Subtitles section Play video
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Take a moment to read the following.
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How was that?
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Frustrating?
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Slow?
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What were those sentences about?
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They're actually a simulation
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of the experience of dyslexia,
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designed to make you decode each word.
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Those with dyslexia experience that laborious pace
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every time they read.
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When most people think of dyslexia,
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they think of seeing letters and words backwards,
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like seeing "b" as "d" and vice versa,
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or they might think people with dyslexia
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see "saw" as "was".
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The truth is people with dyslexia
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see things the same way as everyone else.
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Dyslexia is caused by a phonological processing problem,
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meaning people affected by it
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have trouble not with seeing language
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but with manipulating it.
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For example, if you heard the word cat
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and then someone asked you, "Remove the 'c',"
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what word would you have left?
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At.
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This can be difficult for those with dyslexia.
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Given a word in isolation,
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like fantastic,
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students with dyslexia need to break the word
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into parts to read it:
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fan,
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tas,
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tic.
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Time spent decoding makes it hard
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to keep up with peers
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and gain sufficient comprehension.
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Spelling words phonetically,
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like s-t-i-k
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for stick
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and f-r-e-n-s
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for friends
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is also common.
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These difficulties are more widespread and varied
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than commonly imagined.
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Dyslexia affects up to one in five people.
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It occurs on a continuum.
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One person might have mild dyslexia
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while the next person has a profound case of it.
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Dyslexia also runs in families.
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It's common to see one family member
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who has trouble spelling
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while another family member
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has severe difficulty decoding even one syllable words,
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like catch.
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The continuum and distribution of dyslexia
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suggests a broader principle to bear in mind
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as we look at how the brains of those with dyslexia
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process language.
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Neurodiversity is the idea
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that because all our brains show differences
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in structure and function,
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we shouldn't be so quick to label
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every deviation from "the norm"
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as a pathological disorder
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or dismiss people living with these variations
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as "defective."
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People with neurobiological variations like dyslexia,
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including such creative and inventive individuals
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as Picasso,
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Muhammad Ali,
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Whoopi Goldberg,
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Steven Spielberg,
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and Cher,
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clearly have every capacity
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to be brilliant and successful in life.
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So, here's the special way
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the brains of those with dyslexia work.
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The brain is divided into two hemispheres.
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The left hemisphere is generally in charge of language
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and, ultimately, reading,
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while the right typically handles spatial activities.
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fMRI studies have found
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that the brains of those with dyslexia
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rely more on the right hemisphere and frontal lobe
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than the brains of those without it.
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This means, when they read a word,
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it takes a longer trip through their brain
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and can get delayed in the frontal lobe.
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Because of this neurobiological glitch,
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they read with more difficulty.
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But those with dyslexia
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can physically change their brain
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and improve their reading
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with an intensive, multi-sensory intervention
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that breaks the language down
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and teaches the reader to decode
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based on syllable types and spelling rules.
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The brains of those with dyslexia
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begin using the left hemisphere
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more efficiently while reading,
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and their reading improves.
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The intervention works
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because it locates dyslexia appropriately
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as a functional variation in the brain,
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which, naturally, shows all sorts of variations
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from one person to another.
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Neurodiversity emphasizes this spectrum
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of brain function in all humans
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and suggests that to better understand the perspectives
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of those around us,
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we should try to not only see the world through their eyes
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but understand it through their brains.