Abstract: Although there have been studies indicating that children with reading difficulties perform worse on executive function tasks than typically developing children, it remains unclear whether there is a distinction in the structure of executive function between the two groups of children. The present study, for the first time, explored the structure of executive function in children with reading difficulties. To this end, children with reading difficulties in grades 3~6 (n = 117) and typically developing children (n = 117) were asked to complete seven experimental tasks tapping working memory updating, inhibition and shifting. First, the analysis of variance was conducted to test the differences in the performance on executive function tasks between children with reading difficulties and typically developing children. Second, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify five competing models among children with reading difficulties and typically developing children, respectively. The results showed that children with reading difficulties performed significantly worse than their typically developing counterparts on working memory updating, inhibition and shifting tasks. More importantly, the working memory updating, inhibition and shifting components were characterized as an undistinguished single-factor structure in children with reading difficulties. However, in the control group, working memory updating had differentiated into an independent component, while inhibition and shifting remained undissociated. In summary, the executive function deficits of children with reading difficulties are reflected not only at the task-performance level, but also at the structural level. Specifically, the structural differentiation of executive function in children with reading difficulties lags behind that of typically developing children.

Key words: children with reading difficulty, structure of executive function, working memory updating, inhibition, shifting