Background
For some kids, slow reading isn't due to problems with being able to hear properly or take apart sounds (i.e., phonological problems), but with tiny time lags in identifying sights and sounds. These time lags--which are only detectable by testing reaction times in milliseconds, which wasn't done till recently--accumulate like compound interest, until their impacts are huge and seemingly inexplicable. Sufferers are often, paradoxically, very bright, since these slight
processing hangups in the early visual and/or auditory systems don't
impair higher cognitive functions.
A simple, standard test that uncovers the visual deficit (RAN, or Random Automatised Naming), has been around for years, but therapists have been uncertain how to deal with a low score. Teaching to the test, for instance, doesn't work. Often, they simply default to phonological methods. Games such as Up Beat and Guitar Hero require the player to coordinate visual and auditory stimulae, and may therefore help reading and other tasks that rely on this skill set. A very similar game to Up Beat was used in a 2011 study (mentioned near the end of the study below) which had encouraging results. References
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Other programs
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