Rapid Automatized Naming in Children Referred for Evaluation of Heterogeneous Learning Problems: How Specific Are Naming Speed Deficits to Reading Disability?

Because the Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) test reliably predicts reading skill, it is typically viewed as a diagnostic indicator of risk for reading disability (RD). Since most of the work on naming speed has been undertaken within the framework of reading research, however, the extent to which poo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child neuropsychology 2000-12, Vol.6 (4), p.251-261
Main Authors: Waber, Deborah P., Wolff, Peter H., Forbes, Peter W., Weiler, Michael D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Achievement
Child
Cognition - physiology
Dyslexia - diagnosis
Female
Humans
Language Tests
Learning Disorders - diagnosis
Male
Mathematics
Reaction Time - physiology
Reading
ROC Curve
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Because the Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) test reliably predicts reading skill, it is typically viewed as a diagnostic indicator of risk for reading disability (RD). Since most of the work on naming speed has been undertaken within the framework of reading research, however, the extent to which poor RAN is specifically associated with RD or with learning impairment (LI) in general is uncertain. We tested the hypothesis that slow naming speed is specific to RD. Participants were 188 children (ages 7 to 11) referred for evaluation of learning problems. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the utility of the RAN task for classifying children in diagnostic groups. RAN was an excellent tool for detecting risk for learning problems in general, but it was much less effective at distinguishing LI children with and without RD from each other.
ISSN:0929-7049
1744-4136
DOI:10.1076/chin.6.4.251.3137