Search

Limited evidence supports the external validity of the distinction between developmental phonological and surface dyslexia. We previously identified children ages 8 to 13 meeting criteria for these subtypes (Peterson, Pennington, & Olson, 2013) and now report on their reading and related skills approximately 5 years later. Longitudinal stability of subtype membership was fair and appeared stronger for phonological than surface dyslexia. Phonological dyslexia was associated with a pronounced phonological awareness deficit, but subgroups otherwise had similar cognitive profiles. Subtype did not inform prognosis. Results provide modest evidence for the validity of the distinction, although not for its clinical utility.

Background: Previous research on the etiology of ADHD symptoms suggests that neuropsychological differences may be present as early as birth; however, the diagnosis is typically not given until school age. This study aimed to (a) identify early behavioral and cognitive markers of later significant parent and/or teacher ratings of ADHD symptomology, (b) examine sex differences in these predictors, and (c) describe the developmental trajectories of comorbid symptoms in school-aged children. Methods: 1,106 children and at least one parent enrolled in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were followed from 1 month of age through 6th grade. Effect size calculations, discriminant function analysis, and growth curve analyses were conducted to address the three aims. Results: Children with high- versus low-ADHD symptomology at 3rd grade could be distinguished using cognitive and behavioral measures as early as 15 months (females) and 24 months (males). Sensitivity and specificity were modest at 15, 24, and 26 months. Growth curves revealed significant differences between high- and low-ADHD groups in comorbid symptoms at kindergarten and significantly different slopes for externalizing, social skills, and academic skills ratings across elementary school. There were few gender differences on cognitive and behavioral variables within the high-ADHD group. Conclusions: Cognitive and behavioral markers of ADHD symptoms are present in children prior to entry into formal schooling, but current behavioral screeners are not developmentally sensitive to these differences in infancy and toddlerhood.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to investigate the etiologic basis for the association between deficits in phonological memory (PM) and vocabulary in school-age children. Method: Children with deficits in PM or vocabulary were identified within the International Longitudinal Twin Study (ILTS; Samuelsson et al., 2005). The ILTS includes 1,045 twin pairs (between the ages of 5 and 8 years) from the United States, Australia, and Scandinavia. The authors applied the DeFries-Fulker (DeFries & Fulker, 1985, 1988) regression method to determine whether problems in PM and vocabulary tend to co-occur because of overlapping genes, overlapping environmental risk factors, or both. Results: Among children with isolated PM deficits, the authors found significant bivariate heritability of PM and vocabulary weaknesses both within and across time. However, when probands were selected for a vocabulary deficit, there was no evidence for bivariate heritability. In this case, it appears that the PM--vocabulary relationship is caused by common shared environmental experiences. Conclusions: The findings are consistent with previous research on the heritability of specific language impairment and suggest that there are etiologic subgroups of children with low vocabulary for different reasons, 1 being more influenced by genes and another being more influenced by environment. (Contains 5 tables and 1 footnote.)

Identical and fraternal twins (N = 540, age 8 to 18 years) were tested on three different measures of writing (Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement--Writing Samples and Writing Fluency; Handwriting Copy from the Group Diagnostic Reading and Aptitude Achievement Tests), three different language skills (phonological awareness, rapid naming, and vocabulary), and three different reading skills (word recognition, spelling, and reading comprehension). Substantial genetic influence was found on two of the writing measures, writing samples and handwriting copy, and all of the language and reading measures. Shared environment influences were generally not significant, except for Vocabulary. Non-shared environment estimates, including measurement error, were significant for all variables. Genetic influences among the writing measures were significantly correlated (highest between the speeded measures writing fluency and handwriting copy), but there were also significant independent genetic influences between copy and samples and between fluency and samples. Genetic influences on writing were significantly correlated with genetic influences on all of the language and reading skills, but significant independent genetic influences were also found for copy and samples, whose genetic correlations were significantly less than 1.0 with the reading and language skills. The genetic correlations varied significantly in strength depending on the overlap between the writing, language, and reading task demands. We discuss implications of our results for education, limitations of the study, and new directions for research on writing and its relations to language and reading.

Insufficient knowledge of the subtle relations between words' spellings and their phonology is widely held to be the primary limitation in developmental dyslexia. In the present study the influence of phonology on a semantic-based reading task was compared for groups of readers with and without dyslexia. As many studies have shown, skilled readers make phonology-based false-positive errors to homophones and pseudohomophones in the semantic categorization task. The basic finding was extended to children, teens, and adults with dyslexia from familial and clinically-referred samples. Dyslexics showed the same overall pattern of phonology errors and the results were consistent across dyslexia samples, across age groups, and across experimental conditions using word and nonword homophone foils. The dyslexic groups differed from chronological-age matched controls by having elevated false-positive homophone error rates overall, and weaker effects of baseword frequency. Children with dyslexia also made more false-positive errors to spelling control foils. These findings suggest that individuals with dyslexia make use of phonology when making semantic decisions both to word homophone and non-word pseudohomophone foils and that dyslexics lack adequate knowledge of actual word spellings, compared to chronological-age and reading-level matched control participants.

Objective: The Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal Behavior (SWAN) Rating Scale differs from previous parent reports of ADHD in that it was designed to also measure variability at the positive end of the symptom spectrum. Method: The psychometric properties of the SWAN were tested and compared with an established measure of ADHD, the Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale (DBRS). Results: The SWAN demonstrates comparable validity, reliability, and heritability to the DBRS. Furthermore, plots of the SWAN and DBRS reveal heteroscedasticity, which supports the SWAN as a preferred measure of positive attention and impulse regulation behaviors. Conclusion: The ability of the SWAN to measure additional variance at the adaptive end of the ADHD symptom dimensions makes it a promising tool for behavioral genetic studies of ADHD. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)

We investigated the phonological and surface subtypes of developmental dyslexia in light of competing predictions made by two computational models of single word reading, the Dual-Route Cascaded Model (DRC; Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001) and Harm and Seidenberg's connectionist model (HS model; Harm & Seidenberg, 1999). The regression-outlier procedure was applied to a large sample to identify children with disproportionately poor phonological coding skills (phonological dyslexia) or disproportionately poor orthographic coding skills (surface dyslexia). Consistent with the predictions of the HS model, children with "pure" phonological dyslexia, who did not have orthographic deficits, had milder phonological impairments than children with "relative" phonological dyslexia, who did have secondary orthographic deficits. In addition, pure cases of dyslexia were more common among older children. Consistent with the predictions of the DRC model, surface dyslexia was not well conceptualized as a reading delay; both phonological and surface dyslexia were associated with patterns of developmental deviance. In addition, some results were problematic for both models. We identified a small number of individuals with severe phonological dyslexia, relatively intact orthographic coding skills, and very poor real word reading. Further, a subset of controls could read normally despite impaired orthographic coding. The findings are discussed in terms of improvements to both models that might help better account for all cases of developmental dyslexia. (Contains 5 tables and 3 figures.)

Reading disability (RD) and math disability (MD) frequently co-occur, but the etiology of this comorbidity is not well understood. Groups with RD only (N = 241), MD only (N = 183), and RD + MD (N = 188) and a control group with neither disorder (N = 411) completed a battery of measures of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, social and academic functioning, and 10 neuropsychological processes. Groups with RD only, MD only, and RD + MD were significantly impaired versus the control group on nearly all measures, and the group with RD + MD was more impaired than the groups with MD and RD alone on measures of internalizing psychopathology, academic functioning, and 7 of 10 neuropsychological constructs. Multiple regression analyses of the neuropsychological measures indicated that deficits in reading and math were associated with shared weaknesses in working memory, processing speed, and verbal comprehension. In contrast, reading difficulties were uniquely associated with weaknesses in phoneme awareness and naming speed, and math deficits were uniquely associated with weaknesses in set shifting. These results support multiple-deficit neuropsychological models of RD and MD and suggest that RD and MD are distinct but related disorders that co-occur because of shared neuropsychological weaknesses in working memory, processing speed, and verbal comprehension.

Although previous research has identified contemporaneous associations between cognitive deficits and symptom phenotypes in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, no studies have as yet attempted to identify direction of effect. The present study used cross-lagged path modeling to examine competing hypotheses about longitudinal associations between rapid naming speed and symptoms of inattention in children. 1,506 school-age twins from Australia and the U.S. were tested for inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and rapid naming speed at three and four time points, respectively. Symptom severity of inattention from Kindergarten to fourth grade is consistently predicted by previous rapid naming, over and above auto-regressive and correlational associations in the model. Likewise, inattention symptoms have a small but significant predictive effect on subsequent rapid naming. The findings support a reciprocal relationship between naming speed and ADHD inattentive symptoms.

Background: Reading disability (RD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are comorbid and genetically correlated, especially the inattentive dimension of ADHD (ADHD-I). However, previous research indicates that RD and ADHD enter into opposite gene by environment (G x E) interactions. Methods: This study used behavioral genetic methods to replicate these opposite G x E interactions in a sample of same-sex monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs from the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center (CLDRC; DeFries et al., 1997) and to test a genetic hypothesis for why these opposite interactions occur. Results: We replicated opposite G x E interactions for RD (bioecological) and ADHD-I (diathesis-stress) with parental education in the same sample of participants. The genetic hypothesis for this opposite pattern of interactions is that only genes specific to each disorder enter into these opposite interactions, not the shared genes underlying their comorbidity. To test this hypothesis, we used single models with an exploratory three-way interaction, in which the G x E interactions for each disorder were moderated by comorbidity. Neither three-way interaction was significant. The heritability of RD did not vary as a function of parental education and ADHD-I. Similarly, the heritability of ADHD-I did not vary as a function of parental education and RD. Conclusions: We documented opposite G x E interactions in RD and ADHD-I in the same overall twin sample, but the explanation for this apparent paradox remains unclear. Examining specific genes and more specific environmental factors may help resolve the paradox.

Dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are 2 of the most prevalent complex neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood, each affecting approximately 5% of the population in the United States. These disorders are also each comorbid with speech sound disorder and language impairment. Understanding the nature of the comorbidity among these disorders could lead to advances in developmental theory, a deeper understanding of the genetic and brain mechanisms that cause disability, a more refined diagnostic classification scheme, and new treatments and interventions for children with these disorders. As part of this special issue of "Topics in Language Disorders," this review focuses on the comorbidity between dyslexia and ADHD. It provides a review of the known etiological mechanisms that underlie each disorder. It describes the reconceptualization of these disorders using a multiple deficit model and provides a synopsis of recent studies that illustrate a cohesive approach to investigating the causes of comorbidity. Future directions are discussed in the context of expanding these approaches to the comorbidity among all 4 disorders.

Background: This study tests a multiple cognitive deficit model of reading disability (RD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and their comorbidity. Methods: A structural equation model (SEM) of multiple cognitive risk factors and symptom outcome variables was constructed. The model included phonological awareness as a unique predictor of RD and response inhibition as a unique predictor of ADHD. Processing speed, naming speed, and verbal working memory were modeled as potential shared cognitive deficits. Results: Model fit indices from the SEM indicated satisfactory fit. Closer inspection of the path weights revealed that processing speed was the only cognitive variable with significant unique relationships to RD and ADHD dimensions, particularly inattention. Moreover, the significant correlation between reading and inattention was reduced to non-significance when processing speed was included in the model, suggesting that processing speed primarily accounted for the phenotypic correlation (or comorbidity) between reading and inattention. Conclusions: This study illustrates the power of a multiple deficit approach to complex developmental disorders and psychopathologies, particularly for exploring comorbidities. The theoretical role of processing speed in the developmental pathways of RD and ADHD and directions for future research are discussed.

Genetic and environmental relations between vocabulary and reading skills were explored longitudinally from preschool through Grades 2 and 4. At preschool there were strong shared-environment and weak genetic influences on both vocabulary and print knowledge but substantial differences in their source. Separation of etiology for vocabulary and reading continued for word recognition and decoding through Grade 4, but genetic and environmental correlations between vocabulary and reading comprehension approached unity by Grade 4, when vocabulary and word recognition accounted for all of the genetic and shared environment influences on reading comprehension. (Contains 7 tables.)

Research Design;Intervention;Biology;Biotechnology;Teaching Methods;Hands on Science;Professional Development;Comparative Analysis;Genetics;Evaluation;Pretests Posttests;Control Groups;Science Education;Science Instruction;Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Background: Efficient memory functions are important to the development of cognitive and functional skills, allowing individuals to manipulate and store information. Theories of memory have suggested the presence of domain-specific (i.e. verbal and spatial) and general processing mechanisms across memory domains, including memory functions dependent on the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the hippocampus. Comparison of individuals who have syndromes associated with striking contrasts in skills on verbal and spatial tasks [e.g. Down syndrome (DS) and Williams syndrome (WS)] allows us to test whether or not these dissociations may extend across cognitive domains, including PFC and hippocampal memory processes. Methods: The profile of memory function, including immediate memory (IM), working memory (WM) and associative memory (AM), was examined in a sample of adolescents and young adults with DS (n = 27) or WS (n = 28), from which closely CA- and IQ-matched samples of individuals with DS (n = 18) or WS (n = 18) were generated. Relations between memory functions and IQ and adaptive behaviour were also assessed in the larger sample. Results: Comparisons of the two matched groups indicated significant differences in verbal IM (DS less than WS), spatial IM (DS greater than WS) and spatial and verbal AM (DS greater than WS), but no between-syndrome differences in WM. For individuals with DS, verbal IM was the most related to variation in IQ, and spatial AM related to adaptive behaviour. The pattern was clearly different for individuals with WS. Verbal and spatial AM were the most related to variation in IQ, and verbal WM related to adaptive behaviour. Conclusions: These results suggest that individuals with these two syndromes have very different patterns of relative strengths and weaknesses on memory measures, which do not fully mirror verbal and spatial dissociations. Furthermore, different patterns of memory dysfunction relate to outcome in individuals with each syndrome.

Purpose: In this study, the authors evaluated literacy outcome in children with histories of speech sound disorder (SSD) who were characterized along 2 dimensions: broader language function and persistence of SSD. In previous studies, authors have demonstrated that each dimension relates to literacy but have not disentangled their effects. Methods: Two groups of children (86 SSD and 37 controls) were recruited at ages 5-6 and were followed longitudinally. The authors report the literacy of children with SSD at ages 7-9, compared with controls and national norms, and relative to language skill and SSD persistence (both measured at age 5-6). Results: The SSD group demonstrated elevated rates of reading disability. Language skill but not SSD persistence predicted later literacy. However, SSD persistence was associated with phonological awareness impairments. Phonological awareness alone predicted literacy outcome less well than a model that also included syntax and nonverbal IQ. Conclusions: Results support previous literature findings that SSD history predicts literacy difficulties and that the association is strongest for SSD + language impairment (LI). Magnitude of phonological impairment alone did not determine literacy outcome, as predicted by the core phonological deficit hypothesis. Instead, consistent with a multiple deficit approach, phonological deficits appeared to interact with other cognitive factors in literacy development.

Background: Deficient rapid auditory processing (RAP) has been associated with early language impairment and dyslexia. Using an auditory masking paradigm, children with language disabilities perform selectively worse than controls at detecting a tone in a backward masking (BM) condition (tone followed by white noise) compared to a forward masking (FM) condition (tone preceded by white noise). Tallal's (1980) auditory processing hypothesis posits that abnormal RAP leads to reduced (or impaired) phonological awareness (PA), resulting in reading and language difficulties. Alternative theories suggest that impaired PA may have more of a top-down effect on auditory processing. Methods: The current study examines RAP in children tested at two time points, average age 5.6 and average age 8.3, in order to test causal relations between RAP and PA in a path analysis. Additional hierarchical regressions examine how well RAP predicts reading ability when accounting for PA and vocabulary. Results: The path analysis indicates a top-down effect, such that PA has a larger impact on BM over time than the reverse. Regressions indicate no direct impact of RAP on reading ability. Discussion: The path analysis provides evidence against the auditory processing hypothesis and instead suggests that between the ages of 5 and 8 it is variability in early phonological representations that predicts subsequent lower-level rapid auditory processing.

This article examines Gene x Environment (G x E) interactions in two comorbid developmental disorders--reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)--as a window on broader issues on G x E interactions in developmental psychology. The authors first briefly review types of G x E interactions, methods for detecting them, and challenges researchers confront in interpreting such interactions. They then review previous evidence for G x E interactions in RD and ADHD, the directions of which are "opposite" to each other: bioecological for RD and diathesis stress for ADHD. Given these results, the authors formulate and test predictions about G x E interactions that would be expected at the "favorable" end of each symptom dimension (e.g., above-average reading or attention). Consistent with their prediction, the authors found initial evidence for a "resilience" interaction for above-average reading: higher heritability in the presence of lower parental education. However, they did not find a G x E interaction at the favorable end of the ADHD symptom dimension. The authors conclude with implications for future research. (Contains 2 figures.)

This review includes 1) an explanation of what neuropsychology is, 2) a brief history of how developmental cognitive neuroscience emerged from earlier neuropsychological approaches to understanding atypical development, 3) three recent examples that illustrate the benefits of this approach, 4) issues and challenges this approach must face, and 5) a forecast for the future of this approach.

Typical U.S. children use their knowledge of letters' names to help learn the letters' sounds. They perform better on letter sound tests with letters that have their sounds at the beginnings of their names, such as v, than with letters that have their sounds at the ends of their names, such as m, and letters that do not have their sounds in their names, such as h. We found this same pattern among children with speech sound disorders, children with language impairments as well as speech sound disorders, and children who later developed serious reading problems. Even children who scored at chance on rhyming and sound matching tasks performed better on the letter sound task with letters such as v than with letters such as m and h. Our results suggest that a wide range of children use the names of letters to help learn the sounds and that phonological awareness, as conventionally measured, is not required in order to do so.