Relationship between phonological working memory, metacognitive skills and reading comprehension in children with learning disabilities

Abstract

Reading requires the activation of several cognitive processes, some of which are basic, e.g. recognizing letters and words, whereas others are complex, such as working memory and ability to think about one's own learning strategies. One condition for fulfilling a complex cognitive task, such as understanding a text, is the ability to maintain and process information, which depends on working memory.ObjectiveTo analyze the ability of using metacognitive strategies for reading, the phonological working memory of school children with learning disabilities, and also determine if there is relation between these skills and reading comprehension.MethodThe sample consisted of 30 school-age children and teenagers of both genders, aged 8 to 12 years, who were enrolled in primary school. They were divided in two groups, experimental (EG) and control (CG). All children were subjected to evaluation of reading comprehension, phonological working memory, and use of metacognitive skills for reading. The results were compared between groups through the Mann-Whitney test, and correlation between variables was analyzed through Spearman correlation test.ResultStatistical comparison between EG and CG showed statistically significant difference. Positive and effective correlation was observed between reading comprehension, phonological working memory and metacognitive tests.Conclusionchildren with learning disabilities presented deficits in phonological working memory and use of metacognitive strategies. The positive and effective correlation between the abilities analyzed suggests that failure in the phonological working memory and use of metacognitive strategies interfere with reading comprehension.

Effects of working memory intervention on students with reading comprehension difficulties

“…In this study, there was not observed an initial deficit in PL in children with reading comprehension difficulties, a datum different from other studies comparing WM between children with/without difficulties in academic domains. The difference in results between this study and others found in literature may be related to the diversity of the sample regarding age (evaluation of children in the beginning of their literacy process) 19 , level of seriousness of learning disorders 16,17 , complexity of the tests used for WM evaluation (e.g., backward digit repetition) 6,23,29 , or due to statistical analysis (correlation tests) 7,36 .…”

“…Significant improvement in academic aspects of reading/writing and reading comprehension in G1 may be explained by the existing relation between working memory and learning aspects. Literature reports that working memory is essential to reading development, and that children with difficulties at school have deficits in this ability [5][6][7][8][15][16][17][18][19] .…”

“…Some Brazilian authors claim that studies involving specifically PL training in children with learning difficulties must be carried out, in order to confirm its scientific efficacy, just as there already is a consensus in literature concerning the positive relation between phonological awareness-based therapy and the literacy process 7 . Other authors also mention that the choice for which type of therapy will be performed in the cases of alterations in academic domains should be carefully made, since some programs benefit more the children with difficulties in their literacy process, whereas others bring better benefits for children in a more advanced reading/writing level.…”

“…In many cases, even when word reading is effective (decoding), comprehension may be altered 3 . Many factors are important for reading comprehension: linguistic components (vocabulary, syntax, phonologic skills, among others) 4,5 ; cognitive components (executive functions -working memory, attention, cognitive flexibility) [4][5][6][7][8] ; and social variables (social context, motivations, expectations and others) 4,5 . Hence, reading, in its fullness, encompasses skills such as: being able to use and understand the language; recognizing graphic symbols and distinguishing them one from the other; understanding the text; going back to the text to find answers to their questions; looking for the intentions and points of view of the writer; having the attitude of reflecting upon what has been read, reading not only on the word level, but also on sentence and even text level 9 .…”

“…The positive relation between WM and reading/ writing has already been proved by various studies. Specifically, low performance in tasks evaluating phonological loop is related to difficulties in writing 29 , difficulties in reading comprehension 7 , and difficulties in arithmetic 19 . As for lower performance in more complex tasks, such as backward digit repetition (central executive), it is related to problems in reading and in reading comprehension 6,29 .…”