Reading ability is one of the learning abilities that is important in acquiring and utilizing new information. Underachievement in reading during elementary school years leads to low understanding of problems and, consequently, low learning performanc...
Reading ability is one of the learning abilities that is important in acquiring and utilizing new information. Underachievement in reading during elementary school years leads to low understanding of problems and, consequently, low learning performance and learning disabilities and has a considerable effect on growth afterwards. One of factors critical not only to reading but also to learning abilities is attention. It is reported that in ADHD children, low attentiveness and impulsiveness out of ADHD itself are closely related with reading disability.
Thus, this study purposed to compare reading underachievers, ADHD children, and normal readers in terms of attentiveness and cognitive-linguistic abilities, to identify variables affecting their reading ability, and to provide basic materials useful for the early diagnosis of reading disability and educational intervention.
The results of this study are as follows. First, ADHD children’s performance was lower than normal readers’ in the tasks of word reading, vocabulary, elision of syllable, elision of the first sound, short-term memory, visual task, spelling recognition, and morpheme. No difference was observed between the two groups in non-word reading, elision of the final sound, naming speed, and attention. In contrast, reading underachievers’ performance was lower than normal readers’ in most of the cognitive-linguistic tasks, but no significant difference was observed between the two groups in visual discrimination, visuospatial ability, and attention. When reading underachievers’ performance was compared with ADHD children’s, ADHD children showed higher performance than underachievers in word reading, non-word reading, elision of syllable, and morpheme, but the other tasks showed no difference between the two groups.
Second, according to the results of analyzing the correlation between cognitive variables and reading-related tasks, in ADHD children, non-word reading were significantly correlated with naming speed and left-right inversion, and writing with phonemic recognition. In reading underachievers, non-word reading was related to morpheme and writing was related to visual task. In normal readers, the variable in a significant correlation with Hangeul reading was phonemic recognition and those correlated with non-word reading were phonemic recognition and visual task. Writing was related with phonemic recognition.
Third, according to the results of regression analysis on cognitive variables affecting the performance of reading-related tasks, in ADHD children, left-right inversion had predictability of non-word reading and phonemic recognition had significant explanatory power of dictation. In reading underachievers, morpheme had predictability of non-word reading and visual task predicted dictation. In normal readers, phonemic recognition was found to be a predictor of Hangeul reading, non-word reading, and dictation.
The results of this study show that variables affecting reading are slightly different among the groups. In particular, this study is considered meaningful in that it compared between ADHD children and reading underachievers.