Reading and Listening Comprehension in Individuals With Down Syndrome and Word Reading–Matched Typically Developing Children

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the reading comprehension and listening comprehension performance of English-speaking children with Down syndrome (DS) compared with word reading–matched typically developing (TD) children. Method: Participants included 19 individuals with DS ( M age = 17;2 [years;months], range: 11;1–22;9) and 19 word reading–matched TD children ( M age = 7;2, range: 6;6–8;1). Participants completed three norm-referenced measures of reading comprehension and three norm-referenced measures of listening comprehension. Dependent variables were raw scores on each measure, with the exception of scaled scores on one reading comprehension measure. Results: Independent-samples t tests with Bonferroni-adjusted alpha levels of .008 revealed a significant between-groups difference for two of three reading comprehension measures. The mean raw scores were lower for the DS group than the TD group, with large effect sizes. Independent-samples t tests with Bonferroni-adjusted alpha levels of .008 revealed a significant between-groups difference for three of three listening comprehension measures. The mean raw scores on the three measures were lower for the DS group than the TD group, with large effect sizes. Conclusions: The DS group, despite being matched on word reading to the TD group, demonstrated reduced reading comprehension skills as compared with the TD group. Thus, as individuals with DS acquire word reading skills, it appears that they are unable to translate word reading success to achieve reading comprehension at the expected level (i.e., as indexed by typical readers). The between-groups differences in listening comprehension suggest that deficits in listening comprehension likely are a barrier to reading comprehension proficiency for children with DS. Listening comprehension may be a malleable factor that can be targeted to improve reading comprehension outcomes for individuals with DS.