Journal of Learning Disabilities最新文献

Executive function is critical for writing, yet its role in children with writing difficulties (WD) remains underexplored. This study examines differences in three executive-function subcomponents (working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) between children with and without WD, and their effects on spelling and sentence-writing abilities, mediated by visual-motor integration. The focus on Chinese children addresses a critical gap in the predominantly Western-alphabetic writing difficulties literature. A total of 244 Chinese primary school students (122 with WD, 122 without WD) were assessed. Children with WD demonstrated significantly lower accuracy and longer reaction times in executive function tasks as well as lower visual-motor integration scores, compared with their peers without WD. Structural equation modeling revealed that working memory and inhibitory control indirectly predicted writing performance through visual-motor integration, while cognitive flexibility had no significant effect. These findings suggest that executive function impairments, particularly in working memory and inhibitory control, may contribute to WD through their influence on visual-motor integration. The study highlights the importance of addressing both executive function and visual-motor integration in interventions targeting children with WD.

Both vocabulary skill and morphological complexity, or whether words can be broken down into root words and affixes, have a significant impact on word processing for adults with low literacy. We investigated the influence of word-level variables of morphological complexity and root word frequency, and the sentence-level variable of context strength, on word processing in adults with low literacy, who differed on levels of vocabulary depth skills, which was a participant-level variable. Our findings demonstrate that morphological complexity, root word frequency, and context strength are all related to how adult learners process words while reading, but their effects are dependent on participants' vocabulary depth. Participants with higher levels of vocabulary depth were able to more quickly process morphologically complex words and make better use of supportive sentence context as compared to individuals with lower levels of vocabulary depth. These findings suggest that both morphological complexity and vocabulary depth are important for word processing and reading comprehension in adults with low literacy.

In the context of increasing legislative emphasis on universal screening for reading problems, the accurate and equitable assessment of English learners (ELs) remains a pressing concern. This study examines how kindergarten and first-grade students' performance on early literacy measures in English is affected by their English proficiency. In this paper, we report on performance on measures of deletion, picture naming, sentence repetition, letter naming fluency, word and nonword reading, and rapid object naming across the school year. Drawing on a diverse and representative sample of 3,064 students across 31 U.S. Californian schools, we addressed two main research questions. First, we compared the performance of English-only students (EO) to ELs and to students identified as English-proficient (EP) but speaking another language at home. Findings indicated that ELs consistently scored lower than their EO and EP peers across all assessments. Second, we compared growth patterns. While most measures showed similar growth rates, a significant performance gap remained for ELs (p < .001). Notably, EP students displayed distinct performance patterns, outperforming EO students in most tasks, except for those demanding more vocabulary. Our findings emphasize the importance of tailored assessment approaches and consideration of English proficiency when interpreting ELs' performance.

This study aimed to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the mathematics-writing (MW) performance of students with mathematics difficulties (MDs) in China. We compared the performance of students with MD with their typically developing (TD) and high-performing (HP) peers. The analysis was based on a sample of 138 sixth-grade students. Our findings revealed (a) the trend in MW performance followed the hierarchy of mathematics ability levels (HP > TD > MD), whereas all groups displayed similar performance in general writing (HP = TD = MD), (b) although all three groups were able to organize their ideas in general writing, they had difficulty structuring their ideas effectively in MW, and (c) students with MD were less likely to incorporate technical mathematics vocabulary and symbols in their MW; they were also more likely to write incomplete sentences and make punctuation mistakes in their MW. Implications for educational strategies, teaching methodologies, and targeted support interventions are discussed.

Academic procrastination, increasingly prevalent among students, is posing challenges to academic success. In particular, students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in higher education (HE) often experience increased anxiety, along with lower self-efficacy, which may heighten their vulnerability to the negative effects of academic procrastination. This study was designed to investigate how academic procrastination relates to academic achievement (grade point average-GPA) and to examine whether this relationship is mediated by learning and performance self-efficacy and moderated by anxiety. A self-report questionnaire was administered to 1,061 undergraduate students (M_age = 21.25, SD = 3.83), 572 with SLD. Results indicated a negative correlation between procrastination and GPA. Procrastination was associated with lower self-efficacy and had a nonsignificant direct effect on GPA. However, self-efficacy positively affected GPA. In addition, SLD significantly moderated the relationship between anxiety and GPA. These findings underscore the importance of tailored interventions for students with SLD, as academic procrastination is negatively related to self-efficacy and may indirectly influence academic performance. Understanding these dynamics can inform strategies to enhance academic success among students with learning differences.

We examined how generalized and mathematics-specific language skills predicted the word-problem performance of students with mathematics difficulty. Participants were 325 third-grade students in the southwestern United States who performed at or below the 25th percentile on a word-problem measure. We assessed generalized language skills in word reading, passage comprehension, and vocabulary knowledge. In addition, we measured mathematics-specific vocabulary knowledge. To explore variation within the mathematics-difficulty population, we utilized unconditional quantile regression to determine how each of these skill sets predicted word-problem performance when controlling for computation and emergent bilingual status. Results revealed that mathematics-vocabulary knowledge significantly predicted word-problem performance at all but two quantiles (p < .001), with strongest predictive relations at the highest quantiles. Passage comprehension had an overall significant relation to word-problem performance (p < .05) that was also reflected in multiple quantiles. Neither word-reading accuracy nor generalized-vocabulary knowledge demonstrated a significant predictive relation to word-problem performance. Given the consistent relation between mathematics-vocabulary knowledge and word-problem performance across quantiles, researchers and practitioners should prioritize evidence-based mathematics-vocabulary instruction to support students' word-problem-solving skills.