DYSLEXIA  [ back to Glossary Index ]
Dyslexia is an inherited disorder of reading having to do with abnormal brain wiring rather than lack of IQ. Dyslexics are frequently bright, creative people, who may do very well in math, logic and games, but have tremendous difficulty reading without skilled intervention. It was once thought the reading problem was a visual impairment which led to reversal of word order. Current thinking is that the difficulty reading comes from a hearing impairment, rendering the child unable to discriminate between multiple sound units or phonemes in words. Some ENTs believe the problem originates with mechanical defects in the ability to hear from partial deafness, recurrent ear infections, etc. A recent study in the American Journal of Neuroradiology suggests it is a neuro-physiologic flaw in the brain itself, because of which the posterior portion of the brain is underactivated while the frontal portion (especially Broca's area) is wildly overactivated during reading while the child is trying to produce the sounds of the words. The most fruitful window of intervention to boost reading skills is in the 5-7 age group. Following a TBI, some patients (especially in the acute phase) reverse word order while speaking or writing, as a result of temporary impairments of attention, word retrieval or word sequencing. This is a cognitive problem of speech, a traumatic aphasia, not true dyslexia which is an inherited disorder of reading.