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Purpose:We examined the neurocognitive bases of lexical morphology in children of varied reading abilities to understand the role of meaning-based skills in learning to read with dyslexia. Method:Children completed auditory morphological and phonological awareness tasks during functional near-infrared spectroscopy neuroimaging. We first examined the relation between lexical morphology and phonological processes in typically developing readers (Study 1,N= 66,Mage= 8.39), followed by a more focal inquiry into lexical morphology processes in dyslexia (Study 2,N= 50,Mage= 8.62). Results:Typical readers exhibited stronger engagement of language neurocircuitry during the morphology task relative to the phonology task, suggesting that morphological analyses involve synthesizing multiple components of sublexical processing. This effect was stronger for more analytically complex derivational affixes (like + ly) than more semantically transparent free base morphemes (snow + man). In contrast, children with dyslexia exhibited stronger activation during the free base condition relative to derivational affix condition. Taken together, the findings suggest that although children with dyslexia may struggle with derivational morphology, they may also use free base morphemes' semantic information to boost word recognition. Conclusion:This study informs literacy theories by identifying an interaction between reading ability, word structure, and how the developing brain learns to recognize words in speech and print. Supplemental Material:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25944949
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This content will become publicly available on December 2, 2025
Empatica E4 Assessment of Child Physiological Measures of Listening Effort During Remote and In-Person Communication
Purpose:Telepractice is a growing service model that delivers aural rehabilitation to deaf and hard-of hearing children via telecommunications technology. Despite known benefits of telepractice, this delivery approach may increase patients' listening effort (LE) characterized as an allocation of cognitive resources toward an auditory task. The study tested techniques for collecting physiological measures of LE in normal-hearing (NH) children during remote (referred to as tele-) and in-person communication using the wearable Empatica E4 wristband. Method:Participants were 10 children (age range: 9–12 years old) who came to two tele- and two in-person weekly sessions, order counterbalanced. During each session, the children heard a short passage read by the clinical provider, completed an auditory passage comprehension task, and self-rated their effort as a part of the larger study. Measures of electrodermal activity and blood volume pulse amplitude were collected from the child E4 wristband. Results:No differences in child subjective, physiological measures of LE or passage comprehension scores were found between in-person sessions and telesessions. However, an effect of treatment duration on subjective and physiological measures of LE was identified. Children self-reported a significant increase in LE over time. However, their physiological measures demonstrated a trend indicating a decrease in LE. A significant association between subjective measures and the passage comprehension task was found suggesting that those children who reported more effort demonstrated a higher proportion of correct responses. Conclusions:The study demonstrated the feasibility of collection of physiological measures of LE in NH children during remote and in-person communication using the E4 wristband. The results suggest that measures of LE are multidimensional and may reflect different sources of, or cognitive responses to, increased listening demand. Supplemental Material:https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27122064
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- Award ID(s):
- 1838808
- PAR ID:
- 10565372
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASA
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Journal of Audiology
- Volume:
- 33
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1059-0889
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1331 to 1340
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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