Newborn Event-Related Potentials Predict Poorer Pre-Reading Skills in Children at Risk for Dyslexia

• Published in: Journal of learning disabilities 2010-09, Vol.43 (5), p.391-401
• Main Authors: Guttorm, Tomi K., Leppänen, Paavo H. T., Hämäläinen, Jarmo A., Eklund, Kenneth M., Lyytinen, Heikki J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Factors; At risk; At Risk Persons; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain - physiopathology; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Child clinical studies; Child Language; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Developmental delays; Diagnostic Tests; Disability Identification; Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes; Dyslexia; Dyslexia - diagnosis; Dyslexia - physiopathology; Dyslexia - psychology; Early Diagnosis; Electroencephalography; Emergent Literacy; Event-related potentials; Evoked Potentials; Familial factors; Female; Finland; Foreign Countries; Functional Laterality; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Infants; Language acquisition; Language and communication disorders; Language proficiency; Language Skills; Learning disabilities; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical sciences; Memory; Naming; Neonates; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Onset (Phonology); Phonology; Polarity; Positive emotions; Predictor Variables; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reading; Reading ability; Reading Difficulties; Reading Skills; Receptive Language; Risk Factors; Special education; Speech; Speech sounds; Syllables; Verbal memory; Vowels; Young Children
• ISSN: 0022-2194; 1538-4780
• DOI: 10.1177/0022219409345005

Earlier results from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia showed that newborn event-related potentials (ERPs) of children with and without familial risk for dyslexia were associated with receptive language and verbal memory skills between 2.5 and 5 years of age. We further examined whether these ERPs (responses to synthetic consonant-vowel syllables /ba/, /da/, /ga/; presented equiprobably with 3,910—7,285 ms interstimulus intervals) predict later pre-reading skills measured before the onset of school (6.5 years of age). In line with our earlier results, the at-risk children (N = 11) with atypical speech processing in the right hemisphere (a slower shift in polarity from positivity to negativity in responses to /ga/ at 540—630 ms) scored significantly lower in phonological skills, rapid naming, and letter knowledge than the control children (N = 10) without enhanced right hemispheric speech processing. These results further extend our earlier findings of newborn ERPs in predicting poorer language skills. These consistent differences in ERPs to speech sounds may have applications in the future for the early identification of children at risk for developmental language problems. This would facilitate well-directed intervention even before reading problems are typically diagnosed.