Dyslexia And Its Possible Causation (Magnocellular) by Dyslexia Toby 2013 ©

I hope you enjoy this article, it merely skims the surface of this hot topic.

Dyslexia, as mentioned before, is a term used to describe a person who has a literacy delay and means difficulty with words.  This has no direct correlation to IQ; in fact many dyslexics have a high IQ.

We can say in many cases there is more to this condition than just reading and spelling… we can also see difficulty in orientation (left and right), organisation and processing; short term memory and memory recall can often be below that of their peers.

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Reading requires a high level of skill in the area of orthographic and phonological awareness. We also are aware of the variation in area of the left and right temporal (language region of the brain) being smaller and almost symmetrical compared to the left (linear) brained person who has a large variation; this is the area where we go to for our phonological referencing.  Dyslexics can also have auditory problems and, in some, this can affect the way they hear letter sounds. This is due to poor grasp of amplification or pitch in letter sounds (vowel sounds have a much narrower band width (pitch variation) than consonants… this is more of a problem where dictation is employed.  In order to get an accurate grasp of phonology we need to have a high tolerance level to vocal frequency (fm and am - frequency modulation and amplitude modulation),  however dyslexics generally  have a very low tolerance to both and this has an effect on our overall phonological processing . This is also important for inner speech when reading, sounding out letters in order to construct the words in our head… it has also been suggested for those that may miss words when reading, that covering one eye is a short term fix, although not recommended!

We have also seen in more recent times, an impairment in the magnocellular system leads to a form of visual instability when focusing on or reading text and can also cause problems with motion sensibility.  We can also see that dyslexics can easily lose their place whilst reading and may often find them compensating by using finger tracking whilst reading, although they will struggle when taking text from a whiteboard, etc .

Reading out loud can also be a problem and should be limited or avoided.  Again, it’s thought that the tools required to read and spell fall well short of our ability to speak and this could possibly lead to many malapropisms (random words and even stuttering to occur).

It is also now thought that dyslexics have a higher level of development in their parvocellular system which gives us talent in the areas of creativity over our left brained counterparts, being also gifted in 3 dimensional thinking and a far higher incidence of entrepreneurs as a result.

The dyslexic brain is also thought to be deficient in fatty acids and there is a direct link between a higher intake of fatty acids and the development of strong magnocells, thus maintaining a higher degree of flexibility and improvements in some areas.

This article is for guidance only and professional advice should always be sought

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