Recent research has shown that most of individuals with Down syndrome develop some reading abilities (Cupples & Iacono, 2002). Less is known about how and to which extent are they able to understand what is read. Investigating the correlates of reading and text comprehension in Down syndrome is the main aim of this research area. Several cognitive and linguistic factors that are known to be involved in determining individual differences in text reading comprehension of typically developing children have been examined. Both lower level and higher level abilities were analyzed, some of which are: reading and decoding skills, receptive vocabulary, sentence comprehension, working memory, inference making, use of context for understanding. The final aim is twofold: a) to individuate the areas of weakness and strength among both cognitive and linguistic factors in order to outline a cognitive-linguistic profile which underlie text reading comprehension of individuals with Down syndrome; b) to analyse the extent to which this profile is similar or different from that observed in typical development and in other populations with cognitive and linguistic disorders (SLI, William syndrome).

Main results to date
Factors which affect marginally text reading comprehension of people with Down syndrome are Chronological Age, IQ, decoding skills, lexical and morphosyntactic comprehension and verbal short term memory. On the other hand, factors which explain unique significant portion of variance in text reading comprehension of individuals with Down syndrome are listening text comprehension, the efficiency of the verbal working memory which involves concurrent processing and storage demands and the ability to use context for understanding.
A profile which is emerging is extremely complex: some areas of weakness and strength among both cognitive and linguistic factors were identified. Furthermore, the pattern of relationships among linguistic-cognitive factors and text reading comprehension is in part similar and in part different from that observed in typically developing children having the same level of text reading comprehension as the individuals with Down syndrome.

Selected Publications
Roch, M., Florit, E., & Levorato, M.C. (2013). The role of linguistic context in deriving word meaning in individuals with Down syndrome. Journal of Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34, 605-615. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2012.09.014.
Roch, M., Florit, E., & Levorato, M.C. (2012). The advantage of reading over listening text comprehension in Down syndrome: what is the role of verbal memory? Journal of Research in Developmental Disabilities, 33, 890-899. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.11.002.
Roch M., Jarrold, C. (2012). A follow-up study on word and non-word reading skills in Down syndrome. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS, 45, 121-128.
Roch, M., Florit, E. & Levorato, M.C. (2011). A follow-up study on reading comprehension in Down syndrome: The role of reading skills and listening comprehension. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 46 (2), 231-242. I.F. 1.33.
Levorato, Roch & Florit (2011). The role of verbal memory in reading text comprehension of individuals with Down syndrome. American Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 2011, 16-2. DOI: 10.1352/1944-7558-116.2.000. I.F. 1.61.