Dyslexia: towards a new treatment?

Can reading performance of dyslexic readers be improved with auditory rhythmic training? A key ingredient for reading is the mapping of graphemes (letters) to phonemes (sounds). Thus, correct representation of speech sounds is critical for reading. At the same time, rhythmic brain activity seems to be crucial for language comprehension. In that way, comprehension is hindered when there is deficient alignment between brain rhythms and rhythms of perceived speech. It was suggested that developmental dyslexia is caused by a dysfunctional alignment of rhythmic brain activity to linguistic units in speech (phonemes). Particularly, a sampling deficit at 30 Hz was discovered in dyslexic adults, which, in turn, may lead to impaired phonological processing or phonological deficit, i.e., difficulties in processing the sounds of speech. When correct phonological presentations are lacking, learning the mapping between graphemes and phonemes, and thus, reading acquisition may be difficult. A possible rehabilitation for developmental dyslexia is the realignment of rhythmic brain activity to the rhythms of speech. RnDys assesses the efficiency of an auditory rhythmic training aimed at realigning auditory and brain rhythms. It is a collaborative project involving speech therapists, creators of an existing rhythmic training solution Iologo® and researchers of the Hearing Institute (Institut de l’Audition, Paris 12). RnDys aims at improving the reading performance of dyslexic children. Lien : https://research.pasteur.fr/en/project/fr-etude-rndys-une-stimulation-auditive-rythmique-peut-elle-ameliorer-les-performances-en-lecture-des-lecteurs-dyslexiques/