Reading speed and rapid automatic naming in children with reading and writing disabilities

Abstract

Introduction: Reading is a complex process that involves a wide range of skills which interdepend and are intradependent on a variety of systems. Several researchers have verified a correlation between the performance in rapid automatic naming tasks and proficiency in reading. Nevertheless most part of the research was conducted in children with good performance at reading. Purpose: To verify the correlation between reading speed and rapid automatic naming in children with reading and writing disabilities. Methods: The study included nine children with reading and writing disabilities, one of them was of the female genre. Their ages ranged from nine to 14 years old and their schooling from fourth to eighth year of elementary school. The data were collected by means of the rapid automatic naming of letters, numbers and objects, and oral and silent reading. For statistical analysis the Wilcoxon test and Spearman correlation coefficient were used, with significance level of 5%. Results/Discussion: Most children showed a mean time of rapid automatic naming superior than the expected for their schooling. The speed of object naming was the slowest, whereas letters and numbers were faster. The Wilcoxon test indicated that the silent reading speed was bigger than the oral reading. Spearman Correlation Coefficient showed that oral reading correlates with rapid automatic naming whereas silent reading only correlates to rapid naming of letters. Although the sample size does not allow generalizations, the data suggest significant relationships between these tasks. Conclusion: The children with reading and writing disabilities of this study spent more time in rapid automatic naming and reading tasks. These data might be suggesting a correlation between these skills similar to those of readers with typical development.