Is Dyslexia A Brain Disorder?

The article “Is Dyslexia a Brain Disorder”

The article, “Is Dyslexia a Brain Disorder,” carries out a qualitative research in order to show that there is no neurological abnormality in people who have been diagnosed with dyslexia. As Protopapas and Parrila explain, it becomes the norm to describe any reading disability as a brain disorder to mean that something went wrong while the person’s brain was still developing during pregnancy. However, based on the existing information, there is no evidence to show that direct examination of the brain has ever been done to clearly show this abnormality within the brains. Therefore, the research being done aims to show there is “no evidence of any obvious neurological abnormality in the vast majority of cases of word reading difficulty cases” (Protopapas and Parrila). And by doing so, the authors aim at clarifying the use of terminologies to best suit our general understanding of dyslexia as a reading difficult that shows our brains are different just as most of any other human-related behavior or elements.

Methods and Findings

To achieve the above, the method applied by the authors was to analyze the biological aspect and comprehension of what dyslexia is and how it is diagnosed. Secondly, there was the proper breakdown of what constitutes as a neurodevelopmental disorder and by doing so, showing that there is no correlation between the two. As explained by Protopapas and Parrila the biological understanding of the disorder, the understanding of what brain dysfunctions are and most importantly the understanding of word recognition and reading is important to show that people with dyslexia have normal brains only that theirs function differently when it comes to reading.

Impressions and Conclusion

My general thoughts about the methods, results, and conclusion after reviewing the article is that the manner in which they are presented allows for an in-depth understanding of what the authors are trying to communicate. In as much as there are no subheadings to indicate each of the aforementioned, one can easily tell the information apart based on how it is written. The methodology used, which is to define each key term and explain how or not it relates to the general understanding of what dyslexia is, was appropriate as this allows for the reader to clearly not the differences in other studies and what this one is trying to prove. As for the results and conclusion, it is the manner in which Protopapas and Parrila ensure that there they are well explained that allows for them to be effective in delivering the objective of the paper. As such, my overall reaction to these sections of the paper is that the simplicity in their deliverance further allowed for a positive approach given that the research looks at showing a mistake in previous studies that term dyslexia as a neurological disorder.

Impression of Psychological Journals

My overall impression of how psychological journals are written is that they are not as overwhelmingly complicated as other kinds of journals. They take on a different approach which is to remain as simple as possible but deliver on their arguments with as little to no statistics, tables or graphs presentations. Given that I had not read an article like this before, I did understand it quite well. In conclusion, I would say that Protopapas and Parrila article presents useful information without overcomplicating the information that already exists in regards to defining dyslexia.

Work Cited

Protopapas, Athanassios and Rauno Parrila. “Is Dyslexia a Brain Disorder?” Brain Sciences 8:4 (2018). http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8040061