Evidence of Dynamic Changes in Brain Processing from Imaging Techniques: Implications for Interventions for Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

There is great interest in emerging literacy skills due to evidence that such skills identified in the preschool period are predictive of reading at school age. Further, there is evidence that interventions applied early in the reading acquisition process have more positive outcomes than those applied after poor reading performance has been identified as delayed. To better understand the development of emergent and conventional reading skills, more research is needed to expand the evidence of how brain processing changes are related reading skill development and to changes due to intervention. This chapter reviews research on the critical emergent literacy skills that underlie the development of early reading skills, and links between brain processing of one of these critical emergent skills (speech processing) in infants, children and adults to language and reading skills. The chapter concludes with a dynamic model of brain activity as it relates to the acquisition of reading-related skills and to the impact of educational interventions.