Brain workouts for poor readers work

PITTSBURGH, June 16 (UPI) -- Reading calisthenics aimed to help problem readers improved reading and changed the way the brain works, U.S. researchers say.

Using brain scan imaging, researchers at the the Carnegie Mellon's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging found poor readers achieved brain activation levels seen in skilled readers after 100 hours of extra training.

"This study demonstrates how the plasticity of the human brain can work for the benefit of remedial learning," study senior author Marcel Just says in a statement. "We are at the beginning of a new era of neuro-education."

The researchers say poor readers initially have less activation than good readers in the parietotemporal area of the brain, which is the region responsible for decoding the sounds of written language and assembling them into words and phrases that make up a sentence.

The training of 25 fifth-graders who read poorly from the Pittsburgh area included both word decoding exercises in which students were asked to recognize the word in its written form and tasks using reading comprehension strategies.

"With the right kind of intensive instruction, the brain can begin to permanently rewire itself and overcome reading deficits, even if it can't entirely eliminate them," Just said.

The research is published online in the journal Neuropsychologia.