Reading Skill Profiles in School-Aged Italian-Speaking Children: A Latent Profile Analysis Investigation into the Interplay of Decoding, Comprehension and Attentional Control

Abstract

Our study examined the complex relationships among reading performance (decoding, comprehension) and language, visuo-spatial, and attentional control abilities in 115 Italian-speaking children. Latent profile analysis was used to identify distinct clusters of participants showcasing quantitative differences in decoding skills, including word, pseudo-word, text reading speed and accuracy. Then, we used this classification to investigate group differences in a variety of linguistic, working memory, and visuo-spatial tasks, as well as in reading comprehension skills, by means of multivariate and univariate tests. Our results reveal significant links between reading proficiency and several key factors: language skills, visuo-spatial abilities, and attentional control. These findings illuminate the nuanced impact of domain-general processes that govern a series of linguistic and visuo-perceptive subcomponents during reading tasks. Additionally, using dominance analysis, predictors of written text comprehension were identified. Our findings suggest that effective reading comprehension relies on a synergistic interplay of adequate reading speed, attentional control, working memory, and verbal fluency, accounting for 23% of the explained variance. This study highlights the multifaceted nature of reading proficiency and suggests that a broader perspective is necessary to fully understand reading development and support its improvement.

Keywords: attentional control; comprehension; decoding; reading; working memory.

Figure 1

The figure represents the mean Z-score estimated by the latent profile analysis (LPA) model. The six reading measures included as variables in the LPA are shown in the x axis; the three groups of children—as clustered by the LPA results—are represented by the lines in grayscale, namely the ‘poor readers’ (C1, N = 17) in dark grey, the ‘average readers’ (C2, N = 67) in medium grey, and the ‘good readers’ (C3, N = 31) in light grey. Vertical bars represent the standard errors.

Figure 2

Results of the univariate post hoc comparison performed in Domain A. The name of every specific test is indicated on the top of each plot, and the mean of each test score is presented on the Y axis (z scores in digit span forward and backward and number of correctly recalled elements in alpha span and updating of object). The significance levels of results are indicated as follows: ‘***’ means p = 0.001, ‘**’ means p = 0.01, ‘*’ means p = 0.05, and “ns” means non-significant. Poor readers are represented in dark grey, good readers in light grey, and average readers in medium–dark grey. Vertical bars represent standard errors.

Figure 3

Results of the univariate post hoc comparison performed in Domain B. The name of every specific test is indicated at the top of each plot, and the means of each test score—namely time (in seconds) in forward enumeration and color naming and number of correctly recalled elements in verbal fluency—are presented on the Y axis. The significance levels of results are indicated as follows: ‘**’ means p = 0.01, ‘*’ means p = 0.05, and “ns” means non-significant. Poor readers are represented in dark grey, good readers in light grey, and average readers in medium–dark grey. Vertical bars represent standard errors.

Figure 4

Results of the univariate post hoc comparison performed in Domain C. The name of every specific test is indicated on the top of each plot, and the mean of each test score—namely the number of elements correctly recalled in the forward and backward Corsi test, the mean of the total score in the Rey figure, and the mean of each of the TPV tests—are presented on the Y axis. The significance levels of the results are indicated as follows: ‘*’ means 0.01 < p < 0.05, and “ns” means non-significant (p > 0.05). Poor readers are represented in dark grey, good readers in light grey, and average readers in medium–dark grey. Vertical bars represent standard errors.