Tracing the Roots of Language and Literacy 跟踪人类语言和阅读能力的根源

BY:Emily Boudreau

Researchers have long known that a child’s brain develops the capacity for language rapidly and as a response to environmental input like listening to a story, talking with a caregiver, or looking at pages in a book. Up until now, though, the relationship between brain structure — specifically the organization of white matter, or the way the bundles of messaging tissue, or axons, connect different parts of the brain — and language and reading was only observed after the onset of formal schooling. But a new study establishes that the influence of the organization of white matter on subsequent language and literacy skills may be observed as early as infancy.

研究人员早就知道，孩子的大脑会迅速发展语言能力，并且会对环境输入做出反应，比如听故事，和护士说话或者看书。然而，到目前为止，只有在学校开始后，才能观察到大脑结构(尤其是白质组织，或信息传递组织束或轴突连接大脑不同部位的方式)与语言和阅读的关系。但是一项新的研究表明，早在婴儿时期就可以观察到白质组织对后续语言和识字技能的影响。

The study, coauthored by Harvard Graduate School of Education Associate Professor Nadine Gaab; Jennifer Zuk, Ed.M.'10; Joseph Sanfilippo, Ed.M.'16; HGSE postdoctoral candidate Theodore Turesky; and researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital provides evidence that structural brain networks in infants as early as four months after birth are linked to later language and reading skills. The study, published in

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Brain Organization in the First Year of Life 大脑组织在人生的第一年开始。

Although white matter develops and changes so rapidly over the first two years of a child’s life, the relationship between white matter organization in infancy and subsequent language and literacy skills in kindergarten had yet to be studied at this early age. “We’ve known for a long time that language skills are related to a child’s brain development and are shaped by the environment,” Gaab says. “What we didn’t know was how early this relationship can be seen, if the development depends entirely on the environment, or if ongoing experience builds on foundational white matter organization throughout development.”

虽然白质在儿童生命的前两年发展和变化非常迅速，但在这个童年时期，白质组织与幼儿园语言和识字技能的关系并没有得到研究。加布说：我们早就知道，语言技能与儿童的大脑发育有关，并且受到环境的影响。我们不知道的是，如果发展完全依赖环境，或者在整个R&D过程中，如果持续的经验建立在基本的白色物质组织之上，这种关系可以在很早的时候被发现。”

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白质

白质

To determine whether white matter in infancy relates to language and literacy development later in life, the researchers used MRI technology to generate images of white matter pathways in 40 infants and then, five to six years later, used a variety of language and literacy assessments to track each child’s development. Gaab and her coauthors focused their study specifically on one white matter pathway called the arcuate fasciculus, which is linked to language and reading development in older children and adults.

为了确定婴儿期的白质是否与未来的语言和阅读发展有关，研究人员利用核磁共振成像技术生成了40名婴儿的白质通道图像，然后在五到六年后，他们使用各种语言和阅读评估来跟踪每个孩子的发展。Gaab与她合作的人把他们的研究重点放在一条叫做弓状束的白色通道上，这个通道与大一点的孩子和成年人的语言和阅读发展有关。

After controlling for external factors that may have an impact on language and literacy development, such as parents’ education levels and socioeconomic status, the findings link white matter organization in the arcuate fasciculus in infancy with subsequent oral language and pre-literacy abilities like phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge.

在控制了可能影响语言和阅读发展的外部因素(如父母的教育能力和社会经济地位)后，研究结果将婴儿期弓状束中的白质组织与阅读前的口语和阅读能力(如语音意识和词汇知识)联系起来。

According to Zuk, the paper’s first author, this is the first study to demonstrate that the white matter present within the first year of life does continue to impact language and literacy as children grow. As such, they deepen the field’s current understanding of how the brain learns to process language.

The Capacity for Language and Literacy 语言识字能力

The existence of this early foundation does not discount the strong influence of environmental factors, for example, engaging children in language-rich conversations or reading to children. And caregivers need to provide children with these important experiences to promote language and literacy development. According to Gaab, the link between white matter organization in infancy and subsequent literacy “does not mean that our brain is set in stone when we are born.” But, at the same time, these findings highlight the importance of the first year of life in setting children up for success later in life.