Sally E. Shaywitz - Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level

Acclaim for Sally Shaywitz, M.D.s
OVERCOMING DYSLEXIA

Winner of the Margot Marek Book Award from the International Dyslexia Association of New York

Winner of the Ken Book Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

Sally Shaywitz, one of Americas premiere pediatricians and experts on reading, has written the definitive book on dyslexia. It is informative, user-friendly and scientifically sound. Every family who has a child with a reading problem should have Overcoming Dyslexia.

Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., Director, New York University Child Study Center

Dr. Sally Shaywitz is one of a group of scientists who have made tremendous progress in understanding the disorder.

The Boston Globe Magazine

A book parents and teachers will turn to for answers, for understanding, and for help. Many parents will recognize their children or themselves in this book and know that they are not alone, that they have enormous capabilities, and that there is real hope for improving their lives. Overcoming Dyslexia is the book we have all been waiting for.

Charles R. Schwab

Sally Shaywitzs book is the bible for the dyslexic world. Its one part brainpower, two parts motivation, and three parts common sense. It all adds up to empowerment, which enables me, as a mother, to change my sons life.

Barbara Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Group and author of Use What Youve Got and Other Business Lessons I Learned from My Mom

A wonderful combination of science and humanism. I initially consulted Dr. Shaywitzs book with some research questions, but continued reading out of sheer fascination.

Curtis Hanson, director of In Her Shoes and L.A. Confidential

Shaywitzs groundbreaking work builds an important bridge from the laboratory to the home and classroom.

Publishers Weekly (starred)

A superb book.

Family Circle

Highly accessible. Parents and teachers will appreciate this tremendously helpful resource.

Booklist

A fine, nontechnical, practical resource for parents, educators, and others who confront dyslexia. If dyslexia is a negative part of your life, get Shaywitzs book and follow her positive advice.

Brain Connection

Remarkable. Shaywitz provides a state-of-the-art tool kit for the parents and teachers of dyslexic children. No one understands dyslexia better, or explains it more clearly. A must-read for any parent or teacher of a struggling reader.

Stephen J. Cannell, author of Hollywood Tough

One of Sally Shaywitzs great gifts is her ability to present complex information clearly and simply for a lay audience. In Overcoming Dyslexia Dr. Shaywitz has made another important contribution by presenting the science of dyslexia so that it can be understood by those most affected.

Nina Goodman and Johanna Uhry, Professors, School of Education, Fordham University

Among teachers, school administrators, and parents who struggle to help children with dyslexia to become successful readers, Sally Shaywitz is something of a household name. In Overcoming Dyslexia, she provides a comprehensive source of information and guidance enlivened with personal stories from [her] work.

Cerebrum, the quarterly journal of The Dana Foundation

Sally Shaywitz, M.D., is a neuroscientist, a professor of pediatrics at Yale, and codirector of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of the Sciences, and of the National Reading Panel, mandated by Congress to determine the most effective reading programs. Dr. Shaywitz has written for Scientific American and The New York Times Magazine, has appeared on CNN and The Today Show, among others, and lectures regularly throughout the country. She lives with her husband in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts.

FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, JANUARY 2005

Copyright 2003 by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2003.

Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Owing to limitations of space, all acknowledgments for permission to reprint previously published material may be found following the index.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Shaywitz, Sally E.
Overcoming Dyslexia : a new and complete science-based program for reading problems at any level / Sally Shaywitz.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Reading disability. 2. Dyslexia. 3. ReadingRemedial teaching. 4. Dyslexic childrenEducation. I. Title.
LB1050.5 .S42 2003
371.9144dc21
2002040621

eISBN: 978-0-307-55889-3_01

www.vintagebooks.com

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For my children, Adam, Jonathan, Diana, and David, who give so much to me,

and

for Bennett, who is my life

This book is for anyone who cares about reading and wants to understand and help those with reading difficulties. In the course of giving lectures, publishing scientific articles, and appearing on radio and television, I have heard countless stories about children who struggle to read, bright adolescents who read slowly and avoid the printed page, and accomplished adults for whom reading remains an elusive goal. I am repeatedly asked, Can you help me? Happily, the answer is a resounding yes! As a result of extraordinary scientific progress, reading and dyslexia are no longer a mystery; we now know what to do to ensure that each child becomes a good reader and how to help readers of all ages and at all levels.

I see Overcoming Dyslexia as a trusted source to which you can turn for information, for advice, for guidance, and for explanation. Here I have tried to bring together and synthesize all the relevant elements that can help solve the dyslexia puzzlescience, education, and public policy. In part, I hope to enrich the readers perspective by placing dyslexia and the advances in brain science within a historical context, sharing with the reader the centuries-old quest for the location of the mind that has now culminated in our ability to see reading in the brain itself.

At last we know the specific steps a child or adult must take to build and then reinforce the neural pathways deep within the brain for skilled reading. For both younger and older adults who are dyslexic, I offer here a means of learning not only what science teaches us about their needs, but how to access their strengths as well.

If you care about reading and dyslexia, it is important for you to know that we have entered a new era in which there is now a science of reading. It is an era of enormous hope.

Sally Shaywitz, M.D., October 2002

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