Slideshow to accompany RALLI presentation on SLI and reading impairment: 2 - reading comprehension by Prof Maggie Snowling. The film can be found at http://youtu.be/6Vt41eM3-xg References can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/RALLICampaign/reading-comprehension-reference-list

1. Reading Comprehension
Impairment

2. The Simple View of Reading
• Understanding what you
read depends upon 1
Comprehension
decoding skill and Fluent
language comprehension Reading
• Both skills are necessary 0
Decoding
1
• Neither skill is sufficient
for reading
0
R=DXC

3. What is decoding skill?
• Decoding refers to the ability to translate
letters into sounds
• It is sometimes called ‘phonics’
• If you can’t decode the words on a page, then
you can’t understand what is written
• So, poor decoding is a bottleneck to reading
comprehension

4. What is Language Comprehension?
• Language Comprehension refers to the processes used to
understand spoken language
• If you can’t understand spoken language then no matter how
well you can decode, you won’t understand what you read
• Poor language comprehension is an obstacle to reading
comprehension
• As the next slide shows, Language Comprehension is a
complex process

5. What is Language Comprehension?
• Basic processes
– Vocabulary (knowledge of word meanings)
– Sentence comprehension
• Higher level processes
– Pragmatics (going beyond literal meaning to understand
what is relevant)
– Inferencing – integrating sentences and background
knowledge
• Difficulties in any of these areas will affect a
child’s ability to understand text

6. Additional Issues
• Text Comprehension also depends upon higher level skills such as:
– Metacognitive strategies
• Understanding Story Structure
• Comprehension monitoring
• Cognitive control (executive) processes
– Working memory
» Because meanings have to be integrated across different
parts of the text
» Attentional capacity – sustained attention to keep on task
– Inhibition / suppression
» To ensure selective attention to the main theme of the text
and to avoid distracting details

7. ‘Poor comprehender’
• The term ‘poor comprehender’ is used to refer
to a child who can decode well but who has
below average reading comprehension for
their age
• In extreme cases, the term ‘hyperlexia’ has
been used when decoding exceeds mental age
and comprehension is poor
– Profile often associated with autism

8. Problems of Reading
Comprehension
• More generally, children with language
learning impairments often have reading
comprehension problems
– Some are ‘poor comprehenders’
– Others have problems of decoding AND
comprehension; it can be said that they have
‘dyslexia with poor reading comprehension’.

9. Cognitive Profile
• Nation, Clarke, Marshall and Durand, 2004 JSLHR
– Reported that 35% of poor comprehenders meet
criteria for specific language impairment
– They showed poor performance on measures of:
• Vocabulary
• Recalling sentences
• Use of past-tense forms
• Understanding of Grammar (TROG)
– All of these skills are important for understanding
what we read.

10. What causes reading
comprehension impairments?
• Need evidence from:
– Longitudinal studies
• Tracking children’s progress over time
– Training studies

11. Developmental Picture
Nation, Cocksey, Taylor & Bishop, 2010
• Longitudinal study of 242 children seen at 5, 6, 7, 8 years
• Age 8, 15 children were poor comprehenders; could read
accurately, but had poor understanding of what they read
• These children were compared with other children matched
on word-level reading accuracy
• PCs showed poor reading comprehension at each time point
and few gains between 6 and 8 years
• Phonological skills (analysing/remembering speech sounds)
normal throughout – very different from classic dyslexia
• Impairments of language and listening comprehension
throughout indicative of possible causes

12. Developmental Profile
Catts, Adlof & Ellis Weismer (2006)
Word Identification Word Attack
GORT
Passage Comprehension
Comprehension

13. How can poor reading
comprehension be identified?
• Informally, by asking a child to read a passage
– Ask questions such as
• Who was in the story?
• What did they do?
• Why did they do that?
• What do you think happens next?
• Can you re-tell the story?
– If the child had read the story accurately but has
trouble with these questions, then they may have
a reading comprehension problem

14. Formally Assessing Reading
Comprehension
• An objective test should go beyond decoding
• First, check that the child can decode adequately
(using a test of single word reading)
• Second, use a test which taps both literal
understanding and the ability to make inferences
• AVOID a group administered test – these depend too
strongly on decoding skills
• A suite of tests for assessment of children at primary
and secondary levels is the YARC
http://www.yarcsupport.co.uk/

15. Helping Poor Comprehenders
• Evidence suggests that promoting oral
language comprehension can help reading
comprehension
– Boosting vocabulary is particularly important
• Poor comprehenders can also be helped by
working on inferencing and other
metacognitive skills, such as comprehension
monitoring
http://readingformeaning.co.uk/

16. Conclusions
• Children with weak oral language skills often have
problems with reading comprehension
• In addition to their language difficulties they may have
impairments in making inferences, meta-cognitive skills
(eg use of story structure; comprehension monitoring)
and working memory
• Impairments in vocabulary (semantic) deficits appear to
be critical – training vocabulary can improve reading
comprehension
• Reading comprehension difficulties should be viewed
within the wider context of children’s cognitive and
linguistic skills

17. For References and Additional Information
see
http://www.slideshare.net/RALLICampaign/readi
ng-comprehension-reference-list