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Talk; speed

Friday stream 1 Session 11.35 - 12.50 Length 25 minutes

Are RAN and Phonological Awareness Deficits Additive in Reading Disabled Children?

Donald L. Compton and Richard K. Olson

Department of Psychology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO USA (303) 492-3198, 492-8865 dcompton@psych.colorado.edu

Abstract

Wolf and Bowers (1999) have suggested that children with deficits in both RAN and phonological awareness have more serious reading deficits compared to children with deficits in only one domain. This suggests that the presence of a double-deficit has an additive negative influence on reading performance above and beyond that of a single deficit. This presentation will share results from a study designed to evaluate the additive nature of deficits in RAN and phonological awareness in children with word reading deficits. To test this hypothesis, reading disabled subjects with a double-deficit were matched with reading disabled subjects with a single deficit on the defining variable (i.e., the double-deficit group was matched with the phonological-deficit group on phonological awareness, whereas the double-deficit group was matched with the speed-deficit group on RAN). Analyses of approximately 450 reading disabled subjects confirmed that individuals with deficits in both RAN and phonemic awareness skills performed below unmatched single deficit groups on all reading measures (word recognition, nonword decoding, orthographic processing, and reading comprehension). However, when double- and single-deficit groups were matched on the target deficits, differences between the double-deficit group (DD) and single-deficit groups, RAN (R) or phonological awareness (P), were confined to timed word recognition (DD<P, DD=R), nonword decoding (DD=P, DD<R), and reading comprehension (DD<P, DD=R). Results tend to suggest that the double-deficit group most resembles the rate-deficit group on measures that require fluent/speeded word reading skill and reading comprehension, whereas the double-deficit group tended to perform similarly to the phonological-deficit group on measures emphasizing phonological processing skills. In sum, results do not support an additive effect of deficits in RAN and phonological awareness skill to word reading difficulties.