Reading Comprehension Assessment through Retelling: Performance Profiles of Children with Dyslexia and Language-Based Learning Disability.

PURPOSE: To study reading comprehension performance profiles of children with dyslexia as well as language-based learning disability (LBLD) by means of retelling tasks. METHOD: One hundred and five children from 2nd to 5th grades of elementary school were gathered into six groups: Dyslexia group (D; n = 19), language-based learning disability group (LBLD; n = 16); their respective control groups paired according to different variables - age, gender, grade and school system (public or private; D-control and LBLD-control); and other control groups paired according to different reading accuracy (D-accuracy; LBLD-accuracy). All of the children read an expository text and orally retold the story as they understood it. The analysis quantified propositions (main ideas and details) and retold links. A retelling reference standard (3-0) was also established from the best to the worst performance. We compared both clinical groups (D and LBLD) with their respective control groups by means of Mann-Whitney tests. RESULTS: D showed the same total of propositions, links and reference standards as D-control, but performed better than D-accuracy in macro structural (total of links) and super structural (retelling reference standard) measures. RESULTS suggest that dyslexic children are able to use their linguistic competence and their own background knowledge to minimize the effects of their decoding deficit, especially at the highest text processing levels. LBLD performed worse than LBLD-control in all of the retelling measures and LBLD showed worse performance than LBLD-accuracy in the total retold links and retelling reference standard. Those results suggest that both decoding and linguistic difficulties affect reading comprehension. Moreover, the linguistic deficits presented by LBLD students do not allow these pupils to perform as competently in terms of text comprehension as the children with dyslexia do. Thus, failure in the macro and super-structural information processing of the expository text were evidenced. CONCLUSION: Each clinical group showed a different retelling profile. Such findings support the view that there are differences between these two clinical populations in the non-phonological dimensions of language.

Phonological working memory and reading in students with dyslexia.

PURPOSE: To investigate parameters related to fluency, reading comprehension and phonological processing (operational and short-term memory) and identify potential correlation between the variables in Dyslexia and in the absence of reading difficulties. METHOD: One hundred and fifteen students from the third to eighth grade of elementary school were grouped into a Control Group (CG) and Group with Dyslexia (GDys). Reading of words, pseudowords and text (decoding); listening and reading comprehension; phonological short-term and working memory (repetition of pseudowords and Digit Span) were evaluated. RESULTS: The comparison of the groups showed significant differences in decoding, phonological short-term memory (repetition of pseudowords) and answers to text-connecting questions (TC) on reading comprehension, with the worst performances identified for GDys. In this group there were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both on listening comprehension. No correlations were found between operational and short-term memory (Digit Span) and parameters of fluency and reading comprehension in dyslexia. For the sample without complaint, there were positive correlations between some parameters of reading fluency and repetition of pseudowords and also between answering literal questions in listening comprehension and repetition of digits on the direct and reverse order. There was no correlation with the parameters of reading comprehension. CONCLUSION: GDys and CG showed similar performance in listening comprehension and in understanding of explicit information and gap-filling inference on reading comprehension. Students of GDys showed worst performance in reading decoding, phonological short-term memory (pseudowords) and on inferences that depends on textual cohesion understanding in reading. There were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both in listening comprehension.