Webinar links brain research to structured literacy for students with dyslexia

Wendy Brooks presented neuroscience evidence about how reading is learned and why students with dyslexia struggle. Quoting a widely cited source she said, "As Sally Shaywitz explains in overcoming dyslexia 2003, human beings were never born to read." Brooks described three left-hemisphere regions—the occipitotemporal, temporoparietal, and inferior frontal gyrus—and explained that underactivation in the temporoparietal region and overreliance on the inferior frontal gyrus often make reading slow and effortful for students with dyslexia.

Based on that neuroscience, Brooks recommended explicit, systematic, multisensory structured literacy instruction. "Instead, strengthening phonological processing through explicit, systematic, and multi sensory structured literacy instruction is the most effective way to help these readers activate this part of the brain," she said. The webinar tied the brain research to classroom practice and discouraged use of the three-cueing system for students with dyslexia.