Despite decades of prior research, the mechanisms of skilled reading development remain elusive. Numerous studies have identified word recognition and oral language ability as key components to explain later reading comprehension performance. However, these components alone do not fully explain differences in reading achievement. There is ongoing…

Executive functions are one of the most prominent research topics investigated in explaining reading skills, which involve complex cognitive processes. In this study, a bibliometric analysis of articles on executive functions and reading in the field of education was conducted. In the study, 42 articles published between 2012 and 2024 were…

This meta-analysis aimed to systematically investigate the cognitive and linguistic correlates of both word decoding and reading comprehension among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) across orthographies. Based on data from 26 studies of 1.92- to 18.92-year-old children with ASD, we found that (1) intelligence, theory of mind, and…

Reading comprehension difficulties exhibited by children with autism are related to executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) deficits. However, the potential heterogeneity of ToM, EF, and reading comprehension abilities, and their interrelationships, among Chinese children with autism remains unclear. Using comprehensive sets of ToM and EF…

Reading comprehension is an extremely important skill that students need to be effective learners; however, a significant percentage of students are reading below grade level on a nationwide scale (National Assessment for Educational Progress, 2019; National Institute of Health as cited by Learning Disabilities Association of America, 2022). In…

Phonemic awareness (PA) refers to the ability to reflect on and manipulate phonemes. The development of the ability to become aware of and conduct mental operations on phonemes might involve higher-order cognitive processes, such as executive functions (EFs), which help modulate attention to goal-relevant information and support behavioral…

Objective: Executive Function (EF) is thought to be a core component of various cognitive processes. Two common ways to measure EF are through report-based measures that assess EF by collecting informant(s) reports on children's behaviors, and performance-based measures that assess EF through the completion of a task related to EF dimension(s).…

Learning to read is an important milestone in children's development. Factors in the home environment is been linked to the behavioral and neural correlates of reading, but further work is needed to unpack the underlying mechanisms. The home literacy environment (HLE) plays a role in children's reading and language development, while parental…

Educational interventions are frequently designed to occur during early childhood, based on the idea that earlier intervention will have greater long-term academic benefits. However, surprisingly little is known about when cognitive and academic skills are most plastic, or malleable, during development. One way to study plasticity is to ask…

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the strongest predictors of student reading outcomes, and these disparities have persisted for decades. Relatedly, two underlying skills that are required for successful reading--oral language and executive function (EF)--are also the two neurocognitive domains most affected by SES. In this review, we…

The causes underlying comorbid learning difficulties in reading (RD) and math (MD) are still a matter of debate. Based on current research, two models for the relation of the cognitive profile of isolated and combined learning difficulties (RDMD) are discussed. Regarding the "multi-deficit model", the profile of RDMD is characterized by…

Two meta-analyses assessed whether the relations between reading and mathematics outcomes could be explained through overlapping skills (e.g., systems for word and fact retrieval) or domain-general influences (e.g., top-down attentional control). The first (378 studies, 1,282,796 participants) included weighted random-effects meta-regression…

Background: Evidence shows that children's household contexts of economic pressure and home chaos may better represent children's daily home experiences than family socioeconomic status. Still, limited research has examined the impacts of household contexts on child developmental outcomes and their underlying mechanisms. Objective: This study…

This study examined whether domain-general cognitive weaknesses in processing speed (PS) or executive functioning (EF) moderate the relation between word reading scores and anxiety such that lower word reading scores in combination with lower cognitive scores are associated with higher anxiety symptoms. The sample consisted of 755 youth ages 8-16…

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a multi-component homograph processing intervention complemented by Executive Function (EF) skills on the performance of struggling readers. The researchers focused on measuring improvements in literacy, metalinguistic abilities, cognitive/EF skills acquired during the intervention, and…