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Research Connects Dyslexia to Auditory Working Memory

Categories: Learning Disabilities

Dyslexic musician with auditory working memory deficitNew research on dyslexia, as detailed in this Wired article, supports the hypothesis that dyslexia is caused by auditory-related deficits. Researchers studied 52 musicians, including 24 who are dyslexic and 28 who are not dyslexic, and compared the performance of the two groups in a variety of auditory tests. While the dyslexic musicians performed just as well as their non-dyslexic peers in auditory perception tests, they scored much lower on tests of auditory working memory. An auditory basis for dyslexia would be plausible because in order to understand language, one must make connections between sounds. If a person has poor auditory working memory, it would be difficult for them to memorize the sequences of sounds that make up words. This in turn would interfere with the person's ability to assign meaning to a word's visual representation on a page, which is a necessary part of reading and writing.  Read the full article here.