Towards text simplification for poor readers with intellectual disability: when do connectives enhance text cohesion?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Special Education

Background:

• Cohesive elements like connectives are theorized to aid inferential comprehension in struggling readers.
• Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) often exhibit challenges in reading comprehension.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether connectives and high-frequency words improve inferential comprehension in poor readers with ID.
• To examine the influence of connective type and familiarity on text comprehension in individuals with ID.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted: one comparing texts with/without connectives and high-frequency words, and another using a cloze task to assess connective effects.
• Participants included poor readers with ID, chronologically age-matched readers, and a reading level-matched control group of typically developing children.

Main Results:

• Neither connectives nor high-frequency words significantly improved inferential comprehension in readers with ID.
• Readers with ID showed less accurate connective selection than age-matched peers, with performance varying by connective type and familiarity.
• Familiarity facilitated comprehension for additive and contrastive connectives but hindered it for temporal and causal connectives.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest that simply adding connectives or high-frequency words may not be sufficient to enhance inferential reading comprehension for individuals with ID.
• Text adaptations for special education should consider the type and familiarity of connectives, as these factors interact with comprehension abilities in unique ways.