TY - JOUR T1 - Ahead of Maturation: Enhanced Speech Envelope Training Boosts Rise Time Discrimination in Pre-Readers at Cognitive Risk for Dyslexia JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2021.04.12.439411 SP - 2021.04.12.439411 AU - Shauni Van Herck AU - Femke Vanden Bempt AU - Maria Economou AU - Jolijn Vanderauwera AU - Toivo Glatz AU - Benjamin Dieudonné AU - Maaike Vandermosten AU - Pol Ghesquière AU - Jan Wouters Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/12/2021.04.12.439411.abstract N2 - Dyslexia has frequently been related to atypical auditory temporal processing and speech perception. Results of studies emphasizing speech onset cues and reinforcing the temporal structure of the speech envelope, i.e. envelope enhancement, demonstrated reduced speech perception deficits in individuals with dyslexia. The use of this strategy as an auditory intervention might thus reduce some of the deficits related to dyslexia. Importantly, interventions are most effective when they are provided during kindergarten and first grade. Hence, we provided a tablet-based 12-week preventive auditory and phonics-based intervention to pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia and investigated the effect on auditory temporal processing with a rise time discrimination task. Ninety-one pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia (aged 5-6) were assigned to two groups receiving a phonics-based intervention and playing a story listening game either with (n = 31) or without (n = 31) envelope enhancement or a third group playing control games and listening to non-enhanced stories (n = 29). Rise time discrimination was measured directly before, directly after and one year after the intervention. While the groups listening to non-enhanced stories mainly improved after the intervention during first grade, the group listening to enhanced stories improved during the intervention in kindergarten and subsequently remained stable during first grade. Hence, an envelope enhancement intervention improves auditory processing skills important for the development of phonological skills. This occurred before the onset of reading instruction, preceding the maturational improvement of these skills, hence giving at risk children a head start when learning to read.Research highlightsThe first investigation of speech envelope enhancement as a potential preventive intervention strategy in pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexiaSpeech envelope enhancement increases the rise time sensitivity of children at cognitive risk for dyslexiaRise time discrimination can be enhanced before formal reading instruction, a crucial period in developmentCompeting Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -