Today is about dyslexia. One condition that affects the brain assesses, britain spoken language is considered the most important learning disability. I know senator cassidy is going into a large information in data that i want to again sad i wont say again. The reason the National Center for learning disabilities highlight the many challenges our country faces when trying to meet the needs of other learning disabilities. At following her dreams and her passions. So i want to thank you for your consistent leadership and look forward to hearing this testimony. Testimony. I will now defer to senator murphy to introduce the witness. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for thank you very much. Im eager to get a testament as well. I had to come back but im excited to introduce the expert of experts at the end of the table which is doctor Sally Shaywitz from Yale University where she is a professor in learning development at the school of medicine. Shows a long list of titles including the codirectocodirecto r of the gale said for dyslexia and creativity, one of the leading researchers in this field and has this field and as a physician a Research Focus has been on neurobiology and epidemiology providing a scientific basis for understanding dyslexia. Shes written more than 200 journal articles, chapters and books on this topic. I know she is a great source of council for both the chair of this hearing and myself so im glad to have dr. Shaywitz with a. I will introduce ameer baraka, actor and author norms, struggle to reduce the whole life. Didnt he was dyslexic until 23. In prison he earned his ged, was empowered to influence youth who struggle the same way as he. Im to hear how hes used his stardom to steer children off the path of incarceration. I will defer to you, senator mikulski for dr. Eden and dr. Mahone. I would like to introduce guinevere eden, concerted and nationally recognized expert in Dyslexia Research and one of the very first to use brain imaging and our eyes to better understand the neurological basis for dyslexia. Shes been supported both by nih and nsf and currently drugs the center for the study of after step continue to investigate while she is actively involved in teaching graduate students and really investigating all the sensory processing relating to reading and now these may be different in individuals. Shes going to bring a lot to us. He also our Sally Shaywitz who is a baltimore guy through and through, grew up in a neighborhood called dundalk which was close to the one where i grew up. He is a pediatric neuropsychologist and he is at the esteemed Kennedy Krieger institute in baltimore. This is an institution internationally recognized and dedicated to improving the lives of those particularly children with brain and other challenges. What dr. Mahone does is it provides Clinical Services for young kids with neurodevelopment disorders, works on the cutting of psychologists and educators and positions on these issues and really as an expert on involving the study of brain behaviors in children with or without these neurodevelopment disorders. Jakarta serves as the codirector for center and innovation leadership in special education your and he brings really great knowledge about what the children need but what the systems are supposed to help the children need to do. And im very proud to bring he and dr. Eden to the committees attention. David boies has been selected as one of those 100 influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2010. Is been named Global International litigator of the year by whos who legal and unprecedented seven times can receive many prestigious awards and numerous honorary degrees. Is a former hill staffer having served as chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Antitrust subcommittee and the Senate Judiciary committee. Thank you, mr. Boies. And lastly ms. April hanrath from a Small Business owner, single mom up to a doctor children from salt lake city. Ms. Hanrath has been recognized as a child advocate for work on behalf of children like her daughter jocelyn who is behind her, who has dyslexia and other learning disabilities. She was a parent advocate who understood at web that understood a word she and attended utah before taking over the family business. Thank you all and i will ask dr. Shaywitz to begin on the rest to follow in order. [inaudible] dr. Shaywitz, im not sure your microphone is on, doctor. No, no, no. We want you to be able to belt it out. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, senator cassidy, senator mikulski and other committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about the signs of dyslexia and share with you the tremendous scientific progress that has been made in dyslexia and its important implications for education. The problem, our nation is in the midst of a National Nightmare with substantial numbers of children who are unable to read him especially boys and girls from disadvantaged families. Just released 2015 data, im going to just, if you could stop to think about going to be showing a number of slight editing would be helpful if people could see after i dont know if we are looking at it right here. We see on the tv. Are you going to give us the 2015 High School Rating scores . Weve got it. Garate. Okay. Should just release of 2015 data from the nations report card since a loud warning signal. Here outlined in yellow the lowest achievers show large declines in the most along the greatest drop in reading and to take it occurs between 20132015. Reactions of experts were stalled. We are not making progress. We need something substantially different. Increasing Scientific Evidence strongly points to dyslexia as the explanation and potential solution to our education crisis. Dyslexia put all the pieces together. Dyslexia represents 8090 of all learning disabilities and differs markedly from all others in the dyslexia is very specific and scientifically valid. Dyslexia is common affecting one at a fight. Initial descriptions of dyslexia as an unexpected difficulty reading are today and. We valid. A major step forward is resolution 275 providing a 21st century definition of dyslexia, incorporating scientific advances in dyslexia, especially its unexpected nature. And emphasizes the cognitive basis of dyslexia, getting, difficult to get into the individual sites a spoken one which. It is not seen worked backwards. Resolution 275 represents a landmark in online science and education. Dyslexia is a paradox. The same slow reader is often a very fast and able finger, giving rise to our conceptual model of dyslexia as a weakness in getting to the sounds of were surrounded by a sea of strength and higher level thinking process. Converging evidence has identified a neural signature for dyslexia. That is an inefficient function of both post inefficient posterior reading systems. The role of potential mechanisms in reading and economic consequences of dyslexia. Dyslexia israel. However, imaging cannot use to diagnose individuals. The achievement gap between typical and dyslexic readers is large, cursed as early as first grade, and persists. Dyslexia has often dire consequences. Dyslexic students drop out of school at a significant greater rate than the typically reading piers. As a consequence of their often due to higher unemployment, lower earnings and measured from senator cassidy a few minutes ago, almost 50 of Prison Inmates are dyslexic. So in Online Education with science, certain principles emerge. One, given its high prevalence in scientific validity and harsh impact, dyslexia must be given prominence in reauthorization by ge a. Schools must screen for indemnified dyslexic students early. That dyslexic student should know this diagnosis and that he is smart. Moving forward information requires a model incorporating 21st century scientific knowledge about dyslexia, as shown in this slide. School climate where everyone is on board and the word dyslexia is used, small classes, et cetera. Where can this model be found . Independent schools with the dyslexic student. For example, to Windward School in new york. However, the tuition is 52000. Out of reach of most middleclass and certainly disadvantaged children. Public charter schools, a new model serving dyslexic students, an example is the Louisiana Key Academy in baton rouge. Schools like this bring a quality and hope to all dyslexic children so that disadvantaged children are no longer left behind. On always think of people are dyslexic reminds me of an iceberg where you see 10 , and we see the people who have succeeded including by he wrote, david boies, seated at this table. But we forget about the 90 that are unseen are asking her help and could benefit from help. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Shaywitz. Mr. Baraka. Good morning, senators and panelists. I want to thank you for taking your found the time to listen to my message. We are coming up on an important president ial election and i know youre time is important. Im also not oblivious to the challenges we face as a country. One such a challenge isnt the lifelong curse of dyslexia. One out of five live with this challenge each day of their lives. So many whenever reached their full potential and enjoy this great country as you and i do. So many people have lost the will to believe because of the enemy of dyslexia has forced them into the shadows but today we found on the way to address this i enemy once and for all. For many years i am a dyslexia to control my life are robbing me of my godgiven potential. Can you imagine in my early teens never wanting to be anything but a drug dealer . Neither my mother nor my schoolteachers were able to diagnose the reasons why i had trouble learning. In my mind pursuing more formal education was irrelevant. I knew early in life that being a dentist, physical therapist or lawyer was out of my reach because i could not read. I turned to go to pathways out of new orleans projects. I so many in my committee making way for themselves without having to read, by selling drugs. My defeatist attitude seemed to outweigh the positive values my grandmother tried to teach me. There were many more ingredients that help me make my decision to sell drugs. For example, having my mother and siblings tommy names such as dumb and stupid, using names such as these can cause any child to feel hopeless and lost. You will notice i never mentioned my father in this presentation. Thats because he left when i was very to chase his dreams of finding a better grade of heroin to use. It was the perfect storm. I chose to succumb to the environment while both brothers and sisters excelled in school. I didnt care about my future or anyone else because i thought i was a dummy like my mother and my siblings and. I became a street dog and full of anger because i felt cheated out of an education. I went to school just because i had to. Many fridays i wouldve malingerer because i couldnt pass a spelling test or i would sleep in project always until school was out to avoid embarrassment. I pushed myself into a hole and i couldnt get out. My teachers had to know that i could not read. My young mother ran the streets and didnt seem to value my education. But what became the final thing that caused me to pledge my allegiance to the lives of the street was a girl. I was in sixth grade and ago i liked was in class. It was our first week of school in english class and the teacher called upon me to read out loud. My palms begin to sweat and the like drop of blood on my forehead. I couldnt pronounce any of the words and the teacher made me continue. Knowing that it could not read. Some students laughed while others looked in amazement. From that day forward i knew that school wasnt the place for me. The young lady never really liked me much from that day forward. The streets became a classroom and looking back the lessons i learned were shameful. I shot and killed a young person because of the street talking thats how you resolve conflicts. After my release from prison at 15 years of age for manslaughter i got back into the drug game, still never learned to read, ended up doing prison time as an adult. Iran from the law for four years as a fugitive because i was facing 60 years, and i was guilty. I ended up doing for years by gods grace. A jury found guilty of a lesser charge. At age 23 i entered a prison correctional facility reading on a third grade level. I didnt feel bad because many of the men were just like me. We all read poorly. But after reading the autobiography of malcolm x i discovered that he dropped out in the seventh grade and still made something of himself. I thought for the first time i could accomplish something. I worked hard writing that each word i could pronounce. I just memorizing words and writing letters and reading short book. A ged teacher notice i was struggling with phonics. He asked if my siblings could read your i told him my siblings went to college. After testing he said i had a reading disability and it could be corrected if i was willing to work hard. I would write down, i would write words down once i sat in the front of the class to double check. I worked for four years trying to obtain my ged. My reading ability serve and is ready to take the test. I past and start helping others in math and vocabulary. Since my release i went on to model for clothing lines like nike. Ive worked, i went to acting class and work with Academy Award winner jessica lange, kathy bates, angela bisset, many others. I produced for independent films and read my book titled the life i chose, the streets life to me that it is because the others who are just like i was, hiding in the shadows and not getting a. It is all for those who believe that dealing drugs is not the way. Today there are schools available for kids to fight dyslexia. School suchlike the cassidys half. Thank you for your time. Consideration. Dr. Eden. Thank you, senator mikulski and send it to cassie for inviting me to speak today. The research i will describe it as using brain imaging technologtechnolog y to study the brain structure and function. This research as a result in tremendous advances in our instant of the human brain. How whoopsies information, how it learns, remembers knowledge and to perform skills unique to human such as we. Reading allows us to represent speech in symbolic form involves the coronation of the brain cell in which areas with visual and auditory systems. At georgetown with the support from nih and nsf we studied rain activity with him on all participants process work. This allows us to noninvasively characterize development of the gentry in children and also to understand the brain basis in different languages. Researchers have learned acquiring reading changes the brain structure and function. Its about learning to read and false coopting of brain regions involved in language and visual object recognition and that hes become a recycled into the reading network. In other words, childrens brains change as they learn to read. Brained limiting has heightened our understanding of dyslexia. The field has grown rapidly and made significant contributions. Its helped people understand the brains of chili at a tilt of dyslexia are different. Their struggles are not because they are stupid or because they are not trying hard enough. There is an explanation. There should not be a stigma. Researchers have examined the impact of intensive reading intervention. We learned children and even adults with dyslexia not only make gains in reading but also should measurable brain activity changes and plasticity. One of our studies have shown some of the same brain areas that are just reading or less engaged when children with dyslexia solve arithmetic task highlighting the consequences of dyslexia in the connection to other forms of reading disabilities. Sometimes we make novel discoveries for which there are no obvious indicators from behavioral studies. We found the brains of emails with dyslexia did not conform to the nearby logical model of dyslexia that was largely derived from studies in males. This might have important implications for diagnosing and treating females with dyslexia. Dyslexia runs in families and Genetic Research is have used imaging to examined the brains of those who carry the associated genes. Taken together researchers have made advances in characterizing the brain basis of dyslexia. However, the exact mechanism how it comes about is not yet fully understood and required for the research. Also the information gained has not been applie about as well at could be. For example, the fact that dyslexia is heritable with roughly 40 chance of your child having dyslexia is greatly underutilized when it comes to early identification. This critical information as a warning sign, and should be a place noted on the questioner of the someone entering kindergarten. This together with the chopper forms and pay for measures learned to protect later outcomes can be used to signal that a particular child is a risk or difficulty learning to read. On the other hand, imaging si just identify the child who has dyslexia. Brain imaging involving groups of participants. How the parents often ask for brain scan in their child because they see the difficulties in their child with reading and they worry that the school is not recognizing the te problem and to help a brain scan will provide some information. I understand requests for information because my own daughter had trouble reading and exhibited anxiety and avoidance of read what she described as a stupid activity. While the school was not concerned by her grabs a decline, i was in pursuit early intervention. Her improvement measured objectively by standardized tests into reading for pleasure. For parents of struggling readers its a challenge to determine if there is a problem and what to do about it. Parents had to educate themselves and navigate a complex educational system. They stay up late at night to try to make sense of the Scientific Research and how it applies to their child. Fortunately, there are resources to support families of children with learning issues such as the website understood. Org. The information is provided online, accessible to parents and educators and tied to the finest of current research. This is one example of how those involved in a distant dyslexia can engage in a common language. However, much needs to be done by researchers and educators to jointly harness the knowledge of teaching and lear