Introduction
The article concentrates on an examination of three methods of intervention for the regulation of developmental dyslexia. The participants were recruited students from Italy with an average age in the neighborhood of ten years, with an overall diversity of eight to fourteen. The total number of samples was twenty-four, divided into two equal groups of twelve. Thus, participants with developmental dyslexia were randomly assigned to the two groups to maintain the purity of the experiment but with a balanced model (Cancer et al., 2020). This model assumes the approximately equal presence of the same dyslexia subtypes in each group, children of either gender, and an approximate match in mean age.
Discussion
The three main types of intervention discussed in the article and used in the experiment have different features. These are Rhythmic Reading Training, Action VideoGame Training, and Visual Hemisphere-Specific Stimulation (Cancer et al., 2020). The first RRT intervention focused on developing timing and rhythm as key criteria for normalizing reading for children with developmental dyslexia. Thus, clarity and evenness of reading were the main criteria that should affect reading comprehension and practice rhythmicity. AVG involved commercial video games that aimed to improve visual analysis and attention while maintaining the necessary reaction time. Participants played these games to practice reading and in an attempt to realign their cognitive abilities to optimize their reading later on.
On the other hand, the third method of intervention involves some level of diversification of the process. VHSS involves a tachistoscopic presentation of words in the participant’s visual hemisphere to stimulate the brain’s opposite hemisphere (Cancer et al., 2020). The right hemisphere, in this context, is responsible for analysis and perception, and the left hemisphere is responsible for linguistic anticipation, and switching between these areas should help reduce dyslexia. It was implemented using rapidly flashing words on the screen and organized by a special computer program (Cancer et al., 2020). The response time was set short enough that the participant did not have time to center his/her gaze and had to use peripheral vision.
The main dependent variables were psycholinguistic and neuropsychological measures of participants’ performance. They were responsible for the accuracy, including speed and clarity in the context of processed word lists, and considered word length and frequency differences (Cancer et al., 2020). They were related to assessing the speed of access to the child’s internal knowledge and recorded in the context of the auxiliary RAN test. Neuropsychological parameters were general parameters and included global reading accuracy, phonological awareness, and reading speed and were assessed in the pre- and post-study context for both groups for control and comparison.
As an outcome of the study, it was evident that there was an increase in the scores of the examinees on all three methods. However, the RRT is rated as the most effective of the methods and can be recommended for use (Cancer et al., 2020). It has the greatest impact on reading speed when focusing the other methods on accuracy. Nevertheless, its effectiveness is higher when necessary to develop phonological awareness, and it has the best result in this indicator in both groups. As for AVG and VHSS, they are much more applicable in helping patients with rapid naming problems.
The discussed study and its limited number of participants indicate the limitations of this experiment. In addition, there were no experimental activities related to testing auditory abilities and correlating them with reading abilities. Moreover, the timing of the experiment in a three- or four-week format may not be sufficient to show the most accurate results. Thus, some variables may have been incorrectly rounded or interpreted.
Conclusion
As a use for practice, however, this study is quite useful. Students with developmental dyslexia may be exposed to RRT as a reasonably effectively validated method. Moreover, it may be possible to take on additional development to incorporate rhythm and timing practices into various disciplines not directly related to reading – for example, math or science. Further research is also needed to help dyslexic students with dyslexia with more sampling and timing to develop the most effective method.
Reference
Cancer, A., Bonacina, S., Antonietti, A., Salandi, A., Molteni, M., & Lorusso, M. L. (2020). The effectiveness of interventions for developmental dyslexia: Rhythmic reading training compared with hemisphere-specific stimulation and action video games. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(1158), 1-15. Web.