Learning to read and dyslexia: from theory to intervention

How do children learn to read? How do deficits in various components of the reading network affect learning outcomes? How does remediating one or several components change reading performance? In this talk, I will quickly summarize what we know about how children learn to read. I will then present the first full-blown developmentally plausible computational model of reading acquisition. The model will be used to understand normal and impaired reading development (dyslexia). In particular, I will show that it is possible to simulate individual learning trajectories and intervention outcomes on the basis of three component skills: orthography, phonology, and vocabulary. The work advocates a multi-factorial computational approach of understanding reading that has practical implications for dyslexia and intervention.

To meet Johannes Ziegler, please contact Franck Ramus: franck.ramus@ens.fr