Writing Performance and Working Memory of School-Age Poor Readers

Abstract

This paper is based on the master's thesis of the first author. Objectives:The purpose of this study was to identify the writing performance capability and working memory capacity of school-age children with poor reading skills. Methods: A total of 14 poor readers in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade of elementary school and another 14 typically developing peers participated in the study. The writing performance of the participants was evaluated with a narrative-evaluation. Working memory was assessed with 2 different tasks focused on reading span and executive attention. Results: In their writing, the poor readers produced significantly shorter mean length of sentences compared to the typically developing students. Regarding the working memory measurement, the reading span of the poor readers showed significantly lower results as well. In addition, the results of the Stroop color-word test measuring executive attention reported that poor readers made lower scores. Conclusion: These results indicate that writing performance and executive attention are related. Poor readers should receive help to improve their mean length of sentences and working memory.