Brain scans can predict children’s reading ability, Stanford researchers say
New research from Stanford shows that brain scans can identify the neural differences between these two children, and could one day lead to an early warning system for struggling students.
The researchers scanned the brain anatomy of 39 children once a year for three consecutive years. The students then took standardized tests to gauge their cognitive, language and reading skills.
In each case, the rate of development (measured by fractional anisotropy, or FA) in the white matter regions of the brain, which are associated with reading, accurately predicted their test scores.
And what happens when, sooner or later, someone decides that teaching literacy to the kids with less “reading-prone” brains is a waste of effort?