Neuropsychological profiles in Developmental Reading Disorders: Decoding and text comprehension

Reading difficulties can impact decoding or on comprehension. The two processes are dissociable but related. The present study aims to analyze the cognitive, linguistic and mnestic profiles of subjects with decoding and/or comprehension difficulties in order to understand what factors underlie these problems. From a sample of 783 subjects, 144 students from second primary to third secondary were selected, divided as follows: 71 with typical development, 15 with reading comprehension difficulties, 16 with decoding difficulties, and 42 with mixed difficulties. All groups were tested on language, phonological awareness, working memory, executive functions and a questionnaire on metacognition. The analyses show that the single-deficit groups have distinct and specific profiles. The mixed-deficit group shows additive effects. In line with what was expected, there is a strong implication of working memory in text comprehension.