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In Language at the Speed of Sight, internationally renowned cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg reveals the underexplored science of reading, which spans cognitive science, neurobiology, and linguistics. As Seidenberg shows, the disconnect between science and education is a major factor in America's chronic underachievement. How we teach reading places many children at risk of failure, discriminates against poorer kids, and discourages even those who could have become more successful readers. Children aren't taught basic print skills because educators cling to the disproved theory that good readers guess the words in texts, a strategy that encourages skimming instead of close reading. Interventions for children with reading disabilities are delayed because parents are mistakenly told their kids will catch up if they work harder. Learning to read is more difficult for children who speak a minority dialect in the home, but that is not reflected in classroom practices. By building on science's insights, we can improve how our children read, and take real steps toward solving the inequality that illiteracy breeds.

Writing plays a key role in society. Yet, many children struggle in learning to write, and often this is related to difficulties in the development of their oral-language skills. For students with oral language difficulties text production is particularly challenging, yet there have been few attempts to consider the impact of different oral language problems on the production of written text. This book focuses on the relationship between oral language problems and writing problems for children with hearing loss, those with oral-language difficulties and those with dyslexia. The causes and nature of their writing problems are examined by experts in the fields. Authors from three continents and nine countries contributed their research to extend our understanding of the problems that these children face. The collection provides timely information across languages and countries, enhancing our understanding of the links between oral language problems and writing, informing both writing assessment and intervention.

Audra Jensen' son began reading when he was only two years old. She shares her experiences - both the challenges and joys - of raising a child with autism and hyperlexia - an early and obsessive interest in the written word associated with social deficits and significant difficulty in understanding verbal language.The author stresses the importance of diagnosis of the condition for successful implementation of effective teaching strategies and encouragement of more typical childhood development. As well as useful advice, this guide provides a comprehensive reading curriculum specially designed for young, challenged children to help promote their reading ability.With practical suggestions on how to modify teaching and therapy programmes to suit a child's individual learning style, this practical guide will prove invaluable for parents of children with autism and hyperlexia.

Quickly acquire the knowledge and skills you need to effectively understand, assess, and treat individuals struggling with dyslexia Essentials of Dyslexia Assessment and Intervention provides practical, step-by-step information on accurately identifying, assessing, and using evidence-based interventions with individuals with dyslexia. Addressing the components that need to be considered in the assessment of dyslexia-both cognitive and academic-this book includes descriptions of the various tests used in a comprehensive dyslexia assessment along with detailed, evidence-based interventions that professionals and parents can use to help individuals struggling with dyslexia. Like all the volumes in the Essentials of Psychological Assessment series, each concise chapter features numerous callout boxes highlighting key concepts, bulleted points, and extensive illustrative material, as well as test questions that help you gauge and reinforce your grasp of the information covered. Providing an in-depth look at dyslexia, this straightforward book presents information that will prepare school psychologists, neuropsychologists, educational diagnosticians, special education teachers, as well as general education teachers, to recognize, assess, and provide effective treatment programs for dyslexia. The book is also a good resource for parents who are helping a child with dyslexia. A practical guide to understanding, assessing, and helping individuals who have dyslexia Expert advice and tips throughout Conveniently formatted for rapid reference Other titles in the Essentials of Psychological Assessment series: Essentials of Assessment Report Writing Essentials of School Neuropsychological Assessment Essentials of Evidence-Based Academic Interventions Essentials of Response to Intervention Essentials of Processing Assessment Essentials of Conners Behavior Assessments Essentials of Cross-Battery Assessment, Second Edition Essentials of WISC-IV Assessment, Second Edition

Reading is a highly complex skill that is prerequisite to success in many societies in which a great deal of information is communicated in written form. Since the 1970s, much has been learned about the reading process from research by cognitive psychologists. This book summarizes that important work and puts it into a coherent framework. The book’s central theme is how readers go about extracting information from the printed page and comprehending the text. Like its predecessor, this thoroughly updated 2nd Edition encompasses all aspects of the psychology of reading with chapters on writing systems, word recognition, the work of the eyes during reading, inner speech, sentence processing, discourse processing, learning to read, dyslexia, individual differences and speed reading. Psychology of Reading, 2 nd Edition , is essential reading for undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in cognitive psychology and could be used as a core textbook on courses on the psychology of reading and related topics. In addition, the clear writing style makes the book accessible to people without a background in psychology but who have a personal or professional interest in the process of reading. Keith Rayner is the Atkinson Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego and Emeritus Distinguished University Professor at the University of Massachusetts.　 He has published widely on topics related to reading, eye movements, and language processing. Alexander Pollatsek is Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Research Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.　 His primary research interests are in reading, word recognition, scene perception, and driving behavior.　 He has published widely in each area. Jane Ashby is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Central Michigan University. Her primary interests are in skilled reading, phonological processing, dyslexia, and reading development. Charles Clifton, Jr is Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Research Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.　 He is primarily interested in psycholinguistics and has published numerous papers dealing with linguistic processing, parsing, and syntactic ambiguity. Preface. Part 1. Background Information. 1. Introduction and Preliminary Information. 2. Writing Systems. 3. Word Perception I: Some Basic Issues and Methods. Part 2. Skilled Reading of Text. 4. The Work of the Eyes. 5. Word Perception II: Word Identification in Text. 6. A Model of Eye Movements in Reading. Part 3. Understanding Text. 7. Inner Speech. 8. Words and Sentences. 9. Comprehension of Discourse. Part 4. Beginning Reading, Reading Disability, Individual Differences. 10. Stages of Reading Development. 11. Learning to Read. 12. Reading Disorders. 13. Speed Reading, Proofreading, and Individual Differences. 14. Overview. \"I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the importance of this book. It’s written by some of the very best-known and respected researchers in the field who, to a very large degree, have defined the field itself. In short, reading research would not have been the same without these authors, and to the present day they’re still amongst the most prominent scholars in the world.\" -Steven Frisson, Ph.D., University of Birmingham, UK \"I absolutely loved reading this book. The level of detail and analysis provided in several of the chapters was exceptional. In fact, given the attention to detail, and the continual use of presenting data followed by argument/criticism to build a position, results in a book that will be valuable at many levels.\" -Edward O’Brien, Ph.D., University of New Hampshire, US \"The original Psychology of Reading by Rayner and Pollatsek - of which this current book is a thoroughly revised and updated version - has often been described as a seminal book. Only too frequently this term is used to describe books which have received considerable attention in the field but in hindsight fail to meet the criterion for using that specific, powerful epithet . . . The current book is a rightful heir to the throne of the [first edition].\" -Denis Drieghe, Ph.D., University of Southampton, UK

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively examine the preschool language and early literacy skills of kindergarten good and poor readers, and to determine the extent to which these skills predict reading status. Method: Participants were 136 children with language impairment enrolled in early childhood special education classrooms. On the basis of performance on a word recognition task given in kindergarten, children were classified as either good or poor readers. Comparisons were made across these 2 groups on a number of language and early literacy measures administered in preschool, and logistic regression was used to determine the best predictors of kindergarten reading status. Results: Twenty-seven percent of the sample met criterion for poor reading in kindergarten. These children differed from good readers on most of the skills measured in preschool. The best predictors of kindergarten reading status were oral language, alphabet knowledge, and print concept knowledge. Presence of comorbid disabilities was not a significant predictor. Classification accuracy was good overall. Conclusion: Results suggest that risk of reading difficulty for children with language impairment can be reliably estimated in preschool, prior to the onset of formal reading instruction. Measures of both language and early literacy skills are important for identifying which children are likely to develop later reading difficulties.

Andrea S. Kelly University of Auckland Contact author: Mridula Sharma, Macquarie University–Linguistics, Building C5, Room 513, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2106, Australia. E-mail: mridula.sharma{at}ling.mq.edu.au . Purpose: The authors assessed comorbidity of auditory processing disorder (APD), language impairment (LI), and reading disorder (RD) in school-age children. Method: Children ( N = 68) with suspected APD and nonverbal IQ standard scores of 80 or more were assessed using auditory, language, reading, attention, and memory measures. Auditory processing tests included the Frequency Pattern Test (FPT; F. E. Musiek, 1994; D. Noffsinger, R. H. Wilson, & F. E. Musiek, 1994); the Dichotic Digit Test Version 2 (DDT; F. E. Musiek, 1983); the Random Gap Detection Test (R. W. Keith, 2000); the 500-Hz tone Masking Level Difference (V. Aithal, A. Yonovitz, & S. Aithal, 2006); and a monaural low-redundancy speech test (compressed and reverberant words; A. Boothroyd & S. Nittrouer, 1988). The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition (E. Semel, E. Wiig, & W. Secord, 2003) was used to assess language abilities (including auditory memory). Reading accuracy and fluency and phonological awareness abilities were assessed using the Wheldall Assessment of Reading Passages (A. Madelaine & K. Wheldall, 2002) and the Queensland University Inventory of Literacy (B. Dodd, A. Holm, M. Orelemans, & M. McCormick, 1996). Attention was measured using the Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (J. A. Sandford & A. Turner, 1995). Results: Of the children, 72% had APD on the basis of these test results. Most of these children (25%) had difficulty with the FPT bilaterally. A further 22% had difficulty with the FPT bilaterally and had right ear deficits for the DDT. About half of the children (47%) had problems in all 3 areas (APD, LI, and RD); these children had the poorest FPT scores. More had APD–RD, or APD–LI, than APD, RD, or LI alone. There were modest correlations between FPT scores and attention and memory, and between DDT scores and memory. Conclusions: LI and RD commonly co-occur with APD. Attention and memory are linked to performance on some auditory processing tasks but only explain a small amount of the variance in scores. Comprehensive assessment across a range of areas is required to characterize the difficulties experienced by children with APD. KEY WORDS: auditory processing disorder, language processing disorder, reading disorder, Children's Auditory Processing Performance Scale (CHAPPS), attention, memory CiteULike     Connotea     Del.icio.us     Digg     Facebook     Reddit     Technorati     Twitter     What's this?

Developmental Dyslexia (DD) is a neurobiological condition affecting the ability to read fluently and/or accurately. Analyzing resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in DD may provide a deeper characterization of the underlying pathophysiology and possible biomarkers. So far, studies investigating resting-state activity in DD provided limited evidence and did not consider the aperiodic component of the power spectrum. In the present study, adults with (n = 26) and without DD (n = 31) underwent a reading skills assessment and resting-state EEG to investigate potential alterations in aperiodic activity, their impact on the periodic counterpart and reading performance. In parieto-occipital channels, DD participants showed a significantly different aperiodic activity as indexed by a flatter and lower power spectrum. These aperiodic measures were significantly related to text reading time, suggesting a link with individual differences in reading difficulties. In the beta band, the DD group showed significantly decreased aperiodic-adjusted power compared to typical readers, which was significantly correlated to word reading accuracy. Overall, here we provide evidence showing alterations of the endogenous aperiodic activity in DD participants consistently with the increased neural noise hypothesis. In addition, we confirm alterations of endogenous beta rhythms, which are discussed in terms of their potential link with magnocellular-dorsal stream deficit.

Reading disorders (RD) are human‐specific neuropsychological conditions associated with decoding printed words and/or reading comprehension. So far only a handful of candidate genes segregated in families and 42 loci from genome‐wide association study (GWAS) have been identified that jointly provided little clues of pathophysiology. Leveraging human‐specific genomic information, we critically assessed the RD candidates for the first time and found substantial human‐specific features within. The GWAS candidates (i.e., population signals) were distinct from the familial counterparts and were more likely pleiotropic in neuropsychiatric traits and to harbor human‐specific regulatory elements (HSREs). Candidate genes associated with human cortical morphology indeed showed human‐specific expression in adult brain cortices, particularly in neuroglia likely regulated by HSREs. Expression levels of candidate genes across human brain developmental stages showed a clear pattern of uplifted expression in early brain development crucial to RD development. Following the new insights and loci pleiotropic in cognitive traits, we identified four novel genes from the GWAS sub‐significant associations (i.e., FOXO3, MAPT, KMT2E and HTT) and the Semaphorin gene family with functional priors (i.e., SEMA3A, SEMA3E and SEMA5B). These novel genes were related to neuronal plasticity and disorders, mostly conserved the pattern of uplifted expression in early brain development and had evident expression in cortical neuroglial cells. Our findings jointly illuminated the association of RD with neuroglia regulation—an emerging hotspot in studying neurodevelopmental disorders, and highlighted the need of improving RD phenotyping to avoid jeopardizing future genetic studies of RD. Genetic candidates for dyslexia were critically assessed using human‐specific genomic features and functional information relevant to human brain development. Most candidates carried human‐specific features, but only a small proportion had evidence of regulating human cortical morphology, uplifted expression in early brain and human‐specific expression in cortical neuroglia, jointly highlighting neuronal plasticity.

The ultimate goal of reading is to understand written text. To accomplish this, children must first master decoding, the ability to translate printed words into sounds. Although decoding and reading comprehension are highly interdependent, some children struggle to decode but comprehend well, whereas others with good decoding skills fail to comprehend. The neural basis underlying individual differences in this discrepancy between decoding and comprehension abilities is virtually unknown. We investigated the neural basis underlying reading discrepancy, defined as the difference between reading comprehension and decoding skills, in a three-part study: 1) The neuroanatomical basis of reading discrepancy in a cross-sectional sample of school-age children with a wide range of reading abilities (Experiment-1; n = 55); 2) Whether a discrepancy-related neural signature is present in beginning readers and predictive of future discrepancy (Experiment-2; n = 43); and 3) Whether discrepancy-related regions are part of a domain-general or a language specialized network, utilizing the 1000 Functional Connectome data and large-scale reverse inference from Neurosynth.org (Experiment-3). Results converged onto the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), as related to having discrepantly higher reading comprehension relative to decoding ability. Increased gray matter volume (GMV) was associated with greater discrepancy (Experiment-1). Region-of-interest (ROI) analyses based on the left DLPFC cluster identified in Experiment-1 revealed that regional GMV within this ROI in beginning readers predicted discrepancy three years later (Experiment-2). This region was associated with the fronto-parietal network that is considered fundamental for working memory and cognitive control (Experiment-3). Processes related to the prefrontal cortex might be linked to reading discrepancy. The findings may be important for understanding cognitive resilience, which we operationalize as those individuals with greater higher-order reading skills such as reading comprehension compared to lower-order reading skills such as decoding skills. Our study provides insights into reading development, existing theories of reading, and cognitive processes that are potentially significant to a wide range of reading disorders.