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The relation of the home literacy environment to white matter pathways associated with language in children 5-8 years old
Poster Session D, Saturday, September 13, 5:00 - 6:30 pm, Field House
Alisha B. Compton1, Avantika Mathur1, James R. Booth1; 1Vanderbilt University
Phonological and semantic processing are two critical components of language comprehension. Behavioral studies indicate the home literacy environment (HLE) is associated with phonological awareness and vocabulary skills (Niklas & Schneider, 2013; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2014). Studies have also found relations between the HLE and white matter pathways in the brain for children in infancy, preschool, and kindergarten (Davison et al., 2023; Hutton et al., 2020; Turesky et al., 2022). Although prior work suggests relations between the HLE and white matter in younger children, studies have not yet examined the relation of the HLE to white matter pathways in older children. Additionally, the specific relations of the HLE to tracts associated with phonology (arcuate fasciculus [AF] and superior longitudinal fasciculus [SLF]) and semantics (inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus [IFOF] and inferior longitudinal fasciculus [ILF]) across development have not been investigated (Vanderauwera et al., 2018; Vandermosten et al., 2012; Yeatman et al., 2011). The present study examined the relation of shared reading to these white matter pathways in a group of children 5-6 years old (N=79, Mage= 5.9, 48 females, 85% White) and a group of children 7-8 years old (N=107, Mage= 7.6, 68 females, 82% White). Participants completed standardized assessments and diffusion-weighted imaging scans. A series of pre-registered node-wise regression analyses tested relations with parent-to-child reading. The tracts were divided into 100 nodes. For each age group, a mask of the top 30 nodes (with a cluster-wise threshold of 3 nodes) most associated with standardized scores of phonological awareness (in the AF and SLF) or semantic knowledge (in the IFOF and ILF) was made. Relations with shared reading were examined in the nodes defined by these masks, as well as across all 100 nodes of each tract. All analyses were controlled for age and socioeconomic status. Results suggest weak evidence (p<0.05 and a cluster-wise threshold of 3 nodes) for the relation of shared reading and fractional anisotropy in some of the 30 nodes most associated with semantics in the IFOF for the group of children 5-6 years old. These nodes were in one cluster toward the anterior portion of the tract (4 nodes, average r=0.29). These results build on the prior work in this age group which did not examine this tract. This work provides insight on the relation of environmental factors to white matter pathways associated with language at a key time in which children are learning to read. Books geared towards younger children may have more pictures than those geared towards older children and a portion of the IFOF is thought to be involved in picture-naming (Giampiccolo et al., 2025). Additionally, in a behavioral study on this age group, a randomized control trial found that following an intervention focused on teaching parents how to engage in dialogic reading and print referencing practices, children in the intervention group had significantly more of an increase in picture naming compared to children in the control group (Sim et al., 2014). Future research with more precise HLE measurements is needed to verify weak evidence.
Topic Areas: Language Development/Acquisition, Phonology