Working memory in children with reading disabilities.

By Susan E. Gathercole *, Tracy Packiam Alloway, C. Willis, Anne-Marie Adams. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2006

831 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study investigated associations between working memory (measured by complex memory tasks) and both reading and mathematics abilities, as well as the possible mediating factors of fluid intelligence, verbal abilities, short-term memory (STM), and phonological awareness, in a sample of 46 6- to 11-year-olds with reading disabilities. As a whole, the sample was characterized by deficits in complex memory and visuospatial STM and by low IQ scores; language, phonological STM, and phonological awareness abilities fell in the low average range. Severity of reading difficulties within the sample was significantly associated with complex memory, language, and phonological awareness abilities, whereas poor mathematics abilities were linked with complex memory, phonological STM, and phonological awareness scores. These findings suggest that working memory skills indexed by complex memory tasks represent an important constraint on the acquisition of skill and knowledge in reading and mathematics. Possible mechanisms for the contribution of working memory to learning, and the implications for educational practice, are considered.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Psychiatry and Mental health, Statistics and Probability

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4967bfaabe86456c103c4e6416d600fccbf3012d

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Citations in the corpus

Early Childhood Memory and Attention as Predictors of Academic Growth Trajectories. (2014, background): “Only one study was found that assessed how well academic achievement predicted later memory.”
Disentangling the relationship between working memory and language: The roles of short-term storage and cognitive control (2011, background): “, 2005; de Jong & Olson, 2004); other indications are that this is not the case (Dufva et al., 2001; Gathercole et al., 2006).”
Short-Term Memory, Working Memory, and Executive Functioning in Preschoolers: Longitudinal Predictors of Mathematical Achievement at Age 7 Years (2008, background): “Gathercole et al. (2006), in failing to find such a relationship in a study of 6–11 year olds, did find a relationship between phonological short-term memory and mathematics.”
How does working memory work in the classroom (2006, background): “However, recent research has confirmed that the specificity of associations between working memory and attainment persist after differences in IQ have been statistically controlled in children with learning difficulties (Swanson and Saez, 2003; Gathercole et al., 2006).”
Working Memory and Dynamic Measures of Analogical Reasoning as Predictors of Children's Math and Reading Achievement (2014, background): “Verbal working memory has often been found to be a good predictor of both reading and math achievement in children (e.g. Gathercole et al., 2006; Nevo & Breznitz, 2011, 2013).”
Attentional and Executive Function Behaviours in Children with Poor Working Memory. (2008, background): “Although there is no discrete point at which typical and atypical performance can be unequivocally distinguished, for the present purposes scores at or more than 1 SD below the population mean (below 86) are taken as indicative of a deficit (Gathercole et al., 2006”