Dyslexia May Be Like Being Left Handed

By Robert D. Thompson

The following is an essay I recently wrote for a class I attended at National University. It is my opinion teachers need training in a multitude of diagnostic and prevention strategies to identify children at risk early and provide a variety of intervention strategies when traditional approaches don't work. I will support the continuing efforts of our school district in providing ongoing teacher training.

Historically there was a time when a person who was left-handed was labeled unlucky, mentally disturbed, or possessed by the devil himself. Public schools forced these unfortunate souls to learn how to write right handed like "normal" people. It is interesting to note the root of the word sinister is sinestra in Latin, which means left. Dyslexics in the recent past have been similarly labeled as "mentally deficient, lazy, or stupid."

According to the article, new brain research utilizing brain scans and a new functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technique, researchers have been able to compare the brain activity of both a dyslexic and non-dyslexic person while performing various tasks. The bottom line is that dyslexic brains are processing sounds and symbols differently than a non-dyslexic brain.

The non-dyslexic brain when asked to pick out rhyming syllables in words is able to activate areas in the back of the brain that are known to "link visual input with the stored sounds of language." The dyslexic person has great difficulty with such tasks. The dyslexic brain during these tasks is processing primarily from the front of the brain. The front area of the brain is known to be responsible for speech production: coordinating the muscles of the jaw, lips and tongue. According to the article this may account for people with dyslexia having difficulty sounding out words, "the first step in reading."

The implications of these new discoveries suggest that teaching these children how to read will require new approaches. Like being a left-handed person, a dyslexic person needs to learn how to read differently than a "normal" person. The need for early assessment and appropriate intervention is paramount if a dyslexic child is to keep up with his peers.

Phonemic awareness is a key component in both assessment and intervention. An approach suggested in the article and briefly discussed in my class at National University would be a program that allows a child to identify sounds by how they feel in the mouth, lips or jaw. It is a different way of linking symbols to sounds. This would make sense in light of the way the dyslexic brain appears to work anyway.

The Lindamood-Bell LiPs program is one method mentioned in the article, and it emphasizes the feel of phonemes in the mouth and also incorporates a process known as Symbol Imagery.

Teachers and parents of young children need to be aware of the signs of trouble and what strategies work for struggling readers. Teachers need training in a variety of interventions. Not all poor readers are dyslexic. Some may have hearing impairments that are modest or slight. Some may have an early history of chronic otitis media. The critical years for young children appear to be around age 4 to 6 in terms of reading acquisition.

A rich literary home environment, reading to young children, telling stories, and having conversations around the dinner table all contribute to the developing mind in preparation for learning how to read.

Albert Einstein, Tom Cruise, Olympian Dan O'Brien, Michelangelo, Thomas A. Edison and even Cher all have dealt with and overcome dyslexia. They have contributed many wonderful things to our world.

The article quotes the mother of a young dyslexic boy named Jason Nicholas, "I look at kids like Jason and think God gave them other things to compensate. They think differently and come with creative ideas we've never thought of. They have a gift, even though some people see it as a disability." It's kind of like being a lefty, and what would the game of baseball be without them? A very one-sided game it would be.