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Wat EK, Jangraw DC, Finn ES, Bandettini PA, Preston JL, Landi N, Hoeft F, Frost SJ, Lau A, Chen G, Pugh KR, Molfese PJ. Will you read how I will read? Naturalistic fMRI predictors of emergent reading. Neuropsychologia 2024; 193:108763. [PMID: 38141965 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2023] [Revised: 10/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/25/2023]
Abstract
Despite reading being an essential and almost universal skill in the developed world, reading proficiency varies substantially from person to person. To study why, the fMRI field is beginning to turn from single-word or nonword reading tasks to naturalistic stimuli like connected text and listening to stories. To study reading development in children just beginning to read, listening to stories is an appropriate paradigm because speech perception and phonological processing are important for, and are predictors of, reading proficiency. Our study examined the relationship between behavioral reading-related skills and the neural response to listening to stories in the fMRI environment. Functional MRI were gathered in a 3T TIM-Trio scanner. During the fMRI scan, children aged approximately 7 years listened to professionally narrated common short stories and answered comprehension questions following the narration. Analyses of the data used inter-subject correlation (ISC), and representational similarity analysis (RSA). Our primary finding is that ISC reveals areas of increased synchrony in both high- and low-performing emergent readers previously implicated in reading ability/disability. Of particular interest are that several previously identified brain regions (medial temporal gyrus (MTG), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), inferior temporal gyrus (ITG)) were found to "synchronize" across higher reading ability participants, while lower reading ability participants had idiosyncratic activation patterns in these regions. Additionally, two regions (superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and another portion of ITG) were recruited by all participants, but their specific timecourse of activation depended on reading performance. These analyses support the idea that different brain regions involved in reading follow different developmental trajectories that correlate with reading proficiency on a spectrum rather than the usual dichotomy of poor readers versus strong readers.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - David C Jangraw
- Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Emily S Finn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Peter A Bandettini
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, NIMH, Bethesda, MD, USA; Center for Multimodal Neuroimaging, NIMH, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Jonathan L Preston
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA; Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
| | - Nicole Landi
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, USA
| | - Fumiko Hoeft
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, USA
| | | | - Airey Lau
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Gang Chen
- Statistical Computing Core, NIMH, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Kenneth R Pugh
- Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, USA; Department of Linguistics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Peter J Molfese
- Center for Multimodal Neuroimaging, NIMH, Bethesda, MD, USA; Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA.
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Di Pietro SV, Karipidis II, Pleisch G, Brem S. Neurodevelopmental trajectories of letter and speech sound processing from preschool to the end of elementary school. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 61:101255. [PMID: 37196374 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101255] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2022] [Revised: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 05/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Learning to read alphabetic languages starts with learning letter-speech-sound associations. How this process changes brain function during development is still largely unknown. We followed 102 children with varying reading skills in a mixed-longitudinal/cross-sectional design from the prereading stage to the end of elementary school over five time points (n = 46 with two and more time points, of which n = 16 fully-longitudinal) to investigate the neural trajectories of letter and speech sound processing using fMRI. Children were presented with letters and speech sounds visually, auditorily, and audiovisually in kindergarten (6.7yo), at the middle (7.3yo) and end of first grade (7.6yo), and in second (8.4yo) and fifth grades (11.5yo). Activation of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex for visual and audiovisual processing followed a complex trajectory, with two peaks in first and fifth grades. The superior temporal gyrus (STG) showed an inverted U-shaped trajectory for audiovisual letter processing, a development that in poor readers was attenuated in middle STG and absent in posterior STG. Finally, the trajectories for letter-speech-sound integration were modulated by reading skills and showed differing directionality in the congruency effect depending on the time point. This unprecedented study captures the development of letter processing across elementary school and its neural trajectories in children with varying reading skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- S V Di Pietro
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland; URPP Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning (AdaBD), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - I I Karipidis
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland
| | - G Pleisch
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland
| | - S Brem
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland; URPP Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning (AdaBD), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
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Wei Y, Hancock R, Mozeiko J, Large EW. The relationship between entrainment dynamics and reading fluency assessed by sensorimotor perturbation. Exp Brain Res 2022; 240:1775-1790. [PMID: 35507069 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-022-06369-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
A consistent relationship has been found between rhythmic processing and reading skills. Impairment of the ability to entrain movements to an auditory rhythm in clinical populations with language-related deficits, such as children with developmental dyslexia, has been found in both behavioral and neural studies. In this study, we explored the relationship between rhythmic entrainment, behavioral synchronization, reading fluency, and reading comprehension in neurotypical English- and Mandarin-speaking adults. First, we examined entrainment stability by asking participants to coordinate taps with an auditory metronome in which unpredictable perturbations were introduced to disrupt entrainment. Next, we assessed behavioral synchronization by asking participants to coordinate taps with the syllables they produced while reading sentences as naturally as possible (tap to syllable task). Finally, we measured reading fluency and reading comprehension for native English and native Mandarin speakers. Stability of entrainment correlated strongly with tap to syllable task performance and with reading fluency, and both findings generalized across English and Mandarin speakers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Wei
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
- Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
- The Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences of University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.
| | - Roeland Hancock
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- The Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences of University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
| | - Jennifer Mozeiko
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
| | - Edward W Large
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Brain Imaging Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- The Connecticut Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences of University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
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Li H, Yuan Q, Luo YJ, Tao W. A new perspective for understanding the contributions of the cerebellum to reading: The cerebro-cerebellar mapping hypothesis. Neuropsychologia 2022; 170:108231. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2021] [Revised: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/29/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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Ostertag C, Reynolds JE, Dewey D, Landman B, Huo Y, Lebel C. Altered gray matter development in pre-reading children with a family history of reading disorder. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13160. [PMID: 34278658 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2021] [Revised: 07/07/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Reading disorders are common in children and can impact academic success, mental health, and career prospects. Reading is supported by network of interconnected left hemisphere brain regions, including temporo-parietal, occipito-temporal, and inferior-frontal circuits. Poor readers often show hypoactivation and reduced gray matter volumes in this reading network, with hyperactivation and increased volumes in the posterior right hemisphere. We assessed gray matter development longitudinally in pre-reading children aged 2-5 years using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (N = 32, 110 MRI scans; mean age: 4.40 ± 0.77 years), half of whom had a family history of reading disorder. The family history group showed slower proportional growth (relative to total brain volume) in the left supramarginal and inferior frontal gyri, and faster proportional growth in the right angular, right fusiform, and bilateral lingual gyri. This suggests delayed development of left hemisphere reading areas in children with a family history of dyslexia, along with faster growth in right homologues. This alternate development pattern may predispose the brain to later reading difficulties and may later manifest as the commonly noted compensatory mechanisms. The results of this study further shows our understanding of structural brain alterations that may form the neurological basis of reading difficulties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Curtis Ostertag
- Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Owerko Centre, Alberta Children Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Jess E Reynolds
- Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Owerko Centre, Alberta Children Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Deborah Dewey
- Owerko Centre, Alberta Children Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Department of Pediatrics, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Bennett Landman
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Yuankai Huo
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Catherine Lebel
- Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Owerko Centre, Alberta Children Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.,Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
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The relation between neurofunctional and neurostructural determinants of phonological processing in pre-readers. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2020; 46:100874. [PMID: 33130464 PMCID: PMC7606842 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Revised: 10/15/2020] [Accepted: 10/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Phonological processing skills are known as the most robust cognitive predictor of reading ability. Therefore, the neural determinants of phonological processing have been extensively investigated by means of either neurofunctional or neurostructural techniques. However, to fully understand how the brain represents and processes phonological information, there is need for studies that combine both methods. The present study applies such a multimodal approach with the aim of investigating the pre-reading relation between neural measures of auditory temporal processing, white matter properties of the reading network and phonological processing skills. We administered auditory steady-state responses, diffusion-weighted MRI scans and phonological awareness tasks in 59 pre-readers. Our results demonstrate that a stronger rightward lateralization of syllable-rate (4 Hz) processing coheres with higher fractional anisotropy in the left fronto-temporoparietal arcuate fasciculus. Both neural features each in turn relate to better phonological processing skills. As such, the current study provides novel evidence for the existence of a pre-reading relation between functional measures of syllable-rate processing, structural organization of the arcuate fasciculus and cognitive precursors of reading development. Moreover, our findings demonstrate the value of combining different neural techniques to gain insight in the underlying neural systems for reading (dis)ability.
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Functional connectivity alterations associated with literacy difficulties in early readers. Brain Imaging Behav 2020; 15:2109-2120. [PMID: 33048291 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-020-00406-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/23/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
The link between literacy difficulties and brain alterations has been described in depth. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) has been successfully applied to the study of intrinsic functional connectivity (iFc) both in dyslexia and typically developing children. Most related studies have focused on the stages from late childhood into adulthood using a seed to voxel approach. Our study analyzes iFc in an early childhood sample using the multivariate pattern analysis. This facilitates a hypothesis-free analysis and the possible identification of abnormal functional connectivity patterns at a whole brain level. Thirty-four children with literacy difficulties (LD) (7.1 ± 0.69 yr.) and 30 typically developing children (TD) (7.43 ± 0.52 yr.) were selected. Functional brain connectivity was measured using an rs-fMRI acquisition. The LD group showed a higher iFc between the right middle frontal gyrus (rMFG) and the default mode network (DMN) regions, and a lower iFc between the rMFG and both the bilateral insular cortex and the supramarginal gyrus. These results are interpreted as a DMN on/off routine malfunction in the LD group, which suggests an alteration of the task control network regulating DMN activity. In the LD group, the posterior cingulate cortex also showed a lower iFc with both the middle temporal poles and the fusiform gyrus. This could be interpreted as a failure in the integration of information between brain regions that facilitate reading. Our results show that children with literacy difficulties have an altered functional connectivity in their reading and attentional networks at the beginning of the literacy acquisition. Future studies should evaluate whether or not these alterations could indicate a risk of developing dyslexia.
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Bertoni S, Franceschini S, Ronconi L, Gori S, Facoetti A. Is excessive visual crowding causally linked to developmental dyslexia? Neuropsychologia 2019; 130:107-117. [PMID: 31077708 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.04.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2018] [Revised: 04/15/2019] [Accepted: 04/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
For about 10% of children reading acquisition is extremely difficult because they are affected by a heritable neurobiological disorder called developmental dyslexia (DD), mainly associated to an auditory-phonological disorder. Visual crowding is a universal phenomenon that impairs the recognition of stimuli in clutter, such as a letter in a word or a word in a text. Several studies have shown an excessive crowding in individuals with DD, but the causal link between excessive crowding and DD is not yet clearly established. An excessive crowding might be, indeed, a simple effect of DD due to reduced reading experience. The results of five experiments in 181 children reveal that: (i) an excessive crowding only at unattended locations characterizes an unselected group of children with DD (Experiment 1); (ii) an extra-large spaced text increases reading accuracy by reducing crowding in an unselected group of children with DD (Experiment 2); (iii) efficient attentional action video game trainings reduce crowding and accelerate reading speed in two unselected groups of children with DD (Experiment 3 and 4), and; (iv) pre-reading crowding longitudinally predicts future poor readers (Experiment 5). Our results show multiple causal links between visual crowding and learning to read. These findings provide new insights for a more efficient remediation and prevention for DD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Bertoni
- Developmental and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padova 35131, Italy.
| | - Sandro Franceschini
- Developmental and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padova 35131, Italy.
| | - Luca Ronconi
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Rovereto 38068, Italy; Child Psychopathology Unit, Scientific Institute "E. Medea", Bosisio Parini, Lecco 23842, Italy
| | - Simone Gori
- Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Bergamo 24129, Italy
| | - Andrea Facoetti
- Developmental and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padova 35131, Italy
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Krafnick AJ, Evans TM. Neurobiological Sex Differences in Developmental Dyslexia. Front Psychol 2019; 9:2669. [PMID: 30687153 PMCID: PMC6336691 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02669] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2018] [Accepted: 12/12/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding sex differences at the neurobiological level has become increasingly crucial in both basic and applied research. In the study of developmental dyslexia, early neuroimaging investigations were dominated by male-only or male-dominated samples, due at least in part to males being diagnosed more frequently. While recent studies more consistently balance the inclusion of both sexes, there has been little movement toward directly characterizing potential sex differences of the disorder. However, a string of recent work suggests that the brain basis of dyslexia may indeed be different in males and females. This potential sex difference has implications for existing models of dyslexia, and would inform approaches to the remediation of reading difficulties. This article reviews recent evidence for sex differences in dyslexia, discusses the impact these studies have on the understanding of the brain basis of dyslexia, and provides a framework for how these differential neuroanatomical profiles may develop.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anthony J Krafnick
- Psychology Department, Dominican University, River Forest, IL, United States
| | - Tanya M Evans
- Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, Curry School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
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Is Dyslexia a Brain Disorder? Brain Sci 2018; 8:brainsci8040061. [PMID: 29621138 PMCID: PMC5924397 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci8040061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2018] [Revised: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 04/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Specific word reading difficulty, commonly termed ‘developmental dyslexia’, refers to the low end of the word reading skill distribution but is frequently considered to be a neurodevelopmental disorder. This term implies that brain development is thought to be disrupted, resulting in an abnormal and dysfunctional brain. We take issue with this view, pointing out that there is no evidence of any obvious neurological abnormality in the vast majority of cases of word reading difficulty cases. The available relevant evidence from neuroimaging studies consists almost entirely of correlational and group-differences studies. However, differences in brains are certain to exist whenever differences in behavior exist, including differences in ability and performance. Therefore, findings of brain differences do not constitute evidence for abnormality; rather, they simply document the neural substrate of the behavioral differences. We suggest that dyslexia is best viewed as one of many expressions of ordinary ubiquitous individual differences in normal developmental outcomes. Thus, terms such as “dysfunctional” or “abnormal” are not justified when referring to the brains of persons with dyslexia.
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Werth R. Rapid improvement of reading performance in children with dyslexia by altering the reading strategy: A novel approach to diagnoses and therapy of reading deficiencies. Restor Neurol Neurosci 2018; 36:679-691. [PMID: 30412512 PMCID: PMC6294589 DOI: 10.3233/rnn-180829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Reading disability is termed "dyslexia" if it is much lower than other cognitive abilities according to the intelligence quotient (IQ). This means that dyslexia is caused by an impairment of abilities other than those which the IQ requires. Therefore, reading performance should improve immediately if these impairments are either eliminated or compensated. OBJECTIVE The experiments explore conditions under which these impairments are compensated and dyslexic children's poor reading ability immediately improve. METHODS Experiment 1 examined if reducing the number of letters in pseudowords, prolonging the time interval during which the gaze is directed to pseudowords, reducing the amplitude of saccades and prolonging the time interval that elapsed between the beginning of the presentation of a pseudoword and the beginning of the pronunciation of that word influences childrens' reading performance. A group of 100 German children (71 boys and 29 girls) aged 8 to 13 years, who suffered from dyslexia according to the Zuerich Reading Test, were divided into a training group (n = 50) and an age-matched control group (n = 50) and tested. Both groups participated in experiment 1. Only the children in the training group participated in experiment 2, in which the children learned a compensatory reading strategy. The age - matched control group did not learn the compensatory reading strategy. In the training group, reading performance was tested before and after having learned the new reading strategy. RESULTS Conditions were found under which all children were able to read 95% of the pseudowords correctly. After having learned a compensatory reading strategy, a mean 58.9% decrease in words read incorrectly was found after a single training session. The difference between the number of reading mistakes before and after the training session was highly significant (Wicoxon Test: p < 0.00001). The effect size showed that the compensatory reading strategy was highly effective (Hedges g = 1.7). The reading ability of an age-matched dyslexic control group showed no improvement. CONCLUSIONS Dyslexic subjects' reading performance improves significantly when they learn a new reading strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reinhard Werth
- Institute for Social Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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