Imagine surfing on-line. Or picking up a book. Only to find letters and words all jumbled up. That's exactly what people with dyslexia see. Now, researchers may be closer to understanding why. 7Healthcast Reporter Dr. Deanna Lites has more.
Dr. Jeff Gruen from Yale University School of Medicine says, "These children are intelligent and talented and will learn to read."
Dr. Jeff Gruen is the lead author of a Yale study on dyslexia. Over the past six years researchers have been studying dyslexic children in 153 families. They found about 20 percent of them were missing a large part of a gene. Dr. Gruen says that's an important finding which should make them feel less self-conscious about the difficulty they have in reading.
"Dyslexia is highly genetic and so having dyslexia is through no fault of their own," says Dr. Gruen.
Dr. Gruen says the findings also bring to light the importance of early intervention.
Many times children with dyslexia receive special tutoring in the higher grades, which can be too late since their self-esteem has already been shattered.
He says nipping it early, and tutoring them in the first and second grades will give children with dyslexia the confidence they'll need to pursue their passions.
Dr. Gruen says, "Becoming a journalist, a scientist, a lawyer, they're absolutely capable of doing this. It's a matter of us having the will and finding the resources to implement early intervention and identifying these kids."
Dr. Gruen expects early screening for dyslexia to be available in the near future. The National Institutes of Health estimates that about 15-percent of the population is dyslexic.
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