| The present study is a novel investigation of neural mechanisms underlying reading development in bilingual children compared to monolinguals. We asked how do bilingual children learn to read when faced with phonological processing across two languages? Both behavioral measures and functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) were used to observe any similarities or differences in brain activity between bilingual and monolingual readers. The behavioral findings corroborate a bilingual reading advantage; bilinguals were faster and more accurate than monolinguals when reading words. fNIRS data showed bilinguals demonstrated greater activation in classic language areas as compared to monolinguals. Taken together, this research advances contemporary scientific controversy concerning types of processing underlying reading and its maturational development over time. Ultimately, this research may have translational significance in education to situate normative developmental reading milestones in bilingual children, which is vitally important in developing effective therapies for bilingual children at risk for reading disorders. |
