Developmental dyslexia is a common cause of impaired reading acquisition. While traditionally thought of as primarily a reading disorder, the clinical signs of dyslexia are quite varied. Although abnormalities in phonological processing or related linguistic skills such as writing, spelling and verbal working memory are invariably present, deficits in visual processing, auditory discrimination and motor coordination are also commonly seen. In the face of this behavioral complexity, suggestions that the mechanism of this disorder involves dysfunction of a single sensory or cognitive process have not been widely persuasive. One approach to remediation is to target those skills that are strongly correlated with good reading outcome. For this reason, some interventions have utilized phonological awareness training. There is a substantial literature to support the relationship between phonological awareness training and successful reading, but a lack of studies investigating intervention through the visual system. The investigators propose a series of experiments to investigate the behavioral and physiological changes (measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging) resulting from formal intervention programs utilizing phonological awareness training and visual perceptual training. Both types of intervention have been shown to bring about improvement in reading levels. The proposed clinical trial studies will examine the physiological changes accompanying reading improvement brought about by using the Lindamood-Bell intervention program. On the basis of previous results, the investigators hypothesize that treatment-related changes will be seen in the inferior frontal gyrus, the inferior parietal lobule and the occipital-temporal junction. The proposed research will further our understanding of dyslexia and provide important new information about the neural changes that bring about reading improvement in children with developmental dyslexia.
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