If you’re reading this sentence with ease, consider yourself privileged. Why? Language development is a complex cognitive process that involves distinct, yet overlapping, domains. Most of it develops relatively effortlessly and without instruction. But there’s a crucial component that needs to be explicitly taught, and it's one that most of us take for granted - literacy. It’s no secret that reading and writing are among the most essential skills for success in the modern world, and the implications of falling behind in these abilities extend well beyond the classroom.

In this episode, Aidan & Emily chat with Dr. Bernard Grela about all things literacy - how it develops, how it's taught, and what happens when it’s compromised, especially in the case of dyslexia, a language disorder marked by a cluster of distinct symptoms.

A HUGE thank you to listener Mo for submitting today’s LingQuery!

Do YOU have a burning question about the language & communication sciences that you’d like to see featured on the show? Record your own audio “LingQuery” and DM it to @lingquery_pod on IG.

Welcome to LingQuery, the show that asks - and attempts to answer - questions related to the language and communication sciences. Every episode, we respond in tandem with guests from a wide variety of disciplines to an audience-submitted question or “LingQuery”, all about human communication and its array of interrelated systems and modalities. Uncovering fascinating insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else, this series explores the nature of phenomena such as speech, language, and cognition from the perspectives of biology, psychology, anthropology, art, and more. LingQuery, listen wherever you get your pods.

Produced by LittleFire.

Directed & edited by Raz Cunningham

Co-written & co-hosted by Aidan Laliberte & Emily Tuohey