SProut-D Study

We are currently recruiting monolingual children who are in Pre-K or Kindergarten in Fall 2023 with and without a family history of reading. If you are interested in getting involved, please fill out this interest form and a member of our team will contact you soon! Please email gaablab@gse.harvard.edu if you have any questions.

WHAT’S INVOLVED?

The study will involve one language assessment session lasting about an hour. These sessions would include games with pictures, words and letters. Participants will receive $25 per session as well as a progress report on their child’s language development.

Behavioral sessions can take place either virtually or at the Gaab Lab, located in Cambridge, MA. For all sessions, we can help you with transportation by providing free parking, assistance with public transportation, and free rideshares.

WHAT ARE WE RESEARCHING?

Reading disabilities, including dyslexia, are commonly not identified until a child has repeatedly failed to learn to read, which can have deleterious effects on their academic, vocational, and mental health outcomes. Early pre-literacy skills have been identified and reliably predict reading difficulties as early as preschool, when early intervention is most effective. However, early pre-literacy screenings are currently not implemented in pediatric practices. We propose a validity and implementation study of the SPRouT-D, a pediatric checklist developed in our lab, that will lead to a first version of a validated literacy-risk screener for pediatric settings and can identify strategies for implementing early risk identification in pediatric practices, empowering physicians to treat, educate, and advocate for at-risk patients.