Neural Mechanisms of Successful Intervention in Children With Dyslexia

Dyslexia, an impairment in accurate or fluent word recognition, is the most common learning disability affecting roughly ten percent of children. This proposal capitalizes on cutting edge neuroimaging methods, in combination with reading education programs, to generate a new understanding of how successful reading education shapes the development of the brain circuits that support skilled reading. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms of successful remediation of dyslexia, and individual differences in learning, will pave the way for personalized approaches to dyslexia treatment.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Dyslexia, Developmental
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 90
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Stanford, California, United States, 94305
      • Stanford University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 8 years to 12 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Reading difficulties defined as low scores on standardized measures of reading skills

Exclusion Criteria:

• no major contraindication for MRI (braces, metal implants, pacemakers, vascular stents, or metallic ear tubes).
• Because the study involves measurements of reading and language ability, new recruits will be native English speakers.
• Subjects have no history of neurological disorder, significant psychiatric problems
• exclude claustrophobic subjects since an MRI might be uncomfortable for them.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars; Subjects receive reading instruction focusing on the building blocks of reading	Behavioral: Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars; Seeing Stars in a curriculum developed by Lindamood-Bell. It is published and openly available. It involves systematic training in the building blocks of skilled reading.
No Intervention: Control; Subjects are followed longitudinally but do not receive intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
White Matter Plasticity - Left Arcuate Tract	Change in white matter mean diffusivity (MD) measured with diffusion MRI. MD quantifies the average magnitude of water diffusion within a given region of tissue. An increase in mean diffusivity (MD) suggests an increase in free water movement (corresponds to less white matter integrity), while a decrease in MD suggests restricted water diffusion, potentially from increased cellular density (corresponds to greater white matter integrity). Values typically range from approximately 0.5 to 1.5 × 10^-3 mm²/s in healthy white matter.	Baseline (within 2 weeks pre-intervention), post-intervention (within 2 weeks post-intervention, up to 10 weeks), and at 1 year follow up
White Matter Plasticity - Inferior Longitudinal Tract	Change in white matter mean diffusivity (MD) measured with diffusion MRI. MD quantifies the average magnitude of water diffusion within a given region of tissue. An increase in mean diffusivity (MD) suggests an increase in free water movement (corresponds to less white matter integrity), while a decrease in MD suggests restricted water diffusion, potentially from increased cellular density (corresponds to greater white matter integrity). Values typically range from approximately 0.5 to 1.5 × 10^-3 mm²/s in healthy white matter.	Baseline (within 2 weeks pre-intervention), post-intervention (within 2 weeks post-intervention, up to 10 weeks), and at 1 year follow up
Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) Size	Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) refers to a region in the brain associated with the recognition of written words. VWFA size is calculated as the number of vertices in the cotrical surface. There are no definitive clinical relevant thresholds for the size of the VWFA that apply universally. Research indicates that variations in VWFA size and activation are associated with reading abilities and disorders.	Baseline (within 2 weeks pre-intervention), post-intervention (within 2 weeks post-intervention, up to 10 weeks), and at 1 year follow up
Woodcock-Johnson Basic Reading Skills (WJ BRS) Assessment Battery	The Woodcock-Johnson Basic Reading Skills (WJ BRS) Assessment Battery results in a composite score across multiple assessments. Assessment scores are transformed to create an overall score range of 0 to 200. A score of 100 indicates average reading ability. Scores below 85 may indicate potential reading difficulties	Baseline (within 2 weeks pre-intervention), post-intervention (within 2 weeks post-intervention, up to 10 weeks), and at 1 year follow up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Stanford University
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jason D Yeatman, PhD, Stanford University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Stone HL, Mitchell JL, Fuentes-Jimenez M, Tran JE, Yeatman JD, Yablonski M. Anatomically distinct regions in the inferior frontal cortex are modulated by task and reading skill. J Neurosci. 2025 Mar 24;45(19):e1767242025. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1767-24.2025. Online ahead of print.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 23, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 24, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): March 26, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): November 14, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 30, 2025
• Last Verified: October 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Specific Learning Disorder; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Mental Disorders; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Communication Disorders; Language Disorders; Learning Disabilities; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Signs and Symptoms; Dyslexia
• Other Study ID Numbers: 52231; R01HD095861-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED
• IPD Plan Description: All consent forms in the Yeatman lab contain a data sharing clause that allows de-identified data to be shared publicly. The lab policy is that data and analysis code are always publicly released to accompany each published manuscript from the lab. This policy ensures that published findings can be reproduced by other researchers and the general public. In our experience, this also creates a useful resource to document our methods, describe methodological decisions in greater detail than afforded by journal articles, and publicly release datasets that may be of utility to other researchers. Data and code are organized into a well-documented repository (see https://github.com/yeatmanlab) with a persistent digital identifier ensuring that it will be available in perpetuity. Within the repository is documentation to reproduce each manuscript figure and each reported statistic. The lab is a strong proponent of open science and has adhered to this lab policy for every published manuscript.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No