Stephanie Gottwald

The Emerging, Evolving Reading Brain in a Digital Culture: Implications for New Readers, Children With Reading Difficulties, and Children Without Schools

The recent rise of electronic media, and the move away from traditional reading and reading, are leading to a fundamental shift in the way in which the human brain processes information. This shift in patterns of human cognition has separate implications for new readers, individuals with reading disabilities, and children without access to schools. While this evolving method of reading may threaten the development of deep reading skills in new readers, it also promises to provide unprecedented access to information and instruction for children without access to formal schooling.

Mobile Devices for Early Literacy Intervention and Research with Global Reach

Extensive work focuses on the uses of technology at scale for post-literate populations (e.g., MOOC, learning games, Learning Management Systems). Little attention is afforded to non-literate populations, particularly in the developing world. This paper presents an approach using mobile devices with the ultimate goal to reach 770 million people. We developed a novel platform with a cloud backend to deliver educational content to over a thousand marginalized children in different countries: specifically, in remote villages without schools, urban slums with overcrowded schools, and at-risk, rural schools. Here we describe the theoretical basis of our system and results from case studies in three educational contexts. This model will help researchers and designers understand how mobile devices can help children acquire basic skills and aid each others learning when the benefit of teachers is limited or non-existent.

Executive Functions Contribute Uniquely to Reading Competence in Minority Youth

Competent reading requires various skills beyond those for basic word reading (i.e., core language skills, rapid naming, phonological processing). Contributing “higher-level” or domain-general processes include information processing speed and executive functions (working memory, strategic problem solving, attentional switching). Research in this area has relied on largely Caucasian samples, with limited representation of children from racial or ethnic minority groups. This study examined contributions of executive skills to reading competence in 761 children of minority backgrounds. Hierarchical linear regressions examined unique contributions of executive functions (EF) to word reading, fluency, and comprehension. EF contributed uniquely to reading performance, over and above reading-related language skills; working memory contributed uniquely to all components of reading; while attentional switching, but not problem solving, contributed to isolated and contextual word reading and reading fluency. Problem solving uniquely predicted comprehension, suggesting that this skill may be especially important for reading comprehension in minority youth. Attentional switching may play a unique role in development of reading fluency in minority youth, perhaps as a result of the increased demand for switching between spoken versus written dialects. Findings have implications for educational and clinical practice with regard to reading instruction, remedial reading intervention, and assessment of individuals with reading difficulty.

Reading-Related Causal Attributions for Success and Failure: Dynamic Links with Reading Skill.

The present study investigated the relation among reading skills and attributions, naming speed, and phonological awareness across a wide range of reading skill. Participants were 1,105 school-age children and youths from two understudied populations: African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Individual assessments of children ranging in age from 8 to 15 years were conducted for reading outcomes, cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading, and attributions for success and failure in reading situations. Quantile regressions were formulated to estimate these relations across the full skill span of each outcome. Reading-related attributions predicted contextual word recognition, sight word and decoding fluency, and comprehension skills. Attributions to ability in success situations were positively related to each outcome across the full span. On three reading outcomes, this relation strengthened at higher skill levels. Attributions to effort in success situations were consistently and negatively related to all reading outcomes. The results provide evidence that the strength of the relation between reading and attributions varies according to reading skill levels, with the strongest evidence for ability-based attributions in situations of reading success.

How the origins of the reading brain instruct our knowledge of reading intervention

W. Baker, Preface. P. McCardle, N. Landi, K. Pugh, Introduction. Section 1. Major Themes in the Study of the Neurobiology of Dyslexia. S. Frost, R. Sandak, W.E. Mencl, N. Landi, J.G. Rueckl, L. Katz, K. Pugh, Mapping the Word Reading Circuitry in Skilled and Disabled Readers. G. Rosen, Y. Wang, C.G. Fiondella, J.J. Lo Turco, The Brain and Developmental Dyslexia: Genes, Anatomy, and Behavior. G. Sherman, C. Cowen, From Research Lab to School Front Lines: Talents and Dilemmas in Children with Learning Differences. Section 2. Methods and Tools. D. Francis, Methodological Advances in Developmental Research. E. Mencl, S. Frost, K. Pugh, Tools for Multimodal Imaging. J. Rueckl, M. Seidenberg, Computational Modeling and the Neural Bases of Reading and Reading Disorders. E. Grigorenko, A.J. Naples, The Devil is in the Details: Decoding the Genetics of Reading. Section 3. Neurobiological, Genetic, and Cognitive Aspects. F. Ramus, G. Szenkovits, Understanding the Nature of the Phonological Deficit. P. Cornelissen, Visual Word Recognition: Insights from MEG and Implications for Developmental Dyslexia. L.E. Cutting, S.H. Eason, K. Young, A.L. Alberstadt, Reading Comprehension: Cognition and Neuroimaging. R. Olson, B. Byrne, S. Samuelsson, Reconciling Strong Genetic and Strong Environmental Influences on Individual Differences and Deficits in Reading Ability. R. Frost, Reading in Hebrew vs. Reading in English: Is there a Qualitative Difference? Section 4. Intervention. B. Foorman, S. Al Otaiba, Reading Remediation: State of the Art. L. Siegel, Remediation of Reading Difficulties in English Language Learning Students. M. Wolf, S. Gottwald, W. Galante, E. Norton, L. Miller, How the Origins of Reading Instruct our Knowledge of Reading Development and its Intervention. P. McCardle, K. Pugh, Integration of Methodologies in Cognitive Neuroscience: Research Planning and Policy.

Causal Attribution Profiles as a Function of Reading Skills, Hyperactivity, and Inattention

ABSTRACT The causes that individuals attribute to reading outcomes shape future behaviors, including engagement or persistence with learning tasks. Although previous reading motivation research has examined differences between typical and struggling readers, there may be unique dynamics related to varying levels of reading and attention skills. Using latent profile analysis, we found 4 groups informed by internal attributions to ability and effort. Reading skills, inattention, and hyperactivity/impulsivity were investigated as functional correlates of attribution profiles. Participants were 1,312 youth (8–15 years of age) of predominantly African American and Hispanic racial/ethnic heritage. More adaptive attribution profiles had greater reading performance and lower inattention. The reverse was found for the least adaptive profile with associations to greater reading and attention difficulties. Distinct attribution profiles also existed across similar-achieving groups. Understanding reading-related attributions may inform instructional efforts in reading. Promoting adaptive attributions may foster engagement with texts despite learning difficulties and, in turn, support reading achievement.

“I Hold Your Foot:” Lessons from the Reading Brain for Addressing the Challenge of Global Literacy

In this chapter we describe the theoretical and technological principles that underlie an innovative application of cross-disciplinary work in cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, child development, education, and technology: The global literacy initiative, Curious Learning. We will delineate the basic principles about the reading brain from cognitive neuroscience that guided the content of our work, and the principles from technology that guided design, implementation, and data collection. This initiative represents our ongoing efforts to develop and implement a comprehensive, tablet-based digital learning experience to help children learn to read on their own, particularly those children who either possess no school or whose schools are so inadequate that the children never achieve functional literacy.

Bringing the Bottom Billion into Basic Literacy: How We Can and Why We Must: Bringing the Bottom Billion into Basic Literacy

Close to one billion people in the world do not have basic literacy skills. A key challenge is reaching children in the midst of circumstances that make a traditional school-based approach impractical. This chapter will describe a cross-disciplinary, mobile technology approach to literacy education. The Curious Learning approach distributes research-based, English literacy content on mobile devices to children without access to an adequate school. The software platform is equipped with data collection tools to measure usage patterns and literacy outcomes. Results indicate that regular access resulted in higher early literacy skills. Future efforts will focus on adapting this approach in the languages spoken in the homes of the children.

Lessons from the reading brain for reading development and dyslexia

Abstract This essay is about the improbable emergence of written language six millennia ago that gave rise to the even more improbable, highly sophisticated reading brain of the twenty-first century. How it emerged and what it comprises – both in its most basic iteration in the very young reader and in its most elaborated iteration in the expert reader – is a story with several important lessons for how we think about reading development and how we approach reading challenges like dyslexia. For, an understanding of how the reading brain develops gives educators a unique lens on what the child has to learn, what the teacher would be wise to teach, and why the organization of the brain of an individual with dyslexia has precious little to do with reading.