The effect of #processingspeed [#Gs] on academic #fluency in children with #neurodevelopmental disorders - #CHC #WISCV #WJV #intelligence #schoolpsychologists #schoolpsychology #SLD #SLD #SPED #fluency #EDPSY

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PDF copy of article can be downloaded here.

Abstract 

Poor processing speed (PS) is frequently observed in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. However, mixed findings exist on the predictive validity of such processing speed impairment and the role of working memory (WM). We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients evaluated at a developmental assessment clinic between March 2018 and December 2022. Patients with available data on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V) and the Woodcock-Johnson, Fourth Edition, Tests of Achievement (WJ IV ACH) were included (n = 77, 69 % male; Mage = 10.6, SDage = 2.5; FSIQ range = 47–129). We performed a mediation analysis with academic fluency (AF) as the dependent variable, PS as the predictor, WM as the mediator, and academic skills and general intelligence as covariates. Both the direct and indirect effects of PS were significant prior to adding covariates. However, only the direct effect of PS was robust, independent of the effects of academic skills and general intelligence. The indirect effect of PS through WM was insignificant after accounting for the general academic skills and intelligence. Therefore, PS explains a unique variance in AF. This finding suggests that PS may be an exception to the criticism of cognitive profile analysis. Interpreting the PS score as a relative strength or weakness within a cognitive profile may uniquely predict their timed academic performance in youth with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Extremely important (IMHO) #CHC #cognitive #reading achievement #g+specific abilities #SEM paper - #schoolpsychology #schoolpsychologists #SPED #EDPSY #LD #SLD

Extremely interesting (important/intriging) CHC cognitive-reading achievement relations meta-SEM paper.  Why?  Because, as far as I know, it is the first g+specific abilities paper to evaluate a model with causal relations specified within and between cognitive and reading achievement CHC constructs.  Paper info below, as well as open access link to PDF.  Also, this is the first time I’ve seen a meta-structural equation modeling analysis.  Kudos to the authors.

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Abstract

Cognitive tests measure psychological constructs that predict the development of academic skills. Research on cognitive–reading achievement relations has primarily been completed with single-test batteries and samples, resulting in inconsistencies across studies. The current study developed a consensus model of cognitive–reading achievement relations using meta-structural equation modeling (meta-SEM) through a cross-sectional analysis of subtest correlations from English-language norm-referenced tests. The full dataset used for this study included 49,959 correlations across 599 distinct correlation matrices.These included correlations among 1112 subtests extracted from 137 different cognitive and achievement test batteries. The meta-SEM approach allowed for increased sampling of cognitive and academic reading skills measured by various test batteries to better inform the validity of construct relations. The findings were generally consistent with previous research, suggesting that cognitive abilities are important predictors of reading skills and generalize across different test batteries and samples. The findings are also consistent with integrated cognitive–reading models and have implications for assessment and intervention frameworks.

Keywords: cognitive abilities; reading skills; cognitive–achievement relations; CHC theory;meta-structural equation modeling

Research Byte: Potential implications of performance on the WJ IV Oral Reading test in word reading and reading comprehension--indirect mediated effect of prosody

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The WJ IV Achievement test battery includes a new reading test (Oral Reading) that contributes to the Reading Fluency cluster.  It is a measure of oral reading skill (story reading accuracy and prosody).  Briefly, prosody, in reading, refers to the expressiveness with which a student reads.  Why?  Because, fluent readers must be accurate readers.  The Oral Reading tests is a measure of fluency of oral expression in connected discourse. Fluent reading of the passages requires attention to the grammatical structure of prose. 

 

The recent study noted above may be relevant to the interpretation of the Oral Reading test.  This study suggests that prosody (prosodic sensitivity) does not have a direct causal effect on word reading or reading comprehension.  Rather, prosodic sensitivity may have an indirect impact on word reading via the mediating abilities of phonological and morphological awareness and an indirect impact on reading comprehension via word reading and listening comprehension.

 

This study suggests that the WJ IV phonological awareness tests (Phonetic Coding cluster; Oral Language tests of Segmentation and Sound Blending) should receive special attention when interpreting the impact of prosody (Oral Reading test) on the WJ IV Letter-Word Identification test (word reading).  In the case of performance on the WJ IV reading comprehension tests, the study suggests that special attention should be paid attention to prosody (Oral Reading) as mediated through a person's word reading (Letter-Word Identification) and listening comprehension (WJ IV Listening Comprehension cluster tests).

Conflict of interest disclosure.  I am a coauthor of the WJ IV.

Research bytes 7-27-10: Working memory & language; naming deficits and reading fluency in dyslexia

Three very interesting research articles.  The first provides a nice overview of the research on working memory (and the various constructs involved), even if you are not interested specifically in specific language impairment issues.  Usual quid-pro-quo offer stands---I will supply a copy of the PDF file to anyone who wants to read one of the articles in exchange for a brief guest blog post (at which time I will then provide a link to the article for others)


Montgomery, J. W., Magimairaj, B. M., & Finney, M. C. (2010). Working Memory and Specific Language Impairment: An Update on the Relation and Perspectives on Assessment and Treatment. American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 19(1), 78-94.

Children with specific language impairment(SLI) demonstrate significant language impairments despite normal-range hearing and nonverbal IQ. Many of these children also show marked deficits in working memory (WM) abilities. However, the theoretical and clinical characterization of the association between WM and language limitations in SLI is still sparse. Our understanding of this association would benefit greatly from an updated and thorough review of the literature. Method: We review the newest developments in these areas from both a theoretical and clinical perspective. Our intent is to provide researchers and practicing clinicians (a) a conceptual framework within which the association between WM and language limitations of children with SLI can be understood and (b) potentially helpful suggestions for assessing and treating the memory-language difficulties of children with SLI.  Conclusions: In the past 10 years, important new theoretical insights into the range and nature of WM deficits and relation between these limitations and the language difficulties in SLI have occurred. New, robust diagnostic assessment tools and computerized treatment methods designed to enhance children’s WM functioning have also been developed. The assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of the language difficulties in SLI should consider the potential influence of WM.

Meisinger, E. B., Bloom, J. S., & Hynd, G. W. (2010). Reading fluency: implications for the assessment of children with reading disabilities. Annals of Dyslexia, 60(1), 1-17.

The current investigation explored the diagnostic utility of reading fluency measures in the identification of children with reading disabilities. Participants were 50 children referred to a university-based clinic because of suspected reading problems and/or a prior diagnosis of dyslexia, where children completed a battery of standardized intellectual, reading achievement, and processing measures. Within this clinical sample, a group of children were identified that exhibited specific deficits in their reading fluency skills with concurrent deficits in rapid naming speed and reading comprehension. This group of children would not have been identified as having a reading disability according to assessment of single word reading skills alone, suggesting that it is essential to assess reading fluency in addition to word reading because failure to do so may result in the under-identification of children with reading disabilities.

Jones, M. W., Branigan, H. P., Hatzidaki, A., & Obregon, M. (2010). Is the 'naming' deficit in dyslexia a misnomer? Cognition, 116(1), 56-70.

We report a study that investigated the widely held belief that naming-speed deficits in developmental dyslexia reflect impaired access to lexical-phonological codes. To investigate this issue, we compared adult dyslexic and adult non-dyslexic readers’ performance when naming and semantically categorizing arrays of objects. Dyslexic readers yielded slower response latencies than non-dyslexic readers when naming objects, but a subsequent comparison of object-naming and object-categorization tasks showed that the apparent ‘naming’ deficit could be attributed to a more general difficulty in retrieving information – either phonological or semantic – from the visual stimulus. Our findings suggest that although visual–phonological connections may be crucial in explaining naming-speed performance they do not fully characterise dyslexic readers’ naming-speed impairments.

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