Brain of Dyslexic Child Changes with Reading Improvement

It is estimated that 5 to 15 percent of children suffer from dyslexia which is a reading disorder. Symptoms of dyslexia are manifested in reversals, omission of letters, slow or incorrect reading and incorrect order of syllables in a word. Dyslexics cannot make the connection between words as they are spoken and words as they are written, even though they are perfectly able to comprehend the meaning of the words.

The process of reading in any normal individual requires words to be decoded and then identified. The decoding involves recognizing a small set of speech sounds and connecting them to the letters that the spoken sound represents. These are then stored in a knowledge bank in each individual. In the case of dyslexic children the decoding breaks down and the child is unable to make the connection required.

The University of Washington has conducted studies into the brains of dyslexic children using non invasive technology to map the brain of the dyslexic children and comparing them to similar studies made on normal children. The brain images of the dyslexic children showed abnormally high metabolic activity in their brains compared to those of the normal children. The children in both groups were given phonics instruction and then attended math and science workshops for about three weeks.

After the group sessions it was found that the dyslexic boys were reading as well as the boys in the control group and their metabolic levels were the same as that of the boys who were normal. This indicated that the brains of the dyslexic children worked much harder than those of normal children and they were able to catch up with them in their reading abilities. This indicated significant changes in the brains of dyslexic children as their reading improved.

It is established that with the correct type of instruction dyslexic children will find their brains processing sounds much more efficiently. The children in the University of Washington workshop were taught to analyze the sounds in the spoken words and to attach them to letters which they had to accost in the written words. They were taught how to translate written words into spoken words. At the beginning of the study dyslexic children were required to spend 4 times the energy compared to children who were not dyslexic, in order to process the written sound. After the treatment which included instruction on phonetics the energy required dropped to 1.8 times that needed by normal children. This showed significant changes in the brains as their reading abilities improved.

The International Dyslexia Association has suggested multi-sensory intervention that uses visual, auditory and sensory cues to improve the ability of the brain and its memories of specific letters and their assigned sounds. The research showed that such phonetic based intervention not only increased the reading talents of the dyslexic student, but also triggered increased brain activity. This increased brain activity was sustained even after such intervention and therefore proves that the brain areas can be trained to work in the manner required.