The persistence of rapid naming problems in children with reading disabilities: a nine-year follow-up.

In this study 9 children (6 boys, 3 girls) with reading disabilities and specific difficulties in rapid serial naming were followed from age 9 years to age 18 years. This group was taken from an earlier study sample of 82 third-grade children with learning disabilities. Tests of rapid serial naming, reading and spelling, general intelligence, articulation speed, and word fluency were administered to the subjects and to a matched control group (n = 10) in the initial study (at age 9) and in the present follow-up study (at age 18). The results showed that difficulties in both rapid naming and reading and spelling persisted into early adulthood in this subgroup. The development of naming speed is discussed in terms of a deficit model versus a developmental lag model of learning disability.