Nurturing the reading brain: home literacy practices are associated with children’s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skills
Abstract Previous studies indicate that children are exposed to different literacy experiences at home. Although these disparities have been shown to affect children’s literacy skills, it remains unclear whether and how home literacy practices influence brain activity underlying word-level reading....
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2021-12-01
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| Series: | npj Science of Learning |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00112-9 |
| _version_ | 1818573093468110848 |
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| author | Cléa Girard Thomas Bastelica Jessica Léone Justine Epinat-Duclos Léa Longo Jérôme Prado |
| author_facet | Cléa Girard Thomas Bastelica Jessica Léone Justine Epinat-Duclos Léa Longo Jérôme Prado |
| author_sort | Cléa Girard |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Previous studies indicate that children are exposed to different literacy experiences at home. Although these disparities have been shown to affect children’s literacy skills, it remains unclear whether and how home literacy practices influence brain activity underlying word-level reading. In the present study, we asked parents of French children from various socioeconomic backgrounds (n = 66; 8.46 ± 0.36 years, range 7.52–9.22; 20 girls) to report the frequency of home literacy practices. Neural adaptation to the repetition of printed words was then measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a subset of these children (n = 44; 8.49 ± 0.33 years, range 8.02–9.14; 13 girls), thereby assessing how sensitive was the brain to the repeated presentation of these words. We found that more frequent home literacy practices were associated with enhanced word adaptation in the left posterior inferior frontal sulcus (r = 0.32). We also found that the frequency of home literacy practices was associated with children’s vocabulary skill (r = 0.25), which itself influenced the relation between home literacy practices and neural adaptation to words. Finally, none of these effects were observed in a digit adaptation task, highlighting their specificity to word recognition. These findings are consistent with a model positing that home literacy experiences may improve children’s vocabulary skill, which in turn may influence the neural mechanisms supporting word-level reading. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-15T00:06:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3dc5dc1a883b41c8832ea701a7b202ed |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-7936 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-15T00:06:29Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | npj Science of Learning |
| spelling | doaj.art-3dc5dc1a883b41c8832ea701a7b202ed2022-12-21T22:42:43ZengNature Portfolionpj Science of Learning2056-79362021-12-016111110.1038/s41539-021-00112-9Nurturing the reading brain: home literacy practices are associated with children’s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skillsCléa Girard0Thomas Bastelica1Jessica Léone2Justine Epinat-Duclos3Léa Longo4Jérôme Prado5Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028 - CNRS UMR5292, University of LyonLyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028 - CNRS UMR5292, University of LyonLyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028 - CNRS UMR5292, University of LyonLyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028 - CNRS UMR5292, University of LyonLyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028 - CNRS UMR5292, University of LyonLyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028 - CNRS UMR5292, University of LyonAbstract Previous studies indicate that children are exposed to different literacy experiences at home. Although these disparities have been shown to affect children’s literacy skills, it remains unclear whether and how home literacy practices influence brain activity underlying word-level reading. In the present study, we asked parents of French children from various socioeconomic backgrounds (n = 66; 8.46 ± 0.36 years, range 7.52–9.22; 20 girls) to report the frequency of home literacy practices. Neural adaptation to the repetition of printed words was then measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a subset of these children (n = 44; 8.49 ± 0.33 years, range 8.02–9.14; 13 girls), thereby assessing how sensitive was the brain to the repeated presentation of these words. We found that more frequent home literacy practices were associated with enhanced word adaptation in the left posterior inferior frontal sulcus (r = 0.32). We also found that the frequency of home literacy practices was associated with children’s vocabulary skill (r = 0.25), which itself influenced the relation between home literacy practices and neural adaptation to words. Finally, none of these effects were observed in a digit adaptation task, highlighting their specificity to word recognition. These findings are consistent with a model positing that home literacy experiences may improve children’s vocabulary skill, which in turn may influence the neural mechanisms supporting word-level reading.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00112-9 |
| spellingShingle | Cléa Girard Thomas Bastelica Jessica Léone Justine Epinat-Duclos Léa Longo Jérôme Prado Nurturing the reading brain: home literacy practices are associated with children’s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skills npj Science of Learning |
| title | Nurturing the reading brain: home literacy practices are associated with children’s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skills |
| title_full | Nurturing the reading brain: home literacy practices are associated with children’s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skills |
| title_fullStr | Nurturing the reading brain: home literacy practices are associated with children’s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skills |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nurturing the reading brain: home literacy practices are associated with children’s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skills |
| title_short | Nurturing the reading brain: home literacy practices are associated with children’s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skills |
| title_sort | nurturing the reading brain home literacy practices are associated with children s neural response to printed words through vocabulary skills |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00112-9 |
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