Sally Shaywitz, MD

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.