Unscrambling the learning process

By Helyn Trickey
CNN

(CNN) -- Albert Einstein had it. So did Winston Churchill.

The famed scientist, who changed our concepts of time and space, struggled to connect words. Churchill, who stared down a dictator and rallied a nation, stumbled over his syllables.

Both had dyslexia, a complex language-based disorder that may affect as many as 15 percent of the general population.

Dyslexia's characteristics vary nearly as much as its sufferers. For some, it may mean seeing words backwards - "was" turns into "saw," for example. Others may struggle with visual and audio problems, splice words or strain to assemble simple sentences.

Dyslexics also share some traits -- low self-esteem, frustration in the classroom and a feeling that somehow they just aren't as smart as their peers.

But a new study, published on the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences Web site, offers encouraging results in the understanding and treatment of dyslexia. It may even change the way children with this disability are taught in the classroom, researchers say.

Researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland said reading skills in a group of students judged reading-impaired improved markedly after using an audiovisual method that increases neural activity in the brain.

Working with 48 children, scientists divided the youngsters into two sets: a control group did no special audiovisual learning and a training group given a series of specialized computer games.

By study's end, the training group read an average 2.5 more words correctly than the control group, according to Teija Kujala, a senior scientist with the University of Helsinki's Cognitive Brain Disorders Unit. She considers the difference a significant number.

Those same children also read faster than the control group, averaging about one second ahead of their peers not involved in the training.

Playing games

The specially designed computer games in the study were administered for only 10 minutes twice a week for seven weeks.

One game, for instance, showed a child two visual patterns on a screen. After several seconds, the computer would generate a non-speech sound that corresponded to one of the patterns. The child had to indicate which pattern was being played.

The games amounted to a simplified form of reading, forcing the child to associate a symbol with a sound, says Kujala.

"With this program, the child doesn't need to go into such difficult discrimination. They just have to find a general pattern," says Kujala.

"I think the study is interesting," says Glenn Rosen, professor of neurology (neuroscience) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

He agrees that the children in the training group made significant progress using this type of training, but is quick to point out that the long-term benefits for children in this study are not clear.

"As a rule of thumb ... kids tend to get better at things they are trained to do," says Rosen. "But does it stick? I can train a bunch of kids on words that are pretty tough phonetically, and a couple of weeks later they do really well."

But the proof comes when new words with the same phonetic oddities are introduced, says Rosen. Rarely do the children transfer the principle of what they've learned to the new words, he says.

"It is like they (kids) are starting at baseline," he says.

Part of the problem stems from dyslexia's origins; it's an incredibly complicated disorder with different causes.

Our brains are not programmed to learn how to read, says Rosen, so any number of potential pitfalls -seeing words improperly, hearing disorders or even brain malformations -- can trigger dyslexia.

Kujala agrees with Rosen that the study needs to be repeated to see if its initial encouraging results stand the test of time.

If the audiovisual training proves long-lasting, it could portend a fundamental change in classroom training, Kujala says. Using computers, teachers could tailor learning programs according to each dyslexic student's limitations.

Rosen, who says finding a simple solution for such an involved disorder may be the stuff of dreams, is cautious. Still, he applauds the research.

Research that may, one day, help another Einstein or Churchill.

Adult learning disabilities
Moving beyond humiliation
October 23, 2000
Finding the strengths in students who struggle
November 3, 1999

The International Dyslexia Association Web Site
The Dyslexia Institute
Learning Disabilities Association of America

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