Here is Myth #2 for #DyslexiaAwarnessMonth 2020:
FIRST SIGNS OF #DYSLEXIA OR #READING IMPAIRMENTS CAN ONLY BE SEEN AFTER 2-3 YEARS OF READING INSTRUCTION. Nope. Early signs can be seen as early as preschool. Here is what to look for: Numerous studies have shown that these skills are predictive of successful #reading acquisition as early as age 4 or 5:
Phonological awareness
Pseudoword repetition
Rapid Automatized Naming
Expressive/Receptive vocabulary
Letter (sound) knowledge
Oral listening comprehension

We are back for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth 2020 after all the wonderful feedback we received last year! Every Day we will bust another #dyslexia and #reading myth during the month of October:
MYTH #1 for 2020:
DYSLEXIA AND READING IMPAIRMENTS ARE RARE While the exact prevalence of #dyslexia/#reading impairments depends on many factors (e.g., the definition, the spoken and written language, diagnostic practices), we can say with great certainty that dyslexia/reading impairments are not rare.

Very honored that our #dyslexia & early #literacy milestone #screening platform @EarlyBirdLearn developed in collaboration with @yaacovp is a finalist for the New England Innovation Award 2020!!! Fingers crossed! 🤩
Meet all the #2020 #NEInno #Finalist businesswire.com/news/home/2020… Thank you @BostonChildrensfor all your support during the development of this! We could not have done this without your Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator!!! #grateful
Thank you @ne_inno for believing in us! #NEInnovation #NEInno

Interested in doing/analyzing #neuroimaging studies in #infants or young #children? New pre-print by @GaabLab led by the wonderful @TedTuresky:
#Neuroimaging the rapidly developing #brain: Current challenges for #MRI studies in the first five years of life
osf.io/7q4cm/ Rapid and widespread changes in #brain anatomy and physiology in the first five years of life present substantial challenges for developmental #MRI studies. One persistent challenge is that methods best suited to earlier developmental stages are suboptimal for later stages

Kid 3 opened up a #coronavirus clinic for stuffed animals in our house in the Boston area in case you have a ‘patient’ in your house
#coping #resilience #pretendplay Oh, and we do #telehealth I just learned

Many school districts are deciding to use 'survey' or 'questionnaire' #screeners (asking teachers a series of questions) for assessing #dyslexia risk instead of directly assessing the child. It's very problematic for various reasons & can harm our #dyslexia advocacy efforts1/6 1) Several research studies have shown that teacher surveys are poorly correlated with the actual performance of a child, especially at the beginning of K (or any grade since teachers are still getting to know the student). It' important to DIRECTLY assess the child's skills 2/6

Myth #31 #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth:" #Dyslexia/#reading impairment is rare!" NOT TRUE! While the exact prevalence of #dyslexia/reading impairments depends on many factors (e.g., the definition, the language, diagnostic practices), we can say with great certainty that..1/7 ... #dyslexia/#reading impairments are not rare. Let's take a look at the numbers: Yesterday @NAEYC released a new report showing that 65% of 4th graders are not reading proficiently. We know that the estimates of #dyslexia range from 3-12% but vary across countries but.. 2/7

Myth #30 for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth: "Individuals with #dyslexia or #reading impairment will never be successful!" NOT TRUE! There are so many successful people with #dyslexia or #reading impairments on this planet, each of them defining success in their own, individual way 1/3 However, in order for them to reach their full potential (whatever it is!), we need to provide them with realistic role models, rich resources, opportunities to develop & maintain healthy self-esteem, counseling, AND access to evidence-based, systematic interventions 2/3

Myth #29 #DyslexiaAwarnessMonth: "Children with an older sibling or parent with #dyslexia will always develop dyslexia themselves!" NOT TRUE! Research has suggested that approx. 40-60% of people with a first degree relative with #dyslexia will struggle with #reading themselves1/5 Several genes have been reported to be candidates for dyslexia susceptibility and it has been suggested that the majority of these genes plays a role in early brain development. [e.g.; Galaburda et al., 2006; Hannula-Jouppi et al., 2005; Meng et al., 2005; Skiba et al., 2011] 2/5

Myth #27 #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth: "Early screening for #dyselxia/#reading impairments gives students a diagnosis at age 5 before they can read." NOT TRUE! The purpose of early #screenings is not to diagnose but to identify children AT RISK for developing a #reading impairment 1/7 I explained this in this article written for @blog_bold: bit.ly/349VNzp : "An analogy from medicine may be helpful in this context: Adults are advised to undergo screening for high cholesterol levels, which can indicate an increased risk of developing heart disease..2/7

Myth #24 #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth "Individuals with #dyslexia or #reading impairments primarily use their right hemisphere of the brain to process text which makes them interpret written language in a visual-spatial way, like pictures!" NOT TRUE! The idea that some people are..1/5 ..left-brain learners, while others are right-brain learners, is a MYTH and tools assessing whether a child primarily processes text with their left/right brain are misleading, false & should not be used. This neuromyth most likley originates from an overgeneralization of... 2/5

Myth #18 for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth: “Children who are good decoders will always show good reading comprehension skills” NOT TRUE! For good reading comprehension you need decoding skills AND linguistic comprehension skills; neither alone is sufficient 1/4 As wonderfully illustrated today by @ReadOxford @yesread, there is a tendency to consider poor #reading comprehension as a downstream consequence of poor single word reading skills but 50% of children with #dyslexia show poor oral language 2/4

Myth #16 for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth: "Advocating for children with #dyslexia and #reading impairments is a waste of time because the system will never change!" NOT TRUE! #Dyslexia awareness as well as the 'Science of #Reading" movement has moved mountains so far...1/5 ...but a lot more advocacy is needed. A big shoutout goes to the Decoding #Dyslexia movement, a parent-led grassroots organization that is behind many of the recent #dyslexia and #screening for #reading milestones and disabilities laws. 2/5

Myth #15 #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth: "All children with #dyslexia have average or above-average IQ OR all children with #dyslexia/#reading impairments are 'stupid' and have very low IQ!" NOT TRUE Children who struggle with reading including #dyslexia are on a wide IQ spectrum ...1/4 There ample evidence from educational, psychological & neuroimaging studies showing that a link between IQ & #dyslexia or #reading impairment is not supported. Most importantly, the evidence suggested that the still used diagnostic criteria of IQ discrepancy is not warranted 2/4

Myth10 for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth: "All individuals with #dyslexia share a similar strength & weakness profile!" NOT TRUE! Every person with #dyslexia is unique & has their own individual strengths & weaknesses. It's important to provide role models that showcase this variety1/4 Falsely promoting a certain strength that ALL individuals with #dyslexia share (e.g. visual-spatial skills or thinking out of the box) is not empowering and simply incorrect. It can lead to disappointment and more frustration such as "I am not even good at being 'dyslexic'" 2/4

Today, myth #9 for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth: "Struggling with learning to read is only affecting your academic outcome, but has no influence on your mental health!" NOT TRUE! Difficulty with reading at grade-level can lead to low self-esteem, feelings of shame, inadequacy...1/6 Difficulty with learning to read can lead to helplessness, frustration often leading to a variety of mental health problems and individuals with #dyslexia, #reading impairments or other learning disabilities show higher rates of #depression and #anxiety 2/6

Myth #6 for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth:"Most kindergarten and first-grade teachers are well trained to detect the (early) signs of #dyslexia & #reading impairments". NOT TRUE. Many teachers feel unprepared to apply the science of #reading and the science of #reading impairments 1/3 For a deeper dive into teacher training, the science #reading and #dyslexia, take a look at this recent survey of 2600 teachers in the UK bit.ly/2VjNei1, this paper on neuromyth in education bit.ly/2rY7tUV, and of course all the wonderful work of @ehanford 2/3

MythBuster #4 for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth:"An MRI or fMRI scan can be used to diagnose #dyslexia or a #reading disability." NOT TRUE! MRI is a great tool to study brain structure (the neurons and the hills and valleys on the brain surface and their connections) BUT... 1/4 ...MRI does not have the sensitivity (correctly identifying those with/without #reading disability) or specificity (correctly identifying those who will NOT develop a #reading disability) to distinguish individuals with and without #dyslexia or #reading impairment. 2/4

MythBuster #3 for #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth :" First sings of #dyslexia or #reading impairments can only be seen after 2-3 years of reading instruction" NOT TRUE! Many longitudinal (following the same kids over time) studies have revealed key predictors in young children ...1/4 Research has shown that these key predictors of subsequent problems with learning to #read include:
Phonological/Phonemic awareness
Pseudoword repetition
Rapid automatized naming
Expressive/receptive vocabulary
Oral listening comprehension
Letter (sound) knowledge
2/4

October is #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth! I will debunk one #dyslexia and #reading impairment MYTH per day using SCIENCE! No. 2: "Even if you screen for #dyslexia and #reading impairments as early as Pre-K/K, you won’t be able to intervene effectively that early anyway"...NOT TRUE! 1/4 A meta-analysis comparing intervention studies for children struggling with #reading difficulties/#dyslexia offering at least 100 sessions, reported larger effect sizes in kindergarten/1st grade than in 2nd and 3rd grades (Wanzek & Vaughn, 2007; Wanzek et al., 2013)...2/4

New preprint from the @GaabLab with first author @JenniferMZuk : "White matter in #infancy is prospectively associated with language outcome in kindergarten" biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
We would love to hear your feedback! Please find a summary below #infant #mri #brain #language 1/9

https://twitter.com/biorxivpreprint/status/1176966220526084097

We think that our paper is the first #longitudinal #neuroimaging study to document white matter organization in #infancy & follow-up w these infants 5 years later to characterize their #language outcomes. Recent work in the field of #developmental cognitive #neuroscience...2/9