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Learning Disabilities Research Program (LDRP)

Brief Biography

Dr. Lovett is a senior scientist in the Neurosciences and Mental Health Program of The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and a professor of paediatrics and psychology at the University of Toronto. She is an adjunct professor of educational psychology at the University of Alberta. As well, she is appointed to the Graduate Faculty in Psychology at the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo, the University of Guelph, and York University.

She has a PhD in psychology from McGill University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in paediatric neuropsychology at SickKids. Dr. Lovett is a registered psychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

Dr. Lovett is founder and director of the hospital's Learning Disabilities Research Program (LDRP), a clinical research unit dedicated to developing and evaluating different forms of remediation for children with developmental reading disabilities.

Clinical Care Activities

Clinical care activities (assessment an intervention) for LDRP children are supervised by Dr. Maureen Lovett.

Research Interests

• The assessment and treatment of developmental reading disorders
• Methodological and training issues in the rehabilitation of neurocognitive and neurobehavioural disorders in childhood
• The genetics of neurocognitive disorders of childhood
• Transfer-of-learning in language domains: normal development and clinical deviations
• Individual differences in treatment response among children with developmental neurocognitive disorders

Research Activities

Dr. Lovett's research program is devoted to the study of reading disorders, and methods of intervention for their effective remediation. Through presentations to professional and parent groups, and through our publications, we share the results of our research with front-line educators, parents, and service-providers in the community. The LDRP conducts controlled research into effective programming for children with learning disabilities and uses evidence-based intervention techniques in community implementations through research partnerships with local school boards.

The LDRP conducts research with reading disabled students in Grades 1-8 who attend laboratory classrooms located in satellite schools across the Greater Toronto Area. Ongoing projects involve treatment-outcome studies and evaluate the efficacy of different forms of remediation for children and adolescents with severe reading disabilities. Current work evaluates ways of combining effective treatment components to maximize children's treatment response.

In collaboration with my colleagues at SickKids and in the United States, Dr. Lovett is conducting multisite intervention studies to evaluate the effectiveness of:

1. different treatments to remediate the core speech-based and learning deficits of children with severe reading disabilities (with Robin Morris and Maryanne Wolf),
2. a combination of stimulant medication and specific remedial treatments for children with both attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and reading disabilities (with Rosemary Tannock and Abel Ickowicz), and
3. early intervention for children at significant risk for reading disorders (with Robin Morris and Maryanne Wolf). Remedial instruction developed in this program is also being offered in several lab classrooms in Atlanta and Boston. Additional major projects focus on the genetics of reading disabilities (with Cathy Barr, Tom Humphries, and Rosemary Tannock), and community applications of research-based intervention programs in elementary and secondary schools (with Maria De Palma, Karen Steinbach, Léa Lacerenza, and Denis Murphy).

Dr. Lovett is also involved in a SickKids study on the genetics of reading disability with Dr. Cathy Barr (Principal Investigator), Dr. Tom Humphries, and Dr. Rosemary Tannock. Dr. Tannock and Dr. Lovett have also collaborated on research evaluating the effectiveness of combined medication and remediation interventions for children with ADHD and RD.

Future Research Interests

Future research on developmental dyslexia will study the generalizability of our current positive results in a multi-city, early intervention trial. Children identified at the end of Grade 1 or Grade 2 will be offered 70 hours of active treatment the following school year and followed for 12 months in a multi-factorial design that will allow us to look at (i) individual difference predictors of treatment response among children with language-based learning disabilities, and (ii) what combination of effective treatment components result in the best outcomes.

Additional research activities evaluate the combination of stimulant medication and cognitive rehabilitation (specific cognitive/reading rehabilitation programs) on children who meet the criteria for both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and developmental reading disorder.

External Funding

• Institute of Education Sciences (current)\
• Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health at CHEO (recent)
• National Institute of Mental Health (recent)
• Canadian Institutes for Health Research (recent)
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (past)

Achievements

• Member, Board of Directors, International Dyslexia Association, 2004
• Member, Scientific Development Board, The Haan Foundation for Children, 2001-present.
• Shannon Award for Innovative Research; shared with Drs. Maryanne Wolf and Robin Morris, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1995.

Publications

Couto JM, Livne-Bar I, Huang, K, Xu Z, Cate-Carter T, Feng Y, Wigg K, Humphries T, Tannock R, Kerr EN, Lovett MW, Bremner R, Barr CL. Association of reading disabilities with regions marked by acetylated H3 histones in KIAA0319. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 2010, Mar 5, 153B, 447-462.

Wolf M, Barzillai M, Gottwald S, Miller L, Spencer K, Norton E, Lovett MW, Morris RD. The RAVE-O intervention: connecting neuroscience to the classroom. Mind, Brain, and Education, 2009, 3, 84-93.

Couto JM, Gomez L, Wigg K, Cate-Carter T, Archibald J, Anderson B, Tannock R, Kerr EN, Lovett MW, Humphries T, Barr CL. The KIAA0319-Like (KIAA0319L) gene on chromosome 1p34 as a candidate for reading disabilities. Journal of Neurogenetics, 2008, 22(4), 295-313.

Wise JC, Pae HK, Wolfe CB, Sevcik RA, Morris RD, Lovett MW, Wolf M. Phonological awareness and rapid naming skills of children with reading disabilities and children with reading disabilities who are at risk for mathematics difficulties. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 2008, 23(3), 125-136.

Lovett MW, De Palma M, Frijters JC, Steinbach KA, Temple M, Benson NJ, Lacerenza L. Interventions for reading difficulties: a comparison of response to intervention by ELL and EFL struggling readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2008, 41(4), 333-352.

Lovett MW, Lacerenza L, De Palma M, Steinbach KA, Frijters JC. Preparing teachers to remediate reading disabilities in high school: what is needed for effective professional development? Teaching and Teacher Education, 2008, 24(4), 1083-1097.

Katzir T, Kim YS, Wolf M, Morris R, Lovett MW. The varieties of pathways to dysfluent reading: comparing subtypes of children with dyslexia at letter, word, and connected text levels of reading. J Learn Disabil. 2008 Jan-Feb;41(1):47-66. PMID: 18274503

Wise JC, Sevcik RA, Morris RD, Lovett MW, Wolf M. The growth of phonological awareness by children with reading disabilities: a result of semantic knowledge or knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences? Scientific Studies of Reading, 2007, 11(2), 151-164.

Lovett MW, Lacerenza L, Murphy D, Steinbach KA, De Palma M, Frijters JC. The importance of multiple-component interventions for children and adolescents who are struggling readers. In J. Gilger & S. Richardson (Eds.), Research-Based Education and Intervention: What We Need To Know (pp. 67-102). Baltimore, MD: International Dyslexia Association, 2005.

Lovett MW, Barron RW, Benson NJ. Effective remediation of word identification and decoding difficulties in school-age children. In H.L. Swanson, K. Harris, & S. Graham (Eds.), Handbook of Learning Disabilities (pp. 273-292). New York: Guilford Publications, 2003.

Lovett MW, Barron RW. Developmental reading disorders. In T. E. Feinberg & M. J. Farah (Eds.), Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychology (2nd ed., pp. 801-819). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003.

Lovett MW, Barron RW. Neuropsychological perspectives on reading development and developmental reading disorders. In I. Rapin & S.J. Segalowitz (Eds.), F. Boller & J. Grafman (Series Eds.), Handbook of neuropsychology: Child neuropsychology. Second Edition. Volume 8, Part II (pp. 255-300) Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, 2003.

Wolf M, O'Brien B, Adams KD, Joffe T, Lovett MW, Morris RD. Working for time: reflections on naming speed, reading fluency, and intervention. In B. R. Foorman (Ed.), Preventing and Remediating Reading Difficulties: Bringing Science to Scale (pp. 355-379). Timonium, MD: York Press, Inc., 2003.

Lovett MW, Barron RW. The search for individual and subtype differences in reading disabled children's response to remediation. In D. Molfese & V.J. Molfese (Ed.), Developmental variations in learning. Applications to social, executive function, language, and reading skills. (pp.309-337). Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum, 2002.

Lovett, MW, Lacerenza L, Borden SB. Putting struggling readers on the PHAST track: a program to integrate phonological and strategy-based remedial reading instruction and maximize outcomes. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2000, 33(5), 458-476.

Lovett MW, Steinbach KA, Frijters JC. Remediating the core deficits of developmental reading disability: a double deficit perspective. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2000, 33(4), 334-358.

Lovett MW, Lacerenza L, Borden SL, Frijters JC, Steinbach KA, De Palma M. Components of effective remediation for developmental reading disability: combining phonological and strategy-based instruction to improve outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 2000, 92, 263-283.