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Sally Shaywitz, MD

Audrey G. Ratner Professor of Pediatrics (Neurology)
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Co-Director, Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity

About

Titles

Audrey G. Ratner Professor of Pediatrics (Neurology)

Co-Director, Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity

Biography

Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D. is the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale University and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity. She is a world renowned scientist and dedicated, compassionate physician who is devoted to bringing ground-breaking scientific advances to benefit dyslexic children and adults.

In addition to over 350 scientific articles and chapters, Dr. Shaywitz is the author of the award-winning, best-selling book Overcoming Dyslexia which has just been released as a completely revised and updated second edition (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2020). The first edition of Overcoming Dyslexia has sold over 400,000 copies. On March 24, 2020 the second edition was published to great excitement and anticipation, including unusually high praise from Bob Dylan on the back cover. Overcoming Dyslexia has helped tens of thousands understand their dyslexia and know they can be dyslexic and very smart. This new second edition of Overcoming Dyslexia is filled with compassion and empathy while sharing with the reader the latest cutting edge 21st century scientific advances in dyslexia and providing very practical approaches and specific interventions for parents and educators. Topics include: ground-breaking screening for and diagnosing dyslexia; turning struggling readers into proficient readers; choosing a school; details about the treatments for common comorbid, highly impactful conditions (anxiety and ADHD); a cutting edge legal chapter, providing the incredibly positive and surprising updates on new laws and the very most up-to-date regulations protecting dyslexic individuals. The final inspiring chapter highlights successful dyslexics in careers ranging from the law, business/ economics, entertainment, medicine, science and literature and, importantly, how they did it.

Dr. Shaywitz’ honors include: an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine within the National Academies; the Liberty Science Center 2019 Genius Award “in recognition of your inspiring accomplishments and your pioneering work in advancing our understanding of dyslexia;” a 2018 profile in the Scientists at Work section of the New York Times. She has been a featured speaker at the GoogleX conference on the Future of Reading, as well as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She has served on the Congressionally-mandated National Reading Panel and the Committee to Prevent Reading Difficulties in Young Children of the National Research Council and, by Presidential appointment (President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama) on the National Board of the Institute for Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education and on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS).

Dr. Shaywitz testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Dyslexia: An Explanation and Potential Solution to the Reading Crisis in Education and before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on the Science of Dyslexia. She presented at a Congressional briefing sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and to U.S. Senate field hearings. She most recently testified on how best to improve the identification and treatment of dyslexic children to: New York City Schools Chancellor Carranza; to the Rockefeller Institute of Government and members of the New York State legislature in Albany, NY; and before the Georgia State Senate Committee on Dyslexia. In her testimonies, Dr. Shaywitz points out that while we are always seeking new knowledge, in the case of dyslexia we have sufficient knowledge to do more. Rather than a knowledge gap, in dyslexia there is an action gap. We must take action to implement the deep knowledge we have of dyslexia and ensure that this knowledge is translated into policy and practice to benefit dyslexic children and adults.

September 24, 2020

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Fellow
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY (1970)
Resident
Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, Bronx, NY (1968)
MD
Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1966)

Board Certifications

  • Pediatrics

    Certification Organization
    AB of Pediatrics
    Original Certification Date
    1971

Research

Overview

Dr. Shaywitz is the Principal Investigator of the Connecticut Longitudinal Study, a project involving a sample survey of 445 (98% of those invited) Connecticut schoolchildren representative of those children entering public kindergarten in Connecticut in 1983. All subjects were children whose primary language was English. This cohort, assembled from a two-stage probability-sample survey, has been followed longitudinally beginning in kindergarten. Each was given an individualized test of intelligence (WISC-R) (Wechsler, 1981) in alternate years and reading and mathematics achievement annually up through 12th grade using the Woodcock-Johnson Achievement battery. Upon entry into the study in kindergarten parents completed the Yale Children’s Inventory incorporating the child’s early development and family history. Each year children completed a measure of self-esteem and at the end of each school year teachers completed the Multigrade Inventory for Teachers (MIT). This measure incorporated the teacher’s assessment of academic, language, dexterity, attention, and activity, as well as global impressions of learning and behavior, mastery of reading decoding, reading comprehension, arithmetic, written expression, handwriting and extent of involvement in school. We also obtained information on the frequency of latenesses, absences, and whether the child received special education services. We have maintained ongoing seamless contact along with periodic assessments of the participants which continues through adulthood, with the participants now in their fifth decade. We continue to follow 375 participants (84% of the original cohort). The racial and ethnic composition of this sample from Connecticut was similar to that of the nation at the time of the study. Data from this study have been instrumental in demonstrating a range of information about dyslexia, including finding dyslexia occurs equally in girls and boys. As a result of the studies demonstrating that dyslexia is an equal opportunity disability, girls are being identified and now there are equal numbers of boys and girls enrolled in many specialized schools for dyslexia.

One of the most important findings from the CLS shows that in typical readers development of reading and IQ are dynamically linked over time. That is if the child is intelligent, he or she will typically be a good reader, and if he or she is a good reader, the child most often is intelligent. In dyslexic readers, however, IQ and reading diverge, so that reading achievement is significantly below what would be expected given the individual’s IQ. These data provide empiric validation of the unexpected nature of dyslexia. Thus, in dyslexia, a highly intelligent person may read at a below average or even average level but below that expected, based on his/her intelligence, education, or professional status.

One of the most significant findings from the Connecticut Longitudinal Study is that the achievement gap between typical and dyslexic readers is evident as early as first grade and persists. For us, this finding presented an urgent call to action, and inspired us to develop a screening instrument to identify children at-risk for dyslexia as early as kindergarten and first grade. To this end we developed the Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen with the goal of reaching children at-risk for dyslexia early on when reading intervention is maximally effective, before students fall further and further behind. Early on the learning slope is steepest; with time, the reading slope flattens and improvement in reading much, much slower. This means that it is best to identify and provide treatment to these at-risk readers as early as possible (grades 1-3), when the learning slope is greatest. The screener is brief and ideal for universal screening. It is completed on a tablet by the child’s teacher who knows the child best, and the teacher immediately receives a result, dichotomized as yes, at-risk or not at-risk. The screener has exceptionally strong psychometrics, is evidence-based. extremely efficient, and inexpensive. It is currently being used by thousands of school districts across the country.

Most recently data from the CLS have been used to develop methods for identifying whether the increase in reading proficiency displayed by an individual student from one year to the next is adequate for his/her age, or indicates the student is falling behind. Currently we are testing reading in this unique sample who are now 41 years of age, using remote testing via ipads and cell phones.




Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Epidemiology; Neurobiology; Neurology; Pediatrics

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Sally Shaywitz's published research.

Publications

2024

2023

2020

1999

1998

1990

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • honor

    Committee on Women in Science and Engineering,

  • honor

    Chair, Steering Committee for AXXS 2002 Workshop; Committee on Women in Science and Engineering Policy and Global Affairs Division,

  • honor

    National Academy of Medicine within the National Academies.

  • honor

    Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Williams College

  • honor

    Townsend Harris Medal of the City College of New York

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