This research investigated specific processing strengths and weaknesses among three groups of readers who ranged in age from 6 through 10 years. The first-grade unsuccessful and the older unsuccessful readers had similar information-processing patterns, whereas collectively they differed significantly from the first-grade successful readers on short-term auditory/working memory and decoding/encoding. When separately compared to the controls, the age-matched high-risk group showed additional weakness in rapid automatized naming, and the reading-level-matched older disabled group showed additional weakness in phonological coding as well as visual sequential memory. Examination of second-level classifications using cluster analysis suggested the presence of three potential subtypes among the 50 poor readers. All were characterized by difficulty in what was interpreted as symbolic processing/memory (Subtype 1), which occurred in combination with visual processing deficiencies (Subtype 2) and with deficits in both visual processing and rapid automatized naming (Subtype 3).
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