ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews and expands a model of specific learning disabilities that focuses on such children’s working memory deficits (Swanson & Siegel, 2001a, 2001b). The model suggests that working memory (WM) deficits are fundamental problems of children with average intelligence but with reading disabilities (RD) and/or math disabilities (MD). Depending on the task, these deficits manifest themselves as a domain-specific storage constraint (i.e., the inefficient accessing and availability of phonological representations, e.g., numbers, phonemes) and/or a domain-general monitoring constraint (limitations in controlled attentional processing, i.e., updating, inhibition). The model has been expanded by recent studies suggesting that growth in the executive component of WM is significantly related to growth in reading and/or math. Although constraints in WM can be modified through dynamic testing and instruction (especially when embedded within academic materials), WM constraints in performance in children with RD and/or MD remain when compared with their average achieving counterparts.
