Reading problems and treatments with dyslexia - is it too late for remedy in adulthood?

Abstract

Dyslexia, a specific learning disorder associated with reading and writing, has been under concern in recent years. More and more students are found and identified as having this learning disability. Some might not have chances to promptly remedy the learning difficulties and they in turn grow up with persisting learning problems. Previous studies have shown that phonological treatment is beneficial to both dyslexic children and children at risk for dyslexia. Can this treatment be applied to a dyslexic adult as well? This study is a case study on the effects of phonological training on a young dyslexic adult who displayed reading dyslexic symptoms in English. A short-term, tailor-made phonological training programme was designed and given to the subject. Results indicate that the subject had improvement in English reading after the training and had increased phonological awareness. The subject demonstrated increased alphabetic knowledge and phonological decoding skills in the post-training test, particularly in consonantal sound decoding and phoneme blending.