Research into how the brain works is leading to a greater understanding of dyslexia.
Dr Lorraine Hammond shared her expertise in neuroscience and dyslexia with parents and teachers.
'A pattern of under-activation in the back of the brain provides a neural signature for the phonological difficulties characterising dyslexia. This [under-activation] can be measured through brain-scanning technology such as Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging,' she said.
Slides of scans were shown demonstrating how the brain of a dyslexic child has little activity in areas linking language to visual cues compared with a non-dyslexic one.
Named using the Greek roots dys (difficulty) and lexis (word), the neurobiological condition affects 3 to 5 per cent of the population - at least one student per class.
Not only does dyslexia run in families, it is also carried as a genetic trait. 'Human genotyping studies indicate that genes two, six, eight and 15 are those that contribute to reading disability,' Hammond said.