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NEWS
AND DYSLEXIA
RESEARCH
RECENT
NEWS ITEMS
World of Dyslexia Newsletter - free monthly email newsletter with the latest
dyslexia news and research.
 Dyslexia More Complicated for Chinese - Dyslexia is different, and perhaps more complicated and severe, in Chinese-speaking people than in those who speak English, a new study contends.
In people who speak English, dyslexia is a phonological disorder. This means they have difficulty detecting or manipulating the sound structure of oral language, which causes problems in mapping speech sounds into letters. Dyslexia in those who speak Chinese, though, is a phonological disorder as well as a visuospatial deficit, the study found.
"Written Chinese maps graphic forms - i.e., characters - into meanings; Chinese characters possess a number of intricate strokes packed into a square configuration, and their pronunciation must be memorized by rote. This characteristic suggests that a fine-grained visuospatial analysis must be performed by the visual system in order to activate the characters' phonological and semantic information. Consequently, disordered phonological processing may commonly coexist with abnormal visuospatial processing in Chinese dyslexia."
Full Story
Design v Dyslexia: Innovation Promises New Hope for Children with Dyslexia - Overcoming the challenge of reading and retaining information could soon become easier for educators and children thanks to pioneering design research from the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. Renee Seward has developed an online tool that creatively employs sight, sound and physical movement to increase the reading and retention abilities of children aged 9 to 11 who have dyslexia.
By clicking on the letter that they cannot remember the sound for they can get a visual and auditory clue. (Feb. 2010)
Full Story
Video from the University of Cincinnati Website
 Dyslexia Continues into Adult Life - In a 13-year study in Norway, dyslexia was found to have continued into the adult lives of almost all of 75 children who were assessed at age ten and later at age 23. ('Dyslexia' Journal, Vol 15, No. 4).
British Dyslexia Association Journal 'Dyslexia'
 Entrepreneurs Five Times More Likely to be Dyslexic - A science research centre found that 20% of entrepreneurs (business owners employing at least one person) studied were dyslexic whereas employed managers (those who supervise at least one person) reflected the UK national dyslexia incidence level of 4%.
The research also found that 70% of dyslexic entrepreneurs who participated in the second, more in depth stage of the research, did not succeed at school.
(Dec. 2009)
Full Story
 Yale to Use $5M for Dyslexia Genetics Studies - The Yale School of Medicine has landed a $5.2 million foundation grant to conduct a large genomics study that will investigate genes involved in dyslexia. The long-term goal of the research, which is supported by a grant from the Manton Foundation, will be to develop a gene-based diagnostic test for dyslexia that could help catch the disease earlier in life and enable children to gain the benefits of accessing specialized reading treatments sooner.
 Dyslexia Linked to Muscle Control - Dyslexia could be caused by defects in the part of the brain that controls muscle co-ordination, Edinburgh scientists have discovered. Edinburgh University scientists have found the cerebellum, at the base of the brain, may influence how a person learns to interpret written language. The scientists compared brain scans of people with dyslexia with those of people without the condition. Dyslexic patients fell into two main categories, those with an enlarged area in the cerebellum and those with a smaller area than normal.
Full Story
 Dyslexics in the Classroom - Last summer, we conducted some in-depth research into public attitudes to dyslexia. I'm afraid to say the results were not encouraging. One of the astonishing things we discovered was that 75% of the population claim to understand little or nothing about how dyslexic people think.
With dyslexic thinkers making up an estimated 10% of the population, most people have either a friend, loved-one, relative, colleague or client with dyslexia. So why are we so in the dark about how dyslexics think?
Full Story
 Risks Raised for Young with Dyslexia - Young people with dyslexia may be at greater risk of getting hurt on the job, according to a new study from the Toronto-based Institute for Work and Health (IWH). 'The early indicators are that dyslexia contributes to higher injury rates among young workers,' said IWH's Dr Curtis Breslin, who led the study.
'It could be that the particular problems with reading, spelling and writing that characterise dyslexia make it more difficult to understand and remember safety training or contribute to poor supervisor-worker communications.' The study, published in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health, is one of the first to look at the relationship between learning disabilities, ADHD and job injury rates among young people.
Full Story
 Dyslexia: a New Synergy Between Education and Cognitive Neuroscience - Reading is essential in modern societies, but many children have dyslexia, a difficulty in learning to read. Dyslexia often arises from impaired phonological awareness, the auditory analysis of spoken language that relates the sounds of language to print. Behavioral remediation, especially at a young age, is effective for many, but not all, children.
Neuroimaging in children with dyslexia has revealed reduced engagement of the left temporo-parietal cortex for phonological processing of print, altered white-matter connectivity, and functional plasticity associated with effective intervention. Behavioral and brain measures identify infants and young children at risk for dyslexia, and preventive intervention is often effective. A combination of evidence-based teaching practices and cognitive neuroscience measures could prevent dyslexia from occurring in the majority of children who would otherwise develop dyslexia.
Full Story
 Gene Associated with Language, Speech and Reading Disorders Identified - A new candidate gene for Specific Language Impairment has been identified by a research team directed at the University of Kansas. A gene on Chromosome 6 – KIAA0319 – was associated with variability in language abilities in a study of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and their family members, as well as with variability in speech and reading abilities. Children with SLI who were selected for the study had no hearing loss, general intellectual deficit or autism.
Language ability involves vocabulary and grammar, whereas speech involves the accuracy of sound production. Both language and speech ability contribute to a child's ability to read. The finding that a candidate gene could influence all three abilities suggests a common pathway that could contribute to overlapping strengths or deficiencies across speech, language and reading.
Full Story
 Dyslexia and the Reading Brain - All of us are born with brains that are designed to think and talk. But no one is born with a brain that is designed to read. For that reason, every child who learns to read is adapting older brain structures to a new purpose, and "it's almost a miracle that so many kids are able to do that effortlessly".
She said in an interview last week that fluent readers create a new reading circuit in the left half of their brains, using areas hard-wired for hearing, vision, speech, memory and cognition. For some children, though, this task is extraordinarily difficult, and brain imaging studies have shown that many of them end up using the right half of their brains for reading tasks, even though it isn't ideally suited for that purpose.
Full Story
 Stress Among School-aged Dyslexic Children - Dyslexic children in Grades 3-5 were found to experience high levels of stress, particularly with regard to interacting with teachers and school tests. Dyslexic children in larger families (3-4 siblings) also experienced greater stress than dyslexic children in smaller families (two siblings), possibly from unfair subling comparison.
Dyslexia Journal
 Are Weak Eye Muscles Holding Your Child Back at School? - There are all sorts of reasons for learning difficulties, but for some children - perhaps as many as 400,000 in the UK - the problem lies with the way their eyes work. If the muscles around the eyes are weak, the eyes won't work as a co-ordinated pair. This makes it difficult to focus clearly on something as small as the printed words on a page. Now a new campaign has been launched to alert parents and teachers to the fact that sight problems can be an issue for children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties. The good news is treatment from an orthoptist, an eye specialist who deals with focusing problems, could improve their vision dramatically.
Full Story
 Between Men and Women, Dyslexia Takes Sides - Women’s brains have a different read on dyslexia than men’s brains do. Women diagnosed with this severe disability in reading and other facets of written language show a right-brain deficit in tissue volume, in contrast to a primarily left-brain volume reduction already reported for dyslexic men, according to a team led by neuroscientist Guinevere Eden of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. ... The team also studied brain volume in girls with dyslexia. Nine school-age girls ages 7 to 13 and diagnosed with dyslexia displayed reductions in tissue volume not just in one brain area, but in a variety of areas, compared with eight girls of the same age group who had no reading problems ... It appears that boys and girls with dyslexia start out with similar types of neural volume deficits that diverge by adulthood to different sides of the brain. (Dec 2008)
Full Story
 Remedial Instruction Re-wires Dyslexic Brains - A new Carnegie Mellon University brain imaging study of dyslexic students and other poor readers shows that the brain can permanently rewire itself and overcome reading deficits, if students are given 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction. The study, published in the August issue of the journal Neuropsychologia, shows that the remedial instruction resulted in an increase in brain activity in several cortical regions associated with reading, and that neural gains became further solidified during the year following instruction.
"This study demonstrates how remedial instruction can use the plasticity of the human brain to gain an educational improvement," said neuroscientist Marcel Just, director of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (CCBI) and senior author of the study. "Focused instruction can help underperforming brain areas to increase their proficiency." Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists investigated the changes in a number of cortical regions located in the parietotemporal area. CCBI research fellows Ann Meyler and Tim Keller measured brain activity patterns by examining blood flow to all of the different parts of the brain while fifth-graders were reading. (August 2008)
 Dyslexia Gene is Carried by 15% of the Population - Reading ability in the general population may be influenced by a gene linked to dyslexia, a new study shows. At least six genes have been identified that might be involved in dyslexia. Now new findings from a study of more than 6,000 British children aged seven to nine have indicated that faulty KIAA0319 may reduce general reading ability in people not suffering from dyslexia.
Full Story
 Springboard for Children
- A
ground-breaking project which has had extraordinary success in helping
hundreds of dyslexic children and others struggling to read and write
at primary school is poised for a major expansion across Britain.
Springboard for Children, an education charity which now has the
enthusiastic backing of the British Dyslexia Association, has achieved
a 90 per cent success rate in returning children with severe literacy
problems to mainstream classrooms. The revolutionary scheme is being
used in a dozen schools in Manchester and London, and the plan is now
to set the scheme up in ten other inner-city areas – bringing a
lifeline to around 10,000 children suffering from dyslexia and other
difficulties with reading and writing. The Springboard project relies
on intense one-on-one tuition for up to two years,
during which a host of innovative techniques are employed to improve
the child's skills.
 Groundbreaking
UK Dyslexia Scheme to Help 10.000 More Children - A
successful new way
to teach children with dyslexia is to be used in UK inner cities. The
scheme, named Springboard for Children, has had a 96 per cent success
rate in returning children with severe literacy problems to mainstream
classrooms. The majority of pupils are two years behind their peers
when they are referred to Springboard. By the time they return to
lessons they have a reading age comparable to their classmates. Backed
by the British Dyslexia Association, it has achieved a 90 per cent
success rate in helping children with severe literacy problems back
into mainstream schools.
 Research
Reveals Drug Abuse Link to Dyslexia - Drug
abusers are ten times more likely than the overall population to suffer
from dyslexia, a study by Stirling University shows. Of the addicts
studied, 40% were dyslexic, compared with about 4% of the total
population of Scotland ... In recent survey of addiction workers, Mr
Yates found that 82% of respondents said between a quarter and a half
of their clients had reading difficulties, with 89% indicating they
thought these difficulties were a barrier to recovery ...
The Stirling University study involved assessing the dyslexia of 50
participants.
21%
of prison inmates are dyslexic - A recent study of 357 UK
prisoners by Dr John Rach of Dyslexia Action found that 21% of them
were dyslexia, and 38% of them sufered from some form of disability.
 Dyslexic Children
Use Nearly Five Times The Brain Area To Perform An Ordinary Language
Task As Normal Children - Dyslexic children use nearly five
times the brain area as normal children while performing a simple
language task, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of
University of Washington researchers. The study shows for the first
time that there are chemical differences in the brain function of
dyslexic and non-dyslexic children.
Chiropractic Care
May Help Children With Dyslexia - A recent study, published
in the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research (JVSR), suggests that
chiropractic care may offer significant benefits to children suffering
from learning disabilities and dyslexia. Swiss chiropractor Yannick
Pauli, DC, president of the Swiss Chiropractic Pediatric Association,
who specializes in the care of children suffering from learning and
behavioral disorders, stressed that, contrary to popular belief,
chiropractic is not restricted to back pain in adults. "The only source
of constant stimulation to the brain comes from the spine and the
postural muscles constantly adjusting to the force of gravity," he
explained. "If the daily physical stresses of life cause misalignments
in the spine, the brain is not adequately stimulated." He added that
chiropractic adjustments can improve the function of the spine and
strongly stimulate nerve pathways to the cerebellum and other parts of
the brain. "In the case of children, this may, in turn, help brain
functions necessary for learning," he said.
Dyslexic
Pupils 'Can Read With the Help of Intensive Teaching'
-
Dyslexic children who start secondary school
lagging behind classmates can be helped to catch up with "proper
teaching", campaigners say. Charity Xtraordinary People claims
thousands of primary pupils go undiagnosed each year, with many of them
branded disruptive low-achievers.
 Staff
Expect Dyslexics to Fail - Children
with specific learning difficulties (SpLD), such as dyslexia, are three
times more likely to fail their national curriculum tests, a survey by
BBC One's Real Story has found. 60% of teachers say children who fail
their primary school Sats will also fail their Sats in secondary school.
 Family's
Fight for Dyslexic Son - A
Leicestershire, UK, couple who want the county council to pay for their
dyslexic son's private education say they may be forced to sell their
house. Annette and John Bridges, of Moira, have sent their son Sean to
a private dyslexia centre in Staffordshire which costs them £12,000
($24,000) a year.
 New Phonics Research - Reading
specialists have often pitted phonics against holistic word recognition
and whole language approaches in the war over how to teach children to
read. However, a new study by researchers at New York University shows
that the three reading processes do not conflict, but, rather, work
together to determine speed.
 Education Shortfall Turning Dyslexics to
Crime - Britain's education system is failing people with
dyslexia, plunging many sufferers into a life of crime, the chairman of
a specialist Sedgemoor school warned this week. New
research published recently shows that while only 10% of people in the
UK have dyslexia, some 60% of prison inmates are affected by the
condition. That's not because dyslexics are pre-disposed to criminal
behaviour, but because of the lack of opportunities and education which
many dyslexics receive. At least, that is the opinion of David
Atkinson, chairman of Edington and Shapwick School, which specialises
in teaching children who have dyslexia. Learning
to Help the Vulnerable
 UK
Government Launches Phonics Guide - The UK
government today renewed its commitment to phonics as it unveiled a new
teaching programme aimed at the under-sevens. The Letters and Sounds
programme, which is available free to schools, has been developed by
the Department for Education and Skills in conjunction with Jim Rose, a
former schools inspector whose review of reading among young children
last year recommended that schools adopt the phonics teaching method in
class.
 Sounds Incredible - Once upon a
time, in a deprived part of Scotland, a plan was put into place to wipe
out pupil illiteracy within a decade. Ten years on, it's worked! It is
mid-morning at St Mary's primary school in Alexandria, a bleak,
post-industrial town north-west of Glasgow that often features on
Scotland's list of areas of multiple deprivation. In Margaret Mooney's
class, 20 five-year-olds have gathered on the floor at the teacher's
feet, pretending to be trains. "Ch, ch, ch, ch, ch," they intone, small
arms circling wildly like the wheels of a locomotive...
Breaking the
Barriers of Dyslexia - Karen Hambridge reports on a
Warwickshire, UK, school that is breaking new ground.
It's simple things which have made all the difference to children with
dyslexia. Writing on the correct colour paper for example and having
teachers use the right pen on the white board...
New Deal for Dyslexia in UK Schools - UK
Schools Minister Andrew Adonis joined Kate Griggs, founder of the
charity Xtraordinary People, to launch 'No to Failure', an exciting new
project that aims to ensure children with dyslexia get the support they
need at school. This unique project, part of a wider new programme of
support for children with dyslexia and their teachers, identifies
'trailblazer' schools and local authorities leading the way in meeting
the needs of dyslexic pupils.
 Dyslexia About Which Side of the Bain You
Use - Waldie
has been carrying out a brain-mapping study that shows dyslexics try to
read with the right side of their brains, not the left. Using a new
magnetic resonance imaging machine, or MRI, she has mapped the brains
of dyslexics and non-dyslexics as they perform verbal and non-verbal
tasks. In the non-verbal tasks, dyslexic brains work in exactly the
same way as others, however, the verbal tasks show increased blood flow
to the right hemisphere of the dyslexic brain, proving that dyslexics
try to read the wrong way with the right side.
Dyslexia And Stress
- All dyslexic children experience varying degrees of stress at school,
doing their homework, and even at out-of-school activities they attend.
School presents a special challenge, when so much
of their day is focused on dealing with text. For children whose
dyslexia is severe it can be as stressful as a one-legged child going
to a skiing or dance school.
Phonetics
Teaching Helps Boys Beat Girls - Boys are
as good as girls at reading and spelling and even overtake them when
taught quickly and systematically by synthetic phonics, a conference
will be told next week. The more traditional teaching methods eradicate
not only the growing gender divide in primary schools but allow
children from disadvantaged backgrounds to do as well as those from
better off homes. The findings of studies in Scotland and South
Gloucestershire suggest that the methods of teaching reading imposed on
schools by the Government for the last decade are to blame for the
widening gap between boys and girls and between different social
classes.
 Dyslexia Begins When the Wires Don't Meet
- The work done by Dr. Just and his colleagues at
Carnegie Mellon, as well as brain imaging carried out at Georgetown
University, Yale University and other centers, has now proven that
seeing letters in reverse or out of order is not the cause of of
dyslexia. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can
measure blood flow to different parts of the brain in real time,
researchers now know that the reading disability involves a weakness in
the part of the brain that decodes the sounds of written language.
Attention
Deficit Drugs to Include New Warning - Marcel
Just understands the importance of learning how to read. But in some
ways, especially for people with dyslexia, it's just not fair, the
Carnegie Mellon University brain researcher says. The ability of humans
to speak a language goes back 40,000 to 50,000 years in our
evolutionary history, so it is deeply embedded in our brains. Written
languages, on the other hand, are only about 5,000 years old, and so it
makes perfect sense that some people's brains are not wired to easily
execute that skill.
Poor Readers Are Looked
Down On - Marcel
Just understands the importance of learning how to read. But in some
ways, especially for people with dyslexia, it's just not fair, the
Carnegie Mellon University brain researcher says. The ability of humans
to speak a language goes back 40,000 to 50,000 years in our
evolutionary history, so it is deeply embedded in our brains. Written
languages, on the other hand, are only about 5,000 years old, and so it
makes perfect sense that some people's brains are not wired to easily
execute that skill.
 Undiagnosed Learning
Disabilities Costly Later - The
work done by Dr. Just and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon, as well as
brain imaging carried out at Georgetown University, Yale University and
other centers, has now proven that seeing letters in reverse or out of
order is not the cause of of dyslexia. Using functional magnetic
resonance imaging, which can measure blood flow to different parts of
the brain in real time, researchers now know that the reading
disability involves a weakness in the part of the brain that decodes
the sounds of written language.
Test
for Dyslexia in 3-year Olds - A
10-minute screening test to identify pre-school children who might be
dyslexic has been developed by language experts at University College
London, UK. The test will be used by children from the age of three and
a half upwards, says Professor Heather van der Lely. What makes this
test different is that it can be carried out in only ten minutes - and
that it can be used before children are usually able to read, picking
up any potential concerns before children have started full-time
education. Professor van der Lely, has named her test GAPS (Grammar and
Phonology Screening), and plans to charge parents £50 ($100) to buy it.
 New
Dyslexia Cause Theory Blames 'Noise' - The dyslexic brain
struggles to read because even small distractions can throw it off,
according to a new model of dyslexia emerging from a group of recent
studies. The studies contradict an influential, 30-year-old theory that
blamed dyslexia on a neural deficit in processing the fast sounds of
language. Instead, the studies suggest that children with dyslexia have
bad filters for irrelevant data. As a result, they struggle to form
solid mental categories for identifying letters and word sounds. Such
children may benefit from intensive training under "noisy" conditions
to strengthen their mental templates, said University of Southern
California neuroscientist Zhong-Lin Lu.
Lu said
there is a "lot of evidence" of learning problems from ambient noise.
In one such study, Manis and a collaborator from UCLA found that
children with dyslexia struggled to discriminate similar sounds, like
"spy" and "sky," because they weighed irrelevant differences in sounds
equally with key distinctions.
 Secrets of Dyslexia Unlocked - A
genetic breakthrough will allow dyslexia to be diagnosed in unborn
babies, it was revealed yesterday. Their findings - the result of a
20-year study - mean those likely to suffer from extreme forms of
dyslexia can be identified before they are born and given extra care to
help deal with the condition. Dr Timothy Bates, one of the co-authors
of the study, said the research had unlocked the biological secrets of
dyslexia.
"We believe this combination of 13 genes makes all the difference
between someone who reads flawlessly and speedily and someone who
stumbles on basic words," he said.
Gene
Sequence to Help Diagnose Dyslexia in Unborn Babies Identified
EU Project
Starts Work on World's Largest Dyslexia Database
- A
new EU-funded project is aiming to create the world's largest databank
on dyslexia. 'The NEURODYS project will also study dyslexia from the
cognitive and brain basis but the main emphasis will be on its genetic
basis,' said Dr Ramus. 'Although there has been some preliminary work
done on dyslexia in the field of genetics, it was only with the mapping
of the human genome in 2001, that real molecular studies on dyslexia
could start.' Specifically, the project will explore the links between
the underlying active brain regions and risk-conferring genes.
Full
Story
NeuroDys
 Phonics Teaching - a Child's
Passport to Literacy - Systematic
phonics should feature in every child's reading instruction and it
should be part of every literacy teacher's repertoire, according to a
UK Government-funded review of research by academics at the
Universities of York and Sheffield. Phonics is especially helpful to
dyslexia children. (Feb 2006)
 Interview with Nancy Hennessy,
President of the International Dyslexia Association
- I
began teaching ... via the regular education classroom. I spent some
years in that setting and kept thinking about students that I was
interacting with who weren't successful and what other route I might
take that would allow me to meet their needs. I made a decision to go
back to school to study the area of learning disabilities, special
education. At the same time I began to look for an opportunity to work
in the special education classroom. (March 2006)
 Bookworms Born Not Made - Genes,
rather than reading to young children at home, have a greater influence
on how they learn to read once they reach school, researchers say. The
study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Research in
Reading, is the first to demonstrate the influence of genes on
potential reading ability in children younger than six ... There is
evidence that early and focused intervention for potential reading
disorders in children with family histories of dyslexia can lead to
grade-level performance in the early school years. (Feb
2006).
Brain
Images Show Individual Dyslexic Children Respond To Spelling Treatment - Brain
images of children with dyslexia taken before they received spelling
instruction show that they have different patterns of neural activity
than do good spellers when doing language tasks related to spelling.
But after specialized treatment emphasizing the letters in words, they
showed similar patterns of brain activity. These findings are important
because they show the human brain can change and normalize in response
to spelling instruction. (Feb 2006).
 Primary Movement Therapy -
The program is based on research carried out by Dr
Martin McPhillips at Queen's University, Belfast, which showed that a
significant number of people with reading difficulties still had
primary reflexes present which should normally have disappeared at the
age of 12 months, e.g. the grasp reflex - where the newborn grasps the
finger placed in its palm. By going through a simple movement program,
which replicates these primary reflexes, exceptional progress in
reading and spelling was gained.
 Dyslexia
discovery - Imagine
surfing on-line. Or picking up a book. Only to find letters and words
all jumbled up. That's exactly what people with dyslexia see. Now,
researchers may be closer to understanding why.
Dr. Jeff Gruen from Yale University School of Medicine says, "These
children are intelligent and talented and will learn to read."
 Early
Speech Difficulties Link with Dyslexia- As is
the case with many toddlers, Michael Thieme's early spoken language was
quirky. He called his older brother William "Illiam," for example.
"He couldn't get his W's out," his mother, Annette Thieme, said. Unlike
most, Michael had speech problems that persisted into kindergarten,
putting him at risk for the reading difficulty known as dyslexia.
Researchers
May Have Discovered Dyslexia Gene -
Researchers have identified a variation in a gene that appears to
account for about 17 percent of cases of the reading disability
dyslexia. Experts hailed the finding as a potential milestone in the
understanding of the widespread disorder.
"This is
highly significant," said Jeffrey W. Gilger, associate dean for
discovery and faculty development at Purdue University.
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