The following is a synopsis of a paper published in the peer review journal, Dyslexia, in February of 2003. Authored by Professors David Reynolds and Helen Hambly, of the University of Exeter School of Education, and Professor Rod Nicholson of the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield, it is an independent evaluation of DORE Achievement Centers' exercise-based remediation program.
The article refers to DORE Achievements Centers as DDAT (Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, and Attention Treatment), as it is known in the U.K. The actual paper is approximately 50 pages in length and can be obtained by contacting the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 1 Oldlands Way, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, PO22 9SA, UK.
By David Reynolds, Roderick I. Nicolson and Helen Hambly
Ten to twenty percent of children suffer from learning difficulties such as failure to read and write at the current grade level, difficulties with spelling, delays in skill acquisition, and automatization deficits. The longer a skill takes to acquire, the more disadvantaged a dyslexic child will be.
Cognitive neuroscience discoveries have linked learning difficulties to abnormal functioning of the cerebellum. It is possible to retrain the cerebellum so that it becomes more normal, therefore improving reading, writing, spelling, skill execution and motor tasks among others.
Reynolds and Nicolson used a case/control design to investigate the effects of the DDAT exercise regime, which uses a non-medical exercise-based approach to treating learning difficulties. The exercises focus on developing the cerebellum by using sensory integration. Thirty-five children who were identified as at-risk for learning difficulties were randomly split into two groups. One group received the DDAT treatment (the intervention group) and the other group received no treatment (the control group). The intervention group performed the DDAT exercise program two times a day for six months. The results were astounding for the DDAT intervention group:
There were no significant changes for the control group. The data suggests that impaired cerebellar, motor and eye movement performance, all of which is linked to cognitive and fine motor skills, do not recover without a specific intervention. The DDAT intervention proved to be successful in the remediation of learning difficulties.