What if reading struggles aren’t just weaknesses but signs of a differently organized brain? How can understanding the true nature of dyslexia help children develop effective reading skills?
Maryanne Wolf’s dyslexia research reveals that reading difficulties exist on a spectrum. This calls for tailored interventions that can reshape neural pathways while recognizing the unique strengths that often accompany these challenges.
Read on to get Maryanne Wolf’s perspective on dyslexia from her book Proust and the Squid.
Image credit: RebeccaJMG via Wikimedia Commons (License CC BY-SA 4.0)
Maryanne Wolf on Dyslexia
According to Maryanne Wolf, dyslexia—the most common source of reading difficulties—is a complex condition with no single, clear cause. Instead, it results from a breakdown in one or more of the many circuits that make up the reading brain. For instance, it might manifest as difficulty connecting letters to sounds (such as b and “buh”) or trouble forming memories of words to enable fluent reading.
Since dyslexia isn’t a single condition but rather a spectrum of reading difficulties, it calls for varied solutions, too. Wolf says that reading support tailored to the specific difficulty a reader faces can change the course of the brain’s development, creating more efficient neural pathways and potentially mitigating dyslexia’s downsides.
(Shortform note: Some educators agree with Wolf, suggesting specific strategies for each of the common difficulties kids can run into in the classroom. For instance, a student struggling to understand a reading assignment might be given extra time and an audiobook to help him read. Or, a student who finds spelling difficult might be allowed to use a computer with spellcheck for assignments. There are also long-established methods like the Orton-Gillingham approach, which use structured, phonics-based interventions. The Orton-Gillingham approach uses listening, speaking, seeing, and writing to help students acquire the fundamentals of reading and writing.)
The goal of reading interventions isn’t to “cure” dyslexia—in fact, Wolf says that dyslexia is better thought of, not as an illness, but as a different organization of the brain that comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. Brain imaging shows that, while people with dyslexia have weaker circuits for typical reading development, they often have stronger circuits for visual and spatial thinking, which help with creativity, problem-solving, and big-picture inventiveness.
| Strengths-Based Perspectives on Dyslexia While she doesn’t use the term, Wolf’s view of dyslexia embraces the notion of neurodiversity. Coined in the 1990s by autistic sociologist Judy Singer, neurodiversity sees different organizations of the brain (like autism or ADHD) as natural variations rather than deficits. This challenged the dominant medical model, which approached cognitive differences primarily as disorders to be treated or cured, and it helped to normalize the view that neurodiverse people aren’t sick—they just experience the world differently. The neurodiversity framework has since expanded to include dyslexia. A 2022 study of dyslexia corroborates Wolf’s argument that people with dyslexia have unique strengths. In fact, the study’s researchers argue that dyslexia is best understood as an evolutionary adaptation—a trait, rather than a disability or disease. They point to the fact that dyslexia is common (occurring in 5% to 20% of people) and is genetically inherited, so it was probably selected for by evolution. We’ve historically focused on its disadvantages, but not its key advantage: an ability the researchers call “explorative search.” By this, they mean that dyslexic individuals’ brains are tuned for the sort of creative, big-picture, spatial reasoning that Wolf mentions. |
