# Predicting Intervention Outcomes in Reading Disabled Students Using In-School Cognitive Neuroscience

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STORRS · 2024 · $610,206

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Reading disability (RD) is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder, affecting approximately 9% of
children. Children with RD have significant difficulty with word reading and spelling despite typical cognitive
ability. This disability is serious and can be life-long, impacting not only the ability to read and write (and learn
from printed material), but also negatively influencing socio-emotional well-being. RD can be treated, and
intensive research-based interventions often lead to significant improvements; however, there is significant
variability in how children respond to intervention. A sizeable number of RD children (~30%) show minimal gains
and are commonly referred to as non-responders. Identifying factors that predict response to intervention can
help us understand why current interventions fail to meet the needs of all students and how to develop new
interventions. However, such predictors remain poorly understood, particularly for older students. Extant
knowledge of predictors at the individual and environmental level is limited because of a lack of large-scale
research focusing on: (1) older children/persistently poor readers; (2) sensitive (including neurocognitive)
measures collected in ecologically valid contexts; (3) school-based interventions and (4) frequent and equidistant
assessment over the course of instruction.
Here we propose a novel in-school cognitive neuroscience community engaged research (CER) approach that
will afford frequent longitudinal assessment of children with RD as they undergo reading intervention as part of
their school curriculum for two years. We propose to collect behavioral and neurobiological data from two cohorts
of students with RD: the first cohort (n=204) attend private learning disability (LD) schools for children with
reading difficulties that include intensive reading intervention at the core of their curriculum; the second cohort
attend public and charter schools (n=204) with specialized curricula for students with RD. We also include a
comparison sample of typically developing children (n=156) from public and charter schools to establish
normative trajectories with our measures. Specific aims of the project are to: (1) Establish trajectories and
predictors of reading gains in RD students at LD schools using standardized measures and information on
school-based instruction; (2) Empirically test the predictive utility and trajectories of three theoretically motivated
measures, guided by computational and neurobiological models of reading; (3) Assess the generalizability of our
findings by adding a diverse sample of readers at public and charter schools; and (4) Investigate the multivariate
relations between our behavioral, neural, and instructional measures from Aims 1-3 and reading growth across
samples. This neurocognitive "field research" using in-school laboratories is a potentially transformative
approach and an important step in understanding intervention respo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10982053
- **Project number:** 1R01HD112521-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STORRS
- **Principal Investigator:** Nicole Landi
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $610,206
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-17 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10982053

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10982053, Predicting Intervention Outcomes in Reading Disabled Students Using In-School Cognitive Neuroscience (1R01HD112521-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10982053. Licensed CC0.

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