Article 15th (Verbal Working Memory and Reading Abilities Among Student with Visual Impairment)

This study examines the relationship between working memory (WM) and reading ability among students with visual impairment (VI). Learning to read consists of achieving two stages - namely decoding and understanding the text. Although decoding and reading comprehension are related skills, research data supports the gradual dissociation of the latter from the first and suggests that other factors, such as working memory (WM), affect understanding more than just decoding skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between verbal WM and reading ability among students with VI. The following research hypothesis was established in this study: 

(1) WM verbal associated with decoding in children with VI and blindness, 

(2) WM verbal associated with fluent reading, 

(3) WM verbal associated with reading comprehension.

In the current case study, the majority of participants (74.4%) were elementary school children with VI. The attendance rate of participants is equivalent to the decoding between class one and third class (58.7%). As a result, the participants actually were in their first year of teaching in the field of decoding. In the first school years as mentioned earlier, a link is being shown between decoding and reading comprehension. Because decoding is essential for reading comprehension in the school years and reading comprehension is influenced by WM, it is clear that decoding will also have a relationship with the verbal WM. Furthermore, reading comprehension is influenced by secondary decoding elements such as phonological awareness. Verbal WM influences reading comprehension and the latter is influenced by the decoding and key elements of phonological awareness and the latter is also related to the verbal WM.

The findings of this study are in line with similar studies in children without VI and the results of current studies are very important given the lack of research, which tests the role of verbal WM in reading by students with VI. The relationship between reading comprehension and verbal WM in children with strong and positive VI shows the important role of WM in reading students' understanding with VI.

Annisa Masnasuri Kesai

16611069

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