Foundations of reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities.
Kids with mild ID show a reading profile like very early typical readers—check decoding, listening, early literacy, and timing before you plan lessons.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested 48 Dutch children with mild intellectual disability. They matched them with 48 typical kids of the same age, around 10 years old.
Each child took 12 short tests. The tests covered decoding, listening, early literacy, and quick timing tasks.
What they found
Only half the ID group could read at a first-grade level. They scored lower on every reading and language task.
Even their listening skills lagged. The gap looked like the profile of much younger typical readers.
How this fits with other research
O'Hearn et al. (2011) found the same kids struggle to hold sounds in mind. Short sound lists overload their phonological storage.
McGonigle et al. (2014) showed verbal memory in these kids stops growing around age 10. That stall lines up with the flat reading seen here.
Leung et al. (2011) meta-analysis says about 1 in the children have ID. This single-country sample sits inside that big picture.
Why it matters
Before you pick a reading program, test four things: can the child sound out words, understand a story read aloud, name letters quickly, and keep a short beat. If any piece is weak, build that piece first. Use short lists and spoken books while decoding catches up.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Knowledge about predictors for reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities (ID) is still fragmented. AIMS: This study compared reading comprehension, word decoding, listening comprehension, and reading related linguistic and cognitive precursor measures in children with mild ID and typically developing controls. Moreover, it was explored how the precursors related to reading achievement. METHOD AND PROCEDURES: Children with mild ID and typical controls were assessed on reading comprehension, decoding, language comprehension, and linguistic (early literacy skills, vocabulary, grammar) and cognitive (rapid naming, phonological short-term memory, working memory, temporal processing, nonverbal reasoning) precursor measures. It was tested to what extent variations in reading comprehension could be explained from word decoding, listening comprehension and precursor measures. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The ID group scored significantly below typical controls on all measures. Word decoding was at or above first grade level in half the ID group. Reading comprehension in the ID group was related to word decoding, listening comprehension, early literacy skills, and temporal processing. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: The reading comprehension profile of children with mild ID strongly resembles typical early readers. The simple view of reading pertains to children with mild ID, with additional influence of early literacy skills and temporal processing.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2017 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2016.10.015