This study investigated associations between working memory (measured by complex memory tasks) and both reading and mathematics abilities, as well as the possible mediating factors of Xuid intelligence, verbal abilities, short-term memory (STM), and phonological awareness, in a sample of 46 6- to 11-year-olds with reading disabilities. As a whole, the sample was characterized by deWcits in complex memory and visuospatial STM and by low IQ scores; language, phonological STM, and phonological awareness abilities fell in the low average range. Severity of reading diYculties within the sample was signiWcantly associated with complex memory, language, and phonological awareness abilities, whereas poor mathematics abilities were linked with complex memory, phonological STM, and phonological awareness scores. These Wndings suggest that working memory skills indexed by complex memory tasks represent an important constraint on the acquisition of skill and knowledge in reading and mathematics. Possible mechanisms for the contribution of working memory to learning, and the implications for educational practice, are considered

The aim of this study was to investigate the functional organisation of working memory and related cognitive abilities in young children. A sample of 633 children aged between 4 and 6 years were tested on measures of verbal short-term memory, complex memory span, sentence repetition, phonological awareness, and nonverbal ability. The measurement model that provided the best fit of the data incorporates constructs that correspond to the central executive, phonological loop, and episodic buffer subcomponents of working memory, plus distinct but associated constructs associated with phonological awareness and nonverbal ability.

The nature and generality of the developmental association between phonological short‐term memory and vocabulary knowledge was explored in two studies. Study 1 investigated whether the link between vocabulary and verbal memory arises from the requirement to articulate memory items at recall or from earlier processes involved in the encoding and storage of the verbal material. Four‐year‐old children were tested on immediate memory measures which required either spoken recall (nonword repetition and digit span) or recognition of a sequence of nonwords. The phonological memory–vocabulary association was found to be as strong for the serial recognition as recall‐based measures, favouring the view that it is phonological short‐term memory capacity rather than speech output skills which constrain word learning. In Study 2, the association between phonological memory skills and vocabulary knowledge was found to be strong in teenaged as well as younger children, indicating that phonological memory constraints on word learning remain significant throughout childhood. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study investigates whether working memory skills of children are related to teacher ratings of their progress towards learning goals at the time of school entry, at 4 or 5 years of age. A sample of 194 children was tested on measures of working memory, phonological awareness, and non-verbal ability, in addition to the school-based baseline assessments in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, speaking and listening, and personal and social development. Various aspects of cognitive functioning formed unique associations with baseline assessments; for example complex memory span with rated writing skills, phonological short-term memory with both reading and speaking and listening skills, and sentence repetition scores with both mathematics and personal and social skills. Rated reading skills were also uniquely associated with phonological awareness scores. The findings indicate that the capacity to store and process material over short periods of time, referred to as working memory, and also the awareness of phonological structure, may play a crucial role in key learning areas for children at the beginning of formal education.From 1998 to 2002, all state primary schools in England assessed children's abilities as they entered full-time education at 4 or 5 years of age. Each local educational authority was responsible for administering an accredited baseline assessment scheme that measured the children's progress towards early learning goals in domains such as language, literacy, mathematics, and physical and creative development (School Curriculum and Assessment Authority/The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 1997).The aim of the present study was to relate these early indicators of children's skills in key scholastic domains to working memory abilities. Recent work has established close

This study investigates whether phonological working memory is associated with spoken language development in preschool children. Assessments were made of speech corpora taken from 3-year old children grouped in terms of their phonological memory abilities. Both quantitative and qualitative indices of the children’s spontaneous speech output were taken in a structured play session. Significant differences were found, with children of good phonological memory abilities producing language that was more grammatically complex, contained a richer array of words, and included longer utterances than children of poor phonological memory abilities. The possible mechanisms by which phonological working memory skills are linked to the production of speech are considered.