Title : Reading and Reading Disorders in Children: Perspectives from Developmental Neuroscience
Abstract:
Reading is an important skill for mastery in social relationships, academic performance, emotional regulation and most types of work. Reading impairments, one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders affecting approximately 5-10% of school-going children across languages, interfere with their ability to read and diminish how they learn to read which can persist and compound into adulthood. The onset and developmental course of reading disorders are largely unknown, even though neuroimaging studies suggest atypical brain maturation. The growing empirical evidence advocates that the neural pathways underlying the reader’s perceptual, cognitive and linguistic processes that pertain to mastery of reading vary with age. Therefore, these changing processes may affect adversely the neurocognitive characteristics of reading disorders in children at each developmental stage.
The presentation will synthesize empirical findings from developmental neuroscience to increase our understanding of distinctive neural pathways underlying reading and reading disorders. The presentation will begin with an overview of the brain processes fundamental to typical and atypical reading. In the process, the focus will be given to the results of studies that have employed neuroimaging approaches. Second, through the emphasis on scientific attention to developmental effects and synthesizing empirical findings from cross-sectional studies on reading disorders at various ages, the presentation will expand the knowledge base of reading disorders in children. The etiology of reading disorders can be better studied by segregating between primary and secondary impairments that unfold along with the development. Finally, the presentation will portray empirical findings from existing longitudinal studies that study developmental reading pathways beginning in the preliterate stage at both group and individual levels. Such an attempt can contribute to the accuracy of early identification and enable targeted intervention of deficits in foundational pre-literacy skills and reading fluency, leading to improved outcomes in at-risk or affected populations.
