This article reviews the results of a meta-analysis of the experimental published literature that compares the academic, cognitive, and behavioral performance of adults with reading disabilities (RD) with average achieving adult readers. The meta-analysis shows that deficits independent of the classification measures emerged for adults with RD on…

A meta-analysis by Tran, Sanchez, Arellano, and Swanson (2011) of the published RTI literature found that the magnitude of effect size (ES) between responders and low responders at posttest was significantly moderated by the pretest ES and the type of dependent measure administered, whereas no significant moderating effects were found in the mixed…

This longitudinal study assessed (a) whether performance changes in working memory (WM) as a function of dynamic testing were related to growth in reading comprehension and (b) whether WM performance among subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD; children with RD only, children with both reading and arithmetic deficits, and low verbal…

This article synthesizes the literature comparing at-risk children designated as responders and low responders to interventions in reading. The central question addressed in this review is whether individual differences in reading-related skills at pretest predict responders at posttest across a variety of interventions and sets of criteria for…

Two experiments investigated the effects of strategy knowledge and strategy training on the working memory (WM) performance in children (ages 10-11) with and without reading disabilities (RD). Experiment 1 examined the relationship between strategy knowledge (stability of strategy choices) and WM performance as a function of initial, gain (cued),…

The purpose of the present study was to synthesize research that compares children with and without reading disabilities (RD) on measures of short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM). Across a broad age, reading, and IQ range, 578 effect sizes (ESs) were computed, yielding a mean ES across studies of -0.89 (SD = 1.03). A total of 257 ESs…

The authors investigated whether practice in reading fluency had a causal influence on the relationship between working memory (WM) and text comprehension for 155 students in Grades 2 and 4 who were poor or average readers. Dysfluent readers were randomly assigned to repeated reading or continuous reading practice conditions and compared with…

The purpose of this study was to determine the components of working memory (WM) that underlie less skilled readers' comprehension and word recognition difficulties. Performance of 3 less skilled reading subgroups--children with reading disabilities (RD) in both word recognition and comprehension; children with comprehension deficits only; and…

This article applies results of a previous meta-analysis of effective instructional practices with adolescents who have learning disabilities focusing on the factor, "Organization/Explicit," which contributed significant variance to effect size. This factor included the important instructional components of advance organization and explicit…

Adults (ages 17-23) with childhood developmental dyslexia (CD) completed measures of phonological processing, naming speed, working memory, general knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension. Subjects scored lower than chronological age-matched adults, but were similar to reading-level matched children on most processing measures. Results suggest…

A study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM), declarative strategy knowledge, and math achievement in 111 children with and without mathematical disabilities (MD). Results found verbal and visual-spatial WM, stable verbal strategy choices, and expert strategy choices related to visual-spatial processing all contributed…

A review of 913 studies involving students with learning disabilities found treatment outcomes were significantly affected by the following violations: teacher effects, establishing criterion levels of instructional performance, reliance on experimental measures, using different pretest and posttest measures, using a sample heterogeneous in age,…

The relationship between verbal and visual-spatial working memory and mathematical computation skill was examined in 98 children and adults with and without mathematical disabilities. A hierarchical regression analysis, when partialing for reading ability, age, and gender influences, showed mathematical computation was better predicted by verbal…

A study that compared 20 children with reading difficulties (RD) with severe executive processing deficits, 16 with RD with moderate executive processing ability, 20 with high ability, and 20 who had moderate sentence span scores, found a domain-general system may partially contribute to poor working memory in children with RD. (Contains…

This article summarizes single-subject design intervention studies that include students with learning disabilities. Effect sizes of 85 studies were analyzed across instructional domains, sample characteristics, intervention parameters, and methodological procedures. Findings are supportive of the pervasive influence of cognitive strategy and…