Brain, behavior and learning in language and reading disorders. Edited by M. Mody and E. Silliman....

Whiting, B.B, & Edwards, C.P. (1988).Children of different worlds: The formation ofsocial behavior. Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press.

Lene Arnett JensenClark University, Worcester, MA, USA

DOI: 10.1002/icd.618

Book ReviewBRAIN, BEHAVIOR AND LEARNINGIN LANGUAGE AND READINGDISORDERS. Edited by M. Mody andE. Silliman. The Guilford Press, NewYork, 2008. pp. 400. Price: £33. ISBN978-1-59385-831-5.

Language and reading are immenselycomplex cognitive tasks, and manychildren fail to attain expected com-petency in either or both. Yet despite aplethora of research studies in a rangeof disciplines, including psychology,linguistics, cognitive neuroscience andeducation, there is little consensus as tothe underlying causes of language andreading disorders, and only a limitedevidence base on which to judge theefficacy of interventions. Even basicquestions, such as how best to cate-gorise these disorders, have not beensatisfactorily answered.

Edited volumes whereby expertsfrom multiple disciplines summarizethe current state of their respectivefields, and editors weave these differ-ent strands together into a new fra-mework, are to be welcomed, as theyhave the potential to advance our un-derstanding and shape future research.‘Brain, behaviour, and learning in lan-guage and reading disorders’ aims todo exactly this, by bringing togethercognitive neuroscientists, speech lan-guage pathologists, educational psy-chologists, psycholinguists and othersunder the editorship of two respectedexperts in this area: Maria Mody andElaine Silliman.

This thought-provoking volume isdivided into three parts, each of whichopens with an introduction by theeditors. Part 1 is entitled ‘new frame-

works for understanding languageimpairment and reading disorders’,and contains chapters on atypicalneurodevelopmental variation (by Jef-frey Gilger and Michael Wilkins),emergentism (Julia Evans) and criticalperiods in second language learning(John Bruer). Part 2 explores ‘brain-behaviour relationships’, with chapterson working memory (Virginia Bernin-ger), processing (Jennifer Windsor andKatherine Kohnert), functional neuroi-maging (Deborah Weber and WilliamDavis Gaillard), magnetoencephalo-graphy (Panagiotis Simos, Shirin Sar-kari and Andrew Papanicolaou), theneural substrates in dyslexia (SallyShaywitz, Jeffrey Gruen and BennettShaywitz) and reading development inchildren at risk for dyslexia (Brian By-rne, Donald Shankweiler and DonaldHine). Part 3 is entitled ‘the role ofexperience’ and contains chapters onevidence-based practice (Anne vanKleeck and Elizabeth Norlander), dy-namic systems theory (Keith Nelsonand Marnie Arkenberg) and individualdifferences (Silliman and Mody).

The editors argue that two factorshave constrained our understanding oftypical and atypical language and lit-eracy development. First, models havefailed to take into account theenormous variation that exists withinand across groups of children. Second,they have not moved beyond the nat-ure versus nurture dichotomy towardsa more dynamic view of cognitive-lin-guistic behaviour. As a consequence,‘efforts to understand disorders ofhigher cognition, such as reading andlanguage impairments, have become

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mired in oversimplistic localizationistaccounts of brain–behaviour relation-ships or theories of environmentalconstraints’ (page 3). They proposethat a new way of thinking about lan-guage and literacy development andtheir disorders is needed: one whichattendsto individual differences within theatypical and typical populations, andwhich is grounded in an under-standing of how experience andneurocognitive functioning interactdynamically.

Not all the chapters fit coherentlyinto the model that Mody and Sillimanare trying to set out, with the resultthat their thesis is less convincing thanit might have been. For example, inChapter 3, ‘Critical periods in second-language learning: distinguishingphenomena from explanation’, Bruergives a readable overview of criticalperiod research. He examines thehypothesis that reduced ability to learna second language (L2) results notfrom maturational factors but from‘entrenchment’, whereby repeatedexperience with L1 makes it difficult totune into L2. However, Bruer does notdiscuss how this hypothesis is relevantto our understanding of language andliteracy disorders, and although Modyand Silliman claim that his chapter‘provides a new framework for usingcritical period theory to examine issuesin language learning as they relate todelays versus disorders in languageand reading’ (page 5), this is not at allobvious. Language delays and dis-orders concern childrens’ acquisitionof their native language, not L2, sowhat exactly does the notion of en-trenchment mean here? Furthermore,children with specific language im-pairment (SLI) often have a lifelongimpairment, whereas late talkers, whoare delayed in language acquisition,generally catch up with their peerswell before adolescence: can such dif-ferent outcomes really be convincingly

explained by differences in languageexperience?

Other chapters present theories thatare perhaps too vague to evaluate. Forexample, the model of ‘atypical braindevelopment’ (ABD) set out in Chapter1 by Gilger and Wilkins, has three un-derlying assumptions: (1) the brain isthe basis of behaviour, (2) individualdifferences in behaviour are due tovariable brain structure and functionand (3) individual differences resultfrom the complex effects of, andinteractions between, genes and theenvironment on the developing andlearning brain. The authors acknowl-edge that the ABD is not a detailedmodel of brain structure and function,but that one of its purposes is to pro-vide new directions for research. Modyand Silliman contrast it to more limitedapproaches that are unable to explainthe full continuum of behavioural andneurodevelopmental variations. How-ever, given the ABD model’s lack ofdetail, it is difficult to imagine researchfindings that could not be incorporatedwithin it, and one therefore questionsits explanatory power.

On the other hand, there is much thatis convincing here. For example, inChapter 10, ‘Fostering form and mean-ing in emerging literacy: Using evidence-based practice’, van Kleeck and Nor-lander not only present a remarkablyclear overview of intervention studies forchildren with reading difficulties, butimportantly demonstrate how such stu-dies elucidate the factors that underliereading difficulties. Chapter 9, ‘readingdevelopment in children at risk for dys-lexia’, by Byrne, Shankweiler and Hine,tackles similar themes with data fromtheir longitudinal study of Australian at-risk readers, so illustrating the value ofthese types of studies.

The volume ends with an excellentchapter on individual differences byMody and Silliman, who examinedevelopmental pathways and in-dividual differences in speech percep-tion, word-learning and the acquisition

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Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Inf. Child. Dev. 18: 573–581 (2009)DOI: 10.1002/icd

of syntax within a usage-based frame-work. While I’m not convinced that ausage-based framework offers anyexplanatory advantages over otherframeworks, their chapter highlightsthe disparate range of linguisticphenomena that must be explained,and thereby lays down a challenge toall researchers of language andreading disorders. This alone makes‘Brain, Behavior and Learning in Lan-

guage and Reading Disorders’ worthreading.

Chloe MarshallDepartment of Language and

Communication Science,City University, UK

DOI: 10.1002/icd.619

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Copyright r 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Inf. Child. Dev. 18: 573–581 (2009)DOI: 10.1002/icd