Past Projects
Brain Letterbox Study - UCSF
Learning to read triggers a series of changes in brain structure and function. Among those, the most striking is the specialization of the brain’s “letterbox”, a region of visual cortex, a region of visual cortex which learns to process letters and words. Although lower activation of the brain’s letterbox is a landmark of dyslexia, we currently do not understand the core differences between people with dyslexia and typical readers in how this region processes words.
The purpose of this study is to better understand how the brain encodes words, how these representations develop, and how they differ in dyslexia. Achieving a better understanding of these processes will help us in the long run to better support children with dyslexia.
B.R.A.I.N. CAMP @ UConn
In July and August 2021, we offered a FREE one-month Summer BRAIN CAMP for rising 3rd and 4th graders who need extra reading help at UConn's Storrs, CT campus.
BRAIN CAMP
· is free (includes lunch, snacks and materials)
· is about 6 hours on a school-type schedule
· runs Monday-Friday for 1 month—mid-June/July or mid-July/August
· is for rising 3rd and 4th graders with reading difficulties that
· took place at UConn Storrs campus, summer of 2021,
· includes reading, math, or attention and memory-building activities
· includes fun non-academic activities
RESCUE Project (Nationwide; online)
The COVID-19 pandemic led to school closure since March of 2020. Most students continued distance learning or a hybrid model with minimal in-person instruction. The closure significantly affected academic and socio-emotional development. Researchers estimate that 35% of reading learning was already lost by the start of the school year in fall 2020. This is known as the COVID-slide.
GOALS
To offer a state-of-the-art, researcher-developed, computer-adaptive reading instructional tool (GraphoLearn) and progress monitoring results (Star) to teachers, families, and their students.
To quantify the impact of the COVID slide.
To test whether EdTech (GraphoLearn) can prevent the COVID slide and, if so, how.
Learning Success Program - Bilingualism & Literacy Acquisition @ UCSF
We began a large-scale neuroimaging study in 2015 looking at how children learning two (or more) languages learn to read from kindergarten to 3rd grade. Our efforts include Spanish and Chinese speakers learning to read in English and their native languages, and English speakers learning to read in English. This project aims to test and evaluate models of literacy acquisition. We also studied how learning multiple languages may affect cognition, socio-emotional skills, and creativity. We ultimately hope to help teachers develop instructional strategies to maximize English language learners’ success in the classroom and beyond.
Project Collaborators
Uchikoshi (UC Davis), Leung (USF), Kovelman (U Michigan), McBride-Chang (U Hong Kong), Siegel (U British Columbia), Carreiras (BCBL), Pugh (Haskins)
AppRISE: Application for Readiness in Schools and Learning Evaluation
AppRISE is a fun, universal screener that assesses school readiness and dyslexia risk in young learners through a gamified app. The app is designed for all young children 3 to 8, including English learners and those with or at-risk for developing learning disabilities. Designed to be as reliable as conventional assessments, AppRISE measures a range of literacy and cognitive skills and will help identify risk for reading and other learning disabilities that will allow early intervention.
Social and Emotional Learning @ UCSF
We examined the neurobiological and affective/cognitive underpinnings of socio-emotional constructs, such as motivation, grit, resilience, mindset, and stereotype threat. Understanding the intricacies underlying common socio-emotional constructs may help us to tease apart their similarities and differences, and develop targeted interventions based on a student’s personal needs. The ultimate goal of this research is to enhance student learning from a holistic perspective, recognizing that academic and life success depends on more than cognitive abilities.
We developed several tools related to this focus, including outreach materials for underserved populations, teacher training modules with student activities, and a comprehensive assessment tool.
Project Collaborators
Gabe Friedman (Eye to Eye National), Mariel Henkoff (Eye to Eye National)
The Effect of Mentoring on Social and Emotional Learning in Learning Disabilities (LD)
Eye to Eye manages a network of mentoring programs that pairs LD/ADHD elementary and middle school students with similarly identified college and high school students. The partnership between Eye to Eye and brainLENS sparks an initiative for rigorous and nationwide evaluation of the effect of one-to-one mentoring on social and emotional learning in LD adolescents in 50 chapters spanning 20 states. We assessed mentees with a comprehensive tool on social and emotional skills (S-E Toolkit) before they entered the mentoring program and charted their progress over a course of two years. This project is funded by the Oak Foundation.
Multiband Imaging of Auditory Processing
This study examined how brain structure and chemistry relate to neural oscillations in auditory brain regions. The findings helped us understand the neurobiological underpinnings of dyslexia and related disorders, from the levels of neurotransmitters and electrophysiological signals to large-scale brain networks, and their links to behavior, which will allow for more targeted interventions.
