COGNITIVE-ABILITIES IN READING-DISABLED CHILDREN - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

Longitudinal psychometric test data collected at 2 different ages (9.4 .+-. 1.3 and 14.8 .+-. 1.2 yr) were used to compare the developmental rates of 69 pairs of reading-disabled and matched control children. Results of a 2-factor (GROUP .times. TIME), mixed-model, multivariate analysis of variance indicated that reading-disabled children manifested deficits on measures of academic achievement, symbolic processing speed and spatial reasoning abilities at both ages. Although both reading-disabled and control children improved significantly between the 2 testing sessions, the lack of a significant GROUP .times. TIME interaction, on measures of academic achievement and spatial reasoning abilities indicated that the rate of development was similar for the 2 groups. For measures of symbolic processing speed differences between reading-disabled and control children were somewhat greater at the later age.