Deutsche Apothekerzeitung 142nd volume 25.04.2002 No. 17

Neuropsychologist Reinhard Werth from the Institute of Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the LMU Munich has developed a learning programme to combat dyslexia. Schoolchildren affected by reading difficulties can be treated individually on the computer. Werth originally used the method of visual field determination to treat children who had problems seeing due to brain disorders.

Reading is a complex process in which the brain has to perform various tasks: the fixation of a part of a word, the recognition of letters, words and word segments, as well as the gaze jump to the next part of a word. In all of these processes, errors in brain function can occur, which then lead to reading difficulties, known as dyslexia. With the help of various reading exercises and lots of training, it is usually possible to compensate for the weakness, but this is not easy for the children affected. Perhaps the computer will be able to help them with reading in future. The learning programme developed by Werth was designed in such a way that all possible phenomena can be dealt with. The neuropsychologist first uses the computer-assisted learning and diagnostic programme to investigate the individual reason for a child’s reading difficulties.

When “Thursday” becomes “Thursday” The programme can display letters, word segments and whole words in such a way that the cause of a reading disorder can be identified. The cursor shows the children where or what they should be reading. A common cause of dyslexia is, for example, excessive eye jumps over ten letters, says Werth. This causes the reader to make a big leap with their eyes to the next word segment, which means they can no longer see some letters. “For example, instead of Thursday, they only read Thursday,” explains the neuropsychologist. The programme can be used to train away this disorder by marking the text to be read in colour and making the following word segments on the right only faintly visible. Over time, the contrast on the right is then increased and the word segment becomes increasingly easier to read. “The effect of the learning programme varies,” says Werth. In difficult cases, the children need six months to see a positive effect. For some, however, half an hour is enough.

Translated by celeco