Fig. 2.

Changes in neural consistency are greatest for children with the largest improvements in phonological awareness. (A) When children in the FM group were divided into “learners” and “nonlearners” on the basis of their improvement in phonological awareness, learners (more than eight points improvement) showed significant gains in neural response consistency during the formant transition. Initially poorer in response consistency than typically developing peers (gray block, mean ± 1 SEM) at pretest, learners (red triangles) were not different from typically developing peers at posttest. Nonlearners (black circles) showed no change in neural response consistency during the formant transition with FM system use and were not different from typically developing children at pretest or posttest. (B) Across the whole group of FM system users, poorer response consistency during the formant transition at pretest predicted the greatest improvements in phonological awareness with FM system use. Note that the change in phonological awareness score was calculated as posttest minus pretest so a larger number represents improvement.