Difficulties with audiovisual processing contributes to dyslexia in children

A University at Buffalo psychologist has published a neuroimaging study that could help develop tests for early identification of dyslexia, a disorder that affects 80 percent of those diagnosed with difficulties reading, writing and spelling. Tasks which require audiovisual processing are especially challenging for children with dyslexia, according to Chris McNorgan, an assistant professor in UB's psychology department and project lead for the research published in the journal PLoS ONE. Designing tests sensitive to the problem of audiovisual integration could determine the presence of a disorder that often goes undetected during the early years of elementary education since many children with dyslexia are considered, initially, as simply being on the lower end of a normal range of reading levels.
"Until these kids with dyslexia are lagging so far behind their peers, there's no way to reasonably assume that they're not part of a continuum of ability, but rather a separate group altogether," says McNorgan. The study's results suggest that the reading difficulty associated with dyslexia stems from a lack of coordinated processing in the four brain areas known as "the reading network."