Memory Functioning in Children with Reading Disabilities and/or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Clinical Investigation of their Working Memory and Long-Term Memory Functioning

Abstract

We examined memory functioning in children with reading disabilities (RD), ADHD, and RD/ ADHD using a clinic sample with a clinical instrument: the Children's Memory Scale, enhancing its generalizability. Participants included 23 children with RD, 30 with ADHD, 30 with RD/ADHD, and 30 controls. Children with RD presented with reduced verbal short-term memory (STM) but intact visual STM, central executive (CE) and long-term memory (LTM) functioning. Their deficit in STM appeared specific to tasks requiring phonetic coding of material. Children with ADHD displayed intact CE and LTM functioning but reduced visual-spatial STM, especially when off stimulant medication. Children with RD/ADHD had deficits consistent with both disorders. Keywords dyslexia; reading disorders; ADHD; working memory; memory; children; stimulant medication There is a high comorbidity between a specific learning disability in reading (RD) and attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Approximately 15-35% of children with RD meet criteria for ADHD (Holborow & Berry, 1986;Shaywitz, Fletcher, & Shaywitz, 1995;Willcutt & Pennington, 2000), and about 10-40% of children with ADHD also have RD (Holborow & Berry, 1986;Semrud-Clikeman et al., 1992;Shaywitz et al., 1995). This overlap occurs in both community and clinical samples, suggesting it is not a selection artifact (Willcutt et al., 2001). Both disorders present with working memory and linguistic deficits; however, the manifestation of these deficits may vary between disorders. Despite all that we have learned about memory functioning in these populations over the past few decades, much of this research has focused on community samples and/or has used experimental measures. In contrast, this study examines memory functioning in children with RD, ADHD, and comorbid RD and ADHD using a clinical sample with a clinical instrument: the Children's Memory Scale (CMS;. This study provides greater external validity than is typically published, which will enhance its generalizability to psychologists working in clinical practice. For the purposes of this study, the term working memory (WM) is used when tasks require storage and mental manipulation such as a mental arithmetic task, whereas short-term memory (STM) is used when tasks require brief storage but limited mental manipulation such as when performing a This PDF receipt will only be used as the basis for generating PubMed Central (PMC) documents. PMC documents will be made available for review after conversion (approx. 2-3 weeks time). Any corrections that need to be made will be done at that time. No materials will be released to PMC without the approval of an author. Only the PMC documents will appear on PubMed Central --this PDF Receipt will not appear on PubMed Central. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptChild Neuropsychol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 November 1. Published in final edited form as:Child Neuropsychol. 2008 November ; 14(6): 525-546. doi:10.1080/09297040701821752. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Man...

Working Memory in Portuguese Children With Developmental Dyslexia

“…(Table 4 about here) Discussion WM deficits have been widely studied and identified as one of the major defining characteristics of DD. Whereas the deficits in PL and CE tasks exhibited by children with DD have been reported extensively (Schuchardt et al, 2008;Smith-Spark & Fisk, 2007;Swanson et al, 2009), the findings regarding VSSP have been inconsistent (Bacon et al, 2013;Kibby & Cohen, 2008;Menghini et al, 2011). …”

“…Research on the relationship between DD and VSSP deficits has yielded mixed results. Although most studies have not found VSSP deficits in individuals with DD (Bacon, Parmentier, & Barr, 2013;Jeffries & Everatt, 2004;Kibby & Cohen, 2008;Schuchardt et al, 2008), others have suggested the presence of significant differences, with individuals with DD performing more poorly than TR (Menghini et al, 2011;Smith-Spark & Fisk, 2007). When visuospatial STM tasks involve CE demands, children with DD tend to exhibit more difficulties.…”

“…Almost all studies investigating PL capacity have documented reductions in verbal span in children with DD (Kibby & Cohen, 2008;Menghini et al, 2011;Swanson et al, 2009;Willcutt, Pennington, Olson, Chhabildas, & Hulslander, 2005). Nonetheless, the literature has been discordant concerning which PL subcomponents are compromised.…”

“…In contrast, Schuchardt et al (2008) observed that group differences in CE performance were no longer significant when PL tasks were taken into account. Furthermore, the presence of intact CE functioning in children with DD has also been reported (Kibby & Cohen, 2008;Landerl et al, 2009;van der Sluis, van der Leij, & de Jong, 2005). Numerous studies have found that CE predicted variance in reading decoding (Gathercole et al, 2006;Jerman et al, 2012;Nevo & Breznitz, 2011;Swanson & Ashbaker, 2000), reading comprehension (Sesma, Mahone, Levine, Eason, & Cutting, 2009;Swanson & Jerman, 2007), reading fluency (Berninger et al, 2006;Nevo & Breznitz, 2011;Swanson & Jerman, 2007), and mathematical ability (Andersson, 2008;Jerman et al, 2012).…”

Comorbidity between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and reading disabilities: Implications for assessment and treatment

“…Another study by Kibby and Cohen (2008) provided information confirming the consistency of verbal memory deficits affecting RD and RD+ADHD groups. They applied the Children's memory scale (CMS: Cohen, 1997) to children with ADHD, RD, RD+ADHD and controls.…”