Richard K. Olson(CLDRC Director, PI on Project II and Administrative Core A, Co-I on Project VI and Service Core B) is a developmental psychologist who co-founded the Colorado Reading Project in 1979. He also co-founded the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center in 1990, and became its Director in 2005. He is well known for his research on phonological and orthographic processing deficits in children with reading disabilities. Since 1982, he has been testing identical and fraternal twin pairs to assess the genetic correlates of deficits in specific reading processes and related cognitive skills. In 1987, he initiated an NIH sponsored R01 research project in which he studied the effectiveness of using talking computers in schools for the remediation of reading disabilities. In March 2000, he initiated a NICHD sponsored R01 with Brian Byrne for a preschool longitudinal twin study in the U.S.. He has previously served as a consulting editor for Reading Research Quarterly, the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, and the Journal of Educational Psychology. He currently serves as a consulting editor forthe Journal of Learning Disabilities and for Scientific Studies of Reading. He served as President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, and currently serves on the reading research advisory board of the International Dyslexia Association. Professor Olson received the Norman Geschwind Memorial Lecture Award from the International Dyslexia Association in 2005, and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading in 2006.
Representative Publications:
Olson, R.K. (2006). Genes, Environment, and Dyslexia: The 2005 Norman Geschwind Memorial Lecture. Annals of Dyslexia, 56(2), 205-238. PMID: 17849199.
Samuelsson, S., Olson, R.K., Wadsworth, S., Corley, R., DeFries, J.C., Willcutt, E., Hulslander, J., & Byrne, B. (2007). Genetic and environmental influences on pre-reading skills and early reading and spelling development: A comparison among United States, Australia, and Scandinavia. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 20, 51-75.
Olson, R.K. (2007). Introduction to the special issue on genes, environment, and reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 20, 1-11.
Keenan, J.M., Betjemann, R.S., & Olson, R.K. (2008). Reading Comprehension Tests Vary in the Skills They Assess: Differential Dependence on Decoding and Oral Comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 12(3), 281-300.
Pennington, B.F., McGrath, L.M., Barnard, H., Rosenberg, J., Smith, S.D., Willcutt, E.G., Friend, A., DeFries, J.C., & Olson, R.K. (2009). Gene x environment interactions across the phenotypic distribution: Evidence from reading disability and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Developmental Psychology, 45, 77-89.PMCID: PMC2743891.
Hulslander, J.,Olson, R. K., Willcutt, E. G., & Wadsworth, S. J. (2010). Longitudinal stability of reading-related skills and their prediction of reading development. Scientific Studies of Reading, 14 (2), 111-136. doi: 10.1080/10888431003604058. PMCID: PMC2885806.
Olson, R.K., Keenan, J.M., Byrne, B., Samuelsson, S., Coventry, W.L., Corley, R., Wadsworth, S.J., Willcutt, E.G., DeFries, J.C., Pennington, B.F., & Hulslander, J. (2011). Genetic and environmental influences on vocabulary and reading development. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(1), 26-46. DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2011.536128. PMCID: PMC3019615.
Pennington, B. F., Santerre-Lemmon, L., Rosenberg J., MacDonald Wer, B., Boada, R., Friend, A., Samuelsson, S., Byrne, B., Willcutt, E. G., & Olson, R. K. (2012). Individual prediction of dyslexia by single vs. multiple deficit models. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121, 212-224. PMCID: PMC3270218 doi:10.1037/a0025823.
Christopher, M.E., Miyake, A., Keenan, J.M., Pennington, B., DeFries, J.C., Wadsworth, S.J., Willcutt, E., & Olson, R.K. (2012). Predicting word reading and comprehension with executive function and speed measures: a latent variable analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 470-488. doi: 10.1037/a0027375.PMCID:PMC3360115.
Peterson, R.L., Pennington, B.F., & Olson, R.K. (2013). Subtypes of developmental dyslexia: Testing the predictions of the dual-route and connectionist frameworks. Cognition, 126, 20-38. PMCID: PMC3491101.
Christopher, M.E., Hulslander, J., Byrne, B., Samuelsson, S., Keenan, J.M., Pennington, B., DeFries, J.C., Wadsworth, S.J., & Willcutt, E., & Olson, R.K. (2013). The genetic and environmental etiologies of individual differences in early reading growth in Australia, the United States, and Scandinavia. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115, 453-467. Doi:10:1016/j.jecp.2013.03.008. PMCID: PMC3661747.
Olson, R. K., Keenan, J.M., Byrne, B., & Samuelsson, S. (2014). Why do children differ in their reading and related skills. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18 (1), 38-54. NIHMSID # 483349
Christopher, M.E., Hulslander, J., Byrne, B., Samuelsson, S., Keenan, J.M., Pennington, B., DeFries, J.C., Wadsworth, S.J., Willcutt, E., & Olson, R.K. (2015). Genetic and Environmental Etiologies of the Longitudinal Relations between Pre-reading Skills and Reading. Child Development, 86 (2), 342-361. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12295 PMCID: PMC4375099
