Date: Friday February 16, 2024

8:30 am to 5:30 pm

Location on University of South Carolina Campus: Pastides Alumni Center

Pastides Alumni Center, 900 Senate St, Columbia, SC 29201

• Parking: The Park Street Parking Garage (1007 Park Street) adjoins the Pastides Alumni Center. The garage is managed by the City of Columbia, who charges an hourly rate.

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Free registration 

This symposium is free to trainees, faculty, and staff.

• Registration is free, but space is limited. Please register by January 30 (link closed). If registrations exceed room capacity, priority will be given to USC students, faculty, and staff.
• Boxed lunches will be provided for the first 100 guests.

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Poster session details

• Showcase your work! Students and postdocs are welcome to present their work.
• Posters related to the conference themes, as well as topics within cognitive science and neuroscience are acceptable.
• Poster abstracts (< 250 words) should be submitted (link closed) by January 26, 2024 @ 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.
• Posters must fit on a 4ft X 4ft board.

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Agenda for the conference  

Start	Agenda	Title	Speaker
8:30 AM	Registration & Coffee
8:45 AM	Welcome		Dr. Rutvik Desai, IMB Director Dean Joel Samuels, Arts and Sciences
9:00 AM	Invited speaker	The Science of Reading: Neurobiological Foundations & In-School Neuroscience Applications	Dr. Nicole Landi
10:00 AM	Invited speaker	The Reading Brain: Bilingual and Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on Child Literacy	Dr. Ioulia Kovelman
11:00 AM	Break
11:15 AM	Local talk	Multilingualism and reading in practice: Implications for supporting students in contexts that emphasize English	Dr. Lisa Fitton
12:00 AM	Lunch break & Poster session
1:30 PM	Local talk	Lexical Quality, Dyslexia, and Developmental Language Disorder	Dr. Suzanne Adlof
2:15 PM	Invited speaker	How does language brain develop and support reading in children from infancy to elementary school?	Dr. Jin Wang
3:15 PM	Break
3:30 PM	Invited speaker	Collaborating to support language and behavioral development in school settings	Dr. Jason Chow
4:30 PM	Panel discussion	introduced and moderated by Dr. Lesly Wade Woolley	All invited speakers
5:30 PM	End of conference

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Featured external speakers

Dr. Jason Chow Associate Professor of Special Education, Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Chow studies the comorbidity and co-development of language and behavioral disorders and their implications for educational research and practice.

Title:  Collaborating to support language and behavioral development in school settings

Abstract: The purpose of this session is to (1) provide an overview of the literature on the co-development of language, literacy, and behavioral disorders in school-age children, (2) present a conceptual model of language and behavioral development to support early learning, social environments, and high-quality instruction, and (3) summarize a set of interdisciplinary strategies and at supporting language, literacy, and behavior, as well as children and youth with challenges in these domains. This session will also cover issues of overlap between language disorders, incarceration, and other mental health conditions. We will discuss implications for future research and opportunistic researcher-practice partnerships, research and opportunistic researcher-practitioner partnerships.

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Dr. Ioulia Kovelman Professor of Psychology at University of Michigan

 Dr. Kovelman studies bilingualism and reading in different orthographic systems.

Title: The Reading Brain: Bilingual and Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on Child Literacy

Abstract. Learning to read changes mind and brain. How might bilingual experience influence children’s neural architecture for learning to read?  Words have sounds and meanings. The neural architecture for learning to read includes the formation of sound-to-print and meaning-to-print neurocognitive pathways.  Importantly, there is also significant cross-linguistic variation in how children form these associations. Children develop stronger sound-to-print networks in phonologically transparent languages such as Spanish, whereas learners of Chinese form stronger meaning-to-print associations. To understand how bilingual experiences influence children’s developing neural architecture for learning to read, we use fNIRS with Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilingual children in the US. Several key findings emerge from these data. First, the findings reveal principled bilingual transfer effects of children’s word recognition at phonological, morphological, orthographic, and lexical levels of processing.  Second, the findings reveal the Universal and Language-Specific aspects of literacy development across these typologically distinct languages in typical development and dyslexia. The findings are discussed in light of theoretical perspectives on bilingualism, literacy development, and neurodevelopmental plasticity that supports learning to read across languages and learners.  

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Dr. Nicole Landi Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences at University of Connecticut and Haskins Laboratories

Dr. Landi studies imaging-genetics in specific reading disability and neurobiological markers of typical and atypical reading skill.

Title: The Science of Reading: Neurobiological Foundations & In-School Neuroscience Applications

Abstract: Neurobiological approaches have helped to elucidate the brain basis of reading disability (RD) and of reading intervention response; however, there is often limited or inaccurate translation of this knowledge to the broader scientific, clinical, and educational communities. Combined with increasing interest in the science of reading (SOR) and popularity of putative “brain-based” approaches to learning, it is important to seat this work in context, create more opportunities for communication between researchers and practitioners, and facilitate community engaged research. In this presentation I will give background on the science of reading and the neurobiological basis of reading and RD. I will also introduce and explain various cognitive neuroscience methods (e.g., electroencephalogram [EEG] and magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]), noting their strengths and their limitations. Finally, I will discuss an ongoing project that utilizes researcher-practitioner partnerships and in-school neuroscience labs to facilitate bidirectional learning and collect ecologically valid neurobiological and behavioral data on intervention response.

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Dr. Jin Wang  Postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Education

Dr. Wang studies neural specialization for phonological, semantic, and syntactic processing.

Title: How does language brain develop and support reading in children from infancy to elementary school?

Abstract: Language and reading are two critical skills for academic success, vocational achievements, and socio-emotional health. While most individuals acquire language effortlessly, some children struggle for unclear reasons. Additionally, children with language difficulties face heightened risks of developmental dyslexia. To help understand why some children fall behind, my research program aims to build an interactive neurocognitive model that explains how the brain develops to process various language information and how various language processes in the brain support reading development, starting from infancy to early elementary years. In this talk, two lines of my previous research will be presented. One studied the neural specialization for language processing in children's first 10 years of life. The other examined the longitudinal relationship between the neural basis of phonological awareness and reading skill in 5- to 10-year-old children. The link between the two lines of work and future directions will be discussed.

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USC speakers

• Dr. Suzanne Adlof (bio), USC Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Dr. Adlof studies relations between oral language and reading development and disorders, including dyslexia and developmental language disorder (DLD) in school aged children.  
• Dr. Lisa Fitton (bio), Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Dr. Fitton studies bilingual language and reading assessment in schools using innovative quantitative methods for behavioral research. 

Dr. Suzanne Adlof USC Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Dr. Adlof studies relations between oral language and reading development and disorders, including dyslexia and developmental language disorder (DLD) in school aged children.  .

Title: Lexical Quality, Dyslexia, and Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract: Although dyslexia and DLD frequently co-occur, they are different disorders with different needs for support (i.e., decoding written words vs. understanding and expressing information with language). Children meeting criteria for both disorders are often more severely impacted and need support in both areas. Following an overview of these disorders, I will discuss a series of studies that examine how children with dyslexia and/or DLD learn and process spoken words, with attention to different aspects of lexical quality that are impacted by each disorder.  Implications for clinical and educational practice will be discussed.

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Dr. Lisa Fitton USC Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Dr. Fitton studies bilingual language and reading assessment in schools using innovative quantitative methods for behavioral research. 

Title: Multilingualism and reading in practice: Implications for supporting students in contexts that emphasize English

Abstract: Over 20% of children enrolled in public schools in the U.S. speak at least one language other than English at home. However, only 13% of teachers - and 8% of speech-language pathologists - speak more than one language. In most U.S. school settings, general education is conducted nearly exclusively in English. Few educational professionals have had access to training in working effectively with multilingual learners, much less how to maximize these students' literacy development. Focusing specifically on Spanish-English bilingual learners as an exemplar group for considering the practical implications of current research, this session will focus on the following topics: (a) implications of cross-linguistic transfer within the classroom day-to-day, (b) strategies to identify indicators of dyslexia among bilingual learners, and (c) key factors to promote long-term reading development among multilingual learners. We will also discuss barriers and potential approaches for implementing evidenced-based practice with multilingual learners in U.S. schools. 

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