Topic > Essay on Dyslexia - 559

Dyslexia is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders that haunt adolescents throughout their childhood. Commonly known as reading disability (RD), dyslexia is a complex inherited trait that occurs in 5-17% of people. Neuroimaging studies show that dyslexic individuals exhibit abnormal brain function compared to fluent readers when challenged with reading tasks (7). The exact genes that code for dyslexia are uncertain, however substantial studies have potentially linked dyslexia to the KIAA0319 gene, the DCDC2 gene, and the DYX1 gene. The severity of each case is largely determined by environmental factors such as exposure to reading and professional intervention. Significantly, the interaction between these external influences and innate genetic characteristics ultimately determines the performance of the dyslexic individual. From a genetic perspective, chromosomes six, fifteen, and eighteen are the primary focus of most research. The KIAA0319 gene on chromosome six has been associated with poor performance on tests of reading, spelling, spelling, and...