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Group intervention changes brain activity in bilingual language-impaired children.

Pihko E, Mickos A, Kujala T, Pihlgren A, Westman M, Alku P, Byring R, Korkman M

BioMag Laboratory, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. pihko@biomag.hus.fi

This investigation assessed the effectiveness of a phonological intervention program on the brain functioning of bilingual Finnish 6- to 7-year-old preschool children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI). The intervention program was implemented by preschool teachers to small groups of children including children with SLI. A matched group of other bilingual children with SLI received a physical exercise program and served as a control group. Auditory evoked magnetic fields were measured before and after the intervention with an oddball paradigm. The brain activity recordings were followed by a behavioral discrimination test. Our results show that, in children with SLI, the positive intervention effect is reflected in plastic changes in the brain activity of the left and right auditory cortices.

Published 12 March 2007 in Cereb Cortex, 17(4): 849-58.
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