Joanisse, M. F. , Archibald, L. M. , Ansari, D. & Oram Cardy, J.
The University of Western Ontario - Brain and Mind Institute
We report the initial findings of a longitudinal study of reading, oral language and math difficulties in children ages 6-11. We assessed 271 children at two time points 12-14 months apart on word and nonword reading (TOWRE), phonological awareness (CTOPP elision), mathematics fluency (Woodcock-Johnson III), oral language (CELF-IV composite), nonverbal IQ (WASI), and working memory (AWMA). We next identified learning profiles by classifying children into quartiles on the reading, language and math measures. As reported previously, 70% of children with a learning difficulty showed comorbid difficulty in at least one other domain. Longitudinally, the top and bottom quartiles on each task were the most stable over time, with reading and language showing generally more stability than mathematics. Furthermore, we observed that specific weaknesses in oral language and mathematics tended to persist over time, whereas children with specific reading difficulties at time 1 showed a tendency toward increased prevalence of co-occurring math weakness at time 2. In addition, children who showed persistent deficits over time generally had weaker working memory and cognitive profiles, suggesting cognitive factors influence the persistence of these learning deficits. The results are discussed with respect to theories of domain-specificity in language, reading and math impairment.