The brain region active in poor readers while performing the identical test is seen on the right. According to studies financed by the National Institutes of Health, children with dyslexia exhibit identical patterns of brain activity regardless of whether they have a high or low total IQ score. 3 This suggests that intelligence is not responsible for developing reading skills. Rather, reading skills develop because of the way the brain is organized. Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects approximately 5% of school-age children. It is characterized by difficulty with language acquisition and decoding, as well as by problems with remembering words and sentences. Although the cause of this disorder is not known, it is believed to be neurological in nature. Studies have shown that people with dyslexia have differences in the structure and function of their brains when compared with people who are not affected by this condition. People with dyslexia often have difficulties with phonological processing, which is the ability to recognize sounds that make up words. For example, a child with dyslexia may have no problem recognizing "dog" but has trouble distinguishing between "god" and "go". These children also tend to have more difficulty with grammar than non-dyslectic students. Because people with dyslexia have abnormal brain development, they are likely to experience mental challenges throughout their lives.