Brenda Garrett - Literary Review

Devin M. Kearns, Roeland Hancock, Fumiko Hoeft, Kenneth R. Pugh, and Stephen J.

Frost use the article “The Neurobiology of Dyslexia,” (2019) to inform the reader of the five key

findings of current research in the area of dyslexia. The research data has led to a greater

understanding and relationship between reading and how areas of the brain work. Therefore, can

intervention truly be beneficial for those individuals who have been diagnosed and will be

diagnosed with dyslexia?

The initial concept identifies the difference between typical readers and readers with

dyslexia. The typical reader uses three areas of the brain that work together to make reading

happen. Those areas are known as the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in the frontal lobe,

temporoparietal region, and the occipitotemporal region. The IFG is the part of the brain that is

responsible for the storage of information on how a word sounds, sequencing information, how

the sounds of a word are put into a specific order when a reader says them aloud. Readers will

use the IFG region of the brain in both decoding words and recognizing words by sight. The

temporoparietal region is the area of the brain that is responsible for speech-processing. This

region helps in understanding and deciphering of the phonemes that readers hear. The

occipitotemporal region is in charge of decoding visual information. There are three regions

working together to process reading as a whole in a typical reader. A reader with dyslexia has

lower brain activation in two of the three areas of the brain. The areas that are not as active in an

individual with dyslexia are the occipitotemporal region and the temporoparietal region. People

with dyslexia will have difficulty in decoding and word recognition due to the lower activity in

these areas of the brain.

 The second key concept of dyslexia examined in the article is the role of intervention in

the individual with dyslexia. Researchers have determined that one of the most noteworthy

outcomes of research of dyslexia is the analysis of the exploration of neurocognitive flexibility.

Researchers have learned that through intervention and with this flexibility, individuals are able

to alter their reading habits. However, researchers have concluded that even with intervention the

patterns of brain activation are different in those of typical readers as compared to readers with

dyslexia. Conversely, readers with dyslexia who receive intervention depend on the meaning of

words more than that of typical readers.

The third key finding of the research predicates the types of approaches used in dyslexia

related interventions. The first approach is the meaning-based approach. This strategy simply

states that educating individuals on morphemes, the smallest part of a word in a language, can be

beneficial in the teaching of that word and how it relates to other words. The second approach is

the articulation-based approach. This approach states that individuals with dyslexia may benefit

from learning about how sounds are produced in the mouth (tongue, teeth, lips, etc.). Research

states that even though you cannot rely on meaning-based approaches and articulation-based

approaches alone, they may be beneficial to some students.

The fourth key finding in Kearn’s article “The Neurobiology of Dyslexia” is that even

with research there may be other reasons than the ones stated that have the potential to lead to a

diagnosis of dyslexia. Poor performance in a variety of academic areas, behavior, and attention

span can all be contributing factors in a conclusion that an individual has dyslexia. Furthermore,

even with research, scientists cannot locate a definitive answer as to what is the origin of reading

problems in the brain.

 The final key finding is that even though research in the neurobiological field has

determined a number of new findings related to dyslexia there is still not enough evidence to

adequately diagnose dyslexia in individuals. Researchers have, however, been able to expand

and intensify their knowledge on how parts of the brain work together for typical readers how

only one-third of the brain works typically in readers with dyslexia. More research is needed to

understand how intervention can help the brain better process words in individuals diagnosed

with dyslexia.
 Reference

Kearns, D. M., Hancock, R., Hoeft, F., Pugh, K. R., & Frost, S. J. (2019). The neurobiology of

dyslexia. Teaching Exceptional Children, 51(3), 175–188.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059918820051