World
of Dyslexia
Newsletter
October 2007
Newsletter
October 2007
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World
of Dyslexia Newsletter October 2007 |
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Research
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Italians Develop New Neurological Test for Dyslexia - Italian scientists have produced a new test for the early diagnosis of developmental dyslexia. Through the recording and analysis of the electrical brain activity by an electroencephalogram (EEG), Italian experts have managed to estimate in which reading phase the delay occurs and which brain areas are activated anomalously compared to healthy contemporaries. The scientists studied 53 non-dyslexic children and 39 dyslexic children aged between eight and 13 years. A comparison of the two groups showed that in the children of the dyslexic group, the brain regions which are responsible for the letter-sound association of reading strategy, showed reduced activity compared to the control group.
New Phonics Research - Reading specialists have often pitted phonics against holistic word recognition and whole language approaches in the war over how to teach children to read. However, a new study by researchers at New York University shows that the three reading processes do not conflict, but, rather, work together to determine speed.
Hidden Method of Reading Revealed -
Left and right human eyes often focus on different parts of words at the same time during reading, scientists say.
Until now it has been widely believed that both eyes look at and send information back to the brain about exactly the same part of the page.
Researchers who used sophisticated eye tracking equipment to disprove this assumption said unravelling the processes involved in reading would lead to new ways to help those with reading disorders such as dyslexia.
Tests on volunteers by Prof Simon Liversedge, a cognitive psychologist at the Centre for Visual Cognition at University of Southampton, found the eyes are often fixed on letters two characters apart in a word during reading.
Timing of 'Connections' in Brain is Key -
Using new software developed to investigate how the brains of dyslexic children are organized, University of Washington researchers have found that key areas for language and working memory involved in reading are connected differently in dyslexics than in children who are good readers and spellers.
"Some brain regions are too strongly connected functionally in children with dyslexia when they are deciding which sounds go with which letters," said Todd Richards, a UW neuroimaging scientist and lead author of a study published in the current issue of the Journal of Neurolinguistics ...
The way phonics is often taught over focuses on single letters and not the letter groups that go with sounds as well. Teaching children with dyslexia to read requires a different approach, one that stresses knowledge of spelling-sound relationships." 
Can Fish Oils Really Improve Your Mind? -
In Boots, Tesco, Superdrug and branches of Lloyds pharmacy you see them, marketed like sweets with brand names that leave no ambiguity about their purpose ...
Dr Alex Richardson is baffled by the loophole. 'Nobody has yet done a trial that looks at unselected children,' she confirms. 'Studies have focused on kids with specific difficulties,' she adds, referring to the handful of small but properly controlled trials that have taken place - using children with ADHD, dyslexia, etc. Of these, three showed slight improvements in children who took the fish oil, and two didn't - hardly a ringing endorsement of omega 3 as a brain food.
Brain and Behavior - the Language Barrier -
Why do Italians with dyslexia have an inbuilt advantage compared with English children? Does dyslexia really exist? Of course. All over the world, it is recognised as a specific learning difficulty intimately linked to the way we process language. Recent scientific research has found that dyslexia reflects atypical development in learning the sound structure of language – its “phonology”.
The neural inefficiencies which result in dyslexia are shared across languages, with a similar prevalence of 5 to 7 per cent. Dyslexics in Chinese, French and Italian show similar characteristics. Nevertheless, its manifestation differs according to language. This is because of syllable structure and spelling systems.