Reading Development

Project Rationale

Our ultimate goal is to understand factors tht contribute to full literacy - the skill of being able to comprehend and interpret written information. With this study we are focusing on factors that contribute to comprehension of written text during the early stages of literacy development - the crucially important transition from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’. During just a few years, how and when do children begin to understand the meaning of text being read and, moreover, the meaning of words within the context of a sentence, or story?

What do we already know?

Reading comprehension depends not only on recognizing words but also on recognizing punctuation cues, such as periods and commas. Awareness of punctuation and sensitivity to comma placement has been shown to correlate with understanding sentence structure and readng comprehension (Ryken, Wade-Woolley, and Deacon, 2024).

Previous ERP studies have identified a distinct effect called the ‘closure positive shift” (CPS) associated with response to prosodic boundaries in spoken speech and commas in written text. The CPS has been measured in adults during reading of text (Drury et al., 2016) and children while listening to recorded sentences (Mannel, et al., 2013). We think the CPS seems like a marker that could be helpful in assessing when and how children’s sensitivity to punctuation develops, which may make it a good predictor of reading development.

Overview of the Current Study

To build on previous research examining the relationships between neural processes and reading ability, the present study will recruit children from grades 3–5 to participate in one session lasting approximately 90 minutes. During this session we will examine changes in patterns of brain activity while silently reading individual words that form sentences that, in turn, form a story. To look at children’s brain activity we’ll use electroencephalography (EEG). EEG is a safe, non-invasive, child-friendly brain imaging technique that measures electrical signals in the brain. (click here for more information). With EEG and standardized measures of reading ability, we can then investigate if more differentiated brain responses to punctuation are related to reading comprehension and reading related skills.

Current State of the Study

We plan to collect data during the late fall of 2025 and continue to March 2026. If you would like more information on participating in this study, please contact us at [email protected] or go to this link: xxxx This project is approved by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Ethics Board at Dalhousie University (REB# 2025-8051).

Funding

This project is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).