Nadine Gaab
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
The typical and atypical reading brain: How a neurobiological framework of early language and reading development can inform educational practice and policy
Learning trajectories are shaped by the dynamic interplay between nature and nurture, starting in utero and continuing throughout the lifespan. Learning differences/disabilities are often not identified until childhood or adolescence, but divergent trajectories of brain development may be present as early as the prenatal period. Furthermore, children's experiences and their interactions with their environment have long-lasting influences on cognitive and brain development and future academic outcomes. This talk will focus on learning differences in reading acquisition within a learning disability framework. It will present results from our longitudinal behavioral and neuroimaging studies that characterize differences in learning to read as a complex outcome of cumulative risk and protective factors interacting within and across genetic, neurobiological, cognitive, and environmental levels from infancy to adulthood. Results are discussed within an early multifactorial framework of learning differences, emphasizing screening in educational and community settings, early identification, preventative strategies, and a research-to-practice tool development pipeline. Finally, using a global lens, the implications of these findings for contemporary challenges in educational, clinical, and policy practice are discussed
