Overcoming Dyslexia: New hope for a cure

There's new hope for dyslexic youth facing the formidable task of
learning to read. Researchers from Rutgers University in Newark, New
Jersey, found that dyslexic children can learn how to activate the part
of the brain critical to reading skills. After attending eight weeks of
special language training, brain scans showed that such training had
improved the children's reading skills.

At the beginning of the study, dyslexic children showed a lack of
activity in the part of the brain that controlled language. The children,
ages 8 to 12, went through a training program to help them correctly
connect sound with letters. By exaggerating and slowing down the sounds,
especially letters that sound similar—such as 'b' in 'boy' and 't'
in 'toy'—the children learned how to differentiate sounds. By the
end of the training, scans showed marked improvement in critical regions
of the brain.

The study was published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.