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Screening for reading disability in university students with phonological processing and working memory tasks
Author(s) -
Broggi Michael,
Ready Rebecca E.,
Moore Dina L.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
dyslexia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.694
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-0909
pISSN - 1076-9242
DOI - 10.1002/dys.1625
Subject(s) - working memory , neurotypical , dyslexia , psychology , phonological awareness , reading disability , task (project management) , reading (process) , audiology , developmental psychology , population , cognitive psychology , cognition , psychiatry , medicine , literacy , linguistics , autism spectrum disorder , philosophy , pedagogy , management , environmental health , autism , economics
Many students in higher education have undiagnosed reading disabilities (RDs), but there are few measures to screen for RD in this population. The aim of this study was to determine the ability of tasks that are sensitive to RDs—such as measures of phonemic awareness and working memory—to differentiate university students previously diagnosed with RDs from controls. Participants were university students with an RD ( n = 26), a clinical control group diagnosed with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder ( n = 24), and neurotypical controls ( n = 44). Participants completed brief phonological processing and working memory tasks. The RD group scored significantly lower on all tasks than both control groups. The phonological processing tasks alone—without the working memory task—discriminated participants with RDs from controls with excellent sensitivity and specificity. A brief battery of phonemic tasks could be an effective screening instrument for persons with RDs on university campuses.