, η2 = 0.585), story knowledge index (P < 0.001, η2 = 0.574) and perspective taking index (P < 0.001, η2 = 0.553) compared to the control group. However, the difference between the two groups in reading comprehension skills was not significant in post-intervention (P = 0.457, η2 = 0.031).

Conclusion

The results showed the efficacy of the three stages of the SKILL program compared to TLT in spoken narrative. Also, the results of the study showed that the SKILL program and TLT have the same effect on improving reading comprehension.