Jeremy Siegel: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. Dyslexia is notoriously difficult to diagnose. Experts estimate the learning disability, which makes it hard to read and understand language, affects between 5 and 20% of children. In Massachusetts, we don’t know the actual number because the state doesn’t report it. And according to reporting from the Globe, many districts are failing to help students with dyslexia. Today, as part of our ongoing look at how artificial intelligence is reshaping the way we live, we’ll hear about one company working to fill the gap outside of the classroom, finding ways to help diagnose and treat dyslexia with AI. Dr. Coral Hoh is a linguist and CEO of Dysolve, a computer program designed to address dyslexia. She joins me now, along with Sarita Hernandez, a student using dissolve, and her mother, Deborah. Good morning to all of you.

Coral Hoh: Good morning.

Siegel: So, Doctor Hoh, I’ll start with you. How can artificial intelligence help us diagnose and treat dyslexia?

Hoh: When we use Dysolve AI, which is the AI expert system for diagnosing and correcting dyslexia, we find the reason why is because there are inefficient language processes in the brain. And so we have to locate those processes.

Siegel: And how exactly does the program itself work for diagnosing and treating dyslexia?

Hoh: We have a patented technology. And this technology allows us to generate game after game. So that’s the activity that allows the AI system to interact with the student. And Sarita will tell you more about the details of bad examples of how that works. But, it’s a computational problem because the linguistic system in the brain is so complex. And that’s why we need computing technology to resolve dyslexia. Now the AI part is needed because you need an autonomous, automated program to interact with the student, with activity after activity. And the technology does that.

Siegel: Sarita, you’ve used this program, you’ve played these games and done these activities. What’s it like?

Sarita Hernandez: It’s a little hard at first, but once you start to do the games gets a lot easier.

Siegel: What exactly are the games that you’ve played using Dysolve?

Sarita Hernandez: The games focus on like different words or sounds and matching them up with different [inaudible.]

Siegel: Have you noticed that it’s helped you?

Sarita Hernandez: Yeah, using Dysolve has helped me in focusing in school and reading and writing.

Siegel: Deborah, hearing your daughter talk about this, what does it mean for you as a parent, for your daughter to have something like this?

Deborah Hernandez: You know, it’s really been an amazing journey. She’s struggled since kindergarten for us to help her find something where she could be more successful. And we’ve had private tutors. We’ve been on the IEP at school. And initially their school just kept saying she was developmentally delayed. And yet, you know, that really in the end wasn’t the challenge. It really is language-based learning disorder, dyslexia. And it’s just, it just makes my heart soar because she’s gone from not being successful in school at all to now she’s making As and Bs in school since we started with Dysolve. And as a mom, it’s so frustrating to see your child --- you’re just so frustrated and, you know, it affects not only their mental health but their relationships with their friends. And, again, it’s just so rewarding to see her be successful because of Dysolve.

Siegel: Doctor Hoh, I mean, you know, clearly from Sarita as an example, she’s seen improvements from using Dysolve. But I’m curious, as a clinical linguist, as someone who is getting people to try out and use this program that uses artificial intelligence for dyslexia, how do we know if it works? How do you test whether this is something that’s safe and good to use?

Hoh: We can go to two types of data: The internal one, where we see the game responses from the students. And historically, what we’ve found is that when students reach a certain level of efficiency, and our target is 90 to 100% efficiency in the key areas for literacy development, then, you know, within a two-month window, then the student starts to soar. And so the other kinds of data we want will be from the schools that the student is doing well in school with the subjects, and the grades are improving. But more than that, the objective ones will be like, reading assessments that the schools administer to students quarterly. Nationwide, only about half of students with dyslexia are even given any kind of support. So, you know, it’s not even a matter of being misdiagnosed is the matter of not diagnosing at all. So then we can bring all the students in who need this kind of help, and then at the same time, you know, reduce the strain on education budgets for everyone, because Dysolve AI costs only 1% of what Massachusetts is paying right now for one student in special ed.

Deborah Hernandez: Yeah. And, Jeremy, I would say as a parent, you know, you’re desperate to help your child, right? I mean, we paid for private tutoring. We paid for summer school programs and schools that are exorbitantly expensive for dyslexia, where she would be working with one-on-one with tutors. And we just weren’t getting the kind of progress. Sarita loves to leave notes around the house. And so we’ll walk around and find notes, and I would have to get her to interpret them for me. Now, all her notes --- I would say, they’re not perfectly spelled, but they’re so close that. The grammar is right. The spelling is 95 to 99% right on these little notes she leaves us. So I have tangible evidence that I save a lot of these that, you know, so she can look back and see how far she’s come.

Siegel: Doctor Coral Hoh, Sarita and Deborah Hernandez, thank you all so much for taking the time to talk with me about this today.

Hoh: Thank you.

Deborah Hernandez: Thank you.

Sarita Hernandez: Thank you.

Siegel: You're listening to GBH news.

Dyslexia is notoriously difficult to diagnose. Experts estimate the learning disability, which makes it hard to read and understand language, affects between 5 and 20% of children.

In Massachusetts, the number of those with dyslexia is unclear because the state doesn’t report it.

Coral Hoh is a linguist and CEO of Dysolve, a company based in Lagrangeville, New York that creates generative AI-based programs designed to address dyslexia.

She sees dyslexia as “a computational problem” in the brain, she said.

“Nationwide, only about half of students with dyslexia are even given any kind of support,” Hoh said. “It’s not even a matter of being misdiagnosed, it’s the matter of not diagnosing at all.”

Her program creates matching games students can use to try and improve how quickly their brains process information, she said.

“The linguistic system in the brain is so complex,” she said. “That’s why we need computing technology to resolve dyslexia.”

Access to the program costs $222 to $389 a month, according to the company’s website.

“This technology allows us to generate game after game,” Hoh said. “That’s the activity that allows the AI system to interact with the student.”

Sarita Hernandez, a Massachusetts student who uses Dysolve, said the games focuses on matching up different words or sounds.

“It’s a little hard at first, but once you start to do the games it gets a lot easier,” she said. “Using Dysolve has helped me in focusing in school and reading and writing.”

Her mother, Deborah Hernandez, said she’s been interested in seeing how it’s helped her daughter. Sarita’s spelling and grammar have improved, her mother said.

“She’s struggled since kindergarten for us to help her find something where she could be more successful,” Deborah Hernandez said. “It just makes my heart soar because she’s gone from not being successful in school at all to now, she’s making A’s and B’s in school since we started with Dysolve.”