Exploring the Relationships Between Executive Functions and Reading Intervention Responsiveness in Children with Reading Disability

Abstract

Background: Notwithstanding the emergence of rigorous, evidence-based interventions, some students with reading disability (RD) still fall behind in reading skill. Copious amounts of evidence support a link between children’s executive functions (EF) and learning, including acquisition of reading skill specifically. Nonetheless, the relationship between EF and reading intervention outcomes have seldom been studied. Objectives: The purpose was to understand the extent to which EF predict reading intervention outcomes for students with RD. Methods: In the present study, 115 children with RD in Grade 3 and 4 completed an intensive, evidence-based 70-hour reading intervention for one hour per day over the course of fourteen weeks. EF in both neuropsychological (e.g., D-KEFS) and behavioural (e.g., BRIEF) measurements were observed at pretest, categorized as inhibition, shifting, working memory, emotional control, and reasoning/metacognition. Reading skills in the form of word recognition, decoding, fluency, and passage comprehension were measured before and after intervention. Standard scores were computed for EF and reading measures. Reading gains were converted into reliable change scores using the reliable change index (RCI). Results: Approximately 27% of correlations between EF and pretest reading were statistically significant. Analyzing reading gains, most correlations with EF were non-significant. The few significant coefficients lost significance following Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Next, a composite EF deficit category was generated to differentiate participants who did or did not have below average EF across multiple measures, which 29 participants met and 86 did not. While t-tests revealed that the multi-deficit group had significantly lower gains in fluency than the group without multiple deficits (ps<.05), differences were not significant following Bonferroni correction. Finally, a chi-square analysis using the multi-deficit grouping and categorical reliable change in reading did not yield any significant results. Implications: While children’s EF relates to reading skill before the reading intervention, EF does not relate to gains in reading skill from the beginning to the end of intervention. This finding suggests that small group, structured interventions can mitigate learning barriers posed by executive dysfunction. However, the patterns of relationships between EF and reading fluency suggest that more research is needed.