As the popular slogan states, "reading is fundamental."

正如那句谚语说的，“阅读是基础。”

But for many kids with dyslexia, learning to read is a struggle.

但对于那些有阅读障碍的孩子来说，学习阅读是种挑战。

Simply put, children with reading disorders have trouble recognizing words and letters on the page.

简单的说，有阅读障碍的孩子是很难识别书本上的单词和字母的。

And although reading difficulty has been studied for over 100 years, scientists have never determined a specific cause.

尽管科学家们针对这个问题已经研究了100多年，但还是没能给出一个确切的原因。

Over the past twenty years, however, researchers have made significant strides.

在过去的20年中，科研人员们已经取得了重大进步。

Many agree that the disorder can be best explained by understanding the mechanics of reading.

他们中的很多都同意如果阅读的机制被理解的话，阅读障碍就能被解读。

When a child learns to read, she begins to associate the shapes of letters with sounds, and then string the sounds together to form words.

当一个孩子学着去阅读的时候，她首先会把单词的形状跟读音联系起来，然后再将这些读音拼到一起组合成新单词。

When a learning reader sees the letters C-A-T on the page, she begins by recognizing that the letter "C" makes a "kuh" sound, A makes an "ahh" sound, and so on.

当一个初学者看到书本上的单词C-A-T时，她首先会注意到字母"C"发"kuh"的音，字母”A”发 "ahh"的音。

These basic sounds are called phonemes, and the ability to manipulate them is called phonological awareness.

这些基本的发音叫做音素，而运用音素的能力叫做语音认知。

Many researches now believe that for children with reading disorders, the problem has to do with impaired phonological awareness.

现在，很多研究人员认为，对于那些有阅读障碍的孩子来说，这些问题与削弱语音意识有关。

Such children may know what a cat is and be able to describe it in detail, but when it comes to sounding out the written word "CAT" the parts of their brains responsible for processing phonemes just don't work as well as they should.

这样的孩子会知道猫长什么样儿，甚至能够很细致地去描述，但是当看到"CAT"一词读出来时，他们大脑中负责处理音素的部分反应地就没那么快了。

Many reading disorders seem to have nothing to do with intelligence.

许多阅读障碍似乎与智力因素是无关的。

Albert Einstein was dyslexic, and he turned out to be pretty bright.

Albert Einstein就有阅读障碍，但事实证明他很聪明。

The good news is that with proper training, nearly all children can learn to read with proficiency.

令人欣慰的是，适当的训练几乎可以让所有的孩子都能做到熟练地阅读。

And that, as we know, is fundamental.

那就是，我们所说的，基础。