the coal miners today -- these miners were driven out of business because they were the same thing is evident today. to the contributing -- innment in terms of terms of what it put into the environment and we have to come to grips with that issue. iss not that the government trying to destroy coal, it's that and out of things are doing it. , oil, gasof twitter and coal can be replaced by the hydrogen economy powered by the electrodynamic earth tether. you can fire -- find out more that by googling it. if you want to comment on twitter or facebook, these conversation take place long

after the show is over on her twitter page you can give your thoughts at c-span wj and our facebook page at facebook.com/c-span. timepost informational the , things you probably want to keep track of. especially if you keep track of politics. i invite you to go to those pages and make a thoughts known. that's it for this program today, another one comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow. coming up next to the senate education seend hearing on dyslexia on what can be done to raise awareness by those. that hearing is at the start shortly. (202) 748-8003 --

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]

>> the senate committee on health, education and labor pensions will come to order. thank you for being here. let me just remark, senator burial wasd and his this morning. so we've lost some of the folks here including senator hatch who

asked that i would note that he is going to be in utah attending former senator bennett's funeral and wished he could be there -- be here and -- but he cannot. on -- having a hearing titled understanding become plex via science and research and education that will hopefully educate us on dyslexia, highlighting the importance of early identification of students with dyslexia and ensuring they have access to evidence-based resources. will makekulski and i a statement and introduce our panel of witnesses. each panelist love five minutes to summarize testimony. the green light is go, yellow means you have one minute left and red means i'm going to start pounding on a hammer. after our witness testimony, senators will have five minutes to ask questions. i am pleased to share this and

again thank you to senator mikulski for cochairing. i think my other colleagues who were in support of having this hearing and were discussing dyslexia, and issue very important to me as a parent of a dyslexic and a senator. we have a great lineup of witnesses including those who are personally addressed dyslexia. friendrack us -- is a who will discuss overcoming dyslexia to become an actor. whod boys who -- boyd entered the most language proficient career of law. there is a common thread in each family's testimony, a child who struggles to read and cannot. -- often a parent was dyslexic as well and they relate. with a child frustrated by their inability to read, if a boy ask out, if it's a girl should become shy and dares not read

out aloud in class. think about the teacher who is the bright child struggling to read but does not have the training or resources to help that child become the better student and achieve their full of potential. in october of last year, senator mikulski and i saw concert and the senate passed a resolution that defined dyslexia as a -- an unexpected difficulty in reading highlighted by a gap between individuals intelligence and the reading level. if the bright child who doesn't read commensurate with their brightness. non-dyslexic -- dyslexic iq and reading level tend to track on the same level. a dyslexic iq is higher and the reading ability is lower. according to nih sponsored research, nearly 20% of us have dyslexia. are watching on tv, in this room, in congress, in your work place. the impact of dyslexia on

individuals in a family, or school or society is tremendous. what if i told you by effectively addressing dyslexia we could further prison reform by identifying students with dyslexia and providing science-based intervention? or that we could get more bang for my federal investments in education. or we could get -- we can reach into the classroom and change the interaction between a dyslexic student and a frustrated teacher to a relationship between a learning, productive student and a fulfilled teacher. the goals of this hearing are simple, to raise awareness of the scope and scale of dyslexia, to increase awareness to what cicely dyslexia is as defined by science and to highlight the importance of a related indication of those who are dyslexic and given these children enough evidence-based resources needed to succeed in school and beyond.

fore are great schools children with dyslexia, almost all of which are private. if you can do for the 10 to $50,000 a year, a family's options are limited. ,f a family is less wealthy quite likely they cannot afford to have their child's needs met. perhaps that is the one thing that should be taken from this hearing. is the correlation between your ability to have your child's needs accommodated and your wealth and that's not good. we heard testimony from andrnors, superintendents others that screening for dyslexia is not happening. so you child may does -- may be dyslexic and it is not discovered. the achievement gap between the dyslexic and a typical reader is evident as early as first grade and the gap continues into adolescence. now there are three public charter schools in the nation

that specialize in teaching dyslexics. i'm proud to say two in louisiana, the louisiana key academy and the max charter school -- charter school. terrance choose to send their child to the schools, the goal child to the transition to a traditional public school as their reading difficulty is addressed and there are colleges that accommodate for students with dyslexia. university has a louisiana center for dyslexia and learning disorders. i think senator alexander has a school in his state. now i mentioned as well about how addressing dyslexia can impact the rates of incarceration. we know many of those incarcerated are functionally illiterate. a study of a texas state prison found that 80% of prison inmates are functionally -- that are functionally -- functionally illiterate to read 3% are dyslexic. -- 43% are dyslexic.

if appropriate science-based strategies to teach and treat dyslexia are instituted, the effect on our future prison population could be profound. this,ear, with all of there's been progress. last year, senator mikulski and i sponsored a resolution which congress,t called on schools, state and local education agencies to recognize the implications of dyslexia that must be addressed. it also designated october 2015 as the national dyslexia awareness month. we will reenters this this year. representative lamar smith's research excellence and advancement in dyslexia act ensures the national science foundation has dedicated funding for dyslexia research. this was signed into law. the average student succeeds act creates a dyslexia focus center providing evidence-based

resources to identify student struggling with reading and the appropriate interventions for states, school district, teachers and parents. lastly, the u.s. department of education's office had a special education and rehabilitative services issued a dear colleague letter that specifically clarifies that nothing in federal law prohibits the use of the word dyslexia in evaluation. anecdotally, state and local educational agencies are still reluctant to specifically referenced deluxe -- dyslexia, denying dyslexic specific services they need. i hope these efforts are the first in many steps in the right direction. we've made great progress in the area of learning disabilities, we seen conditions like autism and dyslexia can be specifically diagnosed and that there are science-based interventions. we must continue efforts that all learning disabilities have

the same science-based interventions. it is a call to action in this hearing is that science should begin driving policy. we have the dots, let's connect them. i will now yield to senator mikulski for her opening statement. delighted to cochair this hearing with you on this very important issue of dyslexia. it is important to both you and i, it is important to the congress and it is important to the nation. i would like to thank senators and the ranking member senator murray for allowing us to hold this hearing today and to focus on dyslexia and really the understanding of it and the intersections of scientific research and education. this is a very interesting hearing with many different levels. first of all, we are cochairing. that in and of itself is very weferent and the fact that

see each other as not democrat or republican, we see each other as advocates for children and children who need special attention and then what type of special education do they need. the second thing is that within the realm of congress and the prickly atmosphere we sometimes find each other, we would be regarded as not couple. because senator cassidy and i come from different parts of the country, we come from different political parties and even different political philosophies. ,n this room in this committee we are focusing on the needs of children and that doesn't know know the it does not lines that separate us or divide cassidy is ar physician, i'm a social worker. we bring those kinds of attitudes to this table. we look forward to hearing from

eyewitnesses and you should note that this will be -- what we really want to engage in a conversation with you on how we can best help these children that are facing these challenges. this will not be a harassed and haranguing hearing. this'll be an informational dialog and i look forward to doing this. i regard each and every one of you as experts of this table. you come from very distinct -- esteemed academic centers. yale, georgetown, hopkins. there are other great senators of learning -- centers of learning. their education comes from the street. the first teacher in the first centers in the home and that's why it's so important that we hear from a parent who is actually live these issues and try to cope with the issues as well as how to get the best plan and the best opportunity. all of you are experts in different ways.

we expect a lot from our teachers and i would like to salute our teachers as we work so hard on the elementary and secondary education and no child left behind and our latest version of that. we believe our latest problem could be solved for a qualified teacher in the classroom. what we need -- we need a hollow -- highly qualified teachers in the classroom. when a child walks in, the child brings a lot. they bring a lot from the home, their family's history, their social situation and so on. ,e expect a lot of our teacher but the teacher should begin to expect from the larger community. i support the school with children who are trying to do the things that individual education plans. this, you can have the best plan, but unless you

can operationalize that plan, what is it mean? because the very nature of the unfunded mandate where we only pay 10% of special education funding and then we argue over title ii and how we can even pride -- provide additional .eaching training for teachers our school systems are hard-pressed to have that individual education plan and to be able to operationalize it. to talk about day budgets, today is a day to talk about children and science. i do bring to your attention is anpecial education unfunded federal mandate and we need to come to grips with that and we need to come to grips with it across party lines because i think if there's one area that we can agree upon is that we should fund that and meet our obligation so that

states and then local school systems could do what we told them to do. and i urge my poly -- collect to think about that as part of an action plan. today is about dyslexia, a lifelong condition that affects the way the brain processes written and spoken language. it is considered the most important learning disability. i know senator cassidy has gone into a lot of information and a lot of the data. i won't again say -- i won't say again. from therch report national center disability highlights the many challenges our country faces when trying to meet the needs of those with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. these challenges include a lack of awareness and understanding among educators and health care professionals. a lack of teacher training. and then a lack of scientifically based reading intervention and a lack of

resources to accommodate it. so today, i'd really want to listen to the experts. those that are officially designated learning centers, but those that have been in the streets and live the lives of being challenged by dyslexia. tryingave been a mother to be in the chat room and trying to do everything she could to make sure that her daughter had a fair shot in following her dreams and passions. yourt to thank you for consistent leadership and i look forward to hearing this testimony. sen. cassidy: i will now defer to senator markey to introduce. i'm eager to get to testimony as well. i will have to step out for another hearing but i'm excited to introduce the expert of experts at the end of tables -- of table. this is dr. shelley shape its.

she has a long list of titles including the codirector of the gale center for dyslexia and creativity. she is one of the leading researchers in this field. her position has been on neurobiology and epidemiology providing a scientific basis for understanding dyslexia. she has written more than 200 journal articles, chapters in books on the topic. she is a great source of counsel for both the chair of this hearing and myself. i'm glad to have her with us. >> i will enter -- introduce mr. amir. a mere -- in prison -- he was an actor -- he is an actor. i am eager to hear how he has used his stardom, he is now an actor to steer children off the path of incarceration and i defer to you senator mikulski

for dr. eaton and dr. mahone. sen. mikulski: i would like to .ntroduce dr. guenevere eden she is a nationally recognized expert. in one of the very first to use mris to better understand the neurological basis for dyslexia. she has been supported by nih and nsf and currently directs the center for the study of learning at georgetown and continues to investigate while she is actively involved in teaching graduate students and really investigating all the sensory processes related to reading and how these may be different individuals. mahone whoe dr. mark is a baltimore guy through and through, grew up in a neighborhood called dundalk which is very close to the one that i grew up in. he is a pediatric

neuropsychologist and he is the debt she is at the esteemed kennedy krieger institute in baltimore. ans is an 8 -- internationally recognized institute. it is designed to improve the with of children and those brain challenges. what dr. mahone does is he provides clinical services for young kids with development disorders, works with the training of psychologists and educators and physicians on these issues and really is an the study ofing brain behaviors in children with or without these neurodevelopment disorders. he serves as the codirector for the center of innovation and leadership. he brings great knowledge about what the children need any systems -- and what the systems

that help the children need to do. -- he wasenter elected as one of the most 100 influential people in the world by time magazine in 2010. he has been named global international litigator of the year and -- an unprecedented seven times. received many prestigious awards and numerous honorary degrees. is a former hill staffer. thank you. and lastly, miss april hand wrists, a small business owner, single mom of two adopted children from salt lake city. she has been recognized as a child advocate in utah on behalf of children like her daughter jocelyn who is behind her who have dyslexia and other learning disabilities. at www.arent advocate

understood.org and attended the university of utah before taking over the family business. i think you all and i'll ask dr. shay waits to begin her testimony. sen. mikulski: i'm not sure your microphone is on, doctor. thank you. good morning senator cassidy, senator mikulski and other committee members. thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about the science of dyslexia and share with you the practice -- tremendous scientific progress made and the implications for education. the problem, a nation is in the midst of a national nightmare with substantial numbers of children unable to read, especially on -- boys and girls from underprivileged families. to showingi am going

a number of slides and i think it would be helpful if people could see it. sen. cassidy: we see it on the tv. >> 2015 high school reading stores -- scores. so just released, data from the report cards in their loud warning signal. here, outlined in yellow, the lowest show large declines in reading and the greatest drop of reading into decades occurs between 2013 and 2015. reactions from experts said we were not making any progress. increasing scientific evidence strongly points to dyslexia as the explanation and potential solution to our education price -- crisis.

all the pieces together. dyslexia represents 80% to 90% of all learning disabilities and differs markedly in that is lexi a specific and scientifically valid. it is verythis looks is very co, affecting one out of five. initial descriptions of dyslexia as an unexpected difficulty in reading are today validated. providing a 21st century definition of dyslexia, incorporating scientific advances in dyslexia, especially its unexpected nature. and emphasizes the cognitive basis of dyslexia, difficulty getting to the individual sounds of spoken language. it is not seen words backwards. resolution 275 represents a landmark in science and education. dyslexia is a paradox. the same slow reader is often a

very fast and able thinker, giving rise to a conceptual model of dyslexia is a weakness in getting to the sounds of words surrounded by a sea of strengths and harder level thinking processes. converging evidence as identified in neural signature for dyslexia. that is an affiliation -- inefficient functioning of posterior reading systems. we examined disruptions of brain connectivity dyslexia, the role of attentional mechanisms in reading, and economic consequences of dyslexia. dyslexia is real, however, imaging cannot be used to diagnose individuals. the achievement gap between typical dyslexic readers is large. occurs as early as first-grade. and persist. dyslexia has often dire consequences. dyslexic students drop out of school at a significantly greater rate than the typically reading peers.

as a consequence, they are often doomed to hire unemployment, lower earnings, as you heard from the senator a few minutes ago, almost 50% of prison inmates are dyslexic. in aligning education with science, certain principles emerge. one, given its high prevalence in scientific validity and harsh impact, dyslexia must be given prominence and reauthorization. schools must reign for and identify dyslexic students early. the dyslexic student should know this diagnosis, and that he is smart trade moving forward, information requires a model incorporating 21st century scientific knowledge about dyslexia, as shown in this slide. school climate, where everyone is on board and the were dyslexia is used -- small classes, etc.

independent schools for dyslexic students, for example, the windward schools in new york. however, the tuition is $52,000. out of reach of most middle-class and economically disadvantaged children freight and public charter schools, a new model serving dyslexic student, an example is in baton rouge. schools bring a quality at a hope to all dyslexic children. so the disadvantaged children are no longer left behind. i always think of people who are dyslexic -- he reminds me of an iceberg. you see 10%, and we see the people who have succeeded, oise.ding my hero, david b we forget about the 90% better unseen and asking for help and could benefit from health.

baraka:a: -- mr. thank you. and your time is important. we are not oblivious to the challenges we face as a country. one out of five live with the challenge each day of their lives. so many will never reach their full potential that enjoy this great country as you and i do. so many people have lost the will to believe because the enemy of dyslexia has forced them into the shadows. today we have found a new way to address this energy -- this enemy once and for all. for many years i allowed dyslexia to control my life. can you imagine in my early teens, never wanted to be anything but a drug dealer? neither my mother nor my school teachers were able to diagnose the reasons i had trouble learning. in my mind, pursuing more formal education was irrelevant.

i knew early in life than being a dentist, physical therapist, a lawyer was out of my reach because i could not read. i turned to quicker pathways out of new orleans project. i saw many in my community making ways for themselves without having to read, by selling drugs. my defeatist attitude seems to outweigh the positive values my grandmother tried to teach me. there were many more ingredients to help me make my decision to sell drugs, for example, having my mother call me names, such as dumb and stupid. using names such as these can cause any child to feel hopeless and lost. i never mention my father in this presentation. that is because he left when i was three years old to chase his dreams of finding a better great of heroin to use. it was a perfect storm for me. i chose to succumb to my environment while both brothers and sisters excelled in school. i didn't care about my future or anyone else, because i thought i was a dummy like my mother and

siblings said. i became a street thug, full of anger because i felt cheated out of an education. i went to school just because i had to as a kid. many fridays i would malinger because i couldn't pass the spelling test. why would sleep in hallways until school is out to avoid embarrassment. i pushed myself into a whole, couldn't get out of it. my teachers had to know i couldn't read. my young mother ran the streets and didn't seem to value my education. what became the final thing that caused me to pledge allegiance to the lives of the streets was a girl. i was in sixth-grade, and the girl i liked was in class. it was our first week of school for english class, and teacher called upon me to read out loud. , it feltbegan to sweat like drops of blood on my four head. i couldn't pronounce any of the words, and the teacher made me continue. knowing i couldn't read. some students laughed, while others looked in amazement.

from that day forward, i knew that school was not a place for me. and the young lady never really liked me much from that day forward. the streets became my classroom, and looking back, the lessons i learned were shameful. i shot and killed a young person, because the street taught me that how you resolve conflicts. after my release from prison at her teen years of age for manslaughter, i got back into the drug game, still never learning to read. i ended up doing prison time as an adult. yearsrom the law for four as a fugitive, because i was facing 60 years for drug distribution and i was guilty. and that doing for years by gods grace, a jury found me guilty of a lesser charge. i entered a prison correctional facility reading a third-grade level. i didn't feel bad, because many of the men there were just like me. we all read poorly. after reading the autobiography of malcolm x., i discovered that he dropped out of the seventh-grade and still made something of himself. i felt for the first time in my life that i can accomplish something too.

i worked hard writing down each would -- each word i couldn't pronounce. a ged teacher noticed i was struggling with phonics and had me tested. he asked if my siblings could read, i told him my siblings went to college. after testing me, he said i had a reading disability, it could be corrected if i was willing to work hard. wrong, write words down so i sat in the front of the class to double check. i worked for four years trying to obtain my ged. i reading ability surged and i was ready to take the test. i passed and started helping others in math and vocabulary building. to model for clothing lines like nike and i worked with -- i would acting class and worked with academy award winner jessica lange at kathy bates, angela bassett, and many others. i produced for independent films and wrote my book, titled the life i chose, the streets lied to me.

it's meant to inspire others who are just like i was, hiding in the shadows and not getting help. it's also for those who believe that dealing drugs is not the way. today, there are schools available for kids to fight dyslexia. schools like the cassidy's head. had.e cassidy's thank you for you time. >> dr. eaton. you.aton: thank usesesearch i'm describing brain imaging technology to study the brain structure and function. this research results at interment's advances in our understanding of the human brain. how it sees information, how it learns and remembers and stores knowledge, how it performs schools -- skilled and acute them, such as reading. reading allows us to represent speech in symbolic form and involves the coordination of the brain's language areas with visual and auditory systems and the georgetown university, with the support of nih, we have

studied brain activity with functional mri while participants process words. this allows us to noninvasively characterize the development and trajectory of reading acquisition in children and also to understand basis of reading and writing systems and differently which is. researchers have learned that acquiring reading changes the brain structure and function. it's saw that learning to read involves the co-opting of brain regions involved in language and visual object recognition, and that these become recycled into a reading network. in other words, children's brains change as they learn to read. it's heightened our understanding of dyslexia. understand people the brains of children and adults with dyslexia are different. the struggles with reading or not because they are stupid or they are not trying hard enough. there is an expiration for the reading difficulties. they should not be a stigma. -- an explanation for their reading difficulties.

we have learned that children and adults with dyslexia not only make gains in reading, but also show measurable brain activity changes and plasticity. one of our studies has shown that the same brain areas that are used for reading or less dyslexia children with solve mathematics problems. highlighting the connection to other forms of reading and learning disabilities. sometimes we make novel discoveries with brain imaging for which there and a lot of his indicators in behavioral studies. the brains of females with dyslexia do not conform to the neurobiological model of dyslexia that was largely derived from studies in males. this may have important implications for diagnosing and treating females with flex. families, andin genetic researchers have utilized technology to examine the brains of those who carry the dyslexia gene. have mades significant advances in characterizing the brain basis of dyslexia, however, the exact mechanism of dyslexia is not yet

fully understood and requires further research. also, the information gained has not been up line as well as it could be. for example, the fact that dyslexia is heritable with roughly 40% chance of your child having dyslexia if you have dyslexia is greatly underutilized when it comes to early identification. this critical information is a warning sign, and there should be a place to noted on the questionnaire of entering kindergartner. this, together with the child's performance and behavior lateres learn to predict outcomes can be used to signal that a particular child is at risk for difficulty in learning to read. hand, imaging is not used to identify the child who has dyslexia. brain imaging is used in research studies involving groups of participants. how the parents often ask for brain scans and a child because they see the difficulties in their childhood reading. they worry that the school is not recognizing the problem and they hope that a brain scan will provide some information. parents questhe for objective identification.

my own daughter had an avoidance of reading as she described as a stupid activity. the school was not concerned by her gradual decline, i was in pursuit early intervention, or improvement measured objectively by standardized test manifests in her reading for pleasure. for parents of struggling readers, is a challenge to determine if there is a problem, and what to do about it. parents have to educate themselves and navigate the complex educational system. they stay up late at night to try and make sense of the scientific research, and how it applies to their child. fortunately, there are resources to support families of children with learning issues, such as the website understood.org. the information is provided online, accessible to parents and educators and tied to the findings of current research. thoses one example of how involved in understanding dyslexia can engage in a common language, however, much is to be done by researchers and educators to jointly harness the

knowledge of teaching and learning to benefit the children with dyslexia. thank you. >> mr. boise. mr. boies: thank you. dyslexic, a father of two dyslexic sons. i know from personal experience the obstacles that dyslexia can cause, in terms of early education. but i also know from personal experience, both my own and my sons, that while dyslexia is a permanent condition, it does not have to be a permanent disability. it does not have to interfere with the ability of a child to realize their full potential, to become a functioning, productive member of society. that dyslexial is be identified and the children

with dyslexia get the help they need at the time that they need that help. that help can be in several forms. it can be help in learning how to read around the disability of dyslexia. training tutoring and that can help people improve their reading. if they understand that they have dyslexia, and they understand there is this album of reading, they can focus on alternative ways of getting information. dyslexia is an input problem. to gets it difficult information in a particular way. there are alternative ways to get information. and most important of all, dyslexia is not a processing problem. it doesn't have anything to do with how well you think, how good your judgment is. the third thing is early

identification, he can help children understand that they are not dumb, they are not stupid. , and backan achieve can be sometimes the most important thing that a child can understand. consigned to not being slow for the rest of their life. a time when nobody cares how fast you read. nobody comes to me, is a lawyer and wants to know how fast do i read? analyzet to know kind the law and present a case and cross examine a witness and exercise judgment? can i help them solve legal problems? what's my integrity, what's my character? how hard do i work? dyslexia doesn't have anything to do with those qualities. those are the qualities that make a person successful. those are the qualities that help somebody achieve and contribute to society.

dyslexia,hildren with and what parents to have children with dyslexia need to understand is that this can be a temporary problem. there's ansy, enormous amount of work that has to be done, no matter how much help we give children, they are going to have to really work harder than their peers. but that training in working hard can serve them very well later in life. my son, christopher, was tutored four days a week, every week, for 10 years. he had to learn to manage his time, he had to learn to adapt to that additional burden. about time management skill serve some extremely well as a lawyer today. school, heid well in could get in, which was hard, because he did very poorly on standardized test.

test whated tests people who don't have dyslexia -- a test them pretty well. he doesn't test people with dyslexia at all, because when it doing is testing skills that they don't have, not the skills that are owned. reading and how much information on how many factually accumulated may be a proxy for your intelligence and how you will succeed in life, if you don't have a disability in reading. if you have a difficulty in reading, the standardized test don't test your potential at all. and we know we are testing the wrong things. we know that we test reading, when we test how much whatever there you have, we know those are really life skills. but we use those as a proxy, and they are not a bad proxy for

people who don't have dyslexia. but for people who have dyslexia, they are a terrible proxy. but we have to do is, we have to educate the educators. , weave to have the patience have to give people the help they need to achieve their potential. and that can be done. thank you. >> good morning, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this morning. dyslexia is currently the most prevalent educational and handicapping condition in the u.s., twice as common as adhd, 15 times as prevalence as autism. it affects an estimated one in five of the rituals nationwide. even more importantly, many students show symptoms of dyslexia, including snow and -- slow and inaccurate reading, weak spelling, and for writing. whether they reach full criteria for special education, most students benefit from exquisite

instruction in reading, writing, and language. the problem is many students are not getting access to the structured literacy and structure. as a result, there is an alarming achievement gap. as was mentioned earlier, i have 2014,s from 1998 through 43 data showed that 9% of students with disabilities reading, ascient in opposed to 46%. is it the prevalence of dyslexia -- is the prevalence of dyslexia so high that they can explain this high rate of school failure? i think no, but there other reasons. a preservice teacher training programs routinely fail to provide teachers with information based on the scientific literature about how learning occurs. and also, what gets in the way of learning based on what we

know from neurosciences and the behavioral sciences and from the educational sciences. this leads to a transitional gap. -- translational gap. teachers must get the training on the job. get supervision, mentoring, and professional development. getting training that way is expensive, inefficient, and burdensome to the schools and to the teachers themselves. it also places the responsibility for training teachers on the local school systems, rather than on the institutes of higher education. secondly, a complicated factor in working with students with dyslexia is that pure dyslexia is often the exception rather than the rule. students with dyslexia often have associated behavioral, motivational, and social emotional problems and other conditions that interfere with the implantation of otherwise routine practices. addressing the reading problem alone is that of the needs of

the whole child leads to incomplete and an effective care. third, individuals of the local education level in leadership positions often don't have the training, knowledge, and background to effectively and appropriately advocate for policy changes that will help translate what we know from the science into educational practice. the local school level. especially as it relates to students with dyslexia. there are other additional concerns. i want to highlight some of those. of our the best efforts scientific communities, there is still heterogeneity in terminology that has become an impediment to achieving consensus in identification, treatment, and epidemiology. we know the dyslexia is a neurobiological based development of disorder that occurs along a continuum, rather than as a discrete entity. we define it most often by low reading achievement. the scientific literature, however, there are differences

in where the cutpoint comes, or how low someone has to perform in reading before the comes dyslexia. with differences ranging from the fifth percentile to the 25th percentile. not surprisingly, when their differences in the literature, the behavior and learning and/or biological correlates and genetics of dyslexia all look different, depending on how it's defined. as we move forward with ample mentation, it's critical for the scientific and educational communities to work towards a common language for identification and studying dyslexia. with efforts towards a more specific terminology. this consistency extends to implementation of response and intervention. finally, early detection of dyslexia is critical. i must say, we need to proceed with caution. the mission of early detection present us with a conflict that requires awareness of the development of appropriateness of reading expectations and

reading instruction for a significant proportion of canada and children. we know how to identify early risk factors for dyslexia. by scientists, educators, and policymakers, we must distinguish between unexpected and unwarranted failures in reading achievement. consideringds, early detection, we must determine whether or problem represents true dyslexia, or the risk for, or rain that is just simply too young and not you're ready to read. this is particularly important, because in the last 20 years, even before, core standards, we have gone to a system in which kindergarten is the new first-grade. there are emotional and motivational consequences associated with development of a premature educational expectations for children who experience failure this early. and the risk is exacerbated in boys who develop later than girls, upwards of a year on average by kindergarten. thank you.

ms. hanrath: good morning. >> will your microphone towards you. ms. hanrath: thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my family's story of living with dyslexia. of athe proud mother senior in high school in her hometown of salt lake city, utah. withlso a parent advocate a free copperheads of online resource of parents of children with learning and attention issues. to share her journey with dyslexia as we've navigated through the educational system in utah. i also recognize that we are not alone in this journey. over 2 million children have learning disabilities, most of whom struggle with reading. the national center for learning disability estimates that 15% of students struggle in school due to an identified learning retention issue. i said before you, eager to tell her story.

hopefully you will have an opportunity to meet parents from your states who face similar challenges and successes. during my testimony, i hope you will hear three messages come through loud and clear. first, it's critically important to identify learning disabilities like dyslexia in early elementary school. second, we must support general and special educators by giving them training about dyslexia and learning disabilities, co-occurring issues, and necessary accommodations. importantly, all of us must have high expectations for students with dyslexia. policymakers, educators, and thely alike must recognize students like jocelyn are fully capable of excelling in school and college. my daughter, jocelyn, is proof that when you hold students with is lexi a to high standards and tovide them -- with dyslexia a high standard and provide them with the tools they need, they are able to achieve. but we tell you a little bit about jocelyn. she is a bright, driven young

woman who excelled in school and soccer. she holds her self to a high standard and failure has never been an option for her. yes, jocelyn has learning disabilities, as she is dyslexic. but she has never used or challenges as an excuse to not achieve. it has only motivated her to work harder. , jocelyn will graduate high school with a gpa of over 3.7. next year, she enrolls impunity college in washington state with a soccer scholarship and an internship with the seattle soccer team. after that, she plans to finish college and a four-year school to earn her degree in sports management with a sports psychology minor. to support her goals, and proud to say that she received a scholarship from the national center for learning disabilities. that is jocelyn now. for the past 13 years, we had our ups and downs. when jocelyn was in fourth-grade, she was struggling with reading and started becoming withdrawn from school. at the end of fourth-grade, jocelyn was a value-added for

special education and found to have an above average iq with significant dyslexia, poor fine motor skills, and severe test anxiety. she is also had challenges with writing and keeping herself focused and managing time, known as executive functioning and difficulty with focusing like adhd. looking back, i wish her needs were addressed earlier than fourth-grade, a time when reading is an integral part of nearly every class in school. starting in fifth-grade and largely continuing to today, jocelyn has received accommodations like extra time, oral testing, and using a computer rather than having to hand write assignments. these accommodations and made a huge difference for jocelyn, because they allow for teachers to teach her in a way that it works for her. apparent isr, was that jocelyn has always been taught to the gray level she is enrolled in alongside her peers read accommodations have allowed jocelyn to access the gray level content and even above gray level content.

starting as a freshman and continuing throughout her for years and high school, she took honors and ap classes in addition to a regular class. it was an amazing special ed teacher who helped jocelyn navigate some challenging situations along the way. for example, when some of her teachers were unfamiliar with dyslexia, we helped educate them to dispel the myth that dyslexia is a sign of a low iq. or some of jocelyn's teachers were reluctant to give her accommodations, she use the self advocacy skills carry helped her develop to explain what accommodations are and why she needed them. and when some of her friends joked around about being dyslexic when they made mistakes reading aloud in class, she use that opportunity to share that she was dyslexic, and to explain to them what it was like to be dyslexic. throughout our journey, we have all of these experiences to help others understand what dyslexia is, and more importantly, what dyslexia is not. like the national

center for learning disabilities have helped us along the way. his last 13 years and taught me that while the educational system is not created with dyslexic and mind, with the right information, training and support, students with is lexi can thrive in i can say on a better mother in person because of her journey, and the jocelyn's future is limitless because she is an amazing woman with much to give the world. >> each have five minutes. in your written testimony, you talk about how your daughter -- it was a stupid test, she didn't want to do it. there's a theme that all of these children will say there's this anxiety. she read adequately, so she was not identified an immediate intervention. had the intervention, she went to 75th percentile. she was in thet middle, never being recognized.

parentonly the concerned that was able to do so. would you elaborate? children, youve are done with the things you thought you knew was a researcher. the kind of testing we do in the laborde three is very sensitive to the contestants going on in schools. a child that has struggled handler skills can do very well, and a child that is high achieving otherwise can look ok when they are reading a text or --.ures third you can see where their weaknesses and those of the weaknesses that are interfering with her ability to learn and read the material that she has been given. i think one of the things i certainly learned is that it is such a compensated field and for parent, even for parent like me

who is served as the president stunned how confused i was between the difference of what i saw in my child at home and in the school and using the kind of testing i was familiar with. people need to understand what those things are and how we use those different sources of information to identify and help our children. >> if the woman who does the the president of the organization and is confused , it begs her daughter the question whether we should alow this to be discovered by teacher observing or whether it should be something we should screen for. how difficult would it be to screen children for the presence of dyslexia? >> i don't think it should be

difficult, it should be mandatory. on thed on the slide basis of a longitudinal study that the achievement gap is not only present in first grade, it is very large and doesn't go away. gap,at is not a reading that is an achievement gap. ofwe are in the process publishing a screening implement teachers can use and it takes a few minutes. the important thing is to think not a-- it's developmental lag, it's not going to be outgrown, it's not because he has a december birthday. missed, children are and that's a tragedy because as him talk about what it feels like when you are in

school and you have to be allowed in the reactions of the other children and teachers have to try that and listen to parents because parents see the child and see the struggle when they get home. i don't think it would be difficult at all but i think the important thing is awareness and to be aware that it is already there and to take action. >> teachers can your child were having difficulty reading. how did he or she intervene? >> i never had a teacher intervened. i was passed on from grade to grade. looking back, someone should have took notice that i could not read. patterns righte now and i deal with kids were i talked to the principal about kids who have dyslexia and they can't do anything about it

because there is no resources for those kids. those kids are kept back or passed along like i was. we don't address this problem, i think we will see a tremendous surge in violence and incarceration. if we do with -- if we do, we can curtail the population in the violence as well. >> how did the teachers respond? >> my child's teachers did not recognize she was dyslexic. her first teachers were first year teachers and they view her and the way she read as a fact that she was young in her class. her teacher said she was was notve and felt she as bright as the other children and i knew that couldn't possibly therue, to i took it upon myself to have her tested.

>> each and every one of these testimonies were so compelling and we could spend all morning just talking to one of the people at the table. we want to thank you for your contribution already. your testimony is so much like what we see in baltimore. the window att kennedy krieger in east side, 12, when one blocks down, you look toward the harbor and people are doing well and very prosperous. other you look on the side, it's in the poor neighborhood where drug dealing is going on. we had real issues in baltimore and we are always accusing our school failing and kids as

failing. what you look to is what we hear every day. my question to you was here you are, you are a rough-and-tumble guy in the streets and in the neighborhood and the streets became your friend and the streets became your teacher. would help you to make a difference? wouldhink early detection deter the road i chose. sister werend my excellent student and both went off to college. put me inomeone to the program like senator kassie and his wife -- as i was walking from the hotel, i'm walking to the capital and i'm looking at this vast amount of property and i said i could have been here. i could have been sitting where

you are if someone caught me early on. guy.u are a louisiana you would have been him. [laughter] >> i don't want to take his job. i always felt like someone -- when i got to prison, the guy told me help bridge -- how brilliant i was. .is name was norman spooner he's an incarcerated person and i would tell him how i would get drugs from california and he said you are brilliant and i never heard someone tell me i was brilliant and i was somebody. mikulski: you read at malcolm x in prison. was there an evaluation in prison? : when you are in

prison, everyone has to be tested and i was found to be on a third grade level. i read malcolm x. and i floundered do that book, but i understood what malcolm did. i was facing a 60 year prison sentence, i set i'm going to educate myself some way, somehow, because i want to emulate malcolm x. and do something for my people because he did it. i saw many people behind taking the same pathways. it was a burden to get out of prison -- senator mikulski: did prison teach you to read? -- were youo get to self-taught in prison? there was not a program that said this guy is ready smart and he's reading at the third grade level. of lowthe soft bigotry expectations?

drug dealer, manslaughter, we know that profile -- you know how that narrative goes. very typical. did anybody say we've got that, let's find out why? mr. brock: there was no help for me there. it was state prison. mikulski: just in my short time here left in the questioning, do you feel because unfortunately, prison is at the end of the pipeline. we would want this so much sooner. the areas this is one of where few want to prevent recidivism and do second chance, that really different kinds of evaluation when you come into prison would be helpful and a

real intervention? : this is a titanic area. many guys in prison cannot read. you can make a lot of money when you write letters. some guys who can read and write make a lot of money writing letters for other guys. , i don'tguys in prison know if they are dyslexic, but they cannot read. i wrote downwards -- i recall my lawyer telling me about the circumstances of my case and he said right circumstances. i could not spell that word. i can't break words down. the word overid and over again, but i don't know anything about phonics. it is completely out of my mind. i know words because i have written that word down. then i memorize the words.

if we could get something like this in a prison institution and help them build on their phonics , i think we could reduce that because when i learned to read, there was this hope that i am somebody and i can do something. i canes motivation to say read. that's one of the most powerful .hings in the world it is a blessing to read. now that i read, i read all the time. i'm reading sally's book and i'm excited about reading. mikulski: i have several questions and i hope we get another round. bennett: thank you for holding this hearing and thank you for your excellent testimony. we talked about the importance mr.arly detection and

baraka shared his views about not having early detection. i remember sitting down and being told i was going to repeat the second grade and my deep disappointment that my friends were leaving me behind. in that secondt day -- second grade classroom tracing letters in the sand glued to cardboard cards. hard work andat the intervention allowed me to compensate for my dyslexia and i'm sitting here today partly because of that early detection. i wonder if the panel could talk a little bit about doing a better job.

we are doing a lousy job and how we share best practices. whether a far greater commitment to early childhood education might help us wrestle with this problem as well. i don't know who would like to go first. >> i agree early identification is critical and should be something all districts have in place. the truth is that it is not happening in many school districts. sometimes it is not happening effectively. needs to be at the level of the local school system to implement it that it also needs to be at the leader of those schools systems to make sure it is implemented with fidelity, appropriately and developmentally appropriately

and to be able to translate the material that has been generated by the researchers here and at other places into the hands of the people who would be screening four and five-year-olds. there is also the issue that we are moving toward more universal pre-k. see inrth of training we dyslexia at the level of five years old or six years old is even more challenging when you get younger have in place as good of a program for preparing our pre-k teachers to be ready to screen and work with children who may be experiencing some of the risk factors and early signs of dyslexia that emerge sometimes as early as four years old or before that can be detected. teachers need to be

trained in developmentally appropriate methods. >> before we do any of that, there needs to be greater public awareness of what dyslexia is so that it is not just training people in administering a measure but to understand the whole of it. you mentioned you don't know phonics, but you can read. i think it becomes very important for teachers. know to medical school but then we do internships and residencies where we take care of people in supervision. expand so needs to that they learn from experience and see people who are dyslexic are not stupid and to be able to then use screening measures that are available and not look at reasons that this child is this

and this child is that, but to look at the screening measures themselves. >> as a former school superintendent, i listened to some testimony today about the importance of treating the whole child. many children with disabilities talk about how they dread going to school and experience a level of stress. i wonder if you can talk about what the emotional mental effects of learning disabilities are and how we can better support the full range of children's needs? complicated because children with dyslexia can present with a complicated associatedcluding concerns and conditions ranging from anxiety and motivation.

when you experience failure, it in the way of motivation. number of risk factors that go along with dyslexia and real conditions that seem to coexist that complicate the picture. just not as simple as looking at the reading and looking at the experiences of the child and why the child might be failing. having poor opportunity for quality instruction and other kinds of psychopathology that may make interfering in other ways. the result is poor achievement. senator murphy: thank you very much, mr. chairman and senator mikulski for having this hearing. let me add a story to the mix here.

a constituent from newtown connecticut noticed early on years,r son's preschool that he had a speech delay and struggled to learn letters in kindergarten, first and second grade. concerns and her family's history of dyslexia, her son did not receive an evaluation until the end of third grade. this is standard because tests don't start until third grade he ryan's teacher told her did not make any progress between second and third grade and was way behind his peers already. he was evaluated and found to have adhd and dyslexia, but also a high iq. learning to read was rocky and eventually you is able to decode words and read. he is 19 years old and doing well. he's studying engineering at the

rochester school of technology and a competitive speedskater. he had to work and his parents had to work hard because it took so long and they had to fight hard to get him the appropriate programming. i am totally on board with the idea that we need to do better and this is a crisis. i hear it every day in connecticut and i guess here is my only question. said thatt has been 80 to 90% of students with learning disabilities have dyslexia and it is often co-occurring with other disabilities. how do we do better by way of treating dyslexia without disabilitiesher

that kids walk into school with? how do we make sure we do everything you want us to do without taking dyslexia out of the pot of disabilities kids are struggling with and have this up with a result that robs peter to pay paul? let me ask to talk about that. how do we focus the attention on misunderstandot there are other disabilities we can ignore at the expense of tackling this event? dr. shaywitz: that is a great

question and let me just say that every child should get what they need. this is about science in forming education. when we have the science, we have to use it. if we have a drug for breast cancer and not for pancreatic, we can't say we can use it to treat all the cancers. i think in the case of dyslexia, we have the knowledge and in my own mind, you are aware of my committedwo children suicide in connecticut because of their dyslexia. they were bright, they were in special ed and they saw no future. we have to use the knowledge they have. there are other disabilities and they are important. scienceto make sure the teaches us what we need to know to get better. i would say optimal but i know it is appropriate.

not hold dyslexic children back because we don't have the knowledge to treat the others. we have to make sure we are maximizing the education of all the children who have disabilities. as a mother and grandmother, i know how i worry about my grandchildren and children. mothers of all children and fathers think the same thing. we have to use the knowledge we possess and make sure we do it for all disabilities. when the knowledge is not there, we have to make sure that we work to ensure we acquire that knowledge. eden: i think the other thing to focus on is a focus on dyslexia and research has opened a lot of eyes in terms of understanding about teaching and reading in general.

many children have benefited by there being more information about best practices for teaching and reading. i also think it could serve as a model of understanding to serve more generally how do you work with the school system? the research that has shown the kind of measure to identify this >> he a early. when the teachers are given those and using them, they are not using them the way research is intended. there is a gap here. , there arer hand other individuals getting the help they need. they go for programs that are expensive and don't work, so we have other interesting problem. ,n the absence of knowledge research and the absence of people understanding what this is, parents will take it upon themselves to try everything on the internet often with a high cost and no benefit to the children.

you have these events when a child is failing to reach their potential and dyslexia serves as a model of full range between education, the role of the of private role enterprise and how people need to be educated so those things can be optimized to help the child. senator warren: thank you senator cassidy and senator mikulski for your passion and advocacy on behalf of those affected by it. muchrea where i know very all of us are in agreement on is biomedicalcation for innovation in the need for increased investment in research in this area. we have learned a lot about dyslexia by research funded by the national education

foundation, the national institute of child health and human development, investments in research in these agencies mean we have some evidence-based interventions leading to improved educational outcome for our kids with dyslexia across the country. but there is still a lot we don't know. how would greater federal investments in research like yours into the neurological underpinnings of dyslexia help improvevene earlier and outcomes for our kids? : we are on the verge of treating educational research and the translation between biomedical research and education in the same way we are looking at translational research in the field of medicine, meaning we have learned a lot about the

condition. we've learned a lot about the neurobiology of the condition, but the next question is how do we translate what we have learned into practice that gets at the root of the problem? i think we are on the verge of that right now. way with ae a long tremendous amount of support from the federal government to the support we have now, but going forward, we need to continue support to translate that into the day-to-day practice. senator warren: when we are talking about alzheimer's, als, cancer or dyslexia, one of the smartest things the federal government can do is invest in research. the research is supported on how

to identify dyslexia early on and support the needs of students with learning disabilities. over the past 10 years, congress has decimated the budget cutting its purchasing power by nearly 20%. are being limited because congress will not give them the resources that they need. right now, the senate faces a critical choice of whether to come together in a bipartisan to fund research at the nih or just to say it is too hard, let's go on summer vacation. senator cassidy and i have talked a lot about the importance of nih funding and we agree on the urgent need to find a bipartisan way to get this done. i hope we can get there because today's hearing is one more example of why fixing our research funding problem is to important for us to walk away. round ofsecond

questions, but i'm glad to put it off and wait my turn. >> you have one minute and 15. >> i will yield back and go to my next round. >> thank you for having this hearing. we are grateful to have this opportunity. the kind ofen have opportunity we have to focus on one issue in an intensive way and we have a lot of great panels here, but this is indeed an all-star panel, so we are grateful for the opportunity. i want to amend you for taking the time to be here today. storyng your own personal to this committee. when we readt about public policy and analyze data. that's part of the learning

process for us but it is all the more significant when you can bring your own personal story. joslin, want to say congratulations for your academic and athletic achievements. i always wanted an athletic scholarship to college, but it just wasn't in the cards. [laughter] difficult to be recognized for one versus the other, but to have both academic and athletic achievement is significant. i want to ask a more technical question about the transition to college. i want to focus on your three points. learn a lote and we but it begins to fade over time. to identify come a train, and set high expectations.

all three are critically important. to add a fourth, i would say try to get a good mom. some children never have that opportunity to have a mom or dad or caregiver who is so engaged as you have then and to be that advocate, you have turned her into her own self advocate and we are grateful for that. we want to bear in mind those three core messages of identify, train and set high expectations. is more technical and my staff and i have heard from folks in pennsylvania about this transition from high school to college and having strong transitioned services is important to students with a learning disability. what is your experience with tot and what can it tell us

do to fill in some of the gaps if there are some? >> first of all, our experience is a bit different because joslin is an athlete who was wanted. the transition has been simple. we immediately started talking to the special education department was very open to whatever joslin needed and they iep willing to accept her from high school. at so many colleges, the students are asked to go back -- toad tests to deceive achieve accommodations and college. doctor, but when joslin received her diagnosis, one of my first questions was if i get joslin a lot of help, will she stopped being dyslexic. she said no, she will always be

dyslexic. i understand why an iep in high school would not the adequate to accept that as a learning disability. specialoslin's educator has a caseload of 40 students. her transition work is a checkbox. someone comes in and talks to joslin -- are you going to college are you taking classes, check the box, that is all. given tonot anything us in utah as far as transitioning to college. once again, because of her athletic accomplishments, when we talked to the athletic department, whatever she needed, she can have. but it is not that simple for most kids and it is impossible for them to retest because the testing costs so much money to access special education in

college. we what we often try to do here by way of legislation and by way of something much more substantial in the way of the case that every student succeeds, to take no child left behind, reform it, shake it up and change it. a center to develop assessment tools for students with disabilities, including dyslexia, evidence-based construction material and i also want to make sure we are not when it comes to that transition and not having adequate and having new evaluations that might explain or be difficult for a lot of families.

maybe what we want to do is post a question to the other witnesses so we can get at this issue. mr. chairman, thank you very much. in page four, the bottom of in your written testimony, you speak about how your dad would verbally teach you. this is the socratic method. you could -- you didn't need to read and you could just sort of download what you need to know about history. son you describe how your for 10 years had four hours of tutoring every day. that takes some jack. last paragraph, some students with emily's can afford the best. are fortunate to have their dyslexia treated and understood quickly. not.ast majority are

senator warren and i mentioned that this is an issue of middle-class economic opportunity. your thoughts on this? i think the right to education is one of the most basic civil rights we have. i think that right should not be inhibited by the economic circumstances of the child's family. have been very fortunate and i could give my children the opportunity to be tested early, to have tutoring and have all the advantages modern science can give. most children are not that fortunate. we as a country are terribly wasting those resources. it is unfair to the child and it is a disaster for this country and the global world to lose those resources.

anddentifying people early giving them the hope and the wep they need to succeed, can give them that basic civil rights of a decent education. >> so it is not just someone like mr. baraka -- obviously a tragic story but it seems to have finished well, but dr. eden's daughter who was a promising girl who would be allowed to achieve less because they did not know. said there are not many district screenings -- i'm not sure there are any. i'm not sure there's a single district that screens kids for dyslexia. you are an attorney, is it excusable we are not screening? this is not 1% or 2%, the cost

ratio -- we can do that in a cost effective way. it's a question of education and commitment, but we could do this for a fraction of what we spend on lots of other things that are much less important and much like critical to our children and our country. we have the ability to screen and we could implement it in a cost-effective way. it costs about $50,000 year to incarcerate somebody. if you broke down the silos and said if we broke down the dollars, we could make a difference. >> it is the definition of any wise and pound foolish. he identified was early by a teacher or was it because of your family history that you knew to watch? >> it was in the family history, but he was a twin. in brother was very verbal

kindergarten and was reading and was very facile. christopher was struggling terribly. that comparison led us to have christopher tested. when christopher was tested, that is when i was first diagnosed with dyslexia. that testing led to the tutoring, led to the help and led to the hope because he knew what it was and new it did not affect his intelligence. he knew he could conquer this. schoolormed well in high , though we had a hell of a time getting into it, and he performed great in law school. a standardized test because he did not get accommodations.

he graduated from yale law school with honors. but they would not have predicted he could have succeeded. >> the standardized testing is interesting. i will defer to senator mikulski. senator mikulski: i want to associate myself with the remarks of senator warren in terms of needs for more biomedical research. go back to my original remarks. we need to put that research into action. when we do not fund programs like ide a, then groups are pitted against each other for resources. a multifaceted approach here. let me go to some of your

research findings. i was struck by what you said that there were different neurological aspects to girls compared to boys. elaborate on that? i was in my early days in the senate. women were not included. this was 1986, not 1886. working together across the dr. ruth kercher, we were able to change that. us -- the brain is gender-neutral. >> i think this is an example where brain imaging has a lot to add and we can get some insight because it has shown for years the brains of women and men and

boys and girls are different. they are different in anatomy -- it goesnt in hand-in-hand with the differences we observe. the important part is to forgnize early research reasons that are not clear focus on boys. were that these were true for all findings and generalized to all people with dyslexia. now we are focusing on specific differences and the nih requires that when we submit research grants to we consider a biological variable such as sex do the kinds of questions we are posing in our research, are they addressing the issues that there are sex specific differences? i think that is tremendously important. senator mikulski: how has it manifested itself?

understand howly it is manifesting. sometimes we observe performance in males and females and they appear to be equal, but under the surface of the brain, the mechanisms are very different. , whatou ask the questions if they are faced with a learning disability and how do the female brain respond -- female brains respond versus the male brains? doing research in that area is critical and we will see research because of the new mandate. mikulski: let's hear it for the mothers. i'm going to call you a nighthawk because you and other mothers and dads stay up at internet,sing the avoiding scams and schemes trying to come up with approaches.

you as a mother to know what to do? own, you paid for your testing. what did you run into? for mom andathway dad, regardless of social class to do this? could you elaborate on your personal exploration on how to help your daughter? what was your best friend? was it the internet? >> at the very beginning, my daughter was tested by the school district. her grandmother had died the week before and they tested her with the results that she had an iq of about 80. she would not ever succeed in school because she was not very bright.

absolutely not true and i found a narrow psychologist to redo the testing. once that happened, i had to go through the phase of my always thought dyslexia menu mix up your letters. i had no idea it was everything. a you say i found neuroscientist. you don't go to craigslist for that. after we get our refrigerator or toaster oven fixed. how did you do that? >> i did that because i had an older son who had learning disabilities and had a specialized tutor. >> it was on my own. >> were you with an institution couldennedy krieger you

have turned to? >> there's not anything in salt lake. i wasn't comfortable with that. >> we have georgetown, kennedy were on youryou own and you did this through a tutor and you got the results? i had to comeded up with a solution. the narrow psychologist was wonderful and gave me 23 pages of accommodations. i took those pages and said i want to accept all of these. no one argued with me. immediately attached to joslin's iep and i kept those accommodations and when she needed a specific one, we invoked the iep. have fortunate enough to the money to have her tested.

unfortunately, i was not wealthy enough to have daily tutoring, so i had to rely upon the school system, but mostly myself and my inventiveness. >> could we ask about understood and what that meant? path --have here is a look at the struggle here. >> i would love to tell you about understood. mikulski: you are a nighthawk? >> i had to be. i could read about it and there -- i could talk to someone at 3:00 in the morning and someone who understood where i was coming from and i could watch videos from experts and onten to archive sections

dyslexia. i became educated and education is the source of all power. >> you are very generous. thank you. senator warren: thank you senator mikulski for your remarks on the importance of making sure we have adequate nih funding and thank you, dr. eden for reminding us or reasons why this research is important. i want to talk a little bit more we are learning from the research into training teachers for the classroom. special topic because i was a special needs teacher a long time ago. congratulation on your daughter's impending graduation. i know you are very proud. it good to have a success story

here and we are delighted to have you here today. talkur testimony, you about the importance of supporting educators by giving them training about dyslexia and other learning disabilities. can you tell us a bit more about this question mark how important is it to you and your daughter to have special education teachers with the tools and training they need to support their daughter's learning needs? >> without carrie, there's no way we could have navigated through high school. joslin's teachers and went to meetings, she stood up for her rights. she knew things i didn't know. i dorry was not educated, not believe this success would have happened the way that it did.

frightening so many teachers are not educated about dyslexia and they assume dyslexics are stupid people. that they shouldn't expect much of them. dyslexic to understand kids can do amazing things. they step outside the box and our leaders by nature. they don't have to cost a lot of money. everything is not high-tech. way toase, please find a let all teachers understand what dyslexia is and how they can help. itdoesn't take much, but requires an education. maybe that means i can turn to you, dr. eden. how do we equip all teachers and school leaders with the training and development they need to serve students with dyslexia?

dr. eden: that is the big question here and that's where we need more resources and we need to make changes in the way people think about their role in all of these things. , you see tests out there that predicted to a very high degree which children are at risk for reading. those same research data have made it into benchmark tests and when you ask the teacher how your child is performing, it turns out they have not read those test results. the problems we have in research is we don't do enough to make sure they are implemented in a way that is useful. lengtht going the full to benefit the child who needs them to be identified. if other risk we run here is

we don't continue doing the research, we still don't quite understand how dyslexia comes about. others will fill the void. parents are online all the time. if you think that is expensive, getting the treatment is really expensive. then you find an alternative based on something you can do at home. you don't have much time, you are trying to feed your child, you use a quick fix and it appears to be something that has research behind it. you don't know, you are not a scientist, you grab onto another option and you've made a huge mistake. you've made a miss investment and have used something that is not research-based. towe do not do the research investigate these programs, there's no knowledge we can put out there to guide parents about which items they should pursue. all of these things have to be

moved forward hand in hand. it is interesting to hear things that they would learn in the school of education. it isne has to understand an education and everyone has to be ready to implement the knowledge we have together. warren: thank you very much. i know from first-hand experience how much support teachers who work with special needs children need. we go into them to have their backs and make sure they have the resources they need and have the resources in their professional development so they can be trained and understand what they are dealing with. whereeady have a vehicle we could be investing more in title ii of the new education law which supports future development. but let's face it -- congress needs to fully fund the individuals with disabilities

education act. raised this ini her opening statement and she is exactly right. congress passed idea over 40 years ago to make sure teachers would have the necessary resources to support students with disabilities. although the program was designed to support 40% of the cost of educating students with disabilities, congress has repeatedly failed to meet this commitment. that is why i sponsored the idea over 10ull funding act years until congress fully meets this commitment. i sent letters to the appropriations committee. i intend to keep fighting for. and in until congress lives up to our end of the bargain to support our kids with special needs and their teachers. our children have already waited too long.

what i hear today is about everyone has a job. our kids work hard if they have the opportunity to do it. our researchers work hard, it's time to work hard and do our part. thank you for having this hearing. i appreciate senator mikulski and senator mccaskey -- senator cassidy, this is the kind of thing we need to be doing. you to the witnesses and attendees. there will be a recess afterwards if people wish to linger and have a further conversation. i would like the witnesses if they had something they wish they had a chance to say but did not have a chance to say, they can submit that in writing and have it as part of the record. the hearing record will remain open for 10 days for senators to

submit additional comments. thank you for being here today, the committee will stand adjourned. thank you very much. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> as lawmakers wrap up this hearing, the house is about to gavilan. you can find this idiot and others in our video library. the house of representatives back from a weeklong recess today, convening for morning our

speeches and beginning legislative is this at 2:00, including measures dealing with opioid addiction, drug trafficking and law enforcement. focus this week in the house on opioid addiction, including addiction among veterans and good samaritan laws for people who intervene in drug overdoses. stephen: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c., may 10, 2016. i hereby appoint the honorable randy k. weber sr. to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 5, 2016, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and