The Neurobiological Development of Reading Fluency

Abstract

This chapter offers an extensive review of current and foundational research literature on the neurodevelopment of dyslexia and reading fluency worldwide. The impact of different languages and their orthographies on the acquisition of phonological analysis and orthographical features by beginning readers is explored. Contributions from the Psycholinguistic Grain Size Theory and new assessments, i.e. rapid automatized naming, have focused and advanced the understanding of slow phonological and visual processing skills. Recently, the development of new definitions of fluency has led to a proposed continuum of automatized decoding and processing skills required for students of English. Computer technology has enhanced the use of visual hemisphere-specific stimulation to affect the neurodevelopment of efficient word retrieval pathways and to increase reading speed. Processes for subtyping students based on reading behaviors and then stimulating a particular hemisphere of the brain with the fast presentation of words and phrases have been found to change levels of activation in key brain locations and increase the fluent processing of connected text. Newer technologies such as diffusion tensor imaging, while somewhat suspect, may provide the evidence that ultimately will document the changes in communication between regions of interest regulating the automaticity of brain functions in reading.