Longitudinal trajectories of brain development from infancy to school age and their relationship with literacy development

Reading is crucial for academic, vocational, and health outcomes, but acquiring proficient reading skills is a protracted developmental process involving lower-level subskills and brain structures that undergo rapid development starting in infancy. We examined how longitudinal trajectories of early brain development support long-term acquisition of reading using a reproducible pipeline we developed specifically for infant-to-school-age longitudinal MRI data. Findings suggest that the brain bases of reading-related skills begin to develop by birth but continue building between infancy and preschool. This study emphasizes the importance of considering academic skill acquisition as a dynamic process preceding the emergence of the skill, and it offers a roadmap for future studies to examine relationships between early brain development and academic skill acquisition.