Researcher: Dr. Nadine Gaab (PI) and her Team, Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston

Looking for: Children between the ages of 4-6 with or without a family history of dyslexia.

Scope of Participation: Children will receive behavioral testing and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

We are conducting cutting-edge research focused on the early detection of reading difficulties marked by early language characteristics in pre-reading children (ages 4 to 6) by looking at brain processes of children with and of children without a family-history of dyslexia. Reading problems tend to run in families. Given this, we are researching children with at least one family member diagnosed with dyslexia (either one sibling or one parent), in an effort to examine how these pre-readers use their brains. Our aim is to compare the brain networks of children who may later show signs of developmental dyslexia with those of typical pre-reading children.

The main goal is to use brain imaging methods to identify children at risk for developmental dyslexia at a very early age, before reading skills are even present. An advanced understanding of brain processes in children with a risk for developmental dyslexia may help us to improve and implement early remediation programs. It may also lead to the development and extension of supportive social networks for parents and children. We hope that our work will help educators, scientists and parents to better understand how children with developmental dyslexia can best be supported to improve their reading development and experiences.

To reach these goals, Dr. Nadine Gaab and her Team at the Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School are currently working with pre-reading children who may be at risk for developmental dyslexia. Dr. Nadine Gaab and her team have extensive experience working with children in the field of developmental dyslexia.

Participation in this study will involve 1-2 sessions of behavioral testing and one session using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is a non-invasive tool to examine brain differences in children with and without a family history of developmental dyslexia. We also have some actual pictures of the fMRI scanner in the Kids Area. Here is a further link for your kids, where they get a short impression about the task that we perform in the scanner A Spaceship Adventure. If you still have questions or if you would like to participate, please contact us per email or call the Gaablab at 857-218-4629 04 857-218-3022.

The most important part of our studies are our participants. We can't conduct research without them!