Crossing barriers: Profiles of reading and comprehension skills in early and late bilinguals, poor comprehenders, reading impaired, and typically developing children

The aim of the present study was to analyze the performance of primary school children with different cognitive (specific learning disorders and poor comprehenders) or language (early and late bilinguals) profiles, considering reading and comprehension skills. In particular, it focused on a transparent orthography (Italian), complementing existing studies conducted mainly on children during their acquisition of an opaque orthography such as English, either as a first or second language. Five groups of children (N = 600) were involved in the study: children diagnosed with specific learning disorders, poor comprehenders, early bilinguals, late bilinguals, and a control group. They were tested for reading speed and accuracy of words, non-words, and text, and for reading and language comprehension when using the battery for Assessment of Reading and Comprehension in Developmental Age (Bonifacci, Tobia, Lami, & Snowling, 2014). Mean group differences and profiles within each group were analyzed. The comparison of different groups evidences how, within each dimension, there might be similar profiles across different groups (e.g., the same reading comprehension skills in early bilinguals, late bilinguals, and children with specific learning disorders) and highly discrepant skills within the same group (e.g., word and non-word reading in late bilinguals). These results provide some insight into the importance of assessing a complete functional profile aside from categorical classifications and reinforce the concept of dimensional models in developing trajectories of reading and comprehension skills (Snowling & Hulme, 2012).