View in EDS PDF Full Text

The Relation of Home Literacy Environment to Brain Specialization and Sensitivity for Phonological and Semantic Processing of Spoken Words.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Relation of Home Literacy Environment to Brain Specialization and Sensitivity for Phonological and Semantic Processing of Spoken Words.
Authors: Compton, Alisha B.1 alisha.b.compton@vanderbilt.edu, Banaszkiewicz, Anna1,2, Wang, Jin3, Booth, James R.1
Source: Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research. Apr2026, Vol. 69 Issue 4, p1686-1705. 20p.
Subject Terms: *Reading, *Statistical correlation, *Parent-child relationships, *Home environment, *Research, *Literacy, *Speech perception, *Phonology, *Language acquisition, *Cognition, Brain physiology, Cross-sectional method, Probability theory, Magnetic resonance imaging, Descriptive statistics, Semantics, Neuroradiology, Brain mapping, Regression analysis
Geographic Terms: Texas
Abstract: Purpose: Neural specialization is a developmental phenomenon across multiple domains of language processing. The home literacy environment (HLE) is observed to relate to brain activation during language and reading tasks; however, whether HLE relates to phonological and semantic functional specialization and sensitivity remains unknown. Method: Using an open-source data set, this study examined thirty-three 5- to 6-year-olds and seventy-six 7- to 8-year-olds. Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging sound and meaning judgment tasks were used to examine phonological and semantic functional specialization (contrasting tasks) and sensitivity (comparing conditions within a task). Then, voxel-wise regression analyses were used to test correlations between those brain indexes and HLE (i.e., family-to-child reading, child independent reading) measured using a parent survey. Results: We observed weak evidence of phonological specialization at 5 years old and weak evidence of semantic specialization at 7 years old associated with family-to-child reading. We also observed weak evidence of phonological sensitivity at 5 years old and strong evidence of semantic sensitivity at 7 years old associated with family-to-child reading. Across the cohorts, a progression from temporal to frontal brain regions was observed in those relations, in line with prior literature on language specialization and sensitivity across development. Conclusions: Overall, our results suggest that HLE is linked to functional specialization and sensitivity, with family-to-child reading showing a weak relation to sound structure processing at 5 years old but a stronger relation to meaning processing at 7 years old. This finding supports the interactive specialization theory, which emphasizes the role of environmental inputs in neural specialization. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.31606621 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research is the property of American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Education Research Complete
Description
Abstract:Purpose: Neural specialization is a developmental phenomenon across multiple domains of language processing. The home literacy environment (HLE) is observed to relate to brain activation during language and reading tasks; however, whether HLE relates to phonological and semantic functional specialization and sensitivity remains unknown. Method: Using an open-source data set, this study examined thirty-three 5- to 6-year-olds and seventy-six 7- to 8-year-olds. Data from functional magnetic resonance imaging sound and meaning judgment tasks were used to examine phonological and semantic functional specialization (contrasting tasks) and sensitivity (comparing conditions within a task). Then, voxel-wise regression analyses were used to test correlations between those brain indexes and HLE (i.e., family-to-child reading, child independent reading) measured using a parent survey. Results: We observed weak evidence of phonological specialization at 5 years old and weak evidence of semantic specialization at 7 years old associated with family-to-child reading. We also observed weak evidence of phonological sensitivity at 5 years old and strong evidence of semantic sensitivity at 7 years old associated with family-to-child reading. Across the cohorts, a progression from temporal to frontal brain regions was observed in those relations, in line with prior literature on language specialization and sensitivity across development. Conclusions: Overall, our results suggest that HLE is linked to functional specialization and sensitivity, with family-to-child reading showing a weak relation to sound structure processing at 5 years old but a stronger relation to meaning processing at 7 years old. This finding supports the interactive specialization theory, which emphasizes the role of environmental inputs in neural specialization. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.31606621 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:10924388
DOI:10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00448