Differential Co-Development of Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension for Students with and without Learning Disabilities

A paper was recently accepted in the Journal of Educational Psychology entitled, ‘Differential Co-Development of Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension for Students with and without Learning Disabilities.” This paper looked at the co-development of reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge for students followed from Kindergarten through 4th grade using latent change score modeling. We compared the co-development of vocabulary and reading comprehension in students with and without a school-identified learning disability. Children with a school-identified Learning Disability started much lower in reading comprehension and never caught up to their typically developing peers. There were bidirectional influences between vocabulary and reading comprehension only for students without a Learning Disability. There were no cross-lagged influences for children with a Learning Disability.

Quinn, J. M., Wagner, R. K., Petscher, Y., Roberts, G., Menzel, A. J., & Schatschneider, C. (in press). Differential co-development of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension for students with and without learning disabilities. Journal of Educational Psychology.