UT Arlington professor’s research aimed at helping dyslexic children learn

A new MRI-based study of children with dyslexia by a UT Arlington professor could explain why a small percentage of dyslexic children don’t respond to current teaching strategies.

Assistant professor of psychology Timothy Odegard’s work was recently published online and in the latest issue of the journal Neurocase. Emily Farris, Odegard’s doctoral student, is the lead author on the paper that details the findings from Odegard’s team.

Researchers examined functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 15 children – ages 8-14. They found that children with dyslexia who responded to treatment and non-dyslexic readers showed greater functional connections between the interior frontal regions of their brains than dyslexic children who had not responded to treatment. The tests were conducted while the children performed basic reading tasks.

“This is really looking at what predicts treatment outcomes,” said Odegard, who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. “We’re really looking at how the different areas of the brain work together like a network.”

Dyslexia is a brain-based learning disability that impairs reading ability.

Activities aimed at building reading skills activate regions in the front and back of the left hemisphere of the brain in typically developing children. In dyslexic children, however, frontal regions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain working together seems to compensate for deficits in the posterior portion of the left hemisphere observed in these children, Odegard said.

“The hope is if we can identify biomarkers for kids who aren’t going to respond as well to current treatment we can modify the treatments to build on their strengths and overcome their weaknesses,” Odegard said.

UT Arlington professor’s research aimed at helping dyslexic children learn | Cision Wire