Neural correlates of phonological awareness and beginning literacy.

In the Netherlands, almost nine percent of the children following primary
education suffer from a reading disorder. A better scientific understanding of
how the brain learns spoken and written language is essential for gaining
insight into the causes and effects of reading disorders, so that better
programs for diagnosis and treatment can be developed. What are the neural
mechanisms mediating the acquisition of listening and reading skills? In spite
of a growing consistency on the general layout of the cognitive and
neuroanatomical components of the adult language system to date still very
little is known about how the brain learns to understand spoken and written
language. This research project investigates learning-induced plasticity in
phonological representations in the developing brain. We will first identify,
and validate neural signatures of phonological processing in preschool
children. Then, we apply these neural measures to investigate the relation
between the development of phonological awareness and reading skills.

To gain insight in the neural mechanisms underlying of the development of
literacy.

The research program is divided into three sessions. First, we will investigate
the neural basis of phonological awareness in pre-school children who have not
received any formal reading education. By using different tasks in combination
with different types of electrophysiological measures, we will be able to
distinguish between different levels of phonological processing. Second, we
will examine how and to what extent these phonological representations are
modified by sound and letter training. Third, we will determine to what extent
the neural measures of phonological awareness obtained in pre-school children
are predictive of their later progress in learning how to read. Children will
participate in all of the sessions, and the same experimental paradigm will be
used in all sessions. This way, we will be able to track neural changes in
phonological representations following specific training on the one hand, and
education and development on the other.

One third of the children will receive orthographic training, and one third
will receive phonological training. Both training conditions will be
implemented in a computer program and compared with a control group, which will
be engaged in language unrelated computer games but without a language
component. Children assigned to the different training conditions will be
carefully matched in terms of performance levels, and developmental profiles.
This way, training results will not be confounded by individual differences
between children. Training will be administered in 12 sessions of one hour
each, spread out over the time course of one month.

There are no risks associated with the study. The burden for the children is
extremely low. The EEG will be recorded using ActiCap electrode sets. These
caps are easy to apply, and especially suited for testing children. EEG
measurement will take place in a minivan that is especially designed to test
children at the location of their school or home, which minizes the burden even
further. Momentarily the bus and all products are successfully used at the
Behavioral Science Institute and the F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive
Neuroimaging for EEG recording in school children and children suffering from
cerebral palsy. Experimental tasks are designed in such a way that they can be
easily carried by the study population to keep the cognitive burden at a
minimum. Children can relax and play during frequent breaks.