Abstract
Word reading and oral language predict reading comprehension, which is generally poor, in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, working memory (WM), despite documented weaknesses, has not been thoroughly investigated as a predictor of reading comprehension in ASD. This study examined the role of three parallel WM N-back tasks using abstract shapes, familiar objects, and written words in children (8–14 years) with ASD (n = 19) and their typically developing peers (n = 24). All three types of WM were significant predictors of reading comprehension when considered alone. However, these relationships were rendered non-significant with the addition of age, word reading, vocabulary, and group entered into the models. Oral vocabulary emerged as the strongest predictor of reading comprehension.
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Notes
The results of the analyses including and excluding this participant were equivalent; therefore, only the analyses including this participant are reported.
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Acknowledgments
This study was originally submitted in partial completion of MMD’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Portions of these data were presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading (SSSR) 2016 and the Symposium on Research in Child Language Disorders (SRCLD) 2017. Thank you to the participants and their families. We appreciate the support of the following funding agencies: National Institutes of Health National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) R01 DC011750; National Institutes of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) U54 HD090256; Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CAPCSD) PhD Scholarship; American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation New Century Scholars Award. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. We acknowledge the help of Elizabeth Ales, Natalie Bowman, Ishanti Gangopadhyay, Eileen Haebig, Eva Lopez, Emily Murphy, Sarah Naumann, Stephanie Palm, Haliee Patel, Heidi Sindberg, and Lauren Utech for assistance with recruitment and data collection, and Ishanti Gangopadhyay and Eileen Haebig for the working memory task development.
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MMD conceived of the study design and analysis approach, performed the statistical analyses, and drafted the manuscript. MK and SEW participated in the design and interpretation of the data and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study by the children’s parents or legal guardians.
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Davidson, M.M., Kaushanskaya, M. & Ellis Weismer, S. Reading Comprehension in Children With and Without ASD: The Role of Word Reading, Oral Language, and Working Memory. J Autism Dev Disord 48, 3524–3541 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3617-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3617-7