Reading skills in children with mild to borderline intellectual disability: a cross-sectional study on second to eighth graders

What students with intellectual disabilities know about writing planning

Background

Method

Results

Conclusion

Practicing Keywords to Increase Reading Performance of Students With Intellectual Disability

The purpose of the current study was to determine the extent to which practicing keywords increased word recognition, reading fluency and comprehension for students with intellectual disability (ID). The dependent measures included word recognition (i.e., the percentage of previously unknown keywords read correctly in the given text), reading fluency (i.e., words read correctly in 1 minute), and reading comprehension (i.e., number of questions answered correctly out of five). The participants were three fourth-grade students who were identified as having ID in early childhood with IQ scores of 45, 62, and 78. Words from reading passages were practiced with Incremental Rehearsal (IR) using a multielement, single-case design. Practicing keywords led to higher subsequent in-text recognition and generalization for a high percentage of the taught words. Additionally, there was clear experimental control for increases in reading fluency. There was not a strong effect on reading comprehension. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Development of Cognitive Functions and Academic Skills in 9- to 10-year-old Children with Borderline Intellectual Functioning

This longitudinal study examined whether the cognitive and academic development of children (M_age = 10.52 years) with Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF), is characterized by developmental delay or atypical development. Cognitive tasks, arithmetic tasks, and reading tasks were administrated during three succeeding years to the BIF group and a Chronological Age-Matched Comparison (CAMC) group. The BIF children displayed weaknesses in relation to all tasks, and slower developmental rates on four arithmetic tasks and word reading. The results provide evidence in support of the developmental delay model as the BIF children overall displayed similar developmental growth and trends as the CAMC group.

Thalamus is a common locus of reading, arithmetic, and IQ: Analysis of local intrinsic functional properties

Neuroimaging studies of basic achievement skills - reading and arithmetic - often control for the effect of IQ to identify unique neural correlates of each skill. This may underestimate possible effects of common factors between achievement and IQ measures on neuroimaging results. Here, we simultaneously examined achievement (reading and arithmetic) and IQ measures in young adults, aiming to identify MRI correlates of their common factors. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data were analyzed using two metrics assessing local intrinsic functional properties; regional homogeneity (ReHo) and fractional amplitude low frequency fluctuation (fALFF), measuring local intrinsic functional connectivity and intrinsic functional activity, respectively. ReHo highlighted the thalamus/pulvinar (a subcortical region implied for selective attention) as a common locus for both achievement skills and IQ. More specifically, the higher the ReHo values, the lower the achievement and IQ scores. For fALFF, the left superior parietal lobule, part of the dorsal attention network, was positively associated with reading and IQ. Collectively, our results highlight attention-related regions, particularly the thalamus/pulvinar as a key region related to individual differences in performance on all the three measures. ReHo in the thalamus/pulvinar may serve as a tool to examine brain mechanisms underlying a comorbidity of reading and arithmetic difficulties, which could co-occur with weakness in general intellectual abilities.