Extant research is increasingly recognizing the contribution of executive function (EF) to reading comprehension alongside established predictors like word decoding and oral language. The nature of the association between EF and reading comprehension is commonly investigated in older children and in those with reading impairments. However, less is known about this relationship in emerging readers in kindergarten, where word decoding and reading comprehension are highly intertwined. Moreover, a better understanding of the mechanisms by which EF influences reading comprehension is needed. The present study investigated direct contributions of EF to reading comprehension, as well as indirect contributions via word decoding in 97 kindergarteners. Results indicated that there was a significant indirect effect of EF on reading comprehension, with word decoding mediating this association. The direct contribution of EF to reading comprehension was not significant. Implications for reading instruction and intervention for early readers are discussed. 1.1. Models of reading comprehension Reading comprehension involves extracting meaning from a written text. This process is incredibly complex, and relies upon the successful integration of several components. Reflecting this inherent complexity, several theories and models of reading comprehension have been proposed. The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover &

The idea of a bilingual advantage in aspects of cognitive control—including cognitive flexibility, inhibition, working memory, and attention—is disputed. Using a sample of kindergarten children, the present study investigated associations between bilingualism and cognitive flexibility—a relationship that has shown mixed findings in prior literature. We also extend prior work by exploring relationships between bilingualism and attentional fluctuations, which represent consistency in attentional control and contribute to cognitive performance. To our knowledge, no previous study has explored this association. Theoretically, attentional fluctuations might mediate or moderate the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive flexibility. However, given evidence of null findings from extant literature when confounding variables are adequately controlled and tasks are standardized, we did not expect to find a bilingual advantage in either cognitive flexibility or attentional fluctuations. Our results supported this hypothesis when considering bilingualism both continuously and categorically. The importance of expanding upon mechanistic accounts connecting bilingualism to cognitive improvements is discussed.

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Consequences of multilingualism vary from offering cognitive benefits to poor educational and cognitive outcomes. One aspect of multilingualism that has not been systematically examined is the typology of multilinguals' languages: Do differences and similarities between languages multilinguals are exposed to contribute to the development of their cognition and brain? We investigated n = 162 5–6-year-olds with various language backgrounds on a monolingual-to-quintilingual continuum. Our results show that typological linguistic diversity can be related to expressive vocabulary knowledge in the dominant language. On neural level, it relates to brain activation patterns in (among others) the PGa area in the bilateral IPL, a brain region previously associated with multilingual experience, but never with language typology. We propose an ecologically valid way of describing the continuum of multilingual language experience and provide evidence for both the cognition and the brain of multilingual kindergartners to be related to the typological linguistic diversity of their environment.

The paper aims at establishing whether relative differences and similarities between languages multilingual children are exposed to contribute to the development of their cognition and brain. Our goal was to investigate the effects of typological linguistic diversity on first language (L1) lexical knowledge and processing in kindergartners and establish its behavioral and neural signatures. We analyzed 162 data points collected from 5-6-year-old kinder-gartners with various language backgrounds on a monolingual-to-quintilingual continuum. Detailed parental questionnaires and in-person interviews were used to calculate the length of cumulative exposure to any language each child in the sample came into contact with. We then gathered information on the relative linguistic distances between each child’s languages, based on languages’ lexicons. Two behavioral outcome variables were used in the study: (1) receptive and (2) expressive L1, English vocabulary; the neuroimaging data consisted of fMRI sequences collected during an English Audito-ry Word-Form Match Task. To deal with variable language backgrounds of our participants, we leveraged computational tools from information tech-nology – Shannon’s (1948) entropy, and the study of ecological diversity – Rao’s (1982) quadratic entropy index of diversity, thus offering a novel, multi-dimensional quantification of language exposure in multilinguals. Our results show that typological linguistic diversity can be related to expressive but not receptive L1 vocabulary scores. On neural level, it relates to brain activation patters in (among others) the PGa area in the bilateral IPL, a brain region that previous studies repeatedly associated with multilingual experience, but never with typological linguistic diversity. With this study, we propose an ecologically valid way of describing the continuum of multilingual language experience, an approach rarely followed but highly called for in the multilingual literature. We furthermore provide evidence for both the cognition and the brain of multilingual kindergartners to be related to the typological linguistic diversity of their environment.

Numerous studies have consistently reported functional activation of the cerebellum during reading tasks, especially in the right cerebellar hemisphere. However, it remains unclear whether these regions (or which region) are also involved in reading in the earliest stages of reading acquisition. Reading is an arduous task for beginning readers, which could occupy extensive cognitive processes, including domain general processes and language specific processes. It is to be determined which kinds of processes that the cerebellum is responsible for in early reading. Here, we investigated whether and how the cerebellum contributes to reading acquisition. We tested 80 5-6-year-old kindergarteners, who performed a visual word matching task during which functional MRI (fMRI) data were collected. We found that bilateral cerebellar hemispheres were significantly activated during visual word processing. Moreover, activation of left cerebellar lobule VIIa extends to lobule VIII negatively correlated with current reading ability, whereas activation of right cerebellar lobule lobule VIIb extends to lobule VIII predicted future reading ability. Functional decoding via Neurosynth and functional connectivity patterns further revealed that the left cerebellar Crus II was associated with domain general cognitive processes, whereas the right cerebellar lobule VIIb was linked to language specific processes. Our results suggest a division of labor between the left and right cerebellar lobules in beginning readers.

Perception of low-level auditory cues such as frequency modulation (FM) and rise time (RT) is crucial for development of phonemic representations, segmentation of word boundaries, and attunement to prosodic patterns in language. While learning an additional language, children may develop an increased sensitivity to these cues to extract relevant information from multiple types of linguistic input. Performance on these auditory processing tasks such as FM and RT by children learning another language is, however, unknown. Here we examine 92 English-speaking 7–8-year-olds in the U.S. and their performance in FM and RT perceptual tasks at the end of their second year in Cantonese or Spanish dual-language immersion compared to children in general English education programs. Results demonstrate that children in immersion programs have greater sensitivity to FM, but not RT, controlling for various factors. The immersion program students were also observed to have better phonological awareness performance. However, individual differences in FM sensitivity were not associated with phonological awareness, a pattern typically observed in monolinguals. These preliminary findings suggest a possible impact of formal language immersion on low-level auditory processing. Additional research is warranted to understand causal relationships and ultimate impact on language skills in multilinguals.

Objective: This study investigates how literacy acquisition is shaped by bilingual education. We hypothesize that learning a phonetic language, like Spanish, will improve performance on phonologically-based tasks in English. Comparatively, we expect learning a different orthographic system, like Cantonese, will improve performance on semantically-based English tasks. Methods: Participants included 107 native English speakers between 7 and 9 years old from San Francisco schools. There were 42 children in general education English programs (GENED), 35 in Spanish (Sp) immersion programs, and 30 in Cantonese (Cn) immersion programs. Students scoring less than 85 on a nonverbal intelligence screener were excluded (KBIT-2 Matrices). Groups' performance in English was compared on phonological (CTOPP-2 Blending Words) and orthographic learning tasks (KABC-II Rebus). Results: One-way ANOVA revealed a significant effect of bilingual education on phonological task performance at the p < .05 level [F(2, 66.4) = 3.52, p = .035]. As predicted, the Spanish-immersion group performed better on the phonological task (Blending Words, p = .035; GENED M = 8.55, Sp M = 10.09, Cn M = 9.03). Performance on the semantic task did not significantly vary among groups [F(2, 67) = 3.11, p = .051]. Conclusions: This suggests that learning a second language may shape literacy acquisition in the primary language. Results indicated that learning Spanish, a phonetic language, was associated with stronger performance on an English phonological task when compared to GENED and Cn immersion. Although the variance between groups on the semantic task was not significant, further research could characterize the impact of different orthography on English acquisition.