Cognitive Deficits in Reading Disability and Attention Deficit Disorder

This paper presents data from three studies (a cross-sectional study of school-referred children, a test-retest study of subtypes of reading disabilities, and a study of a large, random sample of first graders) that focus on specifying the cognitive deficits associated with reading difficulties and separating them from those associated with attentional deficits. The cognitive deficits associated with difficulty in reading were consistent across samples, developmental levels, definitions, and subtypes of reading disabilities. With IQ, age, and sex controlled for, poor readers were significantly impaired on measures of naming and phonological awareness. The effects of attentional deficits were more variable and complex but were clearly separate from the reading disability effects. In the previous issue of this journal, two articles from the Austin Invitational Research Symposium were published. This symposium was made possible by a grant from the Donald D. Hammill Foundation to this journal. In this issue two additional articles follow from that symposium. See the December 1988 issue for an introduction to the series from Joseph K. Torgesen, coordinator and chair of the symposium.-JLW