Reading performance in pupils with Specific Language Impairment. Educational Implications on different subtypes

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. All explanatory models of reading learning agree on the participation of two major processes: decoding and comprehension. Children who often have problems in decoding (dyslexia) or understanding (poor comprehenders), but there is a group of children which present a problem of mixed reading, i.e., they are affected by both processes. These students are diagnosed with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This research has deepened in the study of different reading processes affecting a sample of students classified in two subtypes of SLI: the Receptive - Expressive SLI (SLI ER) and Expressive SLI (SLI E). METHOD. A battery of tests were used to measure linguistic, neuropsychological and reading skills to a total of 58 children (29 typically developing and 29SLI, 16 SLI ER and 13 SLI E) between 5.6 and 11.2 years old. RESULTS. Both SLI subtypes have similar performance in the lexical- phonological factor, but clearly differ in the semantic-grammatical one. This would lead us to conclude that children with SLI have a mixed reading disorder affecting both the decoding process and reading comprehension. However, children with SLI ER have a worse performance in the semantic -grammatical factor and they differentiate significantly from the SLI E subtype. DISCUSSION. The educational intervention with these students should keep in mind that you will need to automate the lexicalphonological processes with the two subtypes of SLI, but a more intensive program of reading comprehension must be established with the SLI ER subtype.