'Extraordinary Minds' - and The Mansfield Dyslexia Project

Dr Alex Richardson holds a Senior Research Fellowship in Physiology at Mansfield College, Oxford in association with the Mansfield Dyslexia Project.  This article was written for the Mansfield College magazine, where it was published in Spring 2003.

Here she explains how her perspective on dyslexia and related conditions led to her pioneering studies linking dyslexia with nutrition and diet.

She provides an informal overview of what's known about the 'brain basis' of dyslexia - and the clues that have guided her own research in this area.   This has already shown that dietary supplementation with 'essential fatty acids' (particularly the 'omega-3' fats found in fish and seafood) may help some children with dyslexia and related conditions, and her latest studies are now focusing on adults with dyslexia.

She also explains why dyslexia is best viewed in terms of normal individual differences, and how biological approaches to both dyslexia and related conditions can offer hope for earlier recognition, as well as better methods of management.