MIT Open Learning Salon: Closing the Opportunity Gap from Language to Reading

On September 2, 2020, MIT Open Learning hosted an interactive online salon called "Closing the Opportunity Gap from Language to Reading." Professor John Gabrieli, Director of the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative (MITili), and Dr. Rachel Romeo, Harvard University Postdoctoral Fellow and Jeff Dieffenbach, MITili's Associate Director, discussed recent studies on conversational turns and their effect on language and brain development in children.

Salon highlights:
• MITili Director Dr. John Gabrieli pointed out several impediments to education effectiveness including: chronic stress, exposure to violence, nutrition, access to adequate healthcare, proper educational resources, and cognitive stimulation.
• Educators have a slogan, ‘the first few years are learning to read, the rest of your life is reading to learn.'
• Hart and Risley’s research (1995) ‘The 30M Word Gap’ was ground breaking, however, Dr. Gabrieli and his team were able to show that while the gap may exist, there are benefits to conversational turns with your children.
• Dr. Gabrieli and his team, including Dr. Rachel Romeo, used MRI to measure children’s brain response to language.
• Their research suggests that conversational turns activate the Broca’s area helping activate language response.
• Dr. Gabrieli and his team hope to study ways virtual interventions might be helpful, especially during COVID, in addition to increasing awareness of conversational turns to close the learning gap for pre-Kindergarten children.

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