Markers of At-Risk Literacy Development in Gifted Students

Abstract

This study explored the role that select components of executive functioning play in predicting reading outcomes in gifted students both directly and indirectly through a broader set of preliteracy skills. A comparison of mediation models indicated the relationships between working memory and inhibition to reading outcomes were fully, rather than partially, mediated by the preliteracy skills. The relationship between inhibition and reading outcomes was mediated through symbol imagery. Symbol imagery served as a mediator to all reading outcomes in this study (Letter Word, Oral Reading Fluency [ORF], and Northwest Evaluation Association Reading Fluency). A measurement of Working Memory in kindergarten was related to ORF in the second grade through speeded naming as a mediator. Neither early phonological processing nor early processing speed were related to the reading outcomes. Implications regarding the use of screening measures for identifying reading difficulties in primary age gifted students are discussed.