A longitudinal study of basic auditory processing and phonological skills in children with low IQ

Here we report a longitudinal follow-up of 103 children with low or typical IQ and good or poor word reading, first studied by Kuppen, Huss, Fosker, Mead, and Goswami (2011). Our current goal was to explore whether different basic auditory processing measures taken 14 months previously would predict development in word reading and phonology in this sample. We also assessed the stability over time for the associations among basic auditory processing, phonology, and reading reported by Kuppen et al. (2011) for low IQ readers. The auditory processing measures showed significant longitudinal relations with both reading and phonology, and associations between the measures were largely stable over time. The data suggest that basic auditory processing skills and phonological skills, rather than IQ, determine a child's progress in word reading, throwing light on the fundamental biological mechanisms that determine reading development. Children with low IQ and poor reading should thus be treated in the same way as children with an IQ-discrepancy defined reading disability, both in research studies and in terms of gaining access to targeted remediation.