Can AI change the brain? Co-founder behind revolutionary dyslexia treatment says yes
Learning disabilities have historically been considered lifelong, incurable conditions. While treatment and early intervention has made it possible for people to learn how to live with their conditions, they’ve largely been considered manageable rather than solvable. But now, a revolutionary AI-powered dyslexia treatment promises the unthinkable: a way to change the brain.
Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects a person’s ability to process information, particularly when reading or listening.
California is one of only 11 states in the country that doesn’t require universal dyslexia screening in public schools. And experts say that the longer it takes to identify dyslexia in a child, the harder it is for students to overcome the condition.
A white paper published by the UCSF Dyslexia Center and Boston Consulting Group estimated that “dyslexia and its consequences” would cost the state $12 billion in 2020 and $1 trillion over the next 60 years.
Dyslexia treatments range from tutoring and interactive games to relying more on auditory learning and using bigger text or colored paper to make reading easier. But there hasn’t been a way to correct the underlying brain differences causing the disorder. Until now.
Dysolve began testing patented technology in 2014 to reprocess students’ brains and transition them out of special education, and by 2023 expanded nationwide to individual subscribers and schools. The technology tailors its program to each individual’s learning needs and abilities, making it the only AI system for diagnosing and correcting dyslexia.
Dysolve co-founder Coral Hoh, a PhD in linguistics, talks about her interest in dyslexia, artificial intelligence’s ability to change the brain and the challenges of getting people to trust new technology.
Q: As a linguistics expert, what was it about dyslexia that interested you?
A: When I started working with children and families in New York, it was heartbreaking. The schools couldn’t help them. People think about dyslexia as a reading difficulty, but the problem is really with language processing. The processes aren’t running efficiently in the linguistic system in the brain. This is the biggest and costliest problem in education. The problem is that they were not able to get to the source of the processing difficulty. Now we are able to do that. For the first time, we can locate where these processing inefficiencies are for individuals. And because we can do that, we can correct dyslexia.
Q: How does Dysolve work?
A: The whole program is game-based. We recommend that students use it five days a week and it’s 15 to 30 minutes a day. In the first month, you really get to know what the processing difficulties are and at what level. The major issues would be identified in the first two to three weeks of evaluation. The AI system is really trying to figure out how the child is processing language. For example, can the child pull out a particular sound from a word, even if the child doesn’t know how to spell that word? The system wants to find that out and uses very, very small pieces of processes to locate where the problem is.
Q: What is the benefit of using an AI-generated program versus a traditional method for identifying learning disabilities?
A: A traditional evaluation is between $5,000-$10,000 per child. This is AI doing the work. Every session that a child has with the AI system is evaluation, whereas with schools, they can only do it one time at the beginning. And that’s why there is a disconnect between where the child may be and what new issues may have come up. Dysolve can track all of that and that’s why it’s so much more efficient, that’s why it’s cost effective because you can get children out of special education.
Q: What is the data showing you? Does it work?
A: Because it is a finite program, we have shown that we can get children out of their reading difficulties in one to two years. The students say that what the teachers were teaching them didn’t make sense. Now it makes sense. These students who were using Dysolve in primary school and middle school, they went to high school and they were surprised they could be high honor students and now they’re in college. They’re coming forward to tell the stories that this can be a remarkable transformation because it’s not just about the academic piece. It’s about attitude, motivation, the whole person changes if you can change the brain. For the first time, we can change the brain.
Q: How would you address the public’s concern about AI and privacy?
A: I think the public needs to realize that there are different types of AI. Some of them may be bad. But in different industries, experts may be working in very narrow areas to solve very narrow problems. When we use student data, it’s only for the child’s program. No one else gets access to it. When Dysolve AI interacts with the child, it’s building a database for that one child. And that is not going to be shared with the others. There’s no human analyst even looking at it.
Q: What was one of the biggest challenges when developing this new technology?
A: The challenges were not technological. I think the biggest challenge is getting it to all students. School administrators have to be receptive. And I think that governors in all states should listen to people who are new players in education rather than just listen to people who have been advising them all along because we have spent decades using the same method and not getting the result. Let’s not wait another school year. Let’s just do it.
Profile
Name: Coral Hoh
Position: Co-founder of Dysolve
Education: PhD in linguistics from the University of Delaware and a bachelor’s from the Science University of Malaysia.
Residence: Hyde Park, New York
Five things about Coral Hoh
- She was born in Malaysia.
- She likes to swim to help with stress and think through ideas.
- She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, Malay, Japanese and some French.
- She loves gardening.
- She’s a history buff.