Screening for reading disability in university students with phonological processing and working memory tasks.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Many university students have undiagnosed reading disabilities (RDs).
• Existing screening measures for RDs are limited in higher education settings.
• Early identification of RDs is crucial for academic success.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of phonemic awareness and working memory tasks in identifying university students with RDs.
• To determine if specific tasks can differentiate students with RDs from control groups.
• To assess the diagnostic accuracy of phonological processing tasks for screening RDs in college students.

Main Methods:

• University students with diagnosed RDs, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and neurotypical controls participated.
• Participants completed brief phonological processing and working memory assessments.
• Statistical analyses were used to compare performance between groups and assess diagnostic accuracy.

Main Results:

• Students with RDs performed significantly lower on all tasks compared to both control groups.
• Phonological processing tasks alone demonstrated excellent sensitivity and specificity in discriminating students with RDs.
• Working memory tasks did not significantly improve diagnostic accuracy when combined with phonological tasks.

Conclusions:

• Brief phonemic awareness tasks are effective screening tools for reading disabilities in university students.
• A battery of phonemic tasks can serve as a valuable screening instrument on college campuses.
• This approach can facilitate timely support for students with undiagnosed reading disabilities.