A new study says MRI brain scans of young children may help diagnose dyslexia before they even begin reading.
The MIT study, done in partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital, found a correlation between poor pre-reading skills in kindergarteners and the size of a brain region that connects language-processing areas. In dyslexic adults, this area, known as the arcuate fasciculus is smaller and less organized than in adults who read normally.
MIT neuroscientist John Gabrieli says these findings could help develop early intervention and treatment.
“Rather than waiting for a child to struggle and demonstrate failure, that intervention can begin at the very beginning of kindergarten, as a child begins to learn how to read, so that the children who are identified as those at true risk will receive the kinds of resources and extra support that might let them gain traction and join their peers in terms of being effective readers," he said.
Gabrieli says they will continue tracking the children who took part in the study as they learn how to read in first and second grades. He adds that the differences found in the brain scans aren’t necessarily genetic.
“We’ve established these brain differences, but we don’t know where they come from," he said. "We don’t know to what extent they are based on genetics, to what extent they are based on early environment at home, in terms of reading to one’s children and things like that.”
The long-term goal is to come up with a combination of behavioral and brain measures that will identify children at true risk for reading difficulty so that educators can intervene very early.
