American Dyslexia Association

Category: Dyslexia

Dyslexia and the Brain

Researchers are continually conducting studies to learn more about the causes of dyslexia, early identification of dyslexia, and the most effective treatments for dyslexia.

Developmental dyslexia is associated with difficulty in processing the orthography (the written form) and phonology (the sound structure) of language. As a way to understand the origin of these problems, neuroimaging studies have examined brain anatomy and function of people with and without dyslexia. These studies are also contributing to our understanding of the role of the brain in dyslexia, which can provide useful information for developing successful reading interventions and pinpointing certain genes that may also be involved.

What is brain imaging?

A number of techniques are available to visualize brain anatomy and function. A commonly used tool is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which creates images that can reveal information about brain anatomy (e.g., the amount of gray and white matter, the integrity of white matter), brain metabolites (chemicals used in the brain for communication between brain cells), and brain function (where large pools of neurons are active). Functional MRI (fMRI) is based on the physiological principle that activity in the brain (where neurons are “firing”) is associated with an increase of blood flow to that specific part of the brain. The MRI signal bears indirect information about increases in blood flow. From this signal, researchers infer the location and amount of activity that is associated with a task, such as reading single words, that the research participants are performing in the scanner. Data from these studies are typically collected on groups of people rather than individuals for research purposes only—not to diagnose individuals with dyslexia.

Which brain areas are involved in reading?

Since reading is a cultural invention that arose after the evolution of modern humans, no single location within the brain serves as a reading center. Instead, brain regions that sub serve other functions, such as spoken language and object recognition, are redirected (rather than innately specified) for the purpose of reading (Dehaene & Cohen, 2007). Reading involves multiple cognitive processes, two of which have been of particular interest to researchers: 1) grapheme-phoneme mapping in which combinations of letters (graphemes) are mapped onto their corresponding sounds (phonemes) and the words are thus “decoded,” and 2) visual word form recognition for mapping of familiar words onto their mental representations. Together, these processes allow us to pronounce words and gain access to meaning. In accordance with these cognitive processes, studies in adults and children have demonstrated that reading is supported by a network of regions in the left hemisphere (Price, 2012), including the occipito-temporal, temporo-parietal, and inferior frontal cortices. The occipito-temporal cortex holds the “visual word form area.” Both the temporo-parietal and inferior frontal cortices play a role in phonological and semantic processing of words, with inferior frontal cortex also involved in the formation of speech sounds. These areas have been shown to change as we age (Turkeltaub, et al., 2003) and are altered in people with dyslexia (Richlan et al., 2011).

What have brain images revealed about brain structure in dyslexia?

Evidence of a connection between dyslexia and the structure of the brain was first discovered by examining the anatomy of brains of deceased adults who had dyslexia during their lifetimes. The left-greater-than-right asymmetry typically seen in the left hemisphere temporal lobe (planum temporale) was not found in these brains (Galaburda & Kemper, 1979), and ectopias (a displacement of brain tissue to the surface of the brain) were noted (Galaburda, et al., 1985). Then investigators began to use MRI to search for structural images in the brains of research volunteers with and without dyslexia. Current imaging techniques have revealed less gray and white matter volume and altered white matter integrity in left hemisphere occipito-temporal and temporo-parietal areas. Researchers are still investigating how these findings are influenced by a person’s language and writing systems.

What have brain images revealed about brain function in dyslexia?

Early functional studies were limited to adults because they employed invasive techniques that require radioactive materials. The field of human brain mapping greatly benefited from the invention of fMRI. fMRI does not require the use of radioactive tracers, so it is safe for children and adults and can be used repeatedly which facilitates longitudinal studies of development and intervention. First used to study dyslexia in 1996 (Eden et al., 1996), fMRI has since been widely used to study the brain’s role in reading and its components (phonology, orthography, and semantics). Studies from different countries have converged in findings of altered left-hemisphere areas (Richlan et al., 2011), including ventral occipito-temporal, temporo-parietal, and inferior frontal cortices (and their connections). Results of these studies confirm the universality of dyslexia across different world languages.

Continue reading article: https://dyslexiaida.org/dyslexia-and-the-brain-fact-sheet/

11/11/2020
Humans are born with brains ‘prewired’ to see words: Study finds connections to language areas of the brain

Source: Ohio State University

Humans are born with a part of the brain that is prewired to be receptive to seeing words and letters, setting the stage at birth for people to learn how to read, a new study suggests.

Analyzing brain scans of newborns, researchers found that this part of the brain — called the “visual word form area” (VWFA) — is connected to the language network of the brain.

“That makes it fertile ground to develop a sensitivity to visual words — even before any exposure to language,” said Zeynep Saygin, senior author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

The VWFA is specialized for reading only in literate individuals. Some researchers had hypothesized that the pre-reading VWFA starts out being no different than other parts of the visual cortex that are sensitive to seeing faces, scenes or other objects, and only becomes selective to words and letters as children learn to read or at least as they learn language.

“We found that isn’t true. Even at birth, the VWFA is more connected functionally to the language network of the brain than it is to other areas,” Saygin said. “It is an incredibly exciting finding.”

Saygin, who is a core faculty member of Ohio State’s Chronic Brain Injury Program, conducted the study with graduate students Jin Li and Heather Hansen and assistant professor David Osher, all in psychology at Ohio State. Their results were published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

The researchers analyzed fMRI scans of the brains of 40 newborns, all less than a week old, who were part of the Developing Human Connectome Project. They compared these to similar scans from 40 adults who participated in the separate Human Connectome Project.

The VWFA is next to another part of visual cortex that processes faces, and it was reasonable to believe that there wasn’t any difference in these parts of the brain in newborns, Saygin said.

As visual objects, faces have some of the same properties as words do, such as needing high spatial resolution for humans to see them correctly.

But the researchers found that, even in newborns, the VWFA was different from the part of the visual cortex that recognizes faces, primarily because of its functional connection to the language processing part of the brain.

“The VWFA is specialized to see words even before we’re exposed to them,” Saygin said.

“It’s interesting to think about how and why our brains develop functional modules that are sensitive to specific things like faces, objects, and words,” said Li, who is lead author of the study.

“Our study really emphasized the role of already having brain connections at birth to help develop functional specialization, even for an experience-dependent category like reading.”

The study did find some differences in the VWFA in newborns and adults.

“Our findings suggest that there likely needs to be further refinement in the VWFA as babies mature,” Saygin said.

“Experience with spoken and written language will likely strengthen connections with specific aspects of the language circuit and further differentiate this region’s function from its neighbors as a person gains literacy.”

Continue reading article here:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201022125525.htm

11/03/2020
Why Are Some Bilingual People Dyslexic in English but Not Their Other Language?

Featured Neuroscience

October 9, 2020

Summary: The characteristics of language structure and writing system may explain why some bilingual people are dyslexic in English, but not in their other proficient language.

Source: Brunel University

In the English-speaking world, dyslexia is a learning disorder we’re all familiar with – if we don’t have it ourselves or have a friend or family member that struggles with it, we’re likely to have known someone at school or university who found reading and writing trickier than their peers.

In fact, more than 1 in 10 people that grew up with English as their first language are said to have dyslexia, with wide consensus pointing towards a person’s genetic history as the leading cause. One, it would appear, is either born dyslexic or not.

So, how then have we ended up with the phenomenon that some people who speak both English and another language can be dyslexic in one, but not the other?

The answer, it seems, is hidden in the characteristics of a language and its writing system.

“The English writing system is so irregular – print to sound or sound to print translation is not always one to one,” Brunel University London’s Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Prof Taeko Wydell, recently told the BBC radio documentary Dyslexia: Language and childhood.

“This irregularity or inconsistency makes it especially difficult for dyslexic individuals to master reading and writing in English.”

So, for example, ‘mint,’ ‘lint’ and ‘hint’ – all ‘int’ words – are pronounced differently to the word ‘pint’. And the words ‘through,’ ‘though’ and ‘tough’ all sound different, despite looking on the page like they should sound similar. This makes English a so-called ‘opaque’ language. The only way one knows the individual pronunciations, is to learn and remember each exception, such as ‘pint’ or ‘yacht,’ individually.

“This kind of irregularity doesn’t happen in other languages such as Italian, Spanish or Finnish,” said Prof Wydell, pointing to so-called ‘transparent’ languages where combinations of letters are always pronounced the same, with some rare exceptions. As such, studies have shown Italian speakers are only half as likely to show signs of dyslexia than English speakers.

Levels of dyslexia can also be far lower in countries with a symbol-based writing system, such as Japanese or Chinese, because of how those writing systems are taught in schools.

When children learn to write Japanese Kanji or Chinese characters, they consistently repeat the order of strokes required to draw each character whilst speaking aloud the corresponding word. This helps the motor sequence – the combination of small movements required to write each word or sound – get ‘wired in’ to their brains.

“So, when the child is asked to write later on, the child’s hands almost automatically write down the character from memory,” said Prof Wydell.

Continue reading article here:

https://neurosciencenews.com/bilingual-dyslexia-17144/

10/23/2020
School-based Identification of Characteristics of Dyslexia: Parent Overview

By: Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia

Learn how schools use screening and progress monitoring tools to identify dyslexia characteristics, and then implement reading interventions for students who need dyslexia-specific instruction. You’ll also find out about classroom accommodations and modifications that can help your child learn, as well as information about referrals for special education.

This article is adapted from a parent resource developed by the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. Check with your state’s Department of Education to find out more about screening and interventions.

Dyslexia defined

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin and is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.

Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

Dyslexia overview

This overview of dyslexia is presented by Dr. Tim Odegard, Professor of Psychology at the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia at Middle Tennessee State University.

School-based identification of the characteristics of dyslexia

Many public schools are required to screen students for characteristics of dyslexia and provide dyslexia-specific interventions to those who are identified. Public schools do not assess and formally diagnose dyslexia; however, the identification of characteristics of dyslexia is sufficient to plan for and implement reading intervention for those students. Schools have procedures in place through the Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI2) framework (or other similar means) to support this screening and identification.

Continue reading the article here:

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/school-based-identification-characteristics-dyslexia-parent-overview

10/13/2020
What is dyslexia and what can be done to help?

by David Morgan | 2 April 2019

Dyslexia can make learning to read a real challenge, but dyslexics are often exceptionally bright children, with incredible potential. We find that – with the right targeted support – every dyslexic can crack the code and start reading and writing well.

If your child is struggling with dyslexia, he or she isn’t alone. According to Chris Horn of the University of South Carolina, an estimated 6 to 10 percent of today’s students face this learning challenge. Some say that the percentage could be even closer to 20, since many people struggle with their reading and exhibit dyslexic patterns, but do not fit exact testing criteria.

20% is roughly the number of adults who have passed through the school system and not learned to read in the USA, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Such statistics shed light on just how widespread reading difficulties are. However, this doesn’t change the fact that it can feel scary and overwhelming— especially when you’ve just received a diagnosis of dyslexia for yourself or your child.

But what does a diagnosis of dyslexia mean? Does it mean that learning to read is impossible? Is dyslexia a lifetime disability?

At Helping Children to Read, our answer is a resounding “no!”

Instead, our research has shown that almost all dyslexics can learn to read and spell. In fact, we have not had a single dyslexic not learn to read well on completion of our home support process in recent years. Most can reach the middle or top of their class. It is our experience that with the right tools, every child can gain the skills they need to read fluently and well. It is our mission to get those tools into the hands of every child.

Rethinking dyslexia: a label, not a diagnosis

When someone is given a dyslexia diagnosis, our greatest worry is that they take it as a label of disability, with a sentence of lifetime reading struggles. Some specialists will suggest this is the case, and say that a dyslexic child should accept the situation and switch to using “practical” tools like read-to-me software as a workaround.

We understand that if you have not seen dyslexics learn to read, then that would seem like good advice. But we could not disagree more with that view!

Learning with conventional phonics is often hard for dyslexics, but there are new and different strategies. If you support the decoding of words in the right way, children with dyslexia can still become proficient at it quite quickly, with good comprehension. By using trainertext visual phonics to help with the decoding and by addressing other causes of difficulty, we fundamentally change the way that dyslexics approach the written word. Once that switch of strategy has occurred, their reading can start to fly.

Continue reading article here:

https://www.helpingchildrentoread.com/articles/what-is-dyslexia/

10/05/2020
We Can’t Teach Love But We Can Teach Reading

Teachers can speak a lot of things into existence (a quiet line in the hallway, students sitting “criss, cross, applesauce”) but a love of reading isn’t one of them. Enthusiasm is a part of good teaching, but communicating a love of books isn’t the same thing as teaching reading. I learned that the hard way.

When reading comes easily, it’s easy to love it

Reading courses in my teacher preparation program centered around a love of reading. In class, we shared our own memories of learning to read, curated books lists for our classroom libraries, and debated the themes hidden in our favorite children’s books. We were taught to devote time to students reading for pleasure and to be disdainful of basal programs with scripted lessons.

When I first began teaching, I read aloud to my class every day, gave my students time for independent reading, and facilitated discussions about their books. My approach worked well for students who entered my fourth grade class already reading well. They would sprawl around the classroom and become so absorbed in their books that they’d groan when Read to Self time was over. I had a few students who struggled with reading and they were pulled for intervention by a specialist and I never had the opportunity to see the instruction they received. So while I taught fourth grade in a high-performing school, I believed that if students were given time to read and discuss good books, their abilities would grow and a love of reading would flow naturally.

But when reading is difficult …

Five years ago, I moved to a school with low reading achievement. As a literacy coach, I saw teachers try the same strategies I had used, but they experienced very different results. And I quickly learned that in classrooms with children who cannot read well there are a thousand ways a Readers Workshop lesson can backfire.

In one third grade class, a teacher began to state her teaching point, “Good readers…” only to be cut off by a student who called out, “We don’t got those in here!” The teacher handled the disruption beautifully in the moment, but afterwards she lamented, “The kid had a point.” Just two of her students were reading anywhere near grade level.

In well-managed classrooms, independent reading periods would devolve into quiet distraction. In less-orderly rooms, students scrawled curse words in books and knocked leveled book bins to the floor. Our school’s kindergarteners had more tolerance for low-level books than the ten year olds who had been struggling for years to make sense of reading. I soon realized that independent reading is a burden, not a pleasure, for students who struggle to lift the words off the page.

Student: Why do they always put tricky words in there?

Although we had hundreds of books bins, only the low-level books were being used. Our mini-lessons began to feel too mini and our Guided Reading lessons felt too guided. What had seemed to be enough in my own fourth grade classroom was certainly not enough here. It seemed cruel to talk about a love of reading when students felt taunted by the squiggly lines on the page.

The joy of cracking the code

I began to use the time I had devoted to Guided Reading intervention for explicit phonics instruction. The scripted lessons felt dry, but I honored the instructional routines and I faked enthusiasm. My students discovered the joy in the lessons before I did.

Continue reading here: https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/right-read/we-can-t-teach-love-we-can-teach-reading

09/25/2020
Children’s Confidence Boosted Thanks to Dyslexic Artist’s Reading and Learning Resource

by Rossie Stone

MY NAME IS ROSSIE STONE. WHAT HAPPENED TO ME IN HIGH SCHOOL CHANGED ME FOREVER.

All my way through school, I struggled with processing information through words, both spoken and written. Listening to the teacher was really hard, as was following and remembering information from books.

After being at the bottom of the class throughout primary school, I was eventually identified as dyslexic. Though it was a relief to be assured the problem wasn’t stupidity, the diagnosis didn’t make high school any easier. Or exams.

Eventually, I had a eureka moment. It struck me that if understanding information through text was so hard, I could try turning my revision notes into something I had never found difficult to read: COMICS.

To my surprise, it was not only highly enjoyable (in a way, I expected that) but highly effective too. Suddenly, the information was getting into my head and staying there, the way I assumed it was for people who take in knowledge more conventionally.

When it came to my exam, I did my best to remember the notes from my Revision Comic. I was delighted to find how easy that was. I remembered all the pictures and parts of the story in the comic that contained the facts I needed. Even so, I wasn’t expecting to come back with my very first GRADE A in an academic exam!

It wasn’t the Grade A that filled me with confidence, though, but the realization that I COULD access information – and could have been doing it all along – when it was presented in a way that worked for me.

Since then, I have made my revision technique into a series of comics more accessible to a younger age, the years when I felt I really missed out.

These comics turn school subjects like maths, literacy, science, and history into pure entertainment in the form of visual stories.

Continue reading the article, here: https://dekkocomics.com/blog/improving-confidence-through-comics

The comics can be found on our website, here:

https://dekkocomics.com/issue-list-home

09/16/2020
The Gift of Being a Dyslexic Teacher
A dyslexic teacher can be more attentive in the classroom, sensitive to struggling students, and model how to compensate for this spectrum disorder.

By Matthew James Friday
Dyslexia creates suffering for many students, but you rarely hear of teachers admitting to having it. Are teachers really still required, in the 21st century, to be models of perfect, marble-made fonts of knowledge and effectiveness? I have tutored a small number of dyslexic trainee teachers, but that was an exception to the norm. By sheer statistics alone, I must have worked with (and perhaps am presently working with) colleagues who are struggling in secret. It’s time to talk about dyslexia.

6 Facts About Dyslexia

So what’s dyslexia? Here is a quick definition:
Dyslexia is a “spectrum disorder,” meaning that there is a range or spectrum of symptoms.

People with dyslexia commonly have difficulty with all or some of:

Phonological awareness

Verbal memory

Rapid serial naming

Verbal processing speed.

Dyslexia has no link to intelligence, though many people feel “stupid” and ashamed at school because they struggle with literacy skills — the cornerstone of how we measure ability.

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning difficulties. It is estimated that one out of ten people in the UK has dyslexia.

While language has a role in prevalence, dyslexia affects people of all ethnicities.

Commonality in families has led scientists to identify six genes that may cause dyslexia. (My brother has severe dyslexia, and my father has all the symptoms, though when he was at school, those symptoms were put down to laziness or stupidity.)

One of the happiest days of my life was being diagnosed with mild auditory dyslexia. I was 20 years old and had started college studies after a few gap years. The first essay I had written was returned splattered with red ink and harsh comments about mistakes — the familiar feeling of shame and frustration. Luckily, a leaflet about dyslexia in the university library directed me to an educational psychologist and an assessment process that resulted in the diagnosis I had suspected for years. It was a huge relief to know what was wrong with me.

With my auditory dyslexia, I can hear what is said, but I instantly feel the information flittering away in my mind. It is like having leaking holes in my brain. At primary school, I could pass a spelling test but made frequent mistakes in my extended writing. My school reports featured the same comment: “Matthew enjoys writing, but he rushes and makes many mistakes.”

I have always struggled with my listening skills. I am easily distracted and often drift into an imaginary world. Though an advanced private reader, I hated reading texts aloud in high school. The words blurred on the page, and I felt intense anxiety at the thought of being laughed at. My comprehension of the text was low, so I had to work doubly hard at home to catch up. The worst moment was when my beloved English teacher declared me “stupid” in front of the whole class for repeatedly misspelling “Anthony” in an essay about a Shakespeare play.

Continue reading article here: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/gift-of-being-dyslexic-teacher-matthew-friday
09/05/2020
Dyslexia – Dyscalculia!?

The authors, Dr. Astrid Kopp-Duller and Dr. Livia R. Pailer-Duller, describe in this publication the necessity of intervention at the educational-didactic level, which is of preeminent importance for success in the training of people who have problems with reading, writing, or calculating.

Information on ordering is found here:

https://www.dyslexia-dyscalculia.com/
Available in English, German, and Spanish.

Download PDF-Excerpt!

It is a fact that many people who simply have problems with learning how to read, write, or do arithmetic continue to undergo only psychological or medical therapy, and don’t receive the educational-didactic assistance that they actually need. In cases of problems with reading, writing, or calculating, only the specially trained educator will be able to help these people using educational methods that have been developed through educational-didactic research.

08/27/2020