Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Prenatal alcohol exposure-related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory

Few research studies have investigated the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on reading ability and/or on phonological processing. Most published studies have only included measures of single-word reading. This choice means those studies may lack ecological validity in that they might not h...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Meiring, Landi-Chantel
Other Authors: Thomas, Kevin G F
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2018
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613302438232064
access_status_str Open Access
author Meiring, Landi-Chantel
author2 Thomas, Kevin G F
author_browse Meiring, Landi-Chantel
Thomas, Kevin G F
author_facet Thomas, Kevin G F
Meiring, Landi-Chantel
author_sort Meiring, Landi-Chantel
collection Thesis
description Few research studies have investigated the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on reading ability and/or on phonological processing. Most published studies have only included measures of single-word reading. This choice means those studies may lack ecological validity in that they might not have adequately captured the real-life reading difficulties experienced by individuals with PAE. Furthermore, only a handful have considered the possible mediating roles of those higher-order cognitive functions (e.g., working memory (WM)) that are known to be affected by PAE. The current research employed an extensive battery of phonological processing measures, as well as a reading test that featured measures of reading accuracy, reading rate, and comprehension. A sample of 159 children between 9 and 14 years of age, with varying degrees of PAE, including heavily exposed children and non- or minimally-exposed controls, were tested. The design also considered the potential for a mediating role of WM on performances on these tests. Overall, results showed performance deficits in children with either fetal alcohol syndrome or partial fetal alcohol syndrome on reading comprehension and on four measures of phonological processing, after control for potential confounders. Additional analyses showed that performance within all five of these reading-related domains were at least partially mediated by WM performance. I discuss these results in the context of previous findings in this literature, and describe their implications for reading interventions in children and adolescents with PAE.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/27661
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:59.204Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2018
publishDateRange 2018
publishDateSort 2018
publisher Department of Psychology
publisherStr Department of Psychology
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/27661 Prenatal alcohol exposure-related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory Meiring, Landi-Chantel Thomas, Kevin G F Clinical Neuropsychology Few research studies have investigated the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) on reading ability and/or on phonological processing. Most published studies have only included measures of single-word reading. This choice means those studies may lack ecological validity in that they might not have adequately captured the real-life reading difficulties experienced by individuals with PAE. Furthermore, only a handful have considered the possible mediating roles of those higher-order cognitive functions (e.g., working memory (WM)) that are known to be affected by PAE. The current research employed an extensive battery of phonological processing measures, as well as a reading test that featured measures of reading accuracy, reading rate, and comprehension. A sample of 159 children between 9 and 14 years of age, with varying degrees of PAE, including heavily exposed children and non- or minimally-exposed controls, were tested. The design also considered the potential for a mediating role of WM on performances on these tests. Overall, results showed performance deficits in children with either fetal alcohol syndrome or partial fetal alcohol syndrome on reading comprehension and on four measures of phonological processing, after control for potential confounders. Additional analyses showed that performance within all five of these reading-related domains were at least partially mediated by WM performance. I discuss these results in the context of previous findings in this literature, and describe their implications for reading interventions in children and adolescents with PAE. 2018-03-15T07:39:33Z 2018-03-15T07:39:33Z 2017 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27661 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Clinical Neuropsychology
Meiring, Landi-Chantel
Prenatal alcohol exposure-related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Prenatal alcohol exposure-related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory
title_full Prenatal alcohol exposure-related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory
title_fullStr Prenatal alcohol exposure-related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory
title_full_unstemmed Prenatal alcohol exposure-related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory
title_short Prenatal alcohol exposure-related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory
title_sort prenatal alcohol exposure related reading and phonological processing deficits mediated by working memory
topic Clinical Neuropsychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27661
work_keys_str_mv AT meiringlandichantel prenatalalcoholexposurerelatedreadingandphonologicalprocessingdeficitsmediatedbyworkingmemory