Sally Shaywitz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sally E. Shaywitz | |
|---|---|
 Shaywitz in 2016 | |
| Born | 1942 (age 82–83) |
| Alma mater | City University of New York Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Yale University |
Sally Shaywitz (born 1942) is an American physician-scientist who is the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale University. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity.[1] Her research provides the framework for modern understanding of dyslexia.
Shaywitz was born and raised in The Bronx.[2] She is the daughter of two Eastern European immigrants.[2] Her father was a dressmaker and her mother a homemaker.[2] She earned her undergraduate degree at City College of New York, and originally considered a career in law.[3] She was accepted early to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.[3] That year her mother was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, and died just before Shaywitz started her medical studies.[2] When Shaywitz joined medical school, she was one of four women in a class of one hundred students.[2] Shaywitz completed her residency in pediatrics and developmental pediatrics.[2] Alongside completing her training, Shaywitz had three children, whom she raised in Westport, Connecticut.[4]
Research and career
Shaywitz started her medical career seeing patients out of her home in suburban Connecticut.[2] She was eventually recruited by Yale University to look after patients with learning disorders, including dyslexia.[2] In 1979 she was recruited by Yale University to see patients with learning disorders, including dyslexia.[5] Her research involves longitudinal epidemiological and neurobiological studies. In 1983 she started tracking a random cohort of children continuously from kindergarten to their current age in their 40s.[1] The longitudinal study data also showed that the achievement gap in reading between typical and dyslexic students occurs early – in first grade and persists. This finding impelled her to develop an evidence-based efficient screener to identify at risk beginning in kindergarten.[1]
In 1983 she started tracking a cohort of people from kindergarten to adulthood, a study which became known as The Connecticut Longitudinal Study.[6] She showed that boys and girls were equally as likely to be affected by dyslexia.[7] These studies allowed Shaywitz to identify a neural signature of dyslexia, as well as demonstrating that dyslexia is not simply a reading disorder young people 'outgrow'.[6] According to Shaywitz, dyslexia arises due to inefficient function in the neural systems responsible for skilled reading.[7] Shaywitz developed the "Sea of Strengths" model, which explains that dyslexia is a deficit in language processing.[2] Her research identified that there is no connection between dyslexia and intelligence so that you can be very smart and still read very slowly.[7]
In 2003 Shaywitz published Overcoming Dyslexia, a book which helps people identify, understand and overcome challenges in reading.[8] In 2020 she, together with her son, psychiatrist, Jonathan Shaywitz, published the much updated Overcoming Dyslexia 2nd edition.[9]
Awards and honors
- 1995 Albert Einstein College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus Award[10]
- 1998 Elected member of the National Academy of Medicine[11]
- 1998 Society for Women's Health Research Achievement Award in Women's Health[3]
- 1999 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Sidney Berman Award[12]
- 2003 Margot Marek Book Award[13]
- 2004 City College of New York Townsend Harris Medal[14]
- 2005 Williams College Honorary Doctor of Science degree[15]
- 2012 Samuel Torrey Orton Award (jointly with Bennett Shaywitz)[16]
- 2017 Liberty Science Center Genius Award[17]
- 2020 Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science[18]
