Rapid automatized naming and learning disabilities : does RAN have a specific connection to reading or not : a replication

Abstract

The aim of this study was to replicate the study of Waber, Wolff, Forbes, and Weiler (2000), in which the specificity of naming speed deficits (NSD) to reading disability (RD) was examined. 193 children (ages 8 to 11) referred to a child neuropsychological clinic for evaluation of learning disabilities were studied. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was used to determine how well rapid automatized naming (RAN) discriminated different diagnostic groups (learning impaired (LI) with and without RD) from control and from each other. The conclusion of Waber’s et al. study was that RAN was an excellent tool for detecting risk for learning disabilities in general but was not especially effective in discriminating LI children with and without RD from each other. The results of the present study were contradictory in that they referred to a more specific connection between RAN and RD than in Waber’s et al. study. The results of the present study also suggested that the connection between RAN and RD was stronger when RD was defined by reading speed rather than reading accuracy. The differences between studies are discussed in the light of language differences between English and Finnish, the languages varying greatly in the transparency of their orthographies.