Abstract
A group of dyslexics with auditory processing difficulties showed significant improvements in language skills following intervention using non-linguistic auditory stimulation to enhance sensitivity and obtain a ‘healthy’ right ear advantage. Twenty–eight participants aged thirteen to seventeen years were divided into three groups: a dyslexic intervention group, a dyslexic control group and a non-dyslexic control group. The intervention used was Johansen Individualised Auditory Stimulation (Johansen IAS). The intervention group listened individually for ten minutes daily over fifteen to eighteen months to CDs of computer-generated music customised according to the results of their hearing tests. Improvements in technical reading (decoding) and spelling abilities in the dyslexic intervention group support a link between basic sensory perception skills and language-related skills at a phonological level. The study supports the use of non-linguistic auditory stimulation to optimise auditory perception, and the notion that such interventions benefit language in dyslexics whose auditory sensitivity and laterality is atypical. Further research is suggested to investigate the link between fundamental auditory processing abilities and our ability to learn and process language. The importance of assessing basic auditory perception, and the potential for its ‘re-education’ to optimise phonological awareness (widely accepted as a crucial process in literacy) is highlighted.
Highlights
It is widely accepted that dyslexia has many hidden features which may be present in the absence of overt reading and spelling problems, the best known features of which are difficulties with phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed.There are several approaches to the identification of the underlying deficits in dyslexia
The current study aims to provide evidence that the principles used by Johansen Individualised Auditory Stimulation successfully optimise auditory perception, and create a right ear advantage in dyslexics whose development may have been delayed or disrupted leading to auditory processing deficits and subsequent language impairments
This study shows significant improvements in language skills in a group of dyslexics shown to have auditory processing difficulties, through a method of intervention that successfully uses non-linguistic auditory stimulation to enhance sensitivity and obtain a ‘healthy’ right ear advantage
Summary
It is widely accepted that dyslexia has many hidden features which may be present in the absence of overt reading and spelling problems, the best known features of which are difficulties with phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed.There are several approaches to the identification of the underlying deficits in dyslexia. It is widely accepted that dyslexia has many hidden features which may be present in the absence of overt reading and spelling problems, the best known features of which are difficulties with phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. The phonological approach suggests a problem with the analysis of speech sounds (an individual’s ability to attend to, recognise and store components of actual language), which affects phoneme segmentation and the ability for effective grapheme-phoneme mapping (Bradley & Bryant; Vellutino; Snowling; Ramus, Rosen, Dakin et al [1,2,3,4]). An alphabetic spelling system relies on the effective representation, storage and retrieval of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and these researchers showed that if components are poorly represented to start with reading and literacy will be affected. A dysfunction of the left-hemisphere perisylvian brain area is indicated, distorting the effectiveness of phonological representations, and phonological and orthographic correspondences
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