Brain MRIs May Provide An Early Diagnostic Marker For Dyslexia

Children at risk for dyslexia show differences in brain activity on MRI scans even before they begin learning to read, finds a study at Children's Hospital Boston. Since developmental dyslexia responds to early intervention, diagnosing children at risk before or during kindergarten could head off difficulties and frustration in school, the researchers say.
Developmental dyslexia (dyslexia that's not caused by brain trauma) affects 5 to 17 percent of all children; up to 1 in 2 children with a family history of dyslexia will struggle with reading themselves, experiencing poor spelling and decoding abilities and difficulties with fluent word recognition. Because of problems recognizing and manipulating the underlying sound structures of words (known as phonological processing), children with dyslexia have difficulty mapping oral sounds to written language.
Studies have shown that children with dyslexia often have negative experiences in school, being labeled as lazy or unmotivated. Their frustration can lead to aggressive, impulsive and anti-social behaviors and an increased likelihood of dropping out of high school and entering the juvenile justice system.

"We hope that identifying children at risk for dyslexia around preschool or even earlier may help reduce the negative social and psychological consequences these kids often face," says Raschle.

While various neuropsychological interventions are available for dyslexia, the condition generally isn't diagnosed until the child has reached third grade, when they are less effective, Gaab adds.
Gaab and Raschle plan to follow the children over time to see if the brain patterns they observed correlate with a later diagnosis of dyslexia They just received a large NIH grant to extend their study, and are actively enrolling preschool-aged children (for information on enrollment, contact the Gaab lab.