Posted on Jan. 22: Grant supports language and literacy skill development

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/laurel_trainor.jpg” caption=”Laurel Trainor”]McMaster's Laurel Trainor was awarded $50,000 to help further Canada's goal of improving children's language and literacy skills.

The professor of psychology received the grant Tuesday from Stan Keyes, MP for Hamilton West, on behalf of the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network. The Network is part of the Government of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program.

Entitled “A Longitudinal Study of the Relation Between Pre-Linguistic Temporal Processing and Language Ability,” the study investigates a method of identifying infants who might be at risk for future language and reading problems. Findings suggest that language delay and reading impairment are linked to the brain's difficulty to quickly process sound. The research project will measure the electrical brain responses of six-month-old infants as they listen to different lengths of sound. The children will then be followed to study how the processing of sound develops. It is hoped that measures at six months of age might be able to predict future reading success.

“If the predicted relation between brain processing and later reading ability is found, we hope to be able to use this test to identify infants at risk for future reading difficulties, and thus provide early intervention,” says Trainor.

“The Network's research activities focus on early child development because language and literacy deficiencies are best addressed and prevented early in life. The solutions to these problems require collaboration between many scientific disciplines, practitioners and private and public partners. The Network was created to build these linkages and exchanges,” said Keyes.