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LANCOM – Language and Communication Research Group

ions | Bruxelles Woluwe, Louvain-la-Neuve

One main objective of the research group is to investigate why some children have difficulties developing their mother tongue and/or reading skills, while for the majority this process happens fluently, through daily interaction with their parents and environment, and at school. Our research includes different subsamples of children, including children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and learning disorders. We use both behavioral and brain imaging methods to understand the individual differences between children with respect to language and reading development, classically by means of longitudinal designs that start early in childhood (i.e. from the infant age to kindergarten age at the latest). A second main objective of the research group is to translate research findings into clinical practice within the domain of learning disorders and broader, within speech therapy.

Jolijn Vanderauwera (Principal Investigator)

Joanne Gosselain (PhD student)

Clémence Corriat (PhD student)

Elise de Bree and Jurgen Tijms (University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Sietske van Viersen (University of Utrecht, the Netherlands)

Nadine Gaab (Harvard University, USA)

Jennifer Zuk (Boston University, USA)

Sabine van Eerdenbrugh (Thomas More Antwerp, Belgium)

Maaike Vandermosten, Pol Ghesquière and Jan Wouters (KULeuven, Belgium)

The ELENA study has as an objective to understand early predictors of language disorders. This project includes children from as early as infancy. The AVA-LAP study investigates language development in a wide range of populations, including children with premature birth and rare genetic disorders. Finally, a third project will include children with a developmental language disorder (DLD) and typically developing children, and has as an objective to understand why some of these individuals with DLD develop reading problems later on, while others have no particular difficulties with reading development.

  • Economou, M., Vanden Bempt, F., Van Herck, S., Glatz, T., Wouters, J., Ghesquière, P., Vanderauwera, J., & Vandermosten M. (2022). Investigating the impact of early literacy training on white matter structure in prereaders at risk for dyslexia. Cerebral Cortex, 32 (21), 4684-4697. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab510
  • Van Der Auwera S., Vandermosten M., Wouters J., Ghesquière P., & Vanderauwera J. (2021). A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia. Neuroimage, 237, 118087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118087
  • Verwimp, C., Vanden Bempt, F., Kellens, S., Economou, M., Vandermosten, M., Wouters, J., Ghesquière, P., & Vanderauwera, J. (2020). Pre-literacy heterogeneity in Dutch-speaking kindergartners : Latent Profile Analysis. Annals of Dyslexia, 70, 275- 294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-020-00207-9
  • Achievement: The construction of the first belgian guideline in the field of Speech and Language Therapy and Audiology: Van Eerdenbrugh, S., D’haenens, W., Leysen, H., Leclercq, A.-L., Vanden Bempt, F., Bouckaert, L., & Vanderauwera, J. Guideline for telepractice in Speech therapy and Audiology for children ≤ 12 years. The project has been initiated in 2022 and the guideline has been validated by CEBAM and Published in October 2023. Description: The guideline is based on a systematic review of existing evidence on telepractice. Through the extensive process of guideline development, that enholds a thorough evaluation of the existing evidence in close interaction with a wide range of stakeholders and policy makers, recommendations have been formulated that bridge the gap between research and clinical practice.

Publications

  • 2023
    • Journal article
      Economou, Maria ; Vanden Bempt, Femke ; Van Herck, Shauni ; Glatz, Toivo ; Wouters, Jan ; Ghesquière, Pol ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Vandermosten, Maaike. Cortical structure in pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia: baseline differences and response to intervention. In: Neurobiology of Language, (2023). doi:10.1162/nol_a_00122.
    • Book chapter
      Bonnet, Camille ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. La détection précoce des troubles du langage: enjeux et perspectives. In: Majerus, S., Didic, M., & Rosenau, N., Évaluation et prise en charge des troubles du langage, De Boeck Supérieur: Louvain-la-Neuve, 2023, p. 10-37. 2807358934.
    • Conference paper
      Bonnet, Camille ; Warny, Astrid ; Barbot, Baptiste ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. Challenges in early detection of children at risk for oral language disorders: The potential of speech processing technologies. European Society for Cognitive Psychology 23rd meeting (Porto, Portugal).
  • 2022
    • Journal article
      Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Ghesquière, Pol ; Wouters, Jan ; Vandermosten, Maaike. Afwijkingen in het neurale leesnetwerk bij kinderen met dyslexie voor en gedurende de leesontwikkeling. In: Stem-, Spraak- en Taalpathologie, Vol. 26, p. 68-83 (2022). doi:10.21827/32.8310/2021-68.
    • Vanden Bempt, Femke ; Economou, Maria ; Dehairs, Ward ; Vandermosten, Maaike ; Wouters, Jan ; Ghesquière, Pol ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. Feasibility, enjoyment, and language comprehension impact of a tablet- and GameFlow-based story-listening game for kindergarteners: Methodological and mixed methods study. In: JMIR Serious Games, Vol. 10, no.1, p. e34698 (2022). doi:10.2196/34698.
    • Turesky, Ted K. ; Sanfilippo, Joseph ; Zuk, Jennifer ; Ahtam, Banu ; Gagoski, Borjan ; Lee, Ally ; Garrisi, Kathryn ; Dunstan, Jade ; Carruthers, Clarisa ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Yu, Xi ; Gaab, Nadine. Home language and literacy environment and its relationship to socioeconomic status and white matter structure in infancy. In: Brain Structure and Function, Vol. 227, no.8, p. 2633-2645 (2022). doi:10.1007/s00429-022-02560-4.
    • Economou, Maria ; Van Herck, Shauni ; Vanden Bempt, Femke ; Glatz, Toivo ; Wouters, Jan ; Ghesquière, Pol ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Vandermosten, Maaike. Investigating the impact of early literacy training on white matter structure in prereaders at risk for dyslexia. In: Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 32, no.21, p. 4684-4697 (2022). doi:10.1093/cercor/bhab510.
    • Economou, Maria ; Billiet, Thibo ; Wouters, Jan ; Ghesquière, Pol ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Vandermosten, Maaike. Myelin water fraction in relation to fractional anisotropy and reading in 10-year-old children. In: Brain Structure and Function, Vol. 227, no.6, p. 2209-2217 (2022). doi:10.1007/s00429-022-02486-x.
    • Zuk, Jennifer ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Turesky, Ted ; Yu, Xi ; Gaab, Nadine. Neurobiological predispositions for musicality: White matter in infancy predicts school‐age music aptitude. In: Developmental Science, (2023). doi:10.1111/desc.13365 (Accepté/Sous presse).
    • Vanden Bempt, Femke ; Van Herck, Shauni ; Economou, Maria ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Vandermosten, Maaike ; Wouters, Jan ; Ghesquière, Pol. Speech perception deficits and the effect of envelope-enhanced story listening combined with phonics intervention in pre-readers at risk for dyslexia. In: Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 13, p. 1021767 (2022). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1021767.
    • Conference paper
      Bonnet, Camille ; Szmalec, Arnaud ; Van Reybroeck, Marie ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. The relation between home language environment and structural neural connectivity in infants with and without an elevated risk for oral language disorders. Flux Congress The International Congress for Integrative Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (Paris, France, du 07/09/2022 au 09/09/2022).
    • Bonnet, Camille ; Van Reybroeck, Marie ; Szmalec, Arnaud ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. The relationship between home language environment and fractional anisotropy in the arcuate fasciculi in infants with and without a risk for a language disorder. Groupe de contact FNRS en Psycholinguistique et Neurolinguistique (UMons, 25/11/2022).
  • 2021
    • Journal article
      Van Der Auwera, Stijn ; Vandermosten, Maaike ; Wouters, Jan ; Ghesquière, Pol ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia.. In: NeuroImage, Vol. 237, p. 118087 [1-17] (2021). doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118087.
    • Van Herck, Shauni ; Vanden Bempt, Femke ; Economou, Maria ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Glatz, Toivo ; Dieudonné, Benjamin ; Vandermosten, Maaike ; Ghesquière, Pol ; Wouters, Jan. Ahead of maturation: Enhanced speech envelope training boosts rise time discrimination in pre‐readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia. In: Developmental Science, Vol. 25, no.3, p. e13186 (2022). doi:10.1111/desc.13186.
    • Vanden Bempt, Femke ; Economou, Maria ; Van Herck, Shauni ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Glatz, Toivo ; Vandermosten, Maaike ; Wouters, Jan ; Ghesquière, Pol. Digital game-based phonics instruction promotes print knowledge in pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia. In: Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 12, p. 720548 (2021). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720548.
    • Turesky, T.K. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Gaab, N.. Imaging the rapidly developing brain: Current challenges for MRI studies in the first five years of life. In: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 47, p. 100893 (2021). doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100893.
    • Conference paper
      Warny, Astrid ; Bonnet, Camille ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. Disentangling the relation between prematurity and Developmental Language Disorder. Annual Meeting of the Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium).
    • Bonnet, Camille. Improving early detection of Developmental Language Disorders: predictive factors and automated vocal analysis. Rencontre Jeunes Chercheurs du Laboratoire de Psychologie et de NeuroCognition (Grenoble).
    • Bonnet, Camille ; Warny, Astrid ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. Predictive factors and early detection of Developmental Language Disorder: A systematic review. Annual Meeting of the Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium).
  • 2020
    • Journal article
      Vandermosten, M. ; Correia, J. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Wouters, J. ; Ghesquière, P. ; Bonte, M.. Brain activity patterns of phonemic representations are atypical in beginning readers with family risk for dyslexia. In: Developmental Science, Vol. 23, no.1, p. e12857 (2020). doi:10.1111/desc.12857.
    • Verwimp, C. ; Vanden Bempt, F. ; Kellens, S. ; Economou, M. ; Vandermosten, M. ; Wouters, J. ; Ghesquière, P. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. Pre-literacy heterogeneity in Dutch-speaking kindergartners: latent profile analysis. In: Annals of Dyslexia, Vol. 70, no.3, p. 275-294 (2020). doi:10.1007/s11881-020-00207-9.
    • Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Hellemans, Elisabeth ; Verhaert, Nicolas. Research insights on neural effects of auditory deprivation and restoration in unilateral hearing loss: A systematic review. In: Journal of Clinical Medicine, Vol. 9, no.3, p. 812 (2020). doi:10.3390/jcm9030812.
    • De Vos, A. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Vanvooren, S. ; Vandermosten, M. ; Ghesquière, P. ; Wouters, J.. The relation between neurofunctional and neurostructural determinants of phonological processing in pre-readers. In: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 46, no.100874, p. 1-13 (2020). doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100874.
    • Book chapter
      Schraeyen, K. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Vandermosten, M.. Les compétences de traitement phonologique chez les adultes avec une dyslexie. In: Pascale Cole, Eddy Cavalli, Lynne Duncan, La dyslexie à l’âge adulte: Approche neuropsychologique (Voix, parole, langage), De Boeck Supérieur, 2020, p. 40-64. 9782353274352 .
    • Conference paper
      Bonnet, Camille ; Warny, Astrid ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn. Developmental Language Disorder: predictive factors and early detection. GCPN meeting (Brussels, Belgium).
  • 2019
    • Journal article
      Beelen, C. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Wouters, J. ; Vandermosten, M. ; Ghesquière, P.. Atypical gray matter in children with dyslexia before the onset of reading instruction. In: Cortex, Vol. 121, no.121, p. 399-413 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2019.09.010.
    • Bulthé, J. ; Prinsen, J. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Duyck, S. ; Daniels, N. ; Gillebert, C.R. ; Mantini, D. ; Op de Beeck, H.P. ; De Smedt, B.. Multi-method brain imaging reveals impaired representations of number as well as altered connectivity in adults with dyscalculia. In: NeuroImage, Vol. 190, p. 289-302 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.06.012.
    • Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; van Setten, E.R.H. ; Maurits, N.M. ; Maassen, B.A.M.. The interplay of socio-economic status represented by paternal educational level, white matter structure and reading. In: PLoS ONE, Vol. 14, no.5, p. 1-18 (2019). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0215560.
  • 2018
    • Journal article
      Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Altarelli, I. ; Vandermosten, M. ; De Vos, A. ; Wouters, J. ; Ghesquière, P.. Atypical structural asymmetry of the planum temporale is related to family history of dyslexia. In: Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 28, no.1, p. 63-72 (2018). doi:10.1093/cercor/bhw348.
    • Phan, T.V. ; Sima, D.M. ; Beelen, C. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Smeets, D. ; Vandermosten, M.. Evaluation of methods for volumetric analysis of pediatric brain data: The childmetrix pipeline versus adult-based approaches. In: NeuroImage: Clinical, Vol. 19, p. 734-744 (2018). doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2018.05.030.
    • Law, J.M. ; De Vos, A. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Wouters, J. ; Ghesquière, P. ; Vandermosten, M.. Grapheme-phoneme learning in an unknown orthography: A study in typical reading and dyslexic children. In: Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 9, no. AUG (2018). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01393.
    • Law, J.M. ; Veispak, A. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Ghesquière, P.. Morphological awareness and visual processing of derivational morphology in high-functioning adults with dyslexia: An avenue to compensation?. In: Applied Psycholinguistics, Vol. 39, no.3, p. 483-506 (2018). doi:10.1017/S0142716417000467.
    • Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; De Vos, A. ; Forkel, S.J. ; Catani, M. ; Wouters, J. ; Vandermosten, M. ; Ghesquière, P.. Neural organization of ventral white matter tracts parallels the initial steps of reading development: A DTI tractography study. In: Brain and Language, Vol. 183, p. 32-40 (2018). doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2018.05.007.
  • 2017
    • Journal article
      De Vos, A. ; Vanvooren, S. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Ghesquière, P. ; Wouters, J.. A longitudinal study investigating neural processing of speech envelope modulation rates in children with (a family risk for) dyslexia. In: Cortex, Vol. 93, p. 206-219 (2017). doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.05.007.
    • De Vos, A. ; Vanvooren, S. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Ghesquière, P. ; Wouters, J.. Atypical neural synchronization to speech envelope modulations in dyslexia. In: Brain and Language, Vol. 164, p. 106-117 (2017). doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2016.10.002.
    • Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Wouters, J. ; Vandermosten, M. ; Ghesquière, P.. Early dynamics of white matter deficits in children developing dyslexia. In: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 27, p. 69-77 (2017). doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2017.08.003.
    • Vandermosten, M. ; Cuynen, L. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Wouters, J. ; Ghesquière, P.. White matter pathways mediate parental effects on children's reading precursors. In: Brain and Language, Vol. 173, p. 10-19 (2017). doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2017.05.002.
  • 2015
    • Journal article
      Vandermosten, M. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Theys, C. ; De Vos, A. ; Vanvooren, S. ; Sunaert, S. ; Wouters, J. ; Ghesquière, P.. A DTI tractography study in pre-readers at risk for dyslexia. In: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 14, p. 8-15 (2015). doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2015.05.006.
    • Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Vandermosten, M. ; Dell'Acqua, F. ; Wouters, J. ; Ghesquière, P.. Disentangling the relation between left temporoparietal white matter and reading: A spherical deconvolution tractography study. In: Human Brain Mapping, Vol. 36, no.8, p. 3273-3287 (2015). doi:10.1002/hbm.22848.
    • Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Ghesquière, Pol ; Wouters, Jan ; Vandermosten, Maaike. Hersenconnectiviteit in relatie tot lezen en leesproblemen: een diffusie MRI studie bij kleuters en volwassenen. In: Logopedie, Vol. 28, no.4, p. 15-29 (2015).
    • Van Beek, L. ; Vanderauwera, Jolijn ; Ghesquière, P. ; Lagae, L. ; De Smedt, B.. Longitudinal changes in mathematical abilities and white matter following paediatric mild traumatic brain injury. In: Brain Injury, Vol. 29, no.13-14, p. 1701-1710 (2015). doi:10.3109/02699052.2015.1075172.