A few decades ago, people born with dyslexia typically had no idea why they struggled to read, or failed to read at all. Neither did their teachers.
That’s changing. Literacy experts now understand that dyslexia is a neurobiological-based learning disability resulting in challenges with word recognition, spelling, and decoding abilities. Further, most states have begun to require K-12 schools to use early screening to assess students’ risk for reading problems like dyslexia; they’re also pushing for all students to receive evidence-based literacy instruction to ensure reading proficiency.
But a lingering and widely held misperception about dyslexia that’s all-too familiar to literacy advocates threatens to undermine this progress and perpetuate frustration for students with dyslexia and their teachers—the idea that you can cure, or “fix” dyslexia.
“Having been in the field for close to 40 years, I can tell you that dyslexia is a lifelong neuro-developmental disability that affects how the brain processes language—it has no cure,” said Ben Shifrin, head of Jemicy School, a college-preparatory independent school in Owings Mills, Md., serving students with dyslexia and related language-based learning differences. “The good news is, though, with early intervention and with the appropriate types of modifications and intervention, people with dyslexia thrive in today’s world.”
Shifrin and other experts help to unpack the complex portrait of dyslexia—from how its neurological origins explain both why the disability can’t be “fixed” and why early diagnosis and intervention matter so much, to why today’s students with dyslexia have a stronger shot at accessing and appreciating reading and literature than ever before.
What brain science reveals about how people with dyslexia read
Experts blame the misperception that dyslexia can be “fixed” largely on a general lack of understanding of how people learn to read.
“Reading is not this natural, innate process that develops easily,” said Molly Ness, a reading researcher and literacy specialist with Sterling Literacy Consulting in Denver. “To become a reader, you really have to create neural connections between different regions of the brain.”
Increasingly, researchers are beginning to learn how, for people with dyslexia, the parts of the brain required for reading both look and function differently than those of their typically developing peers. For instance, early research shows that people with dyslexia have a smaller letter box—a part of the brain considered the “visual word-form area,” Ness said.
Additionally, sophisticated technology known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, which measures brain activity by observing blood flow during cognitive tasks, allows researchers to actually see how the brains of people with dyslexia work differently when attempting to read.
“Our students with dyslexia under-activate the neural connections responsible for language and literacy processes,” Ness said.
The takeaway? Because the dyslexic brain has to work much harder to decode words, these students’ fluency and comprehension often suffer as a result.
“You can really start to see this as a neurobiological capacity, and help push past these stereotypes or misconceptions that dyslexia is strictly a visual problem, or that it’s related to intelligence,” Ness said.
Dyslexia and ADHD often overlap—and that makes diagnosis harder
People with dyslexia often experience other learning differences that make effective diagnosis and intervention even more challenging.
“Twenty-five percent to 40 percent of children with dyslexia are likely to have ADHD, and vice versa,” said Danielle Wexler, a clinical psychologist at Baltimore-based Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Neuropsychological and Psychological Assessment. “If a child has a hard time paying attention [because of ADHD], they’re going to miss much of the instruction they’re getting.”
Wexler notes that children with both ADHD and dyslexia benefit from small-group or one-on-one instruction. But before receiving effective instruction, students must first get a correct diagnosis, which can be tricky.
“It can become this ‘chicken or egg’ thing where you’re asking if the student is struggling in school because their inability to focus is making reading more challenging, or they are acting out because of frustration with reading,” said Ness.
Why early dyslexia diagnosis matters
Making an accurate diagnosis as early as possible in a student’s K-12 journey matters, experts say, as it gives them the best opportunity to get help they need when it matters most.
“We do know that when you catch dyslexia as early as possible, and you provide structured literacy interventions with appropriate frequency, you can start to see the brain responding in as little as six weeks,” said Ness, referencing the brain’s optimal “neuroplasticity” period, which corresponds to when most children learn to read.
The problem, said Ness, is that most children with dyslexia don’t get diagnosed until at least 3rd grade. Not only are they missing the optimal time for appropriate intervention but, in the interim, their self-esteem can plummet.
“Now you’re addressing some mental health struggles as they’re feeling shame and embarrassment,” she said.
Further, without early intervention, students tend to avoid reading altogether because it’s hard for them, and they don’t like it. Without exposure to reading, their vocabulary fails to grow, as does their background knowledge, Ness said.
What success looks like for people with dyslexia
Knowing that dyslexia can’t be fixed or cured, what do the long-term outcomes for someone with the disability look like?
“Most of the time, they won’t be as fluent as a regular reader, but they’re able to look at the written page and, within a reasonable amount of time, totally comprehend what’s on that page,” said Shifrin, at the Jemicy School. “A lot of times, dyslexics will tell you, ‘I know how to skim the page and read it for the main ideas, but I’m not reading every word.’”
What students with dyslexia frequently do learn as they struggle with the disability is perseverance, Shifrin said.
“They’re used to failure. They know that if they don’t succeed the first time, there are many ways to approach a problem, and I think that’s why we see 33 percent of the Fortune 500 company CEOs having dyslexia,” he said.
Before students launch a career, though, they need to get through school, and assistive technology, like audio books and text-to-speech or speech-to-text software, is making it easier than ever for them to do so.
“If a teacher says, ‘Read this chapter and be ready for class tomorrow,’ the point is, we want the child to comprehend,” Shifrin said. “If the child gets the information by listening much quicker than reading, it doesn’t matter to us which way they got the information; it’s what they do with the information that’s critical.”
Kennedy Krieger’s Wexler agrees. For many people with dyslexia, she said, reading is not going to be their strength. But technology provides access to books and texts for these students in a way that reading may not.
“For young kids with dyslexia, it’s really about cultivating a love to read through listening to books so they can access same-age texts that they enjoy,” Wexler said.
Learning to access compensation strategies like assistive technology will help students with dyslexia manage, but not cure, their disability.
“It’s not a lifelong sentence, but it is a lifelong condition,” said Ness. “You can compensate. You can improve. But it’s like poor vision. I wear glasses. I will always wear glasses. My vision will never be perfect. I can compensate for it. But I will never win the battle with vision.”
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