Reading Difficulties in Low-SES Children: A Study of Cognitive Profiles

DIUK, BEATRIZ; BARREYRO, JUAN PABLO; FERRONI, MARINA; MENA, MILAGROS; SERRANO, FRANCISCA

Journal of Cognition and Development

Routledge

Lugar: Toronto; Año: 2019 vol. 20 p. 75 - 95

1524-8372

Reading difficulties of children growing up in poverty contexts have not received as much attention as those of children from middle-income families. This paper analyzes the reading-related cognitive profiles of Argentine, Spanish-speaking, low-SES children with reading difficulties (RD), by comparing them with chronological age- (CA) and reading age- (RA) matched children from the same socioeconomic background. Ninety children (30 in each group) participated in the study. Testing included reading, spelling, verbal memory, phonological sensitivity, rapid naming, letter knowledge, and vocabulary measures. Results showed that children from the RD group performed significantly worse than their same-age peers. These findings would suggest the presence of a cognitive vulnerability in children with reading difficulties. Interestingly, when compared with children from the RA-matched control group, children in the RD group only obtained significantly lower scores in phoneme segmentation and letter-sound recognition tasks. Cognitive profiles of low-income children growing in poverty differ from cognitive profiles described for middle-income children with dyslexia. Given that teaching of letter sounds is not included in Argentina?s mandatory curriculum, it is possible that letter-sound teaching constitutes an environmental factor that interacts with other risk factors to produce reading difficulties in poverty contexts.Revista Indexada en: Adis International Ltd., Reactions Weekly (Online), EBSCOhost, Academic Search Alumni Edition, Academic Search Complete, Academic Search Elite, Academic Search Premier, Academic Search R&D, Academic Search Ultimate, Advanced Placement Source, Biotechnology Source, Current Abstracts, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), FRANCIS, PsycINFO, STM Source, TOC Premier (Table of Contents), Elsevier BV, EMBASE, Scopus, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), National Library of Medicine, PubMed, OCLC, ArticleFirst, Electronic Collections Online, PsycFIRST, Ovid, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), PsycINFO, ProQuest, Education Collection, Education Database, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), FRANCIS, Health Research Premium Collection, Hospital Premium Collection, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (Online), Professional ProQuest Central, ProQuest 5000, ProQuest 5000 International, ProQuest Central, Psychology Database, Psychology Module, PsycINFO, Public Health Database, Research Library, Social Science Database, Social Science Premium Collection, Taylor & Francis, Educational Research Abstracts Online, Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts (Online), Thomson Reuters, Current Contents, Social Sciences Citation Index, Web of Science, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Linguistics Abstracts (Online)