Dyslexia

There is a physical difference in the brain of those who have the condition known as dyslexia. Imaging shows that they actually have less gray matter and fewer cells in certain areas of the brain. This dysfunction is caused by misfiring neurons occurring sometime during fetal development. People with this condition typically have difficulty reading because they depend disproportionately on the right hemisphere of their brain, rather than on the balanced use of the brain of the normal reader.

While parents of a dyslexic child often suspect a learning abnormality, once the child is in school his difficulty in reading quickly leads to a diagnosis of dyslexia. Dyslexics don’t see words backwards; the process of identifying words takes them longer. Dyslexics have learning issues because they don’t absorb what they read because of the inordinate time it takes to identify words. Diagnoses are typically made by...