Investigates the extent to which differences in memory span for good and poor readers can be explained by differences in a long-term memory component to span as well as by differences in short-term memory processes. Discusses the nature of the interrelationships between memory span, reading and measures of phonological awareness. (SG)

Details an intervention study which investigated whether children with Down syndrome (DS) would benefit from an "analytic" approach to reading instruction, which encompassed explicit training in phonological awareness. Concludes that DS children benefited from this type of instruction, even though their auditory-verbal memory is poor.…

Investigates comprehension problems of children whose decoding skills are normal but whose reading comprehension skills are poor. Concludes that working memory processes are not a major causal factor in the creation of the comprehension difficulties identified in these poor comprehenders. (RS)

Tests the hypothesis that the use of the written mode increases the working memory load. Finds that participants recalled more words in the oral condition than in either the written mode or the "oral and categorization" conditions and that second graders performed better in the oral mode than in the "oral and drawing" condition. (SC)

Tests 78 children (8- to 12-year-olds) on cognitive, linguistic, academic, phonemic awareness, and memory ability. Explores the relationship between phonemic awareness, phonological memory, reading and spelling. Finds that phonemic awareness tasks are significantly correlated with reading decoding and spelling measures with slightly higher…

Examines the performance on verbal short-term memory tasks of specifically reading disabled children relative to reading-age matched and chronological-age matched control groups. Examines memory span for words, highly wordlike nonwords and less wordlike nonwords, speech rates for these items, and nonword repetition. Suggests that there is a…

Notes that poor readers are known to do consistently worse than their normal reading peers on tasks of phonological processing. Discusses an increasing body of evidence, which points to deficits in speech perception as a source of subtle, but ramifying effects in reading impaired children and adults. Explains poor readers' difficulties in…

Details language, memory, and reading information gathered for a five year follow up study of 30 children and adolescents with Down syndrome. Concludes that early learning skills may be significant predictors of mean length of utterance five years later. (PM)

Investigates whether a general or specific working memory (WM) system is related to writing and whether individual differences in reading and/or processing efficiency underlie correlations between WM and writing. Indicates that WM measures contribute variance to writing, and WM performance improves under gain conditions--this enhanced efficiency…

Examines contributions of vowel signs in reading Hebrew on memory and comprehension. Finds that vowel signs speeded up recognition memory of words in third graders, and improved recall of words printed in the context of mixed lists in sixth graders. Finds also that vowelization improved memory and comprehension of some prose texts. (RS)