Dyslexia: Separating fact from fiction

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. He fell off and nobody could fix him,"or so recited one of my kindergarten students last spring.

Another child was asked, "What rhymes with dog?" She replied, "Cat."

A bright 8-year-old still says "aminal" instead of "animal." Could these children be dyslexic? Yes, according to research done at Yale using functional magnetic resonance imaging and featured as the cover story in the July 28 issue of Time Magazine.

For years, I have resisted using the word "dyslexia" because it has been so misunderstood. Worried parents might bring it up when their child reversed letters and numbers in first or second grade. I would say the child is struggling or may have a learning disability, but the d-word rarely escaped my lips.

But with the latest research, I may use it more often. A few facts:

-- Contrary to myth, dyslexia is not all about backwards letters

-- It affects girls and boys about equally, although boys are about four times as likely to be identified.

-- Dyslexia is evenly distributed across ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

-- Dyslexics have average or above-average intelligence and may be especially gifted in some areas. Thomas Edison, Tom Cruise, Jay Leno, Walt Disney and Whoopi Goldberg could be considered poster children for dyslexia.

-- These researchers believe the condition exists in as many as one in five people.

-- Children do not outgrow it. Nearly three-fourths of the children who are poor readers in third grade remain poor readers in the ninth grade. Often they can't read well as adults either.

To understand what dyslexia is, first we need to understand what areas of the brain are involved in the complex task of reading.

The fMRI research showed that three separate regions analyze the printed word, recognize its sounds and then automate the process of reading so it can be done fluently. These functions happen almost simultaneously in the brains of proficient readers. Given the complexity of the task, I personally consider it a miracle anyone ever learns to read, let alone 80 percent of the population.

Dyslexia is fundamentally a breakdown in this intricate system. It's a glitch that prevents the brain from analyzing the word parts efficiently, attaching meaning to them, and from remembering that word the next time. Dyslexics have to work harder at making sense out of the sounds, and because word recognition is not automatic, reading is slow and labored.

As you would expect, comprehension and vocabulary growth are delayed since children spend so much time and effort just decoding the words. The longer this goes on the more discouraged and frustrated the child becomes and the more resistant to intervention.

Can children with dyslexia learn to read? Yes. Researchers believe if children with dyslexia receive effective phonological training in kindergarten and first grade, they will have significantly fewer problems in learning to read than do dyslexic children who are not identified or helped until third grade.

Phonological training refers to the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds of words and is a prerequisite to formal phonics instruction. It can be done in just a few minutes a day. But phonology and phonics are not all they need. These children do not automatically transfer sounding out words to making meaning. They still need explicit, appropriate instruction in comprehension, vocabulary and fluency.

I worry that given this new knowledge, educational publishers and anyone out to make a buck will use it to tout their product as the one that cures dyslexia. I also worry that it will be used to push "phonics only" as a means to teach all children to read.

Abraham Maslow once said, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." Not all struggling readers are dyslexic. Furthermore, no one program or method teaches every child to read.

I have long thought that human evolution has not yet caught up with the literacy demands of our society, that some brains are just not as able to achieve high levels of literacy. This latest research may support that notion. Nonetheless, we now know that parents and teachers can help children triumph over this crippling and misunderstood disability.

And unlike Humpty Dumpty, perhaps we can put all the pieces back together again.

Lorie Smith Schaefer is a reading specialist at Seeliger School in Carson City. The following resources may be useful to parents and teachers: "Straight Talk About Reading: How Parents Can Make a Difference" by Susan Hall and Louisa Moats and "Overcoming Dyslexia" by Sally Shaywitz, M.D. You can find a link to the Time article as well as other helpful information at the Learning Disabilities Online resource at www.ldonline.org.