Vision, Dyslexia Not Linked: Study

Findings will advance understanding, treatment of the reading disorder, says expert

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 6 (HealthDay News) -- A new brain imaging study appears to rule out one potential cause of dyslexia, finding that vision problems don't lead to the common reading disorder.

The new research could have a wide-ranging impact on the detection and treatment of dyslexia, said senior study author Guinevere Eden, director of the Center for the Study of Learning at Georgetown University Medical Center. The study appears June 6 in the journal Neuron.

"It has importance from a practical viewpoint. It means you shouldn't focus on the visual system as a way to diagnose dyslexia or treat dyslexia," Eden said. "Until now, there was still this uncertainty where some people were saying, 'I know it's controversial but I still believe that vision is contributing to these kids' reading problem.' We now have a finding that really speaks to an understanding that visual system function shouldn't have a role in diagnosis or treatment."

People with dyslexia struggle to learn to read fluently and accurately. Dyslexia may affect more than one of every 10 people in the United States, and it is the nation's most common learning disability, according to background information in the study.

Earlier brain imaging studies have found that people with dyslexia experience subtle weaknesses in processing visual stimuli compared with people their same age, leading some to wonder whether this visual dysfunction causes dyslexia by interfering with a child's ability to read.

But the study found that visual problems noted in people with dyslexia likely are a result of the learning disorder rather than the cause, Eden said.

By ruling out the visual center as a culprit, the new study provides more support to the already popular theory that dyslexia occurs because of weaknesses in the part of the brain that deals with language, she said.

Researchers used functional MRIs to compare the brains of dyslexic children with the brains of children who don't have the learning disorder.

Children without dyslexia appeared to have the same level of visual processing activity as dyslexic kids, when matched by reading level instead of age, they found.

Further, children with dyslexia who received intensive tutoring in reading skills experienced a subsequent increase in visual system activity.

"When we ask children to learn to read, we are asking them to do something that is very difficult. Learning to read changes the brain," Eden said. "If you are a struggling reader because of your dyslexia, you don't have as much opportunity to read as the other kid in your class, and so your brain doesn't get the chance to change as much. The visual deficit is there, but our study allowed us to conclude it's there as a consequence of not having the same opportunity to read as children without dyslexia."

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Could my child outgrow dyslexia or is it permanent?

Posted June 03, 2013, 2:00 am

My first-grader was just diagnosed with dyslexia. Can you tell me more about it? Will my daughter outgrow it, or will she always struggle with it?

Dyslexia is a learning disability caused by a problem in the way the brain processes information. But we are only beginning to understand what the problem is.

Dyslexia makes it difficult to:

identify wordsrecognize the sounds that make up wordsunderstand and remember what is readtranslate printed words into spoken wordsspellorganize or sequence thoughtsrhyme wordslearn the alphabet and numbers during preschool and kindergarten.

A person with dyslexia tends to reverse or misread letters or words. He or she might confuse the letter “b” for “d,” or read the number “6? as “9.” The word “was” may be read as “saw.” Or the order of words in a sentence may get switched around. Because of these difficulties, a person with dyslexia usually reads slowly and hesitantly.

Many young children reverse letters and numbers or misread words as a normal part of learning to read. Children with dyslexia, however, continue to do so after their peers have stopped, usually by first or second grade. It is really important to recognize dyslexia early, before the third grade. Treatments started early are more effective.

Dyslexia is not a vision problem; the eyes do not see words incorrectly. It is also not a problem of intelligence; many people with dyslexia have average or above-average intelligence. Many are extremely successful in life. Many are exceptionally articulate when speaking, but have trouble writing.

Children and adults with dyslexia have no trouble understanding things that are spoken. They are just as curious and imaginative as others. They can understand new concepts as easily, so long as the concepts are described by the spoken word and visual information. They can figure out puzzles as well as others — so long as the puzzles don’t involve written words.

Dyslexia is a lifelong condition that cannot be cured. But children with this disorder can learn ways to succeed in school.

Several techniques and strategies can help. Many are based on the observation that although people with dyslexia have trouble understanding words they read, they usually can understand words that are read aloud by another person. As a result, listening to books on tape rather than reading them, and taping lectures rather than writing notes, can be effective strategies. Computer software that checks spelling and grammar is another useful tool.

With support, most children with dyslexia adjust to their learning disability. And with early and appropriate treatment, many people with dyslexia go on to succeed in school and in their careers.

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Video Games May Sharpen Focusing Skills in Kids With Dyslexia

By Randy Dotinga

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Feb. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Here's one possible treatment for dyslexia that kids won't complain about: video games.

Italian researchers report that they found that children with the reading disability scored better on tests after they played an action video game for hours, possibly because their minds temporarily became more focused.

It's not clear if video games directly improved the dyslexia in the kids. If it did, no one knows how long the effect might last or whether the strategy is a better approach than traditional treatments. In other words, dyslexic children shouldn't necessarily play a couple of video games and call their reading specialist in the morning.

Even if video games do help dyslexic kids, "we are not suggesting a 'do-it-yourself' training by any means," said study co-author Andrea Facoetti, an assistant professor with the Developmental & Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at the University of Padua in Italy. However, Facoetti said, video games could become a tool for reading teachers who teach kids with dyslexia, a learning disability that prevents people from properly understanding written words.

In the study, one group of 10 dyslexic kids played a Wii video game called Rayman Raving Rabbids for 12 hours over several days while another group played a video game that didn't focus on action.

The kids who played the action game improved their reading speed by as much or more than a dyslexic child normally would in an intense reading program, Facoetti said.

The video games may train the brain to pay more close attention and focus on things, Facoetti said.

The findings deserve to be taken seriously, said Guinevere Eden, director of the Center for the Study of Learning at Georgetown University and a past president of the International Dyslexia Association.

"It's exciting to see an unconventional approach to try to improve the speed or fluency of reading," she said. It's difficult to improve reading comprehension in dyslexic kids because they read slowly, she explained: "By the time they get to the end of the sentence, they can't tell you what it's about."

The difficult therapy to improve dyslexia is another drawback, she said. "It's hard work, and it's not fun."

If video games help kids with dyslexia read more effectively, shouldn't dyslexia cases have fallen drastically in recent decades during the rise of video games? Study co-author Facoetti said the new research can't answer that question because the children tested hadn't played video games before.

Eden, who's familiar with the findings, said: "I don't have a great answer for you, but there are a couple of things: I don't think we have a good sense of whether dyslexia is going up or down because the whole definition is variable. What's interesting here is how it might be that what we think of dyslexia may be changing, not just because of video games but because of technology in general."

What's next? Eden said researchers should focus on trying to understand why video games may improve the symptoms of dyslexia.

While the study showed an association between playing action video games and improved reading scores among kids with dyslexia, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

The study was released online Feb. 28 in advance of publication in the March 18 print issue of Current Biology.

More information

For more about dyslexia and other learning disorders, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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