The dyslexic mind at work: Linden Hill School takes part in brain scan research to advance the understanding of dyslexia

[ Originally published on: Thursday, August 28, 2008 ]

NORTHFIELD -- When Linden Hill School Headmaster James McDaniel saw parts of his dyslexic students' brain scans literally lighting up as they read, his professional enthusiasm began to glow, too.

'It's the most energizing thing in my career,' said McDaniel, who has worked for 30 years with students with learning disabilities.

Even before the school year opens next Tuesday, Linden Hill's 15 faculty members will begin sessions focusing on scanner research to map areas in the brain where reading goes awry for the specialty school's dyslexic boys. They will be using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and visual electroencephalogram (EEG).

Most of what special-education teachers understand about visual learning disabilities like dyslexia is based on trial-and-error approaches, but the research being done at Yale's Haskin's Laboratories, the University of Houston and other institutions offers clear evidence of what's taking place in the brains of dyslexic children, said McDaniel.

'I understand what works with kids because I've done it, but here's the empirical evidence,' he said. 'Most of what I believe in is being reinforced, but it's opening my eyes to what I didn't understand. For the first time, we're seeing in the brain what areas light up, and what kind of connections are made in a 'normal' reader, the area on the left side firing, the blood exchange and the heat. Our (dyslexic) boys light up on the right front.'

The implication, he said, is that dyslexic students struggle to interpret written language with the wrong side of their brains. Reading should happen 'automatically' in the left side of their brains.

'They can do it, but it's exhausting,' he said 'Why do you think they fall asleep and re-read and have attention issues .... The left side is the natural side for humans to do decoding, where the sound-symbol connection occurs automatically.'

UMass helps

McDaniel first encountered the research done at Haskins at a conference last summer and invited its director to arrange for his students to take part in testing later this year.

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts have agreed to test Linden Hill students as they try to read in the college's labs, said Assistant Professor of Psychology Lisa Sanders.

'We don't know how these things are going to be helpful in the future, but there are two ways in which knowing about how processing is structured in the brain is helpful for these populations who are struggling,' she said. 'If we can learn about which parts of the brain are changeable, then we can focus on interventions on those things that can change, as opposed to those that can't. In something as complex as language processing, there are 100 different ways that can go wrong, so by looking at what's going on in the brain, we can focus intervention on those very specific problems.'

With MRIs to point to specific brain areas where there's increased blood flow and EEGs to give microsecond-by-microsecond indications of how the brain reacts to stimuli, Sanders said, 'We can get a better idea of exactly where language processing is going wrong,' and where the problems are similar to and different from perceptual processing by Asperger's and autistic children.

Letting dyslexic students actually see how their brains are functioning can also have the positive effect of understanding why their learning problems are not their fault.

'Having a better understanding of what's going on can be very helpful in and of itself,' she said.

Linden Hill will take part in a project being coordinated by The Dyslexia Foundation to collect brain patterns from students at 20 schools around the country.

The $3 million, five-year pilot project will look at which teaching approaches work best for each child, said William Baker, the South Dartmouth-based organization's executive director.

'Allowing us to get on the right track at an earlier age is the ultimate goal,' said Baker. 'The earlier you can catch the problem, the greater success you can have, before self-esteem issues begin to crop up.'

The research has tremendous crossover effect on public schools, where special education has assumed a greater share of tightening budgets.

Since 2006 McDaniel has worked to reinvigorate the 47-year-old private school for boys ages 9 to 16, after the abrupt departure of two administrators, by increasing enrollment and monetary contributions.

Linden Hill hopes to double its enrollment in five years to 60 students, including 15 day students.

McDaniel also envisions a day when his students can hook up brain-scanning equipment and watch their brain patterns as they try reading to make the 'correct' left temporal area of their brains light up on the screen before them.

'It's like putting hooks in the closet where you throw the coat in. Before, the hooks weren't there, but using EEG technology, we could potentially put those hooks there' to give reading drills later something to effectively 'hang on.'

He says it's important not to get ahead of the research, but adds, 'That's my dream.'

You can reach Richie Davis at: rdavis@recorder.com or (413) 772-0261 Ext. 269

 

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