MONDAY, Aug. 20, 2001 (HealthDayNews) -- Scientists can help dyslexic children read better with an ironic new method that doesn't involve the printed word.
Finnish researchers say audiovisual drills that employ shapes and sounds can improve scores in children with the reading disorder. They say the therapy boosts activity in areas of the brain integral to the processing of sound, a fundament of language.
A report on the findings appears in the Aug. 21 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A research team led by Teija Kujala, a neuroscientist at the University of Helsinki, started with a group of 48 children, all aged 7, with reading impairments.
The children first were tested to measure their reading accuracy, speed, spelling and how often they missed sounds within words. Not surprisingly, the dyslexic children scored worse across the board than a group of six other children without the condition.
Half the dyslexic children then were given seven weeks of audiovisual training, including 14 short sessions in which they matched shapes with sounds on a computer screen.
After the training the children were given brain scans that showed more activity in their auditory cortex, a region responsible for processing sound, than those who didn't undergo the drilling. They also scored significantly better in a second round of reading tests, getting more words correct and reading slightly faster than the untrained group.
Whether the benefits of the training will last after it stops isn't certain, since the study didn't look at this question, Kujala says. "However, it could be expected that the effect of training is something that does not vanish because this is a clear transfer phenomenon from training to another function" -- that is, reading, she says.
Scientists are split as to whether dyslexia is primarily an auditory or a visual problem, Kujala says. "This method presumably works best on the latter type of dysfunction, but more work is needed, comparing the effects of the training program on different types of dyslexia, before we can tell more about this."
If effective, the technique would not be hard to implement on a broad scale, she says. "Since it is simple and computer-based, children learn it easily, and it can be applied already in the first grade."
J. Thomas Viall, executive director of the International Dyslexia Association in Baltimore, says the Finnish report is promising, but he cautions that dyslexia appears to be a condition without a cure. "There isn't going to be cure. There may be a way to help you learn to learn better," but nothing has yet suggested that it can be reversed, Viall says.
What To Do
The International Dyslexia Association estimates that 3 percent to 5 percent of Americans have the disorder, which appears to be inherited.
Some evidence suggests that the signs of dyslexia can be identified in children who have trouble with certain sounds, particularly rhyming, says Viall. He encourages parents to pay attention to their young children's rhyming and phonetic abilities.
To learn more about dyslexia, try the International Dyslexia Association or the Dyslexia Parents Group.
