Developmental and Psychological Differences between Readers and Nonreaders

Abstract

This study compared 20 boys with reading disability aged 7-11 to 11-4 with 20 matched controls to examine how nonreaders differ from children who read at age-grade level or better. Significant differences were found between the groups with respect to historical, familial, developmental, and psychological factors. Controls had significantly higher WISC Verbal IQs; higher WISC Information, Vocabulary, Digit Span, Arithmetic, Similarities and Coding subtest scores; and lower mean Bender-Gestalt scores. The groups differed significantly on familial incidence of dyslexia, tested laterality, self-confidence, attentional factors, hyperactivity, birth order, age at crawling, and age at school entry. Significant correlations were found between tested attention and reading proficiency (r = +.67) and between percent righthand dominance and reading proficiency (r = +.48).