Relationships of Attention and Executive Functions to Oral Language, Reading, and Writing Skills and Systems in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence

Abstract

Relationships between attention/executive functions and language learning were investigated in students in grades 4 to 9 (N=88) with and without specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in multi-word syntax in oral and written language (OWL LD), word reading and spelling (dyslexia), and subword letter writing (dysgraphia). Prior ADHD diagnosis was correlated only with impaired handwriting. Parental ratings of inattention, but not hyperactivity, correlated with measures of written language but not oral language. Sustaining switching attention correlated with writing the alphabet from memory in manuscript or by keyboard and fast copying of a sentence with all the letters of the alphabet. Multiple regressions based on a principal component for composites of multiple levels of language (subword, word, and syntax/text) showed that measures of attention and executive function involving language processing rather than ratings of attention and executive function not specifically related to language accounted for more variance and identified more unique predictors in the composite outcomes for oral language, reading, and writing systems. Inhibition related to focused attention uniquely predicted outcomes for the oral language system. Findings are discussed in reference to implications for assessing and teaching students who are still learning to pay attention to heard and written language and self-regulate their language learning during middle childhood and adolescence.

ERPs While Judging Meaningfulness of Sentences With and Without Homonym or Morpheme Spelling Foils: Comparing 4th to 9th Graders With and Without Spelling Disabilities

“…The difference between the control group and the SLD group in the correlations between Wolf and Denckla RAS (switching attention) and reading sentences with spelling errors (shown in Figure 3) on N400 (a) converges with behavioral findings showing the relationship between RAS and switching attention to changing units of written language within and across words (Berninger, Abbott, Cook, & Nagy, 2016); and (b) has implications for the supervisory attention of working memory during sentence reading comprehension. Ability to switch attention from letter to letter in sequence within a written word and then across the sequential words in sentence syntax likely plays an important role in learning to read.…”

Self-government of complex reading and writing brains informed by cingulo-opercular network for adaptive control and working memory components for language learning

“…However, the cognitive behavioral deficits in ADHD and reading disabilities are not the same [56]. In a sample selected for students with and without written language learning disabilities, the incidence of co-occurring ADHD was very low and normed measures of focused or supervisory attention or parent ratings of inattention were considerably better predictors of reading and writing outcomes than ADHD diagnosis [30]. Future research should address if DRD4 alleles for focused attention or supervisory attention or inattention ratings may be genetic mediators for self-regulating language learning.…”

“…Participants were instructed to look at a fixation cross (no reading task, resting condition; 180 timepoints) or to complete a specific reading task. Because each participant had to achieve 90% accuracy on each task before entering the scanner and it is known that it is difficult for students with SLDs to pay attention to language over time [30], to ensure continuous cognitive engagement, each reading task was presented with self-paced advancing of stimuli (for two minutes; 960 timepoints).…”

Funções Executivas na Dislexia do Desenvolvimento: Revendo Evidências de Pesquisas

“…Com a avaliação da fluência verbal é possível captar dados de várias funções e processos cognitivos complexos como: iniciativa, FC, velocidade de processamento, abstração e planejamento, a MT, a recuperação de palavras no léxico mental presente na linguagem e a aptidão verbal (MOURA, SIMÕES, PEREIRA, 2013 Berninger et al (2016) relacionaram o desempenho no teste FAS com a linguagem oral, a leitura e a escrita em crianças e adolescentes com dislexia. O estudo concluiu que a fluência verbal e a inibição estão significativamente correlacionadas com toda a aprendizagem da linguagem auditiva e verbal, ou seja, são correlacionadas com as medidas cognitivas envolvidas no processo de tradução linguística.…”