Correlação da memória de trabalho com as habilidades de leitura oral e silenciosa em diferentes transtornos do neurodesenvolvimento

Abstract

Identifying and understanding the impairments present in learning disorders is essential for planning a specific intervention. Given the number of tasks that working memory presents, it is worth supposing that losses in working memory influence school difficulties. The aim of this work is to analyze the relationship of working memory with reading skills in four clinical groups: Developmental Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Borderline Intellectual Functioning and Specifc Language Impairment. The means of the groups in working memory, speed of oral and silent reading and comprehension of oral and silent reading were compared, seeking to understand the role of working memory for reading skills in these diagnoses. As results, the best differentiating groups was the speed of oral reading and comprehension of oral reading. The group with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD presented better performance and the group with Borderline Intellectual Functioning presented lower results. There was a significant correlation between working memory, speed and comprehension of oral and silent reading, regardless of the diagnosis. These results show the importance of evaluating working memory to trace the profile of each individual and how it influences on reading skills, aiming to enable an adequate intervention and production of effective academic supports.