With every year, a stronger picture of dyslexic cognition seems to be emerging and with this greater knowledge comes a better understanding of the positive opportunities and advantages as well as broader context for why development seems to be so late blooming and beset by unexpected challenges.
MIND STRENGTHS, DEFAULT MODE NETWORK, INTERCONNECTED THINKING
Although there’s a new push by some educational leaders to dismiss dyslexia in schools again (see more here), it’s more important than ever to recognize what science says about dyslexia because even if teachers have had dyslexia training, they may have focused almost exclusively on decoding aspects of reading and not, for instance, on broader cognitive differences involving learning and memory.
As we have discussed in the updated version of Dyslexic Advantage and previous articles, meta-analyses of dyslexia research is providing growing evidence that dyslexic children and adults have a bias toward episodic simulation and activation of the default mode network.
In non-technical terms, what that means is that dyslexic people are more likely to learn and remember using multisensory contextual personal experiences rather than decontextualized facts about the world and repetitive learning.
People who learn best by rote repetition may easily learn or memorize information if they are told to do it and given a list or book chapter, whereas strong personal learners may need to understand why something is important, be given examples illustrating factors, or have an interesting experience that makes the information memorable.
Dyslexic minds may also be more likely to process information in personal or idiosyncratic ways. In fact, some researchers refer to the default mode network in the brain as the place where the idiosyncratic self resides. In a review in Nature Neuroscience, researchers describe how the default mode network (sometimes referred to the daydreaming network) is a dynamic sense-making network that integrates incoming information with prior personal memories and knowledge to form “rich, context dependent models of situations as they unfold over time. ”
Schurz et al. (2015) have previously shown that dyslexic study subjects had stronger interconnections in their default mode network – especially involving the precuneus which is a powerful area associated with imagery and mental representations.
The strong contextual reading abilities of dyslexic children have been seen by researchers in as early as the second to fifth grades (Kida et al., 2016). In that study, dyslexic students were able to recall more details from the stories they read compared to matched controls, although the details they recalled were not central to the main ideas in the text. Said the authors:
“Results suggest that dyslexic children are able to use their linguistic competence and their own background knowledge to minimize the effects of their decoding deficit, especially at the highest text processing levels.”
This pattern might explain why dyslexics store away such important incidental information when they read or learn – this tendency can have negative consequences in the short term, especially if they share their retellings of what they learned – but are dismissed as being off-topic or missing the main point. But they may only be missing simple points that they may be being directed to; they could also be challenging what they read and integrating it with what their previous learning and past experience, which is sometimes referred to as “deep” rather than “active” learning.
LESS ROTE MEMORIZATION, MORE CRITICAL THINKING
Children do have a need to learn a lot of facts about the world, but learning more and doing more with the information like analyzing it, applying it, and comparing it to other information will make the information easier to retain and also build on strengths in higher order thinking ability. This general principle should apply to all students, but it’s especially important for dyslexic ones because rote memorization may be weak.
Because of bias away from rote memorization, it’s easy to see that a poorly matched curriculum (rote-heavy, for instance) can set up dyslexic students for failure.
TOO MUCH INFORMATION – EARLIER NEEDS FOR SCAFFOLDING
The nature of taking in a lot of detailed information can have its benefits in the future, but early on having some help with organization, grouping, simplifying, and prioritizing ideas can reduce frustrations and lighten burdens later.
Some students can be helped with organization by talking over ideas, working with graphic organizers, and thinking thematically or through metaphors and imagery.
When learning something new, the practice of pre-learning can be very beneficial for improving learning efficiency. If a book report will be due after reading a book, previewing what’s expected can help “prime the pump” and focus on information that is needed for school.
NEW VIEW OF THE DEFAULT MODE NETWORK SUGGESTS IT’S IMPORTANT FOR CONNECTING INFORMATION AND GENERATING ALTERNATIVE SCENARIOS
When the Default Mode Network was first identified, it was thought to be the “default mode” for the brain when it wasn’t working on a task. Then it began being recognized for its importance in mental simulation and creative thinking; more recently, it’s also recognized as having roles in determining alternative scenarios and connecting details from different sources of information.
When we interviewed Sarah Andrews, a dyslexic geologist, she told us it was very important to her thinking process to defocus on the task at hand and at times stare out the window. Once a supervisor saw her in one of these moments and he said, “Get back to work.” In reply, she said, “You work in your way and I’ll work in mine,” and she was right.
AIM HIGH
All these patterns of information gathering, processing and organization, and generation of new possibilities make it understandable why dyslexic minds don’t just take information in and spit things back unchanged. It can be frustrating in classrooms or workplaces not just repeating back what you may be expected to say by rote (“do as you were told”), but your brain as a changemaker has more important things it is doing, and it’s important to seek out the best environment to support these generative talents.
This is why we usually support gifted dyslexic students in gifted classrooms even if there may be a struggle keeping up with the quantity of work – and why we encourage employees to choose the best workplaces and jobs for themselves where their different ways of doing things will be recognized and promoted, rather than suppressed. Dyslexic minds are by their nature changemakers and explorers; as you look into the new year – aim high.
To learn more about the connection between dyslexia and default mode network, visit:
Mind Wandering, Reading, and Dyslexia
