Dyslexic Children Use Nearly Five

Times The Brain Area To Perform An Ordinary Language Task As Normal Children

This is 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.

Dyslexia, a reading disorder, is the most common learning disability, affecting an estimated 5 percent to 15 percent of children. My daughter has dyslexia, and it was not diagnosed until she was 15 and failing high school. People often don’t see how hard it is for dyslexic children to do a task that others do so effortlessly. There are learning differences in children. We can’t blame the schools or hold teachers accountable for teaching dyslexic children unless both teachers and the schools are given specialized training to deal with these children. There was no specialized training for any teacher when my daughter was in school. They kept wanting to label her ADD or ADHD.  It was absurd and I refused. It was not until I had my daughter attend a residential boarding school that specialized in learning challenges that it was discovered that she had dyslexia.

My daughter was reading at a level above normal for her age starting on 1st grade and she continued to have a history of learning to read easily.

The difference between a dyslexic child and a non-dyslexic child relates to auditory language and not to nonlinguistic auditory function. When a child has a brain-based disorder it is treatable, although it may not be curable, just as diabetes is. Dyslexia is a lifelong condition, however dyslexics may learn to compensate for it.  Dyslexia is not brain damage.

Dyslexics often have enormous talents in other parts of their brain and shine in many fields.

I am happy to say my daughter is an artist and an author and is in her last year of college as she plans to be a play therapist for children with learrning disabilities. Einstein was a dyslexic, and so were inventor Thomas Edison and financier Charles Schwab.

While it is useful to show there are brain differences between dyslexic and non-dyslexic children, considerably more research is needed to precisely define the chemical and neurological markers of dyslexia.

Dore E. Frances, M.A. 

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