How we learn to read (and why some struggle): what neuroscience teaches us about a transformative human technology | Bruce McCandliss

In this episode, we explore the fascinating neuroscience behind how children learn to read with Bruce McCandliss, director of the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative.

Key topics include:
• How our brains "recycle" visual and language circuits to create reading expertise
• The crucial threshold when reading shifts from effortful to automatic
• Why some children struggle more than others to develop reading fluency
• How teachers can tailor instruction to help struggling readers
• The profound ways literacy reshapes our brains and cognition

Join us  for a mind-expanding look at one of humanity's most transformative technologies - written language - and how mastering it quite literally changes our brains.

Learn More

• Learn about the Stanford Educational Neuroscience Initiative at Stanford's Graduate School of Education
• Learn about the "brainwave learning center" at Menlo Park's Synapse School.
• Watch McCandliss present his work at Wu Tsai Neuro's 10th anniversary Symposium

Recent Academic Articles & News Coverage

• Tan LH, Perfetti CA, Ziegler JC, McCandliss B. "Editorial: Neural bases of reading acquisition and reading disability." Frontiers in Neuroscience (2023).
  
  This editorial highlights advances in the neuroscience of reading, focusing on the brain mechanisms underlying reading development and disabilities. The authors summarize key themes across international research, including neuroimaging insights and educational applications.
  
  
• Stanford News. "Stanford-led study links school environment to brain development" (2024) 
  
  Researchers found that children who attend higher-performing schools have accelerated white matter development, including in an area of the brain closely associated with reading skills.
  
  
• Stanford News. "Stanford study on brain waves shows how different teaching methods affect reading development" (2015)
  
  Stanford Professor Bruce McCandliss found that beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships, or phonics, increase activity in the area of their brains best wired for reading.

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