Exercises during pre-school age may prevent dyslexia
Friday 22nd August, 2008
The characteristics of linguistic development in children are the early signs of the risk of developing reading and writing disabilities i.e. dyslexia.
Exercises may prove an effective way to tackle the challenges faced by children when they first learn to read, new Finnish research suggests.
The research looked at how to predict dyslexia by comparing 107 kids with one or two dyslexic parents and a control group who had no hereditary disposition to the condition. The study followed the children from birth to school age.
Half of the children with dyslexic parents found reading and writing more challenging than the control group. However, with specific learning exercises that are fun, the difficulties children experience when first learning to read and write and be significantly reduced.
A computer game-like learning environment has been developed to aid preventive dyslexic training and is available on the internet at no cost. The programme is especially recommended for children with a perceived risk of dyslexia or those who have difficulty learning to read in the first grade of pre-school.
The optimum time to start the programme is at the latter part of pre-school age but even children who have started school will benefit. The programme is so far only available in Finland and Sweden but alternative medicine and complementary therapy has some effective and beneficial treatments for people with dyslexia such as Reiki, Craniosacral therapy and Kinesiology.
