Research Excellence and Advancements for Dyslexia Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3033, the Research Excellence and Advancements for Dyslexia Act, or the READ Act. Passing this bill is the perfect way to honor October, National Dyslexia Awareness Month.

As my friend, the chairman, has said, dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words.

Unfortunately, many children are not diagnosed or are diagnosed later in life, leaving them with little access to helpful interventions and technologies. Too often our educators do not have the proper training to identify students with learning disabilities, including dyslexia.

This bill would fund research on the early identification of individuals with dyslexia and professional development for teachers and school administrators.

There is a lack of research on curricula development and educational tools for students with dyslexia, and I am happy to report that this bill would fund that research into that as well.

Finally, as we heard from our expert witnesses during the committee hearings on this topic, there is a significant gap in getting the research from the laboratories into the hands of teachers and administrators. To address this gap, we need more research on understanding which experimental innovations will be successful in the classrooms and research on how best to scale those successful interventions.

Having an intervention work in the laboratory is not enough. The intervention needs to work in classroom settings, which are very heterogeneous environments.

Mr. Speaker, I have a first cousin who was raised just across the river in Fairfax County. He was a most clever child because he managed to make it all the way to eighth grade before they realized that he didn't know how to read. He has had a good career, but I wonder what kind of professor or Supreme Court Justice or even rocket scientist he would have made with early intervention.

Mr. Speaker, my oldest child had a passel of learning disabilities but also had and has a very high IQ. At the school he attended to address these disabilities, the walls were adorned with photos of Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Thomas EMr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3033, the Research Excellence and Advancements for Dyslexia Act, or the READ Act. Passing this bill is the perfect way to honor October, National Dyslexia Awareness Month.

As my friend, the chairman, has said, dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words.

Unfortunately, many children are not diagnosed or are diagnosed later in life, leaving them with little access to helpful interventions and technologies. Too often our educators do not have the proper training to identify students with learning disabilities, including dyslexia.

This bill would fund research on the early identification of individuals with dyslexia and professional development for teachers and school administrators.

There is a lack of research on curricula development and educational tools for students with dyslexia, and I am happy to report that this bill would fund that research into that as well.

Finally, as we heard from our expert witnesses during the committee hearings on this topic, there is a significant gap in getting the research from the laboratories into the hands of teachers and administrators. To address this gap, we need more research on understanding which experimental innovations will be successful in the classrooms and research on how best to scale those successful interventions.

Having an intervention work in the laboratory is not enough. The intervention needs to work in classroom settings, which are very heterogeneous environments.

Mr. Speaker, I have a first cousin who was raised just across the river in Fairfax County. He was a most clever child because he managed to make it all the way to eighth grade before they realized that he didn't know how to read. He has had a good career, but I wonder what kind of professor or Supreme Court Justice or even rocket scientist he would have made with early intervention.

Mr. Speaker, my oldest child had a passel of learning disabilities but also had and has a very high IQ. At the school he attended to address these disabilities, the walls were adorned with photos of Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Thomas Edison.

These remarkable men remind us of the promise of every child, that a learning disability like dyslexia need not hold a child back from an extraordinary life and an extraordinary education. This is why we need the READ Act: to help realize the promise of every child with dyslexia.

On this remarkable bipartisan night, I want to thank my Texas friends, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Johnson, for working across the aisle together to make improvements to this bill during the committee process.

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it. dison.

These remarkable men remind us of the promise of every child, that a learning disability like dyslexia need not hold a child back from an extraordinary life and an extraordinary education. This is why we need the READ Act: to help realize the promise of every child with dyslexia.

On this remarkable bipartisan night, I want to thank my Texas friends, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Johnson, for working across the aisle together to make improvements to this bill during the committee process.

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it.

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