New Hope for Individuals with Dyslexia

For Dyslexia Awareness Month, we are sharing our belief that all individuals can be taught to read to their potential—including those who have a previous diagnosis of dyslexia.

Is Dyslexia Permanent?

Exciting new research, titled “Rapid and widespread white matter plasticity during an intensive reading intervention,” was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

The study, from the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington (UW), examined growth in reading skills and white matter in school-aged, struggling readers. Diffusion MRI data collected during 8 weeks of Lindamood-Bell intensive instruction indicates that there were large-scale changes in white matter along with growth in reading skills. In addition, the study identifies white matter tracts that may predict the ease with which a child learns how to read.

Dr. Jason Yeatman, one of the study’s researchers, says that although dyslexia is often thought of as permanent, the findings indicate that the targeted, intensive instruction leads to “substantial” improvements in reading skills and changes in the “underlying wiring of the brain’s reading circuitry.” Read more and access the full article here.

Improved symbol imagery changes how a student reads and spells, regardless of their age or struggle with literacy—including those with a previous diagnosis of dyslexia.

Numerous peer-reviewed articles based on studies examining the effectiveness of our instruction with dyslexic students have been published in scholarly journals – Summary of Behavioral & Neurological Research—Dyslexia

Our Experience and Results

Over the course of three decades, Lindamood-Bell has worked with thousands of individuals. Sitting with a child or an adult who struggles to read a word provides unique insight into the learning process. Our success with students is due to our unique approach, including our research-validated, sensory-cognitive instruction.

The Seeing Stars program addresses the learning needs of many of our students with dyslexia. Seeing Stars develops symbol imagery, the ability to visualize letters in words. Symbol imagery is integral to independence in sounding out new words, recognizing common words, spelling, and fluent contextual reading.  

Students with dyslexia who receive Seeing Stars instruction at our learning centers make significant improvements in reading. Our most recent  Learning Center Results includes data for 1600+ students who had previously been diagnosed with dyslexia. These students made significant standard score changes on nearly all measures, including word recognition, spelling and reading accuracy. The 30-point percentile increase in word attack put these students well within the normal range, going from the 25th–75th percentile.

Schools partner with Lindamood-Bell for our expertise in meeting the needs of students with dyslexia. A recent case study, Solutions for Dyslexia | Spotlight on Fort Smith Public Schools outlines a district-wide professional development initiative.

For further information or questions regarding our instruction for students with a previous diagnosis of dyslexia, please contact us at 800.300.1818.