Reading-Related Skills, Reading Achievement, and Inattention: A Correlational Study

Abstract

Here we investigated the psychological texture of a literacy-related disability, specific reading disability (SRD, also referred to as dyslexia), as it is manifested in Russian and defined in the Russian Federation. Specifically, we attempted to understand the emerging properties of this deficit among 96 students in grades 2 and 3 (38 girls and 58 boys, aged 7.90–10.42 years, mean = 8.87, SD = 0.56) attending a public primary school in St. Petersburg, Russia. Based on the linguistic properties of the Russian language, we designed a literacy-skills assessment battery that incorporates both internationally common (i.e., the traditional IQ-achievement discrepancy-based) and Russia-specific (i.e., typology-based) approaches to identifying reading difficulties in emergent readers. In addition, we measured children’s levels of general intelligence, inattention, and hyperactivity (i.e., the symptomatology related to attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, ADHD). Multi-trait-multi-method methodology was employed in that data were collected both from teachers and students for multiple reading-related processes, using both self-report and maximum performance assessments. The results are interpreted in terms of the convergence (and lack of such) between the common and country/language-specific approaches to the identification of reading difficulties, and the relevance of the general level of intelligence to diagnosing specific reading difficulties in Russian and in Russia.

Differentiating Behavioral Ratings of Inattention, Impulsivity, and Hyperactivity in Children

“…It is not surprising that inattention predicted academic difficulties in overall reading ability, and our results were consistent with previous research (e.g., Grigorenko, Kornev, Rakhlin, & Krivulskaya, 2011; Pham, Fine, & Semrud-Clikeman, 2011; Rogers, Hwang, Toplak, Weiss, & Tannock, 2011). However, it is not obvious why the only inattention item from the scale, “has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities,” did not correlate highly with reading skills.…”

What Reading Disability? Evidence for Multiple Latent Profiles of Struggling Readers in a Large Russian Sibpair Sample With at Least One Sibling at Risk for Reading Difficulties

“…Participants were administered a set of paper-and-pencil behavioral assessments that tap into reading and reading-related skills. The in-house assessments used in this study (phonological decoding [PD], orthographic coding [OC], morphological awareness, RC, and SP) were developed taking into account the properties of Russian language and orthography and have previously been used in several empirical studies (Grigorenko, Kornev, & Rakhlin, 2011; Kornilov et al, 2012; Rakhlin et al, 2013; Rakhlin et al, 2014). There was no time limit to complete the assessments.…”

“…SP. The SP task (Grigorenko et al, 2011) was aimed at measuring children's basic SP skills. The administrator of the test first produced the word in isolation and then read it embedded in a sentential (i.e., semantic and grammatical) context, and the student was asked to write the word, for a total of 56 items.…”

Reading and a Diffusion Model Analysis of Reaction Time

“…Finally, aspects of children’s phonological processing were assessed with two tasks, a phonological awareness task, and a rapid naming task. These tasks were introduced to capture variability in processes that are thought to, at least in part, underlie reading variability in Russian (Grigorenko, et al, 2007; Grigorenko, Kornev, & Rakhlin, in press; Kornev, Rakhlin, & Grigorenko, 2011; Naples, Chang, Katz, & Grigorenko, 2009). …”