The Case for Early Dyslexia Screening

The Harvard EdCast

Harvard Associate Professor Nadine Gaab wants to see the whole system surrounding children and reading development change – starting in utero. Earlier intervention can be the ultimate game-changer when it comes to identifying children with dyslexia, but also other learning differences.

“When it comes to learning differences such as dyslexia, we are largely focused on a reactive deficit-driven wait to fail model instead of the development of preventative approaches,” she says. Gaab is a neuroscientist who researches the development of typical and atypical language and literacy skills in the pediatric brain, and pre-markers of learning disabilities.

"What we could show is that some of these brain alterations are already there in infancy, and toddlerhood, and preschool. So what we can conclude from this is that some children step into their first day of kindergarten with a less optimal brain for learning to read. So you want to find them right then, right? And that has tremendous implications for policy," she says. "You don't want to wait and let them fail if you already can determine who will struggle most likely and who will not."

While there have been some efforts to mandate universal dyslexia screening, it is only one small part of what needs to be done to take steps toward addressing the needs of children. The latter is something that Gaab envisions an entire community -- beyond just the school walls -- being a part of from pediatricians to bus drivers and even librarians.

In this episode of the EdCast, Gaab discusses the what we know and don’t know about dyslexia and literacy development, and why the need for intervention – as early as preschool -- could be the most impactful thing that happens.