Shared Reading Quality and Brain Activation during Story Listening in Preschool-Age Children

Abstract

Objective To explore the relationship between maternal shared reading quality (verbal interactivity and engagement) and brain function during story listening in at-risk, preschool-age children, in the context of behavioral evidence and American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations. Study design In this cross-sectional study, 22 healthy, 4-year-old girls from low-socioeconomic status (SES) households completed functional MRI using an established story listening task, followed by videotaped observation of un-coached mother-daughter reading of the same, age-appropriate picture book. Shared reading quality was independently scored applying dialogic reading and other evidence-based criteria reflecting interactivity and engagement, and applied as a predictor of neural activation during the fMRI task, controlling for income and maternal education. Results Shared reading quality scores were generally low, and negatively correlated with maternal distraction by smartphones (P < .05). Scores were positively correlated with activation in left-sided brain areas supporting expressive and complex language, social-emotional integration and working memory (p < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected). Conclusion Maternal shared reading quality is positively correlated with brain activation supporting complex language, executive function, and social-emotional processing in at-risk, preschool-age children. These findings represent novel neural biomarkers of how this modifiable aspect of home reading environment may influence foundational emergent literacy skills, reinforce behavioral evidence and AAP recommendations, and underscore the potential of dialogic reading interventions to promote healthy brain development, especially in at-risk households.

Language Matters: Denying the Existence of the 30‐Million‐Word Gap Has Serious Consequences

“…These components of "dialogic reading" (Whitehurst et al, 1988) were related to differences in brain activation in Broca's area. Thus, Romeo et al (2018), Hutton et al (2017), and numerous behavioral studies (e.g., Cartmill et al, 2013;Malin et al, 2014) find that language quality and reading quality are contributors to children's brain development and language growth. In this regard, SSM report on the extensive personal stories told in working-class African American families to their children, certainly valuable exchanges for children's later vocabulary development (Sperry & Sperry, 1996, 2000.…”

Dialogic reading vs screen exposure intervention is related to increased cognitive control in preschool‐age children

“…Interestingly, stories stimulation driven by adults feeds into executive functions brain networks even in preschool‐age children . The level of dialogue with mothers was also related to brain regions related to language, socio‐emotional and executive functions in preschoolers . Posner and Petersen suggested that the mentioned cognitive abilities are an ‘attentional network’ that can be divided into two subcomponents or systems .…”

Emergent Reading and Brain Development

“…A recent study demonstrated increased activation and functional connectivity in children who are more deeply engaged during shared reading in 22 motherdaughter pairs [71]. The same group also associated shared reading quality scores with brain activation, and they found a positive correlation between shared reading quality scores with activation in left-hemispheric regions supporting expressive and complex language, social-emotional integration, and working memory in 22 healthy, 4-year-old girls from low SES [72]. Their findings suggest that the use of shared parent-child reading is crucial for emergent reading experience, but the quality of this experience has also a strong impact on brain development.…”