Training helps dyslexic
brains work 'normally'

For the first time, researchers have shown that the brains of dyslexic children can be rewired -- after undergoing intensive remediation training -- to function more like those found in normal readers. The training program, which is designed to help dyslexics understand rapidly changing sounds that are the building blocks of language, helped the participants become better readers after just eight weeks.

For the first time, researchers have shown that the brains of dyslexic children can be rewired -- after undergoing intensive remediation training -- to function more like those found in normal readers.

The training program, which is designed to help dyslexics understand rapidly changing sounds that are the building blocks of language, helped the participants become better readers after just eight weeks.

"It was very dramatic to see the huge differences that occurred in the brains of these children," said Stanford psychology Professor John Gabrieli, one of the study's authors. "The intervention, although substantial, only covered eight weeks. One note of optimism about the study is that such a limited intervention can have a substantial effect on reading scores."

Brain imaging

Brain imaging scans of the children who participated in the training showed that critical areas of the brain used for reading were activated for the first time, and that they began to function more normally. Furthermore, additional regions of the brain were activated in what the researchers believe the dyslexics may have used as a compensatory process as they learned to read more fluently.

Gabrieli said the study's findings may help demonstrate how different kinds of reading programs can tackle various problems faced by poor readers. "This is showing us for the first time the specific changes in the brains of children receiving this sort of treatment, and how that is coupled with the improvement they have in reading and language ability," he said.

"We're hoping that this becomes an additional tool to understand how educational remediation programs alter children's abilities, as they must do, by changing the way their brains process information." Study co-author Paula Tallal, professor of neuroscience at Rutgers University and a founder of Scientific Learning Corporation, the Oakland-based company that designed the program, said the findings are also important because it is the first time a commercial product has been proven scientifically to work using standardized educational testing and brain imaging.

Scientific Learning's computer program, Fast ForWord Language, focuses on helping children become more fluent at processing the rapidly changing sounds, she said.

Distinguishing letters that rhyme

Dyslexics have trouble distinguishing between letters that rhyme, such as 'B' and 'D.' "If you hear the sound 'ba' in butter and 'da' in Doug, the only way we know the difference is in the first 40 milliseconds of the onset of those sounds," Tallal explained.

"The ability to extract the sounds out of words is what is called phonological awareness. We have to be aware that words can be broken into sounds, called phonemes, and that these sounds have to be identified with letters."

This process might appear intuitive, but it is a learned skill, Tallal said. The training program the children took part in was targeted at helping them learn to process and interpret the very rapid sequence of sounds within words and sentences by exaggerating and slowing them down.

"These are the building blocks you have to have in place before you can learn to read," Tallal said. "I think Fast ForWord is building the scaffold for reading, and doing it based on scientific knowledge of the most efficient and effective way of helping the brain learn."

The results

Following the training, the dyslexic children's scores went up in a number of language and reading tests, Gabrieli said. "The study supported the idea that for some children, getting training on just simply processing rapid sounds is a route to becoming much more fluent and capable readers," he said.

In addition, activation of the children's brains fundamentally changed, becoming much more like that of good readers. "We see that the brains of these children are remarkably plastic and adaptive, and it makes us hopeful that the best language intervention programs in the future can alter the brains in fundamentally helpful ways," he said.

Fast ForWord Language