Understanding Dyslexia

The National Institutes of Health did in-depth dyslexia research in 1994. That's right...1994! For 28 years, we have known what dyslexia is and what works to remediate it. These results have been independently replicated and are now considered to be irrefutable.

• Dyslexia affects at least 1 out of every 5 children in the United States.

• Dyslexia represents the most common and prevalent of all known learning disabilities.

• Dyslexia is the most researched of all learning disabilities.

• Dyslexia affects as many boys as girls.

• Some forms of dyslexia are highly heritable.

• Dyslexia is the leading cause of reading failure and school dropouts in our nation.

• Reading failure is the most commonly shared characteristic of juvenile justice offenders.

• Dyslexia has been shown to be clearly related to neurophysiological differences in brain function.

• Dyslexic children display difficulty with the sounds/symbol correspondences of our written code because of these brain differences in brain function.

• Early intervention is essential for this population.

• Dyslexia is identifiable, with 92% accuracy, at ages 5 1⁄2 to 6 1⁄2.

• Dyslexia is primarily due to linguistic deficits. We now know dyslexia is due to difficulty processing language. It is not due to visual problems, and people with dyslexia do not see words or letters backward.

• Reading failure caused by dyslexia is highly preventable through direct, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness.

• Children do not outgrow reading failure or dyslexia.

• Of children who display reading problems in the first grade, 74% will be poor readers in the ninth grade and into adulthood unless they receive informed and explicit instruction on phonemic awareness.

• Children do not mature out of their reading difficulties.

• Research evidence does not support the use of “whole language” reading approaches to teach dyslexic children.

• Dyslexia and ADD are two separate and identifiable entities.

• Dyslexia and ADD so frequently coexist within the same child that it is always best to test for both.

• Children with both dyslexia and ADD are at dramatically increased risk for substance abuse and felony convictions if they do not receive appropriate interventions.

• The current “discrepancy model” testing utilized by our nation’s public schools to establish eligibility for special education services is not a valid diagnostic marker for dyslexia