Summer “reading camp” to examine brain circuitry essential to literacy

I-LABSResearch


A two-week “camp” to be held at UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) this summer will provide instruction in early literacy skills and reading basics for soon-to-be kindergarteners.  Building on previous research showing that an intensive reading intervention program changed the brain’s reading circuitry in struggling, school-aged readers, Dr. Jason Yeatman, an Assistant Professor at I-LABS and head of the Brain Development and Education Lab, is now looking at younger children to help illuminate the development of the brain’s circuitry for reading. In the new study, Yeatman will use the safe, non-invasive I-LABS MEG brain imaging machine to capture images of each child’s brain at the start and end of the camp, and follow up with these same children next summer.  He hopes to shed light on the early differences in reading abilities and better understand how the brain’s circuitry changes with intensive instruction.

Read the UW press release.