This study examines the relationship between working memory and reading achievement in 57 Swedish primary-school children with special needs. First, it was examined whether children’s working memory could be enhanced by a cognitive training program, and how the training outcomes would relate to their reading development. Next, it was explored how differential aspects of working memory are related to children’s reading outcomes. The working memory training yielded effects, and these effects appeared beneficial to children’s reading comprehension development. Working memory measures were found to be related with children’s word reading and reading comprehension. The results show that working memory can be seen as a crucial factor in the reading development of literacy among children with special needs, and that interventions to improve working memory may help children becoming more proficient in reading comprehension.

Working Memory (WM) has a central role in learning. It is suggested to be malleable and is considerednecessary for several aspects of mathematical functioning. This study investigated whether work with aninteractive computerised working memory training programme at school could affect the mathematicalperformance of young children. Fifty-seven children with attention deficits participated in an interventionprogramme. The treatment group trained daily, for 30-40 min. at school for five weeks, while the control groupdid not get any extra training. Looking at the group as a whole, mathematical performance improved in thetreatment group compared with the control group directly following the five weeks of training (Time 2), but theresults of the second post-test (Time 3, approximately seven months later) were no longer significant. Since therewas only a small number of girls, the results were analysed for boys only. The boys had improved theirmathematical results in both post-tests. WM-measures improved at Time 2 and 3 relative to Time 1 (pre-test) forthe whole group, and for boys. Differences in training scores were related to differences in the non-verbalWM-measure Span board back.

The results indicate that boys aged 9 to 12 with special needs may benefit, over time, from WM training, asshown in the enhanced results in mathematics following WM training. However, as the intervention and controlgroups were not randomised, the results cannot be generalised; the results must be considered with caution.

Working memory (WM) can be conceptualised as a system that stores and processes information continuously for a few seconds, is suggested to be malleable and to affect learning. To find out how WM training affects learning in a long-term perspective, twenty-seven children (mean age = 14.1) with attention deficits participated in this study. The treatment group (n = 18; 3 female) had trained earlier with an interactive computerised working-memory training programme at school for five weeks, while the control group (n = 9; 3 female) had not received any extra training. Three years after the training, the children completed further tests in reading and mathematics. The treatment group had enhanced their reading comprehension results more than the control group had, compared to baseline results. This study suggests that working memory training in children with attention deficits does not appear to be conducive to persistent improvement in all measures, but rather in one: reading comprehension. One limitation is the design of the study; the groups were not randomised and the control group was inactive. Further, many conditions could not be controlled for, such as the different teaching approaches over the time period, SES, as well as the school and home environments which include the efforts and knowledge of teachers and parents.  The gains in reading comprehension after three years were observed for all the students in the treatment group. The previous advantage, that the students had gained after the five-weeks WM training, was thus maintained at the three-year follow-up. However, the results cannot be generalised due to the limitation in design and small sample size. It is hoped that future studies will target WM-training and basic skills.