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Huttonc, J., Horowitz-Kraus, T., DeWitt, T., & Holland, S. K. (2015). Pediatrics, 136(3), 1-15. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-0359 [IF=5.705].
Background and Objectives: Parent-child reading is widely advocated to promote cognitive development, including in recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to begin this practice at birth. While parent-child reading has been shown in behavioral studies to improve oral language and print concepts, quantifiable effects on the brain have not been previously studied. Our study utilized blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) to examine the relationship between home reading environment and brain activation during a narrative comprehension task in a sample of preschool-age children. We hypothesized that while listening to stories, children with greater home reading exposure would exhibit higher activation of leftsided brain regions involved with semantic processing (extraction of meaning from language).
Methods: A total of twenty-three, 3-5 year-old children enrolled in a longitudinal study of normal brain development (C-MIND) were eligible for this study. All had completed BOLD fMRI using an age-appropriate story listening task, where narrative alternated with tones. Nineteen families were able to be contacted for survey administration and agreed to participate, with four excluded despite multiple attempts. We performed a series of whole-brain regression analyses applying composite, subscale, and individual reading-related items from the validated STIMQ-P measure of home cognitive environment as explanatory variables for BOLD activation, controlling for household income (low or not low, according to 2015 federal poverty guidelines).
Results: Higher reading exposure (STIMQ-P Reading subscale score) was positively correlated (p<0.05, corrected) with BOLD activation in the left-sided parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex supporting mental imagery and semantic processing, adjusting for household income category. These brain areas are critical for oral language, and later integrated into the mature reading network.
Conclusions: Our study findings suggest that children from more stimulating home reading environments show more robust activity in brain regions supporting mental imagery and narrative processing, key emergent literacy skills. These neural biomarkers may help inform eco-bio-developmental models of emergent literacy and its promotion, and guide further research into the foundations of reading readiness.
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Huttonc, J., Horowitz-Kraus, T., DeWitt, T., & Holland, S. K. (2015). Pediatrics, 136(3), 1-15. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-0359 [IF=5.705].
Background and Objectives: Parent-child reading is widely advocated to promote cognitive development, including in recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to begin this practice at birth. While parent-child reading has been shown in behavioral studies to improve oral language and print concepts, quantifiable effects on the brain have not been previously studied. Our study utilized blood oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) to examine the relationship between home reading environment and brain activation during a narrative comprehension task in a sample of preschool-age children. We hypothesized that while listening to stories, children with greater home reading exposure would exhibit higher activation of leftsided brain regions involved with semantic processing (extraction of meaning from language).
Methods: A total of twenty-three, 3-5 year-old children enrolled in a longitudinal study of normal brain development (C-MIND) were eligible for this study. All had completed BOLD fMRI using an age-appropriate story listening task, where narrative alternated with tones. Nineteen families were able to be contacted for survey administration and agreed to participate, with four excluded despite multiple attempts. We performed a series of whole-brain regression analyses applying composite, subscale, and individual reading-related items from the validated STIMQ-P measure of home cognitive environment as explanatory variables for BOLD activation, controlling for household income (low or not low, according to 2015 federal poverty guidelines).
Results: Higher reading exposure (STIMQ-P Reading subscale score) was positively correlated (p<0.05, corrected) with BOLD activation in the left-sided parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex supporting mental imagery and semantic processing, adjusting for household income category. These brain areas are critical for oral language, and later integrated into the mature reading network.
Conclusions: Our study findings suggest that children from more stimulating home reading environments show more robust activity in brain regions supporting mental imagery and narrative processing, key emergent literacy skills. These neural biomarkers may help inform eco-bio-developmental models of emergent literacy and its promotion, and guide further research into the foundations of reading readiness.
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