Reading in children and adolescents after early onset hydrocephalus and in normally developing age peers: phonological analysis, word recognition, word comprehension, and passage comprehension skill

Abstract

Compared 50 children with early hydrocephalus, tested between the ages of 6 and 15 years, and their 51 age- and education-matched controls on 4 reading skills. Hydrocephalus and control groups did not differ in the ability to recognize words or to use phonological skills to decode "pretend" words, although the hydrocephalus group was poorer than the controls in understanding real words and texts. When individual differences in word recognition ability were controlled, the hydrocephalus group remained poorer than the controls in understanding single words and passages of text. Word recognition and passage comprehension skills were more highly correlated in the control group than in the hydrocephalus group. The passage comprehension scores of the hydrocephalus group lagged behind their word recognition scores, even for those children of normal or better IQ. Although the factors related to proficient and deficient reading comprehension for children with early hydrocephalus require further study, the present data show that adequate levels of word recognition, at least as measured by accuracy, in these children coexist with a significant deficit in reading comprehension.