The Role of Syntax in Reading Disability

Abstract

This study examined the hypothesis that poor readers are deficient in syntactic comprehension and this contributes to their reading comprehension deficit. A total of 95 fourth graders who were good readers and 27 fourth graders who were poor readers were given a test of syntactic competence, as well as a vocabulary test and tests of auditory and reading comprehension. Scores on the auditory and reading comprehension tests were significantly correlated. The poor readers performed significantly poorer on the syntactic test, though the difference was small. Furthermore, when vocabulary level was controlled, there was no correlation between syntactic competence and either reading or aural comprehension for good or poor readers. The results provided no evidence for the syntactic hypothesis.