This kind of instruction leaves nothing to chance. "You make a connection between letters and sounds," says Peer, and ensure children "understand the breakdown of words." Teaching is "repetitive and sequential — you go over what you have learned already." This method includes a fair number of rules. Among the most important and familiar: the magic e at the end of a word that makes a vowel say its name, as in make or cute. All children benefit from this approach, adds Peer. A particularly good route to fluency is to practice reading aloud with a skilled reader who can gently correct mistakes. That way the brain builds up the right associations between words and sounds from the start. Peer also recommends using all the senses; supporting written information with videos, for example.

As you might expect, early intervention gives the best results. Ideally, all children should be screened when they first go to school. How do you know someone has dyslexia before he or she has learned to read? Certain behaviors — like trouble rhyming words — are good clues that something is amiss. Later you may notice that your child is memorizing books rather than reading them. A teacher's observation that reading isn't clicking with your son or daughter should be a call to action.

If caught soon enough, can a child's dyslexia be reversed? The evidence looks promising. In her book, Shaywitz reports that brain scans of dyslexic kindergartners and first-graders who have benefited from a year's worth of targeted instruction start to resemble those of children who have never had any difficulty reading. That doesn't mean older folks need despair. Shaywitz's brain scans of adult dyslexics suggest that they can compensate by tapping into the processing power on their brain's right side. Just don't expect what works for young children to work for adults. "If you're 18 and you're about to graduate and you don't have phonemic awareness, that may not be your top priority," says Chris Schnieders, director of teacher training at the Frostig Center in Pasadena, California. "It's a little bit late to start 'Buh is for baby' at that point."

Technology can play a supporting role. Some dyslexics supplement their reading with books on tape. Because their condition affects the ability to write as well as read, a growing number of dyslexics are turning to voice-recognition software for help in preparing term papers, memos and reports. A couple of small studies have shown that the software can also bolster the ability to read. "We found improvement in word recognition, in reading comprehension and spelling," says Marshall Raskind, director of research at the Frostig Center. He suspects that the ability to say, hear and see words almost simultaneously provides good training for the brain.

There are no quick fixes. Dyslexic students often have to put many more hours into their course work than naturally skilled readers do. But the results are worth it. In the seventh grade, Sean Slattery was barely reading on a first-grade level. Now, after four years at the Frostig Center, he has nearly caught up to where he should be. In May, on his third try, he passed California's high school exit exam.

That's another thing about dyslexics: they learn to persevere. Now Slattery has his eye on a career as an underwater welder. "There's a lot of reading involved," between the course work and the instruction manuals, he says. "But I'm looking forward to it, actually." The written word is not going to hold him back anymore.

Reported by Paul Cuadros/Chapel Hill, Lucy Fisher/London, Greg Land/Atlanta, John Miller/Brussels, Mimi Murphy/Rome, Grant Rosenberg/Paris, Ursula Sautter/Bonn, Sean Scully/Los Angeles and Sora Song/New York

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

	Premium Content