Dyslexia is often misunderstood condition that affects over 40 million Americans and
millions more across the globe.
But what causes the condition and why does it make it hard to read?
Hey guys, Julia here for DNews
Dyslexia is often described as a learning disability where people have trouble with
language.
It’s an often frustrating condition where letters get jumbled up or it’s hard to associate
a sound with a letter, so even familiar words are difficult to read.
While we’ve been pondering this condition for a while at @DNews just a quick shout out
to @razmataz2011 on twitter for pondering about it too!
There’s no one size fits all experience with dyslexia; it can be expressed in many
different ways.
Some people have trouble with reading while some people have trouble with listening, some
have a bit of both.
But either way it means they’re more at risk for falling behind in school.
For the past decade researchers have discovered more and more about the genetic link behind
the disability.
One study published in the journal of Neuroscience found that some dyslexics with a deletion
of the DCDC2 gene had trouble detecting certain types of visual movement.
While other studies like one published in the same journal found a link between a mutation
in the ROBO1 gene which resulted in certain pathways, like auditory pathways that link
the two halfs of the brain, to be weakened.
And so while it’s described as a learning disability, it can perhaps more accurately
be described as a neurological condition.
Several studies comparing the brains of dyslexic and non dyslexic individuals found some striking
differences.
For example one study published in the journal Biology Psychiatry.
In a study of 75 children and 104 adults researchers analyzed MRI scans to see whole brain connectivity.
They found that dyslexic individuals have weaker connections in certain parts of the
brain like visual centers and in the region between visual center and prefrontal region
and in the visual-word area.
So it seems a very visual condition.
And this would explain why reading becomes difficult, but not speaking.
And there are studies that caution to place all the blame on the brain.
They see the cause and effect as reversed.
That poor reading experiences leads to less grey matter in certain parts of the brain.
While many assume dyslexia is primarily difficulty reading, some research suggests the underlying
deficit lies with understanding spoken language.
One study published in the journal Science found that those with the condition have trouble
understand the differences in the way people talk.
In one experiment the researchers had people with the condition and those without listen
to voices.
Those voices either spoke the language the participants knew or a foreign one.
The participants were then asked to match the voice to an assigned cartoon avatar.
Not surprisingly everyone struggled to recognize the foreign language speakers.
But the researchers found that dyslexic individuals also struggled to recognize speakers of their
native language.
So this is consistent with what other researchers have found.
A paper published in the journal Child and Adolescent Mental Health says that “dyslexia
is best described as a core phonological deficit.”
This is called The phonological deficit hypothesis and can be traced back to research in the
1980s.
Phonemes are the smallest parts of speech.
Sounds like ba and da or one researcher in this theory uses the example of the word cat.
Dr. Sally Shaywitz told Scientific American that the word “cat,” for example, consists
of three phonemes: “kuh,” “aah,” and “tuh.”
In dyslexics struggle to separate speech into distinct phonemes, which makes it harder to
for them to connect specific sounds to specific letters and can lead to confusion.
Shaywitz gives the example of a girl who was shown a picture of a volcano but she called
it a tornado.
She simply couldn’t understand the differences in the phonemes in those two words.
So it seems there might be two components to dyslexia, visual and auditory, and it might
be expressed differently in different people.
Either way, one of the prevailing theories of the condition point the finger at difficulty
processing phonemes.
While dyslexia can cause lifelong learning issues, some call for an end to it being classified
as a learning disability.
While it might affect some aspects of school life, kids are resilient.
Many find ways around the challenges dyslexia presents.
And many go on to be successful.
One study published in the journal Dyslexia found that 35% of entrepreneurs identify as
dyslexic.
That’s a huge increase from 10% of the general population.
The researchers found that some of the very skills they learned to compensate for dyslexia,
they’re great at speaking and delegating tasks, enabled them to be effective leaders.
While you might be an entrepreneur, it’s never a bad thing to get help.
Early intervention improves the outcomes for those who struggle with dyslexia and there
might be even be a new font to help!
Tara gets the scoop on a new font for dyslexics in this episode, right here.
Alright guys, do you have dyslexia?
Know someone who does?
Tell me about down in the comments below