Unlike physical disabilities such as dyslexia are not readily apparent and can easily go unnoticed. "You have to be so vigilant, especially because the disability is not visible. People struggle so much with it because it's hidden," says Blackmore. "It's a very true concern for me, and I really wish Harvard would do more because the students really suffer silently there."

Blackmore feels that the disbanding of the HDAG last year and its placement under the control of the Office of Disability Resources has not been as successful a transfer as she would have liked.

Before leaving Harvard, Blackmore had assembled an Advisory Committee to the HDAG on which Associate Professor of Neurology Dr. Albert M. Galaburda, Professor of Geology Stephen J. Gould and Professor of Education Howard E. Gardner among others served. The committee was never contacted by the University, she says.

Despite these complaints about Harvard's handling of dyslexic students, Harvard-based researchers are continuing to make significant contribution to the study of dyslexia.

Margaret S. Livingstone, professor of Neurobiology, and Galaburda, chief of behavioral neurology at Beth Israel Hospital, have developed a way of diagnosing dyslexia through measuring the brain's response to certain visual stimuli. By measuring the speed of different brain waves, known as "evoked potentials," they can detect patterns characteristic of dyslexia.

They plan to go into schools in Boston and diagnose dyslexia in children as young as possible with a modified version of an electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures brain waves using electrodes attached to the head.

With dyslexia diagnosed at the start of a child's education, learning needs can be matched as soon as a child begins learning language skills and reading Meisel says, "Unfortunately, there are many adults who have dyslexia, who did not have it diagnosed when they were Yong and they [have kept] it hidden."

With early detection, Livingstone and Galaburda hope to minimize the obstacles dyslexics have traditionally faced in school.

And Livingstone, like others researching in this area, is confident that dyslexia is not a defect, but rather a difference.

"[Dyslexia] is some kind of spectrum of normal, just at one extreme," she says. Common Symptoms of Dyslexia

Childhood

Difficulty in expressing oneself

Difficulty in learning tasks such as typing shoes and telling time

Inattentiveness: distractibility

Inability to follow directions