Category Archives: Treatment

Stanford Study Finds Evidence-Based Reading Intervention Physically Rewires the Dyslexic Brain

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Key findings include:

  • Children who received intervention improved their reading levels by approximately one grade level in eight weeks.
  • The Visual Word Form Area (VWFA), the brain region critical for fluent word recognition, grew larger and more detectable in students who received instruction.
  • The VWFA did not show comparable growth in students who received no instruction.
  • Some neurological differences persisted one year later, confirming that dyslexia reflects enduring brain traits alongside the brain’s capacity for change.

Read more about it HERE

AI Can Help Solve the Reading Achievement Gap

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  • The reading achievement gap is actually an opportunity gap that AI can close.
  • Custom-built AI can ensure objectivity that learners value in evaluation and intervention.
  • Economical, scalable AI removes the dependency between expensive resources and student performance.
  • AI enables the individualization of general and special education.

Read it al HERE

Nearly every state in the US has dyslexia laws – but our research shows limited change for struggling readers

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Nearly every state in the U.S. passed some sort of dyslexia laws over the past decade. Most of these laws encourage or require schools to screen young children for reading difficulties, train teachers in evidence-based reading instruction and provide targeted support to students who show early signs of dyslexia.

Families of children with dyslexia, educators and dyslexia advocacy groups widely praised these laws. If schools could identify dyslexia early and respond with evidence-based instruction, reading outcomes would likely improve and fewer children would fall behind.

But what actually happened after these laws passed?

My colleagues and I examined nearly two decades of national student data to answer this question. The results tell a complicated story.

Read the full article HERE

Hold your tongue: study shows numbing the mouth may speed up silent reading

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Parents often tell their children to sound out the words as they are learning to read. It makes sense: Since they already know how to speak, the sound of a word might serve as a clue to its meaning.

It turns out there’s a surprising and deep connection between what’s going on in your mouth and how your brain handles reading, and a University of Alberta research team hopes to use it to help people with dyslexia and other reading difficulties. 

In a new study with the alliterative title Perturbing the pathway: The impact of lollipops and lidocaine on supramarginal gyrus activity during silent reading tasks, the team found that numbing the mouth can help people read faster. 

Read all about it HERE

School-Reported Reading Assessments Show Atypical Gains for Students With Dyslexia

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Across multiple cases and school-administered reports, students who participated in NOW! Programs®, an evidence- and research-based approach grounded in developmental brain science, demonstrated:

  • Significant percentile gains in reading and language performance
  • Growth exceeding typical annual expectations, rate of growth as high as 91st percentile
  • Sustained progress across multiple school testing windows

In several reports, students’ reading was previously below the 10th percentile and later they scored in the 50th to 80th percentile ranks, as documented by independent school assessments. The school-reported assessment outcomes align with federal and state expectations for evidence-based instruction under ESSA and IDEA, demonstrating measurable gains rather than reliance on compensatory strategies.

Read more about it HERE

How to Support Students with Dyslexia

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Key takeaways

  1. Dyslexia is a specific word-reading difficulty, not a problem with effort or intelligence
    Dyslexia is a neurobiological learning disability marked by persistent challenges with accurate and/or fluent word reading and spelling, even with good instruction. It does not mean that a student isn’t smart, motivated, or capable.
  2. Early identification changes trajectories — but it’s never too late to help
    Strong, early screening systems and attention to risk factors (including family history) can prevent years of struggle and frustration. At the same time, the speakers emphasized that intervention remains worthwhile in later grades and adulthood; support can still make a meaningful difference.
  3. Myths about dyslexia can delay or derail support
    Common misconceptions — like “letters moving on the page,” that dyslexia can’t be identified until third grade, or that it only looks one way in English — can keep students from getting what they need. Clarifying what dyslexia is (and isn’t) helps schools focus on effective, evidence-based responses.
  4. Instruction needs to make sound–print connections explicit and give students lots of practice
    For students with or at risk for dyslexia, high-quality instruction includes explicit, systematic teaching of how sounds map onto letters and spelling patterns, coupled with ample practice in reading and spelling words in connected text. The goal is not only accurate decoding, but growing fluency, comprehension, and confidence.
  5. Families, systems, and relationships are central to supporting students with dyslexia
    Caregivers, often parents or guardians who notice early struggles, are key partners in identification and advocacy. Schools can honor that role by building coherent systems for screening, intervention, and accommodations, and by creating environments where students’ strengths are recognized alongside their challenges.

Read the original post HERE