The neurobiological, cognitive and cultural implications of the brain learning to read: an overview starting from the studies of Maryanne Wolf

Abstract

The purpose of this contribution is to provide an overview of the brain processes that support reading skills, considering as well the difficulties that may impede a fully developed reading competence. We therefore address the biological and cultural origins of the neural circuits underlying the faculties of reading and writing from the perspective of neuroscience, and in particular Maryanne Wolf’s theories and findings, a world renowned cognitive neuro-scientist: starting from her essays Proust and the squid. The story and science of the reading brain (Wolf, 2009) and Reader, come home: the reading brain in a digital world (Wolf, 2018), we explore the vast implications that reading aloud produces on children in their first five years of life, referring specifically to early (or emergent) literacy development, as well as the impact that deep reading produces at multiple levels (cognitive, intellectual, emotional, affective and creative). Wolf introduces the concept of deep reading, referring to the ability of engaging with a text in a thoughtful, critical, and reflective way in order for the reader to make inferences from what they’ve read, but also to conceive new thoughts (Wolf, 2018, pp. 60–68): this capacity appears to be prerogative of the “expert reader”, and by exploring the stages that ideally lead to such profile, attention is paid to risk factors that may hinder reading progress, especially in situations of language deprivation and possible learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. Eventually, we consider the risks de-riving from excessive exposure to digital devices in the development of the executive functions, in-cluding attention, which is essential for analyzing and understanding complex texts.