Professor Frank Manis is Professor of Psychology and Education at the University of Southern California. He has published 65 articles on cognitive and neuropsychological development and on reading development and reading disabilities. He was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study reading in children and adults with dyslexia, and to co-conduct a 9-year longitudinal study of literacy development in Spanish-speaking children. He served a 5-year term as editor for Scientific Studies of Reading. His current projects include studies of creativity in children and adults with dyslexia. He is the author of interactive educational websites entitled “My Virtual Child,” “My Virtual Teen,” and co-author of “My Virtual Life.” He is the author of a textbook entitled The Dynamic Child (due out in 2017). He is a Distinguished Fellow of the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching, and received the Raubenheimer Outstanding Faculty Award at USC in 2011. He teaches graduate courses on cognitive development, and teaching techniques for new graduate TAs. His undergraduate courses include Developmental Psychology and Children’s Learning and Cognitive Development.

Email Dr. Manis here.

Books

  • Manis, F. R. (in press). The dynamic child. Hoboken, NJ: Pearson.
  • Reid, G., Fawcett, A. J., Manis, F. R., Siegel, L. S. (2008). The Sage Handbook of Dyslexia. (Reid, G., Fawcett, A. J., Manis, F. R., Siegel, L. S., Ed.). London: Sage Publications Ltd

Educational Software

  • Manis, F. R., & Radford, M. (2006).  My virtual child. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
  • Manis, F. (2009). My Virtual Teen. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
  • Buckner, J., & Manis, F. R. (2012). My Virtual Life. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Selected Peer Reviewed Publications and Chapters

  • Spencer, S. A., & Manis, F. R. (2010).  The effects of a fluency intervention program on the fluency and comprehension outcomes of middle-school students with severe reading deficits. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 25, 76-86.
  • Manis, F. R., Lindsey, K. A. (2011). Cognitive and oral language contributors to reading disabilities in Spanish-English bilingual children.  In A. Durgonoglu & C. A. Goldenberg (Eds.), Language and Literacy Development in Bilingual Settings (pp. 280-303). New York, NY: Guilford.
  • Beattie, R., Lu, Z. L., & Manis, F. R. (2011). Dyslexic adults can learn from repeated stimulus presentation but have difficulties in excluding external noise.PLoS ONE 6(11): e27893. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027893 (published online Nov 23, 2011)
  • Beattie, R. L. and Manis, F. R. (2011). The relationship between prosodic perception, phonological awareness and vocabulary in emergent literacy. Journal of Research in Reading. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9817.2011.01507 (published online Nov 29, 2011)
  • Nakamoto, J., Lindsey, K. A., & Manis, F. R. (2012). Development of reading skills from K-3 in Spanish-speaking English language learners following three programs of instruction. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25, 537-567. DOI: 10.1007/s11145-010-9285-4.
  • Beattie, R. & Manis, F. R. (2013). Rise time perception in children with reading and combined reading and language difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 46, 200-209.
  • Goldman, J. G., Zumberge Orechwa, A., & Manis, F. R. (2013). Relationships among cortical thickness, reading skill and print exposure in adults.  Scientific Studies of Reading, 17, 163-176.
  • Bruno, J., Lu, Z.-L., & Manis, F. (2013). Phonological processing skill is uniquely associated with neuro-metabolic concentration. NeuroImage, 67, 175-181.
  • Houston, S. M., Lebel, C., Katzir, T., Manis, F. R., Kan, E., Rodgriguez, G. G., & Sowell, E. R. (2014). Reading skill and structural brain development. Neuroreport, 25, 347-352. DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000121
  • Clark, K. A., Helland, T., Specht, K., Narr, K. L., Manis, F. R., Toga, A. W., & Hugdahl, K. (2014). Neuroanatomical precursors of dyslexia identified from pre-reading through age 11. Brain, published online August 14, 2014.
  • Wei, M., Joshi, A. A., Zhang, M., Mei, L., Manis, F. R., He, Q., Beattie, R. L., Xue, G., Shattuck, D. W., Leahy, R. M., Xue, F., Houston, S. M., Chen, Ch., Dong, Q., & Lu, Z.-L. (2015). How age of acquisition influences brain architecture in bilinguals. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 36, 35-55.
  • Clark, K. A., Helland, T., Specht, K., Narr, K. L., Manis, F. R., Toga, A. W., Hugdahl, K. (2015). Reply: Cortical differences in preliterate children at familial risk of dyslexia are similar to those observed in dyslexic readers. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, published online February 19, 2015.

Funded Research

  • Literacy Development In English Language Learners (Nat Inst of Child Health and Human Dev (NICHHD)), Lindsey, Kim Abkarian, Manis, Franklin R, $1,080,353, 05/01/2003-04/30/2009
  • Bases Of Normal And Disordered Reading (Nat Inst of Child Health and Human Dev (NICHHD)), Manis, Franklin R, $1,742,626, 04/01/2002-03/31/2009
  •  Perceptual, Linguistic and Computational Bases of Dyslexia (NIH-NICHHD), Franklin Manis, $372,000, 02/01/1996-11/30/2000

Conference and Other Presentations

  • “Dropping the perceptual anchor hypothesis: Support for the noise exclusion hypothesis of dyslexia”, Association for Psychological Science, Poster, Boston, MA, 2009-2010
  • “Phonological activation in Chinese word reading: Evidence from the perspective of phonetically-informed phonology. “, Research in Reading Chinese and Related Languages, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed Paper, Toronto, Canada, 2009-2010
  • “Phonological activation in meaning access for Chinese word reading: Evidence from the perspective of phonetically-informed phonology. “, Association for Psychological Science, Poster, Boston, MA, 2009-2010
  • “The introductory psychology ‘mini-course’: A new strategy for organizing discussion sections. “, Association for Psychological Science, Poster, Boston, MA, 2009-2010
  • “Cognitive bases of reading disability in Spanish-English bilingual children.”, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Poster, Refereed Asheville, North Carolina, 2008-2009
  • “Contribution of early reading skill and language exposure to comprehension in English language learners”, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Poster, Refereed Boston, MA, 2008-2009
  • “Relationships among cortical thickness, reading skill and print exposure in adult readers”, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Poster, Refereed Boston, MA, 2008-2009
  • “Teaching and learning about the whole child”, Society for Research in Child Development Teaching Institute, Talk/Oral Presentation, Denver, CO, Invited, 2008-2009
  • “fMRI activation patterns predict reading ability in adults with and without developmental dyslexia”, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Poster, Refereed San Francisco, 2008-2009
  • “Cognitive bases of reading disability in Spanish-English bilingual children”, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Poster, Refereed Asheville, NC, 2007-2008
  • “fMRI activation patterns predict reading ability in adults with and without developmental dyslexia”, Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Poster, Refereed San Francisco, CA, 2007-2008
  • “Development of English language learners’ word decoding and reading comprehension from first through ninth grade”, Biennial Meeting, Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal, Canada, 2010-2011
  • “The relationship between prosodic perception, phonological awareness, and vocabulary in emergent literacy “, Annual Meeting, Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, St. Petersberg, Florida, 2010-2011