PI’s Teija Kujala, Paula Virtala
Time frame 2014-2022
Description The project aims to study the auditory and language development of individuals with a genetic risk for dyslexia from birth until school-age with neural, behavioural, and genetic measures. Additionally, the project tests the effects of early music-based interventions on preventing and/or ameliorating problems related to language, reading and writing abilities in children at-risk for dyslexia. This longitudinal project will illuminate normal language development, influence of dyslexia risk on this development, and effects of early intervention on language and reading skills. If proven effective, the intervention program may help to improve the developmental path in language and reading-skill acquisition of children world-wide in the future.
Methods Event-related potentials (ERP), the mismatch negativity (MMN), electroencephalography (EEG), neuropsychological/perceptual/cognitive/behavioral tests, gene analysis
Keywords dyslexia, language development, music intervention, auditory development, speech processing
People Teija Kujala, Paula Virtala, Anja Thiede, Mari Tervaniemi, Teppo Särkämö, Eino Partanen, Linda Lönnqvist
Collaborators Neuropsychologist Dr. Marja Laasonen; Neonatologist Dr. Kaija Mikkola; Res.Prof. Minna Huotilainen (Occupational Health Institute); child neurologist Dr. Jaana Nopola-Hemmi; Prof. Paavo Leppänen and Dr. Jarmo Hämäläinen (University of Jyväskylä); Prof. Juha Kere, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden; Prof. Istvan Winkler, Hungarian Academy of Sciences / University of Szeged, Hungary; Prof. Laurel Trainor, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
Funding Academy of Finland, Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Kela