The maturation of neural systems supporting reading development in children
LE3 .A278 2013
2013
Newman, Randy Lynn
Acadia University
Bachelor of Science
Honours
Psychology
Event-related potentials (ERP) were used to investigate the development of phonological awareness in emergent (5-6 yrs) and early fluent readers (7-8 yrs). Children were presented with a picture followed by a spoken word that matched (e.g., CONE, cone) or mismatched the picture. Mismatch trials included a rhyme (e.g., CONE, bone) and an unrelated condition (e.g., CONE, fox). Exploratory analyses suggested that early fluent readers elicited a PMN in both mismatch conditions, while emergent readers elicited a PMN in the rhyme condition only. Both groups elicited an N400 in the rhyme condition, but only early fluent readers showed an N400 in the unrelated condition. The omnibus analysis found evidence for a reduced late N400 in rhyming in early fluent readers, but not the emergent readers. It appears that reading level influences the pattern of ERP responses; however, further work is needed as results were primarily based on an exploratory analysis. Keywords: Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERP), PMN, N400, segmental, suprasegmental, children, emergent and early fluent readers
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:990