Dyslexia, an impairment in accurate or fluent word recognition, is the most common learning disability affecting roughly ten percent of children. This proposal capitalizes on cutting edge neuroimaging methods, in combination with reading education programs, to generate a new understanding of how successful reading education shapes the development of the brain circuits that support skilled reading. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms of successful remediation of dyslexia, and individual differences in learning, will pave the way for personalized approaches to dyslexia treatment.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
90
Seeing Stars in a curriculum developed by Lindamood-Bell. It is published and openly available. It involves systematic training in the building blocks of skilled reading.
Stanford University
Stanford, California, United States
White Matter Plasticity - Left Arcuate Tract
Change in white matter mean diffusivity (MD) measured with diffusion MRI. MD quantifies the average magnitude of water diffusion within a given region of tissue. An increase in mean diffusivity (MD) suggests an increase in free water movement (corresponds to less white matter integrity), while a decrease in MD suggests restricted water diffusion, potentially from increased cellular density (corresponds to greater white matter integrity). Values typically range from approximately 0.5 to 1.5 × 10\^-3 mm²/s in healthy white matter.
Time frame: Baseline (within 2 weeks pre-intervention), post-intervention (within 2 weeks post-intervention, up to 10 weeks), and at 1 year follow up
White Matter Plasticity - Inferior Longitudinal Tract
Change in white matter mean diffusivity (MD) measured with diffusion MRI. MD quantifies the average magnitude of water diffusion within a given region of tissue. An increase in mean diffusivity (MD) suggests an increase in free water movement (corresponds to less white matter integrity), while a decrease in MD suggests restricted water diffusion, potentially from increased cellular density (corresponds to greater white matter integrity). Values typically range from approximately 0.5 to 1.5 × 10\^-3 mm²/s in healthy white matter.
Time frame: Baseline (within 2 weeks pre-intervention), post-intervention (within 2 weeks post-intervention, up to 10 weeks), and at 1 year follow up
Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) Size
Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) refers to a region in the brain associated with the recognition of written words. VWFA size is calculated as the number of vertices in the cotrical surface. There are no definitive clinical relevant thresholds for the size of the VWFA that apply universally. Research indicates that variations in VWFA size and activation are associated with reading abilities and disorders.
Time frame: Baseline (within 2 weeks pre-intervention), post-intervention (within 2 weeks post-intervention, up to 10 weeks), and at 1 year follow up
Woodcock-Johnson Basic Reading Skills (WJ BRS) Assessment Battery
The Woodcock-Johnson Basic Reading Skills (WJ BRS) Assessment Battery results in a composite score across multiple assessments. Assessment scores are transformed to create an overall score range of 0 to 200. A score of 100 indicates average reading ability. Scores below 85 may indicate potential reading difficulties
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Time frame: Baseline (within 2 weeks pre-intervention), post-intervention (within 2 weeks post-intervention, up to 10 weeks), and at 1 year follow up