Tracking Changes in Brain Function in Children with Dyslexia

This post is my response to an article that involves a diverse population.


I found this article by Elise Temple very interested, in part because I just finished a class in special education in which a large part was devoted to learning disabilities. One thing that is interesting about learning disabilities is that in the vast majority of cases, the cause of the disability is unknown. Researchers have known for awhile that different activities use different parts of the brain, but with equipment such as MRI's, they can see brain activity while the activity is being performed.

The research Temple cites is a study that involved fMRI to investigate changes in brain function before and after children with dyselxia received reading instruction. The subjects recieved instruction using a curriculum called Fast ForWord Language. The subjects showed improved reading ability after training, but also changes in brain function. The changes were both normalizing and compensating. By normalizing, the researchers mean that after instruction, the brain activity of the test group more closely resembled the brain activity of the control group. By compensating, the researchers mean that in sometimes the brain showed compensatory activity in a part of the brain that was not usual for that sort of activity.

This research is one of the things that paves the way for further study of brain function in children and it also potentially sheds light on a variety of interventions and educational strategies. More importantly, it shows that brain dysfunction (in this case dyslexia,) can be ameliorated, or lessened. This is definitely good news for those stuggling with dyslexia and possibly other learning disabilities.

Temple, E. (2003). Changes in Brain Function in Children with Dyselxia after Training. Computers in Education, Twelfth Edition. Annual Editions