Open AccessDecoding Abilities in Adolescents with Intellectual Disabilities: The Contribution of Cognition, Language, and Home Literacy
Author(s) -
Karin Nilsson,
Henrik Danielsson,
Åsa Elwér,
David Messer,
Lucy A. Henry,
Stefan Samuelsson
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of cognition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2514-4820
DOI - 10.5334/joc.191
Subject(s) - reading (process) , psychology , literacy , developmental psychology , cognition , decoding methods , cognitive psychology , phonological awareness , intellectual disability , psychological intervention , rapid automatized naming , phonemic awareness , linguistics , computer science , telecommunications , pedagogy , philosophy , neuroscience , psychiatry
Decoding abilities in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are substantially lower than for typical readers. The underlying mechanisms of their poor reading remain uncertain. The aim of this study was to investigate the concurrent predictors of decoding ability in 136 adolescents with non-specific ID, and to evaluate the results in relation to previous findings on typical readers. The study included a broad range of cognitive and language measures as predictors of decoding ability. A LASSO regression analysis identified phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) as the most important predictors. The predictors explained 57.73% of the variance in decoding abilities. These variables are similar to the ones found in earlier research on typically developing children, hence supporting our hypothesis of a delayed rather than a different reading profile. These results lend some support to the use of interventions and reading instructions, originally developed for typically developing children, for children and adolescents with non-specific ID.