Many deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children struggle with reading and the severity of the impairment for some children increases with age. Despite this, we know very little about the brain mechanisms for successful reading in DHH children and do not know why some DHH children are good readers and other are not. The research discussed in this episode uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 10- to 15-year-old hearing children as well as in DHH children with predominant signed language, predominant oral language, or bimodal (signed and oral) language. The longitudinal approach follows children two years later and allows an investigation of how reading gains are related to brain changes over time and whether this varies with age.
VKC Researcher: James Booth, Ph.D., Patricia & Rodes Hart Chair and Professor of Psychology & Human Development
Interviewer: Daniel Devor, project coordinator, Brain Development Lab.
Watch the video of the podcast with ASL interpretation at:
https://share.vidyard.com/watch/YwWsiMVZsLfTgnk61a4yEX?
What is The Promise of Discovery?
“The Promise of Discovery” is a podcast hosted by the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center that highlights research in intellectual and developmental disabilities. The goals of the podcast are to host conversations about research in plain language and to highlight “real world” implications. The discussions cover why the research matters in the lives of people with disabilities and families, how the research impacts and enhances what we know already and/or raises additional questions in the field, and what implications the research might have for policy.