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This page
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NIH Research Project
NIH Research Questions
NIH Results Released in 1994
Research Results Released After 1994
Longitudinal Research
Speech Delays related to later Reading Difficulty
Brain Function
Scientists Tie Two Additional Genes to Dyslexia

What We Now Know

NIH Research Project

In the early 1980's, the United States Congress mandated the National Institutes of Health to research learning disabilities and answer seven specific questions.

After conducting longitudinal research plus numerous studies on genetics, interventions, and brain function, we finally have replicable, irrefutable research-based information on dyslexia.

This page shares the research results released by the National Institutes of Health from 1994 to the present.

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NIH Research Questions

NIH coordinated 18 top-notch university research teams throughout the United States to answer the following questions posed by Congress:

• How many children are learning disabled?
  
• Clearly define each specific type of learning disability.
  
• What causes each learning disability?
  
• How can we identify each learning disability?
  
• How long does each disability last? Map its developmental course.
  
• What is the best way to teach these children?
  
• Can we prevent any of these learning disabilities?

NIH investigated dyslexia first because it is the most prevalent learning disability.

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NIH Results Released in 1994

These research 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 sound/symbol correspondences of our written code because of these 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 a difficulty processing language. It is not due to visual problems, and people with dyslexia do not see words or letters backwards.
  
• 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.

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Research Results Released After 1994

• Word recognition difficulties are the most reliable indicators of reading disability in older children and adults. Slow, labored, and inaccurate reading of real and nonsense words in isolation are key warning signs.
  
• This laborious reading of single words frequently impedes the individual's ability to comprehend what has been read, even though listening comprehension is adequate.
  
• Even among children and adults who score within normal ranges on reading achievement tests, many report that reading is so laborious and unproductive that they rarely read either for learning or for pleasure.
  
• Developing adequate awareness of phonemes is not dependent on intelligence, socio-economic status, or parents' education, but can be fostered through direct, explicit instruction. Such instruction is shown to accelerate reading acquisition in general, even as it reduces the incidence of reading failure.
  
• Disabled readers must be provided highly structured programs that explicitly teach application of phonologic rules to print. Longitudinal data (studies that follow children over time) indicate that explicit systematic phonics instruction results in more favorable outcomes for disabled readers than does a context-emphasis (whole-language) approach.

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Longitudinal Research

The National Institutes of Health conducted a longitudinal study by tracking 5,000 children at random from all over the country starting when they were 4 years old until they graduated from high school. The researchers had no idea which children would develop reading difficulties and which ones would not.

There were many theories at that time as to what caused reading difficulties, and which tests best predicted reading failure. The researchers tested these children 3 times a year for 14 years using a variety of tests that would either support or disprove the competing theories. But the researchers did NOT provide any type of training or intervention. They simply watched and tested.

From that research, they were able to determine which tests are most predictive of reading failure, at what age we can test children, and whether children outgrow their reading difficulties. This study also spawned numerous other NIH research projects. The results of these studies were released in 1994.

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Speech Delays

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Brain Function

Dyslexic children use nearly five times the brain area

Excerpt of a press release
from the University of Washington
Released on November 30, 2005

Dyslexic children use nearly five times the brain area as normal children while performing a simple language task, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of University of Washington researchers. The study shows, for the first time, that there are chemical differences in the brain function of dyslexic and non-dyslexic children.

The research, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Neuroradiology, also provides new evidence that dyslexia is a brain-based disorder.

This study, part of a wider UW effort to understand the basis of dyslexia and develop treatments for it, was funded by the National Institutes of Children Health and Human Development, a branch of the National Institutes of Health.

To read the entire article, go to:
www.dys-add.com/UofWResearch-Lactate.pdf

Spelling Changes the Brain

excerpt of an article entitled
Brain Images Show Individual Dyslexic Children Respond to Spelling Treatment
published February 15, 2007, on www.medicalnewstoday.com

Brain images of children with dyslexia taken before they received spelling instruction show that they have different patterns of neural activity than do good spellers when doing language tasks related to spelling. But after specialized treatment emphasizing the letters in words, they showed similar patterns of brain activity.

These findings are important because they show the human brain can change and normalize in response to spelling instruction, even in dyslexia, the most common learning disability.

To read the entire article, go to:
www.dys-add.com/SpellingBrainScan.pdf

Two More Genes

Scientists tie two additional genes to dyslexia

Excerpt of an article
by Sandra Blakeslee
Published in the New York Times on November 2, 2005

One year after scientists discovered a gene whose flaw contributes to dyslexia, two more such genes have been identified.

The findings, described yesterday in Salt Lake City at a meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, support the idea that many people deemed simply lazy or stupid, because of their severe reading problems, may instead have a genetic disorder that interfered with the wiring of their brains before birth.

To read the entire article, go to:
www.dys-add.com/Genes-2more.pdf