CONQUERING THE FLUENCY PROBLEM IN DYSLEXIA

BY GEORGIE NORMAND, M.A.

Helping a dyslexic child or teen reach grade-level reading fluency is the greatest challenge in dyslexia intervention. For almost a century, dyslexia interventions have been primarily focused on the known phonological deficit. A phonological deficit impairs a child's ability to recognize, break apart, or blend units of oral language – from words and their individual syllables to the individual sounds (phonemes) in words.

This impairment impacts both reading and spelling. This approach of focusing on the phonological deficit has helped dyslexic students become more accurate readers and spellers. It, unfortunately, has failed to bring many of them to grade level reading fluency. It is a problem that cannot be ignored because reading fluency is a key predictor of school outcomes, as well as future educational, social, and professional achievement.

Recent studies show us that dyslexia is much more complex in its neurobiological features. It is so much more than a phonological deficit. It is characterized by reduced connectivity and reduced neuroplasticity (the capacity to change), both of which impact learning to read, reading fluently, and retaining what is learned in tutoring sessions. There are also structural differences in the brain. None of these differences impact IQ – they simply mean that dyslexic children do not learn to read in the same way as other children.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

Much of what we know today about dyslexia and contributing factors to the fluency problem has been gleaned from neuroimaging studies, especially imaging studies carried out during readingrelated tasks. Because of the complexity of connectivity within the brain, even what we know leaves us with more questions. But based on the latest neuroscience, there are several factors that appear to play a role in dyslexia-related fluency problems.

Patterns of Under-Activation and Over-Activation: In dyslexia, the most reading efficient areas of the brain in the left hemisphere are under-activated during reading, while less reading efficient areas are over-activated. It is as though the over-activated areas are trying to compensate for the lack of efficiency in the under-activated areas. These inefficiencies are at the heart of the fluency problem in dyslexia. They interfere with the processing speed required for fluent reading.

The reading circuit is made up of neural systems that support a wide range of processing activities needed to become a fluent reader. The various neural systems that are involved in reading are known to support oral language production, speech fluency, and articulation. (In fact, early language delay may be one of the earliest signs of future reading problems.) These systems also support working memory, attention, motor function, higher-level comprehension, as well as visual and orthographic processing. (Orthographic processing relates to the visual aspect of reading, such as the child's knowledge of the alphabetic system and memory for specific visual and spelling systems. Orthographic processing supports spelling and fluent reading). Impairment in any of