Comorbidity in Reading Comprehension and Word-Problem Solving Difficulties: Exploring Shared Risk Factors and Their...

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Comorbidity of reading comprehension and word-problem solving difficulties presents unique challenges.
• Language minority (LM) learners may be disproportionately affected by these higher-order academic difficulties.
• Understanding risk factors is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify shared and unique risk factors for reading comprehension and word-problem solving difficulties.
• To investigate if LM learners are at increased risk for this comorbidity.
• To compare the profiles of at-risk LM and non-LM learners.

Main Methods:

• Evaluated at-risk and not-at-risk LM and non-LM students on academic, behavioral, cognitive, and language measures.
• Utilized foundational academic (word reading, calculation), behavioral (attention), cognitive (working memory, processing speed, nonverbal reasoning), and language (vocabulary, listening comprehension) assessments.
• Compared performance between language minority and non-language minority groups.

Main Results:

• Listening comprehension emerged as the sole shared risk factor for the comorbidity.
• LM learners were three times more likely to be identified as at-risk compared to non-LM learners.
• At-risk LM learners showed lower reading and listening comprehension but better behavioral attention than at-risk non-LM learners, with no cognitive differences.

Conclusions:

• Listening comprehension deficits are a critical risk factor for higher-order comorbidity in academic skills.
• Language minority learners are at a significantly higher risk for these combined difficulties.
• Intervention strategies should consider the specific language and academic profiles of at-risk LM learners.