Improvement in non-linguistic executive functions following reading acceleration training in children with reading difficulties: An ERP study

The Reading Acceleration Program (RAP) increases reading speed and executive functioning in the linguistic domain in both children with reading disability and typical readers. We tested the effect of the RAP training on executive functions in non-linguistic domains in these two reading groups. Electrophysiological measures were taken while children completed a computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, before and after eight weeks of training. Both reading groups had task improvement following the RAP, indicating improvements in non-linguistic executive functioning that correlated with higher reading scores. Both groups also had increased accuracy and reaction times and decreased N100 and P300 components of event-related potentials (ERP) following the RAP. However, children with reading disability had greater decreases than typical readers in ERP components after training. Based on our results, we suggest that in addition to previous evidence of improvement in the linguistic domain (i.e., reading), the RAP training also affects basic and complex non-linguistic executive functions.