A new way to evaluate dyslexia
Neuroscientists show that brain scans can predict whether children’s reading ability will improve.
Brain scans may be able to predict which children with dyslexia are likely to improve their reading skills over time, according to a new study led by MIT and Stanford researchers.
Some 5 to 17 percent of U.S. children suffer from dyslexia, a learning disorder that makes it difficult to read. Many dyslexic children are able to make substantial improvements in reading ability, but how they do so is not well-understood, and standardized reading tests cannot predict which children are likely to become stronger readers.
If the findings are confirmed in larger studies, brain scans could be used as a prognostic tool to predict reading improvement in dyslexic children. They could also help scientists and educators develop new teaching methods that take advantage of the brain pathways that dyslexic children appear to use to compensate for their disability, says John Gabrieli, MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences. Such strategies may be able to help dyslexic children regardless of which brain patterns they show.