Students with dyslexia account for 15-20% of every classroom population. Dyslexia means "difficulty with language," and it is the most common learning disability. It does not reflect a lack of intelligence, attention or effort. Nor can it be related to any environmental, cultural, educational or economic disadvantage. Dyslexia is an inherited, neurological difference in the way people take in, retain, process and express information. Research based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that the brains of people with dyslexia operate differently from the norm and often in highly creative ways.

Dyslexics can benefit from direct instruction in what is called "phonological processing" (interpreting and producing language sound patterns) and in "alphabetic skills" (understanding how written symbols represent speech). Being able to decipher "the code" is the key to fluent reading and writing.

In a significant study, 74% of children who were poor readers in the third grade remained poor readers in the ninth grade, with little likelihood of catching up. Experts affirm that if all children get effective phonological training in kindergarten and first grade, they will have significantly fewer problems in learning to read at grade level than children who are not identified or helped until third grade.