Science of Reading, Part Three

What does the average young child need in order to develop oral language skills?

• an environment that stimulates language areas in the brain

• explicit instruction in developing specific oral language skills

• an environment rich with interactive, language-based educational technology

• activities that explicitly stimulate the sensory and emotion areas in the brain

Neronal recycling, or plasticity, is the brain's ability to do what?

• use existing brain areas and connections for a new function

• control important cognitive skills such as problem solving and memory

• use many brain areas to process and respond to sensory stimuli

• control necessary functions such as procedural learning and routine behaviors

About how many miliseconds does it take for a skilled reader of any language to recognize a written word and its meaning?

• 250

• 520

• 750

• 1000

What is one of the defining characteristics of developmental dyslexia?

• oral language skills are poor

• management of attention is poor

• comprehension fails to become automatic

• decoding fails to become fluent

What is fMRI used for in the studies described by Dr. Pugh?

• measuring the timing of brain activity while a subject is receiving stimuli

• understanding which brain areas are engaged while a task is being performed

• understanding how brain injuries or abnormalities are affecting response to stimuli

• measuring the magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain

What do EEGs and MEGs measure?

• optical absorption of red blood cells

• movement of cerebrospinal fluid

• where blood flow increases during activity

• the timing of electrical activity in the brain

What has fMRI revealed about the brains of skilled adult readers during exposure to written and spoken words?

• much of the right hemisphere is heavily involved in reading low or high-level texts

• the frontal lobe is very active while a subject is exposed to spoken words but not while exposed to written words

• the circuitry for oral language is used for understanding written and spoken words indiscriminately

• The written language area is active whether words are spoken or read

Auditory and visual areas of the brain work together to allow the development of successful reading. This development must be supported by cortical and subcortical areas that are critical to what other processes?

• emotion and semantics

• attention and executive function

• short-term memory

• integrating sensory information

If all "goes well" in the transition from accurate to fluent word reading, a specialization develops in the occipitotemporal cortex. What activity is supported by this specialization?

• strong connections between the frontal and occipital lobes

• rapid mapping between the memory and language areas

• rapid mapping between the visual and language areas

• strong connections between the emotion and language areas

Dr. Pugh states that the brain of a first-grade child could predict their third-grade reading scores. What stood out in the first-grade brain scans of skilled third-grade readers?

• the right hemisphere was very engaged during reading

• visual areas were activating for spoken words

• areas in the limbic system were engaged during reading

• speech areas were activating for printed words