4 Common Dyslexia Myths Debunked Using Neuroscience
By Priya Kalra
Although scientists now understand dyslexia better than ever before, it is still a condition shrouded in myth and misunderstanding. I first came to see our flawed perceptions of dyslexia while tutoring a 4th grader. Despite normal intelligence and effort, he could not read. I saw how the frustration this caused him affected his general behavior and attitude toward school. At the same time, I read a story in TIME magazine about the work of Mike Merzenich and Paula Tallal showing that their behavioral intervention seemed to cause measurable differences in brain activity among people with dyslexia. This got me thinking about the possibility of using neuroscience to better understand dyslexia and help students with reading disabilities.
For at least the past 20 years, neuroscientists have been working on just that — furthering understanding of the neural underpinnings of dyslexia and other reading problems to offer possible solutions. Before fully understanding how dyslexia works, it is important to first look at what it is not. So let’s first do some myth-busting:
1. Dyslexia is a phase that children grow out of.
False. While many people with dyslexia may develop effective work-arounds or strategies for dealing with their reading problems, dyslexia —> Read More Here