In the 1970s, a new hypothesis emerged that dyslexia stems from a deficit in phonological processing or a difficulty in recognizing that spoken words are formed by discrete phonemes.  For example, the word CAT comes from the sounds [k], [a], and [t].  As a result of this phonological processing deficit, affected individuals have difficulty associating these sounds with the visual letters that make up the code of written words.

Towards the end of the 20^th century, another suggestion emerged that many dyslexics are visual-spatial thinkers who are wired for the big picture.  This lead to the belief that some are wired to process information in pictures rather than in words.

Dyslexia is widely accepted to be a specific learning disability.  That is, dyslexia has biological traits that differentiate it from other learning disabilities.  However, the specific definition of dyslexia varies somewhat across communities.

Dyslexia or Reading Disorder is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV as "reading achievement that falls substantially below expected levels given an individual's age and education.  The reading deficit should be sufficiently severe to interfere with everyday activities requiring reading (e.g., schoolwork or employment).  Finally, the reading deficit cannot be strictly due to a sensory disorder; for instance, it cannot be strictly due to vision problems that prevent an individual from seeing words on a page."

Reading difficulties in dyslexia can vary in their severity.  The condition is not restricted to childhood, and can persist through adulthood.  Although early reports suggest dyslexia is more prevalent in boys, more recent studies have indicated it is not gender-linked, and occurs both in boys and girls with equal frequency.

Qualified professionals, such as neurologists or educational psychologists, should make formal diagnosis of dyslexia.

Individuals with dyslexia often present with one or more of the following characteristics:

• May appear bright, intelligent and articulate, however their reading, writing, and spelling is below their average age group.
• Have average or above average intelligence, yet may have poor academic achievement.
• May have good oral language abilities but will perform much more poorly on similar written-language tests.
• Might be labeled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, "not trying hard enough", or as having a "behavior problem."
• Because dyslexia primarily affects reading while sparing other intellectual abilities, affected individuals might be categorized as not "behind enough" or "bad enough" to receive additional help in a school setting.
• Might feel dumb and have poor self-esteem, and might be easily frustrated and emotional about school reading or testing.
• Might try to hide their weaknesses with ingenious compensatory "strategies".
• Might learn best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation, and visual aids.
• Can show talents in other areas such as art, drama, music, sports, mechanics, story telling, sales, business, designing, building, or engineering.
• Have related problems with attention in a school setting; for instance they might seem to "zone out" or daydream often; or lose track of time; and have difficulty sustaining attention.¹

¹ Adapted from excerpts from R.D. Davis, 37 Common Characteristics of Dyslexia.

Speech, hearing, vision, reading, spelling, writing, and motor skill problems are often present in the history of individuals with dyslexia to varying degrees and in varying combinations.  Accordingly, various treatment options are available that target these areas of deficiencies and weakness with varying successes.

PACE  (our trainer presented program) and BrainSkills (our on-line home study program) address aspects of all the underlying elements that may be the root cause of dyslexia.  As the learning skill deficiencies are replaced with learning skill abilities, the support mechanism for a strong cognitive foundation upon which to build a solid phonemic awareness is laid solidly in place.

All aspects of our cognitive training programs PACE and BrainSkills work on improving the framework necessary for good reading, comprehension and writing/spelling.  These two programs have a strong emphasis on repairing auditory processing skills.  By combining repaired auditory processing skills with better visual processing, memory, processing speed, logic and reasoning skills, and word attack skills, you attack the root causes of dyslexia at each potential problem area.  Areas that were not deficits are strengthened even more. 

PACE and BrainSkills also give a solid foundation in phonemic awareness by teaching the first 17 basic sounds and codes of the 43 sound codes of the English language.  For the full sound-to-code phonemic awareness program, covering all 43 sound codes of the English language, Master the Code is the perfect choice if you live near a trainer.  For home training, we recommend Can Do Cubes Systematic Phonics. 

Although most everyone would benefit from Master the Code or Can Do Cubes Systematic Phonics, and those who have dyslexia should follow-up with one of these programs after repairing the underlying processing skills that have made reading, writing, spelling, and comprehension difficult in the past.   Pretesting with our cognitive skills test, the Gibson Test of Brain Skills, provides a strong indicator of whether Master the Code or Can Do Cubes Systematic Phonics is needed, based on the presence of deficiencies in Auditory Processing or Word Attack skills. The Gibson Test of Brain Skills is an affordable on-line test that runs only $29.95 and can be completed in the comfort of your own home

Imagine throwing a tennis ball against a wall.  The ball bounces off.  Before underlying learning skills are repaired, any attempt to get a phonemic awareness (phonics) program to "stick" would be about as effective as this ball throwing technique.  Fixing the underlying cognitive skills with PACE or BrainSkills is a little like wallpapering the mind with the hook part of Velcro.  If you throw a tennis ball against a wall of hooked Velcro, it will stick.  If you fix the underlying skills of the brain, the sound-to-code program will "stick" and become permanent.

Another example is like a computer.  If you have a hard drive with only a little memory, it will be impossible to upload a program with a lot of data—it won't "fit" and therefore won't be a usable program.  Adding to the hard drive, increasing the memory, and upgrading the computer is the place to start.  AFTER this is done (i.e., after PACE or BrainSkills) then any "program" entered previously will need to be uploaded again for it to work.  This includes the full 43 sounds of the English language and their written codes as set out in Master the Code or Can Do Cubes Systematic Phonics.  Fortunately, uploading this information is quick and easy once the "computer upgrade" is done and when using Master the Code or Can Do Cubes Systematic Phonics.  To learn more about why we recommend Master the Code and Can Do Cubes Systematic Phonics as opposed to any other phonics based program please CLICK HERE.