Reading Development and Impairment

What are the cognitive and neurobiological building blocks necessary for children to acquire literacy, a skill that is crucial for academic and life achievement? In this review we discuss the behavioral and neurobiological evidence concerning the bases of reading development and impairment. The means by which reading achievement may be influenced by the background and experiences that a child brings to the classroom are discussed. Finally, we review a series of experimental studies that have examined the cog- nitive and neurobiological response prior to and following reading intervention in struggling readers. The importance of appropriate control groups is stressed, as well as the ultimate goal of designing reading interventions that target individual needs. J Dev Behav Pediatr 26:370-378, 2005. Index terms: reading, neurobiological basis of reading, reading intervention. As literate adults, we process written words automatically and nearly instantaneously, in hundreds of milliseconds. 1 In fact, skilled adult readers cannot stop themselves from involuntarily reading words presented to them, even when instructed to focus on other aspects of the stimulus, such as the color of the ink in which it is written. 2 Further, this rapid, automatic process occurs even when the reader is not consciously aware of seeing a written word. 3 However, such skilled expertise requires years of specialized training and practice. What are the building blocks necessary for children to acquire this skill that is so crucial for academic and life achievement? In this review, we discuss the fundamental cognitive precursors of reading acquisition. We review the evidence from behavioral studies of reading development, and present evidence suggesting that two main brain regions support the neurobiological basis of reading. As reading skill is not acquired in a vacuum, the background and experiences that a child brings to the classroom are intimately involved in shaping reading development. The degree to which socioeconomic background can influence other factors involved in reading acquisition is discussed. Finally, we report on several efforts to design intervention strategies that monitor neural development in concert with reading skill.