A triptych of the reading brain: Evolution, development, pathology, and its intervention

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511489907.013

11 - A triptych of the reading brain: Evolution, development, pathology, and its intervention

from Part III - Brain, language, and mathematics

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009

Edited by

Kurt W. Fischer and

Maryanne Wolf: Affiliation:
Center for Reading and Language Research Tufts University
Antonio M. Battro: Affiliation:
National Academy of Education, Argentina
Kurt W. Fischer: Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Pierre J. Léna: Affiliation:
Université de Paris VII (Denis Diderot)

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Overview

The most remarkable property of the human brain is the capacity to develop new connections and establish new networks through the rearrangement of preexisting neuronal structures. To invent and assimilate new cognitive skills, like writing and reading, humans have used the cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar structures already produced by biological evolution, as Dehaene describes in his chapter. It took several millennia for our species to have reached the general literacy in the population, and today a child needs less than a decade of training to become fluent in reading. This remarkable neurological feat involves an impressive coordination of perceptual, attentional, motoric, linguistic, and cognitive components, all performing together at great speed. Any trouble within or among these complex components can produce disruptions or delays in the process of reading acquisition, as in developmental dyslexia. Wolf and her colleagues have created a successful intervention program with multiple parts (RAVE-O: Retrieval, Automaticity, Vocabulary, Engagement with language, Orthography) to improve reading fluency, with components based on research-based understanding of the delicate and complex processes of reading.

The Editors

The essence of intellectual change in recent human evolution lies not in the birth of new structures in our brain, but rather in the brain's extraordinary potential for the rearrangement of its existing neuronal pathways.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Educated Brain
Essays in Neuroeducation
, pp. 183 - 197

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489907.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar

Badian, N. (1996). Dyslexia: does it exist? Dyslexia, garden-variety poor reading, and the Double-Deficit Hypothesis. Paper presented at the Orton Dyslexia Society, Boston, MA.CrossRef

Beck, I. L., Perfetti, C. A., and McKeown, M. G. (1982). Effects of long-term vocabulary instructions on lexical access and reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 506–521.CrossRef Google Scholar

Berninger, V. W., Abbott, R. D., Billingsley, F., and Nagy, W. (2001). Processes underlying timing and fluency of reading: Efficiency, automaticity, coordination, and morphological awareness. In Wolf, M. (ed.), Time, Fluency, and Dyslexia. Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar

Bowers, P. G. and Wolf, M. (1993). Theoretical links among naming speed, precise timing mechanisms and orthographic skill in dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 5, 69–85.CrossRef Google Scholar

Cohen, U. (2003). Personal correspondence.

Dehaene, S. (2003). Pre-emption of human cortical circuits by numbers and language: The “neuronal” recycling hypothesis. Paper presented at Pontifical Academy of Sciences meeting. Vatican City.

Deacon, T. (1997). The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Human Brain. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar

Denckla, M. B. and Rudel, R. G. (1976). Naming of objects by dyslexic and other learning-disabled children. Brain and Language, 3, 1–15.CrossRef Google Scholar

Doehring, D. G. (1976). Acquisition of rapid reading responses. Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development. Vols. 165 (2).Google Scholar

Foorman, B. R. (1994). Phonological and orthographic processing: Separate but equal? In Berninger, V. W. (ed.), The Varieties of Orthographic Knowledge I: Theoretical and Developmental Issues (pp. 319–355). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.CrossRef Google Scholar

German, D. J. (1992). Word finding intervention for children and adolescents. Topics in Learning Disorders, 13, 33–50.CrossRef Google Scholar

Geschwind, N. (1965). Disconnection syndrome in animals and man (Parts I, II). Brain, 88, 237–294, 585–644.CrossRef Google Scholar

Goswami, U. (1999). Causal connections in beginning reading: the importance of rhyme. Journal of Research in Reading, 22, 217–240.CrossRef Google Scholar

Hart, B. and Risley, T. R. (2003). The early catastrophe: The “30 million word gap.” American Educator, 27(1), 4–9.Google Scholar

Hebb, D. O. (1949). The Organization of Behaviour. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar

Ho Chan, D., Tsang, S.-M., and Lee, S.-H. (2002). The cognitive profile and multiple-deficit hypothesis in Chinese developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 38, 543–553.Google Scholar

Kame'enui, E. J., Simmons, D. C., Good, R. H., and Harn, B. A. (2001). The use of fluency-based measures in early identification and evaluation of intervention efficacy in schools. In Wolf, M. (ed.), Time, Fluency, and Dyslexia. Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar

Kame'enui, E. J., Dixon, R. C., and Carnine, D. W. (1987). Issues in the design of vocabulary instruction. In McKeown, M. G. and Curtis, M. E. (eds.), The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition (pp. 129–145). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar

LaBerge, D. and Samuels, S. J. (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6, 293–323.CrossRef Google Scholar

Lovett, M. W., Steinbach, K. A., and Frijters, J. C. (2000). Remediating the core deficits of developmental reading disability: A double-deficit perspective. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33(4), 334–358.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Lyon, G. R. and Moats, L. C. (1997). Critical conceptual and methodological considerations in reading intervention research. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 30, 578–588.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Manis, F. R., Doi, L. M., and Bhadha, B. (2000). Naming speed, phonological awareness, and orthographic knowledge in second graders. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33, 325–333.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Meyer, M. S. and Felton, R. H. (1999). Repeated reading to enhance fluency: Old approaches and new directions. Annals of Dyslexia, 49, 283–306.CrossRef Google Scholar

Moats, L. (2000). Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.Google Scholar

Morris, R., Lovett, M., and Wolf, M. (1996). Treatment of developmental reading disabilities. NICHD grant proposal.Google Scholar

Perfetti, C. A. (1985). Reading Ability. New York: Oxford Press.Google Scholar

Schmandt-Besserat, D. (1992). Before Writing: From Counting to Cuneiform. College Station, TX: Texas University Press.Google Scholar

Seidenberg, M. and McCelland, J. (1989). A distributed developmental model of word recognition and naming. Psychological Review, 96, 35–49.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Teale, W. and Sulzby, E. (eds.). (1986). Emergent Literacy: Writing and Reading. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, Co.Google Scholar

Wolf, M., O'Brien, B., Adams, K., Joffe, T., Jeffrey, J., Lovett, M., and Morris, R. (2003). Working for time: Reflections on naming speed, reading fluency, and intervention. In Foorman, B. (ed.)., Preventing and Remediating Reading Difficulties: Bringing Science to Scale. Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar

Wolf, M. and Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading (Special Issue on Fluency. Editors: E. Kame'enui and D. Simmons), 5, 211–238.

Wolf, M., Miller, L., and Donnelly, K. (2000). Retrieval, Automaticity, Vocabulary Elaboration, Orthography (RAVE-O): A comprehensive fluency-based reading intervention program. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33(4), 375–386.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Wolf, M. and Bowers, P. (2000). The question of naming-speed deficits in developmental reading disabilities: An introduction to the Double-Deficit Hypothesis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33, 322–324.CrossRef Google Scholar

Wolf, M. and Bowers, P.(1999). The “Double-Deficit Hypothesis” for the developmental dyslexias. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(3), 1–24.CrossRef Google Scholar

Wolf, M. and Segal, D. (1999). Retrieval-rate, accuracy and vocabulary elaboration (RAVE) in reading-impaired children: A pilot intervention program. Dyslexia, 5, 1–27.3.0.CO;2-A>CrossRef Google Scholar

Wolf, M. and Goodman, G. (1996). Speed Wizards: Computerized games for the teaching of reading fluency. Tufts University and Rochester Institute of Technology.