Yale Center for Dyslexia Message-Vital Info

We hope you had a wonderful summer and that your back-to-school season is off to a great start. We here at YCDC, with your strong, on-going and enthusiastic support, have worked to bring dyslexia out in the open. Our goal is to shine a light on dyslexia so that all know:

• The 2018 First Step Act federal law now provides a universal, scientifically validated definition of dyslexia: it is an unexpected difficulty in reading in a person who has the ability to be a much better reader.

• You can be dyslexic and smart, a finding captured by our Sea of Strengths model of dyslexia and validated by published data from our longitudinal study.

• Dyslexia impacts students early - as shown by our Connecticut Longitudinal Study (CLS) data published in the Journal of Pediatrics; by first grade there is a visible and large achievement gap already present between typical and dyslexic readers that persists.

• These data led us to develop an evidence-based, efficient and economical screener, the Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen, completed on a tablet by the child's teacher who knows him/her best having worked to help the child learn to read. The screener only takes ten minutes to complete and the teacher immediately learns if the child is at-risk for dyslexia or not at-risk for dyslexia.

• We are working with major cities to urge universal screening of all students in K-2.

• A major step forward is the exciting new partnership between Pearson, the publisher that distributes the Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen and states (e.g., the state of Missouri) and many individual school districts to screen all students.

• The ongoing CLS is now carrying out an extraordinary and unique extension - continuing to assess and learn from the same group of men and women whom we have been continuously assessing since they were boys and girls age 5 and entering kindergarten and who are now age 40 years old, a 35 year span. We are examining the relationship between reading when these men and women were children and these same individuals' reading three decades later when they are now adults. Specifically our YCDC team will assess reading in each individual and gather information in other important domains including: educational attainment, labor force participation, occupational category, earnings, behavioral adjustment and mental health, civic participation, reading experience, life satisfaction, poverty/dependence on public assistance, health, quality of life, and family and sociodemographic status.

• For the first time, we will have the unique opportunity to provide an urgently needed understanding of which predictors lead to which adult outcomes of childhood dyslexia. We will be able to understand not only the consequences of dyslexia but those specific factors that may exacerbate or ameliorate outcomes and be in the extraordinary position to act on that knowledge to the immediate benefit of dyslexic individuals. A special shout out to our supporters who make this study possible.

• Strong data show that children who are not identified don't know why they continue to struggle, lose self-esteem, and come to think school is not for them and far too often drop out of school.

• Sadly, very large numbers of these boys and girls who are not screened or identified as dyslexic end up in prison.

• Without identification there is a far too common school dropout to prison pipeline that could be avoided if dyslexia were identified early.

• Data indicate that as many as 50% of prisoners are dyslexic! A finding requiring urgent ACTION!!

• There is now growing support for specialized free schools for dyslexic students such as the Louisiana Key Academy as part of the continuum of intervention services for dyslexia. We are so pleased that a number of school districts are thinking of the benefits such schools could bring to the one in five students in their communities who are dyslexic.

• Through our YCDC website, lectures, newspaper articles highlighting our work in dyslexia, appearances on radio and TV shows and through Sally's book, Overcoming Dyslexia, tens and even hundreds of thousands of parents, educators, policy makers and most importantly, dyslexics themselves have been introduced to the 21st century science of dyslexia. While screening is so often overlooked and parents are given one excuse after another to explain their bright child's reading struggles, we want to share with you what happens when a student is identified, even as she is about to graduate high school. Here is a personal note our directors received from Hallel, a brilliant young woman who went through K-12 not diagnosed and questioning who she was and her ability. Here are her thoughts following her dyslexia diagnosis at our YCDC as she was about to go off to college.

• We also saw an interesting story in the Wall Street Journal about a universally respected high-profile writer-director-producer, Brad Falchuk. The story says: "During his sophomore year at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Falchuk was diagnosed with severe dyslexia. He says it was a 'true catharsis.' Having named the cause of his pain and perceived failures, he could address it. For the first time, he began getting positive feedback from professors, particularly on his writing." See below for more about this extraordinary writer-director-producer who is dyslexic and has an incredible Sea of Strengths in thinking, reasoning and creativity.

• A diagnosis of dyslexia can be made at any age and be meaningful. Our co-directors, not surprisingly, spoke about dyslexia at a conference in Arkansas and were surprised to receive a phone call from a man who identified himself as the great grandfather of a woman who had attended the conference. Following the conference, she had called her great grandfather and told him she had heard us speak and finally she knows what he has - dyslexia and what it was. He was overjoyed and called us. At age 94 years, he at last knew what he had, that he was dyslexic and not at all lacking in intelligence. It's wonderful that these smart, hard-working people were finally given the appropriate diagnosis. But no one should have to wait until he is 94. We have the ability to quickly and accurately screen all students for dyslexia by the first grade. Our children deserve nothing less.