After only three weeks of reading instruction, brain scans in children with dyslexia develop brain activation patterns that match those of normal readers, according to a new study by four 91探花researchers published recently in the journal Neurology.
Patricia Aylward and Todd Richards of radiology and Virginia Berninger and Jennifer Thomson of education found that children with dyslexia use the same regions of their brains as other readers, and that specialized instruction can rapidly compensate for some types of reading deficits.
The study focused on children with above average intelligence and dyslexia who had scored approximately 30 percent lower than average on standard reading tests. The children with dyslexia and a group of good readers of the same age underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map their brain activation patterns during two types of reading tests.
The children with dyslexia then received a three-week training program based on the principles outlined by the National Reading Panel convened by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Both groups then underwent a second brain scan. The experiment was conducted during the summer, to avoid confounding effects from school instruction.
Both children with dyslexia and normal readers used the same specific parts of their brains to perform the reading tasks, Aylward said, but the activation of the regions was much weaker in dyslexic children, reflecting their poorer performance.
After the three-week reading program the levels of brain activation were essentially the same in the two groups. Aylward says these results indicate that instruction doesn鈥檛 鈥渞ewire鈥� the brain of the dyslexic child, but instead strengthens the normal circuits which are already in use.
One of the most encouraging results of the study, she says, is that 鈥渨e can document changes in the brain even after a fairly short training period, suggesting that appropriate in-school training has great potential for improving the reading ability of dyslexic children.鈥�
The reading tests during the brain scan measured the ability of the children to decide whether certain letter combinations could stand for certain sounds (for example, could 鈥渙w鈥� and 鈥渙a鈥� make the same sound?) and whether certain letter patterns in words created meaningful relationships between words (for example, does the 鈥渆r鈥� in builder make it related to the word 鈥渂uild鈥�? Does the 鈥渆r鈥� in corner make it related to the word 鈥渃orn鈥�?) Both skills are key elements of the reading process.
These are more difficult tasks for children with dyslexia. 鈥淵ou need to explicitly point out to dyslexics every aspect of the language,鈥� Berninger said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 figure it out on their own. They are good at thinking, they鈥檙e intelligent, they鈥檙e creative. But when it comes to language you have to explain every aspect of it to them.
鈥淭his study shows that dyslexics are treatable,鈥� she continued. 鈥淗owever, it took more intensive preplanned teaching and monitoring. It was really hard work.鈥�
Reading and spelling disabilities, which occur despite normal intelligence, affect from 10 to 15 percent of school-age children in the United States. Early diagnosis and proper instruction have been shown to significantly improve the dyslexic child鈥檚 reading achievement outcome.
More background on dyslexia, including initial steps toward identifying it in a child, how it may be treated and additional resources can be found in Neurology鈥檚 鈥減atient page鈥� at . The National Reading Panel鈥檚 principles on which the three-week training program was based can be found at .