CHILDREN with dyslexia need not be doomed to a life of reading difficulties, even though there is generally a genetic component to the disorder, scientists said yesterday.

New research in the United States has suggested that the brains of dyslexics can be “jump-started” with an intense three-week course of training.

The new technique, developed by Virginia Berninger and Elizabeth Aylward of the University of Washington in Seattle, concentrates on teaching dyslexic children to recognise the relationships between a word’s letters, sounds and meaning.

After three weeks of such training, the brains of dyslexic children start to work in similar fashion to those of children without any reading disability, a study involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans has shown.

Dr Berninger, who presented the results to the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Seattle yesterday, said that the method appeared to work by teaching dyslexic children to use the most appropriate parts of the brain to process different aspects of what they read.

She said: “Most people think words are just words, but the human brain uses three neural circuits to code words in three forms, not just their meaning.

“The teaching that gave dyslexic brains the jump-start was unique in that it made every aspect of reading words explicit. It drew attention to the sound, meaning and written form of words, and showed how to interrelate them.”

Dr Aylward said the fMRI scans showed that the training greatly enhanced brain activity in several regions that were usually relatively inactive in dyslexic children.

More and more evidence suggests that dyslexia has a strong genetic component, but that this predisposition to reading difficulty can be overridden by carefully constructed teaching programmes, the scientists said.

Dr Berninger said: “Just because there is a genetic basis to dyslexia, doesn’t mean dyslexics can’t learn to read. These children’s brains can function normally with extra help.”

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