Procedural Learning, Dyslexia and Delayed Neural Commitment

Abstract

In this chapter we address the underlying causes of dyslexia, the developmental learning disability, rather than reading disability. In our breakthrough research over 25 years ago we demonstrated that the process of skill automatization of skill was a problem for dyslexic children not only in reading-related skills but also in a range of other skills not obviously linked to reading. In this chapter we report the subsequent development of this framework, first with identification of the cerebellum as a key structure in the automatization deficits, then a ``neural circuit'' analysis suggesting that many developmental disorders are related to proceduralization problems, with dyslexia associated with specific difficulties in the language/cerebellar procedural circuits. Here we bring this research to the present day, extending the analysis to consider how networks are grown from birth onwards, and introduce the concept of Delayed Neural Commitment (DNC) as a powerful explanatory developmental framework, proposing that dyslexic children are slower to build the connectivity networks on which reading acquisition and fluency depend. This analysis links back to the development of executive function and language networks, and is consistent with all the major theories of dyslexia. We hope that DNC will provide a fruitful and integrative framework for further theoretical and applied research.