The Relationship of Executive Function and Reading Comprehension Ability in School-Aged Children with and without Vocabulary Delay

학령기 어휘지연 아동과 일반아동의 집행기능과 읽기이해 비교 및 상관관계 연구

ObjectivesA child’s reading ability is influenced by Execution Functions (EFs) adjusting and managing linguistic knowledge as well as linguistic knowledge to the desired situation. The study examined the relationship of EFs (working memory, inhibition and shifting) and reading comprehension in children with and without Vocabulary Delay (VD).MethodsNineteen children 9-to-12-years-old with VD and eighteen children with Typically Developing (TD) participated in this study. Participants’ EFs were assessed by the Nonword Repetition task (NWR) for working memory, the Stop Signal Task (SST) for inhibition, the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) for shifting. Additionally, story reading comprehension ability in children was examined.ResultsVD group showed statistically significantly lower performance in NWR and reading tasks, respectively, compared to TD group. Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed that reading skills were positively and significantly correlated with working memory in both the groups.ConclusionThe NWR task which tap linguistic working memory reflects the acceptance and acquisition power of the combination of the various newly encountered phonemes and phonemes. This suggests that linguistic working memory may have an important effect on reading comprehension in the early stages of language and vocabulary acquisition.