Pamela E. Hook

Socioeconomic Status and Reading Disability: Neuroanatomy and Plasticity in Response to Intervention

Although reading disability (RD) and socioeconomic status (SES) are independently associated with variation in reading ability and brain structure/function, the joint influence of SES and RD on neuroanatomy and/or response to intervention is unknown. In total, 65 children with RD (ages 6-9) with diverse SES were assigned to an intensive, 6-week summer reading intervention (n = 40) or to a waiting-list control group (n = 25). Before and after, all children completed standardized reading assessments and magnetic resonance imaging to measure cortical thickness. At baseline, higher SES correlated with greater vocabulary and greater cortical thickness in bilateral perisylvian and supramarginal regions-especially in left pars opercularis. Within the intervention group, lower SES was associated with both greater reading improvement and greater cortical thickening across broad, bilateral occipitotemporal and temporoparietal regions following the intervention. Additionally, treatment responders (n = 20), compared with treatment nonresponders (n = 19), exhibited significantly greater cortical thickening within similar regions. The waiting control and nonresponder groups exhibited developmentally typical, nonsignificant cortical thinning during this time period. These findings indicate that effective summer reading intervention is coupled with cortical growth, and is especially beneficial for children with RD who come from lower-SES home environments.

Teachers’ skill ratings of children with learning disabilities: A comparison of the United States and Japan

This study compared U.S. and Japanese grade school teachers’ perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of children in their classrooms identified as fitting commonly used criteria for a learning disability. U.S. teachers identified 4.0 percent of their children as meeting the criteria and Japanese teachers identified 1.5 percent. The teachers then rated these children’s abilities in the areas of listening, speaking, reading/writing, reasoning, mathematics, social, and study skills. Overall, U.S. and Japanese teachers’ rating patterns were similar on 70 percent of the skills. In most areas where significant differences were found—listening, speaking, reading/writing and study skills—U.S. teachers rated higher percentages of their children as “weaker” than Japanese teachers. A noteworthy exception was the area of social skills where Japanese children received higher percentages of “weak” ratings. U.S. and Japanese teachers also differed in their perceptions of causative factors leading to their children’s learning difficulties. We discuss the findings in terms of U.S.-Japanese differences in writing systems and cultural expectations.

Relation of white-matter microstructure to reading ability and disability in beginning readers.

Objective: We examined the white-matter microstructure of the left arcuate fasciculus, which has been associated with reading ability, in beginning readers with or without reading disability. Method: Groups were typically reading children (n = 26) or children with reading disability (n = 26), Ages 6–9, and equated on nonverbal cognitive abilities. Diffusion-weighted images were collected and TRACULA was used to extract fractional anisotropy measures from the left arcuate fasciculus. Results: White-matter microstructure was altered in children with reading disability, who exhibited significantly reduced fractional anisotropy in the left arcuate fasciculus. Among typically reading children, lower fractional anisotropy of the left arcuate fasciculus was associated with superior pseudoword reading performance. Both the group differences and variation in reading scores among the children with reading disability were associated with radial diffusivity (but not axial diffusivity), whereas variation in reading scores among typically reading children was associated with axial diffusivity (but not radial diffusivity). Conclusions: The paradoxical findings that lower fractional anisotropy was associated both with reading disability and also with better phonological awareness in typical reading development suggest that there are different maturational trajectories of white-matter microstructure in typical readers and children with reading disability, and that this difference is unique to the beginning stages of reading acquisition. The finding that reading disability was associated with radial diffusivity, but that variation in ability among typically developing readers was associated with axial diffusivity, suggests that different neural mechanisms may be associated with reading development in children with or without reading disability.

Impact of Intensive Summer Reading Intervention for Children With Reading Disabilities and Difficulties in Early Elementary School

Efficacy of an intensive reading intervention implemented during the nonacademic summer was evaluated in children with reading disabilities or difficulties (RD). Students (ages 6–9) were randomly assigned to receive Lindamood-Bell’s Seeing Stars program (n = 23) as an intervention or to a waiting-list control group (n = 24). Analysis of pre- and posttesting revealed significant interactions in favor of the intervention group for untimed word and pseudoword reading, timed pseudoword reading, oral reading fluency, and symbol imagery. The interactions mostly reflected (a) significant declines in the nonintervention group from pre- to posttesting, and (2) no decline in the intervention group. The current study offers direct evidence for widening differences in reading abilities between students with RD who do and do not receive intensive summer reading instruction. Intervention implications for RD children are discussed, especially in relation to the relevance of summer intervention to prevent further decline in struggling early readers.