Abstract
Students that have been diagnosed with specific reading disabilities or struggle to
read are more likely to struggle with all academic areas in the classroom setting. A
closer look into specific disorders and deficits that cause struggles in reading
comprehension are looked at to identify how students are affected not just in
reading, but throughout all academic areas when students cannot comprehend what
they read. Specifically identifying areas that increase the likelihood of struggles in
reading can help educators identify specific interventions that will increase the
likelihood of success in reading, even when a disorder is present.
Introduction
The Department of Education lists five major components of reading, those are
phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. All of
these components, together, make a successful reader. When a reader struggles
with one component or is missing a component, the student inevitably struggles to
read. Taking a closer look at major factors that affect a child’s ability to learn to
read gives insight to the specific interventions and strategies that would be most
beneficial to increasing success in reading for students with struggles and
disabilities. Swanson et. al (2013) discusses how attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD) and executive functioning can severely impair a student’s ability
to “learn to read” and then in turn affects a student’s ability to “read to learn”
which causes learning gaps in reading for student’s with these particular struggles
and disabilities. In particular, Swanson et. al (2013) looks at how these specific
struggles affects a student’s ability to comprehend what is read, which is turn can
affect a student’s ability to effectively communicate, retain information, and learn
new skills and information. An in-depth look at specific factors that affect a
student’s success in reading is warranted to fully understand the problem and
provide sufficient interventions to help promote student success in reading.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
According to the Department of Education, ADHD can be defined as a disability
that is characterized by a pattern of behavior that exhibits as an inability to focus,
hyperactivity, and impulsivity that impedes a child from functioning and
developing at the same rate as their peers. As educational demands have increased
for reading and writing, so has the diagnosis of ADHD and learning disabilities
(Swanson et. al, 2013). Even more specifically, reading disabilities and ADHD are
not only the two most common developmental disorders, these two specific
disorders are the two that most commonly co-occur together (Langer et. al, 2019).
When looking at children with ADHD there are not usually basic reading skills
such as decoding and phonemic awareness deficits, the main deficits were a lack of
comprehension and a lack of retention of the information read. Swanson et. al
(2013) related this to the fact that when children are tested that have ADHD and
reading disorders there is both a low processing speed and working memory score
for students with ADHD and reading disorders. More specifically, student’s
response times and ability to recall information severely affects a student’s ability
to read and comprehend the information provided (Langer et. al, 2019). This is
linked to research concluding that student’s with ADHD do not have brain
development that is similar to their peers which affects their ability to complete
complex reading tasks, which include comprehension (Swanson et. al, 2013).
Executive Function
Executive Functioning is a set of skills and some of these skills include the ability
to control one’s self, follow directions, complete a task even with disrupted, plan
ahead, self-advocate, and stay focused even when distractions are present.
Executive functioning in the context of reading comprehension can be thought of
as a high order task and if a student does not possess strong executive functioning
skills such as working memory and the ability to complete multi-step and complex
tasks then a student will inevitability struggle in reading (Swanson et. al, 2013).
Executive functioning deficits have long been linked to ADHD, but more recently
the connection between executive functioning deficits, ADHD, and learning
disabilities, specially reading have been linked (Fernandez, 2012). Reading
inherently calls for a student to use working memory which can be a struggle for
children with ADHD and children with reading disabilities, even more so when
both disorders are present. Studies are still unsure exactly which executive
functioning components affect students the most when learning to read, but studies
have shown that students with ADHD and reading disabilities struggled with the
specific executive functioning skills such as strategic planning, organizing, and
recall (Swanson et. al, 2013).
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is considered a higher thinking task. Reading
comprehension can be thought of as reading for meaning, which entails
maintaining attention and working memory which are both executive functioning
skills and both things children with ADHD lack (Swanson et. al, 2013). Therefore
it is not surprising that students with ADHD, reading disorders, and deficits in
executive functioning skills struggle to read and therefore struggle with reading
comprehension. There is some research that shows brain activity from both
neurotypical peers and children with these disorders and significant differences in
different parts of their brain when engaged in reading activities (Swanson et. al,
2013). Due to the correlation between executive functioning and reading
comprehension, it is suggested that using executive functioning screeners be used
to early identify students so early intervention can take place for likely reading
disorders (Swanson et. al, 2013).
Summary
Reading and reading comprehension are imperative for student’s success in a
variety of different areas such as functional communication, many other higher
order tasks, success in society, and the ability to succeed in society (Marzocchi et.
al, 2008). Understanding what causes deficits and failures in reading and reading
comprehension are key to being able to identify and develop interventions to
specifically target the deficits to increase the likelihood of students in reading and
reading comprehension. The link between executive functioning, ADHD, and
reading disorders is a key finding. Screenings for executive functioning should be
used to help identify earlier if students may struggle with reading and reading
comprehension (Swanson et. al, 2013). The earlier the intervention, the more likely
it is that students will have the opportunity to succeed and have a meaningful
learning experience.
References
Fernandez, G., Gonzalez, P., Fernandez, M., Rodriguez, C. (2012) Conductual
evaluation of executive functioning in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
and reading disabilities: utility of the brief scale. Psychology, University of
Oviedo, Oviedo, Spai. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0924-9338(12)74455-3
Langer N., Benjamin C., Becker BLC., Gaab N. (2019). Comorbidity of reading
disabilities and ADHD: Structural and functional brain characteristics. Hum
Brain Mapp, 40(9), 2677-2698.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6508987/
Marzocchi, G.M., Oosterlaan, J., Zuddas, A., Cavolina, P., Geurts, H., Redigolo,
D., Vio, C. and Sergeant, J.A. (2008), Contrasting deficits on executive
functions between ADHD and reading disabled children. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, 49: 543-552.Fhttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-
7610.2007.01859.x
Swanson, H. L., Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (Eds.). (2013).FHandbook of learning
disabilities. Guilford Publications.
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
