Children are struggling at school because they don’t know if they are left or right-handed

The proportion of infants arriving at school not knowing whether they are right or left-handed has trebled in the past decade, researchers say. The situation has been made worse by excessive parental fears, driven by cot death, about letting them lie or crawl on their front.

“The most important thing parents can do is ensure that when they are being observed during the day, they are given a chance to be on their front.” Previous research by Portwood has found that 57% of three-year-olds are unable to carry out tasks expected at their age. She cited children’s inactive lifestyles as “a major contributory factor”.

Other experts have also raised concerns about children’s development. “Brain development is at its most rapid between the age of zero and three,” said Aric Sigman, a psychologist and a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He pointed to research showing that for every hour a day a three-year-old watches television, there is a 9% rise in attention problems.

Sigman has described television as “the greatest unacknowledged public health issue of our time”. He also believes video games have led to children spending less time working with their hands and failing to grasp concepts such as weight, volume and measurement.

“By using your hands, you can actually become more civilised,” said Sigman. “These are problems likely to persist in life, they are rather indelible.”

The problem was highlighted at the Conservative party conference when a restaurateur told a session addressed by David Willetts, the shadow skills secretary, that she was unable to find British employees under 25 who had the dexterity to peel a potato.

Source: Times Online, UK
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article5114484.ece

Parents spend a lot of money on their children’s care, education and extracurricular activities to help them reach their potential and to give them the best possible start to their lives.

If an infant’s relationship with their carers is inconsistent or unstable, they won’t get the ongoing, responsive interactions required for the healthy development of these capacities. If you have a less attentive care - when an infant is rarely noticed, touched or talked to - you lessen their ability to withstand stress, to learn, to control emotions and develop into healthy adults.

Knowing this, we should welcome the recent comments by the children’s author Mem Fox about the importance of good care for our babies and infants. The responses to her comments show the community is justifiably concerned about how we provide the quality of care young children need for optimal development.

At a time when the nation is deciding the best model for a national paid maternity leave scheme, it is timely that the needs of the child become the central focus in any decisions that are made around care. Yes, some parents will always have to return to work early. However, a well-supported paid parental leave scheme of at least 12 months would make this an exception rather than the rule it may become.

If we continue to abandon our parents to find their own unsatisfactory way out of the dilemma of working and having a family, then premature return to work will occur.

The more time parents spend with their children, the more they learn how to be better parents. The repeated interactions parents have with their children help them to become better at responding to their baby’s needs and identifying problems. When parents are in prolonged employment during their children’s early years of life, the opportunities to learn these parenting skills can be affected.

We need to find better ways to allow parents to stay at home during the first year of their child’s life, to provide these continuous one-on-one interactions that infants need with their parents for healthy brain development.

However, parents will only take leave from work to spend time with their infants during these critical first few years if they can afford it. We now need a system that supports parents in their role as carers as well as their role as workers.

It is much more cost effective and developmentally advantageous to provide parents with paid leave for at least 12 months so they can foster that important one-to-one relationship and nurturing environment that will optimise their baby’s chances during a crucial stage of their early development.

Gillian Calvert is the NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People and Marie Coleman is the spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Australian Women.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
http://tinyurl.com/5aljat

As a child safety measure in the car, its importance could never be underplayed.

Researchers, however, yesterday warned that the convenience of the portable car baby seat is having some far less desirable effects.

They claim many parents are using the chairs to also restrain infants in the home, which in turn is damaging their development.

Such ‘cotton wool’ treatment later leads to poor concentration in the classroom because children’s reflexes have not been sufficiently developed, they say.

The researchers from Liverpool John Moores University examined 120 children aged ten and 11 at a school in West Yorkshire.

The youngsters were given tests in reading, non-verbal reasoning and shortterm memory and split into four groups.

One group took part in a specially designed movement programme, the second did sound therapy, the third did both programmes and the fourth did neither.

The movement programme involved 40 minutes of simple exercises, twice a week, for eight months within normal PE lessons.

Activities included crawling on a mat, hand-to-eye exercises and playground games such as skipping. Eight months later, all 120 children were re-tested.

The children who took part in the movement programme performed ’significantly better’ overall in comparison to the children who did not. Their reading, memory and general reasoning had all improved.

‘People are trying to be too safe but they are causing further problems.’

Meanwhile, the separate music programme involved children listening to classical music through headphones for 30 minutes a day over eight weeks.

The music was filtered to create higher frequencies to help boost the auditory processes, which is the speed at which one can process what’s being heard.

At the end of the experiment, the children performed better in reading than those who had not taken part in the music programme.

‘The Government should consider using movement programmes in schools to iron out difficulties children might have.’

Source: Daily Mail, UK
http://tinyurl.com/69anux

Q: Can you offer activities for my baby? He’s only 2 months old, and most of the time he’s eating or sleeping, but when he’s awake and content, I’d like to interact with him in a meaningful way.

A: Here are five things that will hold your baby’s interest:

Your face: Babies are fascinated by a face and all it can do. Your mouth moves and makes sounds, your eyes blink, your cheeks puff out, your head nods and shakes and your tongue moves in and out.

The very words you speak, your inflection and intonation all hold a baby’s interest. Your head and face are readily available to engage your child in a context of love and social interaction. From birth, your baby is interested in copying your facial expressions.

A mobile: Most parents purchase a mobile to hang over their baby’s crib. But babies, like all of us, get bored. So if they look at the very same mobile day after day, they’ll soon lose interest.

Therefore, change the appearance of the mobile from time to time (not necessarily daily). So if your baby’s mobile has five horses that dance around in a circle, one day tie ribbons around their necks. Another day add a bell.

Balls: Anything that moves, babies notice. Nothing moves more easily than a ball that ricochets off furniture, bumps into walls and rolls under tables and through tubes. Need a tube? Go to the post office and purchase a large postal tube. When your baby tires of balls rolling around the floor, drop a ball through the tube.

Blocks: Once your baby can sit well without tumbling over, purchase blocks. They need to be small enough for your baby to hold but big enough so that he can’t swallow them. With the blocks, play “stack and tumble.” Your part of this game is to stack the blocks; your baby’s part is to knock them over. See how many blocks you can stack before your baby moves his hand quickly to knock them over. It’s all about cause and effect. It’s as if the child is saying over and over, “When I hit the blocks, they tumble over.”

Vary the play by putting the blocks in a container; your child will love dumping them out. Once your baby can pull herself up to a standing position, stack the blocks on the coffee table. He’ll love to knock the blocks to the floor, learning about gravity as she watches them drop.

Disappearance: A major part of your child’s early learning agenda the first year of life revolves around disappearance, realizing that objects and people continue to exist even when out of sight. Purchase a jack-in-the-box; play peek-a-boo; and later, when your child becomes mobile, play hide and seek. There are so many variations of these games, and there’s no end to your child’s interest in them. You’ll likely tire of them far sooner than your child.

For more of my ideas on infant cognitive development and accompanying activities, go to BabyZone.com and search for “Your Brilliant Baby, Week by Week.”

Source: Seattle Times, United States
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/parenting/2008132733_faull23.html

Young children can often prove to be an exciting adventure as well as a mighty challenge for parents. Michael H. Popkin, Ph.D., Betsy Gard, Ph.D., and Marilyn Montgomery, Ph.D., authors of 1, 2, 3, 4 Parents! Parenting Children Ages 1 to 4, emphasize that parenting is a “job” — one that entails specific skills and tasks.

A parent’s job is to protect and teach their children to survive and thrive in the society in which they live and to guide their children through their developmental stages. During this time, the child’s “job” is to fully experience each stage of development, to play, to learn and to grow.

A child’s development occurs rapidly from one to four years of age. The better parents understand the different stages of development the better they understand what is age-appropriate and realistic to expect …; and the easier the parent’s job will be! The authors of 1, 2, 3, 4 Parents! categorize those stages of development as follows:

Age 1 — The Explorer

This stage is self-explanatory — children are into everything! As they begin to gain motor skills, they are learning about the world through touching and mouthing. The job of a parent at this stage requires keeping a child safe while simultaneously providing opportunities for their child to experience the world around them.

Age 2 — The Boss

This stage unfolds when children want to do everything themselves, even though their little bodies may not be ready. There can be a lot of frustration at this stage but if managed in a positive way each challenge helps a child grow. The job of a parent at this stage is to be realistic in expectations of their child’s behavior and skills because it will help preserve a parent’s patience and help guide how to bridge the gap to the child’s next stage.

Age 3 — The Pal

This stage presents itself with questions like “Why?” A child is not only learning from his or her parents, but from other family members and friends as well. The job of a parent is to have clear expectations and create boundaries so that the child can begin to learn the rules of family life and be successful in interaction with their peers.

Age 4 — The Adventurer

This stage unfolds as the child learns what risks are safe and which are not. Allowing a child to exercise his/her independence and judgment while simultaneously teaching boundaries is important for safety — it is a tough balance to strike as a caregiver. It is essential that children experience success as well as failure because both are needed to build their confidence to persevere to try new things.

As a child’s first teacher, a parent guides their child from one developmental stage to the next. Creating an environment for a child’s learning and growth requires skills and techniques. Employing sound teaching strategies in concert with positive disciplinary strategies are necessary for parents to help their children succeed as they encounter the adventures of everyday life and the challenges that may come with them.

Three primary teaching strategies are highlighted in the 1, 2, 3, 4 Parents! curriculum and can be utilized throughout these early stages of development:

1. Choice and Consequences: Present children with a choice of two options. The parent can make the decision as to the choices offered. For example: “Would you like apple juice or orange juice this morning?”

2. ACT: Accept the behavior; Communicate your feelings about the child’s behavior; and Target a positive choice. For example: Accept — I know you like jumping on the bed. Communicate — Beds are for sleeping and we might fall and get hurt. Target — We can line up some pillows on the floor for you to jump on now.

3. When—Then: This strategy will help you get your child to do things they don’t want to do, for example, “When you get your coat on, then we can go outside.”

The key is for the parent to practice …; practice …; practice. Once these strategies are in an adult’s repertoire, they are much easier to use when a challenging parenting situation arises. Along with specific strategies for teaching and positive discipline, building a bond with any child is very important as well as consistency in routines. Children need predictability to feel safe and need to understand what is expected of them to feel secure. If we challenge children in positive ways, they will rise to the occasion.

Given that all children differ in personalities and parents differ in styles of care-giving, finding the balance between these two is the key to success. Remember, parenting is a verb, an action word. It taps every skill imaginable and is one job and adventure after another. The rewards sometimes come in small packages and may sometimes seem few and far between. When parents keep looking, they will discover one treasure after another. (…)

Source: Portsmouth Herald News, NH
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080819/LIFE/808190307

Clumsy children are twice as likely to become obese adults than their more graceful classmates, according to a new study.

Awkward youngsters are more likely to shun exercise and team sports which could lead to their long term weight gain, scientists believe.

More than one in four British adults are now obese, a condition which can increase the risk of developing a number of serious diseases, including diabetes and some forms of cancer.

Researchers looked at the results of more than 11,000 people who took part in a study on child development.

At the age of seven and again at 11 they underwent simple tests to test their hand control, coordination and clumsiness, including how long it took for them to pick up 20 matches.

At the age of 33 the volunteers were weighed and their Body Mass Index (BMI), a calculation of height in comparison to their weight, recorded.

The findings, published online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).show that when other factors, such as their weight as a child, were excluded, clumsy youngsters were twice as likely to go on to become obese as their coordinated classmates.

Healthy people have a BMI of between 20 and 25, while a BMI of more than 30 is defined as obese. BMI is calculated by weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared.

The team behind the research, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, said that one reason for the findings could be that clumsy children are more inclined to avoid sports and other types of exercise.

However, they add that the link could be caused by a range of environmental, cultural, economic and social factors, rather than a single reason.

Dr Ian W Campbell, Honorary Medical Director at Weight Concern, said: “Obesity is a complex problem and has many interacting causes.

“This study shows that a child who is less physically able is more prone to obesity in adult life.

“This may be due to less participation in sports and physical activities, but may in some cases also be due to the underlying causes of their poor coordination.

“While this helps us understand the root causes, it doesn’t change the fundamental problem that we are, as a nation, less active than we should be.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
http://tinyurl.com/6ohkv4

The secret to the academic success of many Asian students starts in the home, with a study of schoolchildren suggesting a regular homework routine carries benefits into the classroom.

The research examined the study habits of three groups of Year 3 students and found that Chinese children spent more time on their homework, completed more work and did it on a more regular basis than Anglo or Pacific Island students.

The study by University of Western Sydney researchers and the NSW Education Department challenges the myth that Chinese students perform better at school because of a cultural disposition to study.

“There has been inadequate attention given to the ways educational attainment is founded on embodied capacities, such as productive stillness and quiet, which are crucial to sustained attention and application in intellectual endeavour,” the report says.

Cathy Garde, a Year 3 teacher at Berala Public School in Sydney’s west, agreed that less attention was paid in recent years to the practicalities of learning, and training young bodies to sit still.

“I often have to start the year teaching the kids work habits, the capability to sit down and focus,” she said. “Some children struggle to control themselves. They don’t have any self-discipline. You get children who come into the classroom and start walking around the room in the middle of a task.”

The report, Cultural Practices and Learning, involved interviews with parents, teachers and 36 students in six Sydney schools, as well as classroom observation.

The study found that 56per cent of the Chinese students spent more than one hour a night on their homework, compared with 24per cent of Anglo children and 35per cent of Pacific Islander students.

But the study says the time spent on homework was not as important as the study routine.

A greater proportion of Chinese students, 40per cent, did homework in their bedroom or study at a desk compared with 13per cent of Anglo students and 25per cent of Islander children, who tended to do their homework sitting on their bed.

Source: The Australian, Australia
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24115399-2702,00.html

A new generation of NSW children is being mollycoddled by their fearful parents, with many children reporting they can no longer ride their bikes.

NSW Commissioner for Children and Young People Gillian Calvert warned that fears over traffic and stranger danger have meant children are missing out on basic life skills and simple pleasures.

“Over the past 10 years we have seen a real reduction in the range at which children can leave their family home and move freely,” Ms Calvert told News Limited.

“Kids tell us they can’t ride their bikes around streets anymore.”

Basic skills such as climbing trees, bike riding and crossing the road are in danger of being lost.

Sports Medicine Unit director Dr Carolyn Broderick said fundamental motor skills were developed through play, as well as balance, co-ordination and strength.

“Children now have a fear that wasn’t there in the past,” she said.

The research showed a significant reduction in free playtime among children, Dr Broderick said.

She said a quarter of parents were actually discouraging their children from playing sport because they were worried about injury.

Source: The Australian, Australia
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23712382-12377,00.html

Check-out marketing is genius - strategically placed goodies at the point of purchase, designed to entice the wandering eyes of children. Add parents who are tired, running late or too scared of a public tantrum to say no, and you’ve got yourself a sale.

My three-year-old son recently weaselled his way into a toy mobile phone at the register, but it was tech talent, not pester power, that earned him the score.

With the ease of an expert, he flipped open the phone and began an imaginary phone call to his grandmother, announcing he had a new “mobo” and arranging a time to visit. It was hard not to reward such creativity.

The gadget now joins his already impressive tech collection - a toy laptop, portable DVD player, digital set-top box, walkie-talkie and a Nintendo Wii, which his father argued would be great exercise thanks to its motion-sensing remote.

Granted, our junior geek comes from a tech-savvy family, but he’s not uncommon among his generation. Tots of the 21st century have been wired from the womb, with the rise of interactive tech toys such as LeapFrog’s learning system, computer tuition that now begins at kindergarten and “switched on” parents role-modelling the digital age of computers, mobiles and portable media.

The question is: how good is that early tech exposure for our kids, and are the bytes and buttons holding them back from important development that can’t be gained on a machine?

Private tech educators such as Computer Gym and ComputerTots, which run weekly half-hour computer classes at pre-schools across the country, argue there are educational rewards from the preschool PC program where three and four-year-olds learn how to open a document, surf the net and navigate through software.

ComputerTots director Sheri Borman, a trained psychologist and mother of three, says their computer classes are preparing pre-schoolers for primary education, introducing them to the building blocks of mathematics and reading.”

The menu that they navigate through is a left-to-right progression like reading, and you can give a character like a robot a sequence of instructions, which is an important part of mathematics,” Mrs Borman says.

The former crisis counsellor refers to more than a dozen research studies that demonstrate pre-school children who are exposed to technology in a structured way have better schoolreadiness skills, better verbal skills and better cognitive skills. In one US study, four-year-olds with computer skills had IQs that were on average 12 points higher.

“Most of the time it’s working on a computer, but it could also be using a digital microscope or a video camera.

“It’s about submerging the children in a technological culture because we don’t want children to be intimidated by (software such as) Adobe Photoshop; we want them, even at kindergarten level, not to be fearful of trying technology.”

Computer Gym’s director Chris Bouwmeester says its pre-school computer classes reach 2000 children nationally, but demand has changed very little in the past 15 years.

What has shifted is parental expectation that early childhood education will include computers.

“One of the biggest restrictions facing parents is having appropriate software that remains engaging for children. Parents might have one or two such titles, but it’s hard to cover the range of topics that we do - that’s one of the reasons parents appreciate the service,” Mr Bouwmeester says.

What both kiddie computer groups agree on is that the ultimate benefit of the tech classes for tots lies not in the curriculum but in the personal interaction and social experience.

“Our teachers are with the children and can build on the learning experience they are getting - very different from plonking a child in front of a computer and letting them go for it,” Mr Bouwmeester says. “The lessons are valuable for children because they are in a group - having a great laugh and sharing discoveries and experiences.”

Leading pediatric researcher and author Professor Frank Oberklaid, who is the director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital, says before the age of five a child needs one thing above all else to fully develop their brain - people.

“What children need more than anything in those early years is relationships so they can learn to socialise, take turns, deal with frustrations. That’s infinitely more important than anything else,” he says.

What concerns him about the rising interest in tech toys and tuition is the unfounded belief that parents are giving their children a head start in learning.

“Do children of today need to learn computer skills? Yes, of course. It’s the new literacy,” Professor Oberklaid says. “But there’s a real concern about “hothousing” - exposing two, three and four-year-olds to stimulating activities like Baby Einstein and flash cards that help teach your child to read by three. There’s no evidence that ‘hothousing’ makes any long-term difference (to education).”

He says the commercialism of “hothousing” is simply preying on the guilt of middle-class parents who want to give children the best of everything, with technology the latest arena in which to compete.

“I’m concerned about the pressure on parents,” Professor Oberklaid says. “Hugh Mackay calls it the ‘overscheduled’ child. I’ve seen it in my patients. Technology is one more pressure on guilty parents.”

Child psychologist Evelyn Field believes working parents and our culture of “busyness” has created a generation of passive parents, who often turn to “cyberia” for baby-sitting.

“Parents are scrambling towards technology. They’re busy and tired and under pressure and a lot of them don’t have the time or energy. They’re putting children in front of the screen, and you can’t blame them,” she says.

Ms Field says the problem with unsupervised tech time is that young children can miss out on wide-ranging experiences such as creative play, exercise and friendships.

“Life changes all the time. Even if you watch the fish pond or the clouds every day, it’s going to change, but you don’t have the same variety of combinations on a digital screen,” she says. “It’s so important that kids get sensory experience to build the brain in the first three to four years of life.”

Dr Joe Tucci, CEO of the Australian Childhood Foundation, says the latest research shows that excessive tech consumption by children can lead to depression, anxiety and aggression.

“Technology tends to be an isolating experience,” he says. “Some of the problems we’re seeing with aggression and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in kids can be traced back to socially limiting experiences that technology forces kids to have.”

Child psychiatrist Professor Philip Graham, of London’s Institute of Child Health, also notes an increase in children’s mental health problems over the last quarter of the 20th century - which coincides with the dawn of the computer age and rising consumerism.

He says a recent survey in Britain showed that adults are concerned about the negative impact of materialism on children, incuding devices such as iPods, computers and mobile phones.

“Children have always been acquisitive and always will be, but increasingly they are defined by what they own rather than what they are,” he told Livewire.

Dr Tucci says that while some of these tech toys offer important stimulation, they’re also priming toddlers to be consumers before their time. “Yes, it’s cute and it’s role-playing, but equally it’s also preparing children to be consumers, and that’s the rub.”

All the experts agree that the healthiest way to introduce young kids to technology is with supervision and limits - no more than two hours of technology time a day with a balance of activity both indoors and outdoors, alone and in a group, involving both structured and free play.

Dr Tucci warns that to combat ballooning rates of child obesity, brain games need to be curbed to allow for real life action. “Unlike activities like sport or reading, technology has the potential to swamp children because it is so exciting with all of the colour and movement,” he says.

“We have to ground children in the physical space to learn about their bodies. Otherwise we’ve got a job in front of us to make exercise as exciting and interesting as technology.”

Dubbed the “genius” in her play group, two-year old Annika displays the makings of an IT whizz, having already mastered redial on her mother’s mobile, the CD-ROM and the TV remote.

“If she wants to talk to her Nanny she just presses and holds number 3 on my mobile,” says her mum, Donna Evans.

“Yesterday she rang my mother-in-law. I have to put the mobile phone out of her reach now.”

While Annika’s parents are happy to foster the tech interest, they’re also wary of overexposure. “We make sure she’s not a drone in front of the TV. We also incorporate a lot of the imaginary toys, like the kitchen appliances, so that she’s role playing and not just pressing buttons.”

Ms Evans admits she likes the learning benefits of Annika’s tech talent - as long as it remains enjoyable.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m pushing her learning, but she has the potential to be bright quite young and the tech stuff really gives her an interest in learning. I just don’t want an expectation placed on her to perform.”

The couple are also considering the unstructured education of Montessori, which doesn’t introduce computers until primary level.

“The Montessori perspective is that young children before the age of six need to learn with their hands,” Montessori trainer Amy Kirkham says.

“Computers tend to be more abstract, which is why we don’t use them until primary school.” Young mum Sandra Griffin says her friends always joke that her three-year-old son, Matt, is going to be in IT when he grows up.

He’s already mastered the computer, he has a list of his favourite websites and performs regular virus checks on the PC.

Thanks to the online games he plays he knows his colours, the alphabet, patterns and some basic maths, including counting to 20.

“I honestly believe that computers are a valuable tool in teaching kids,” Ms Griffin explains.

“Not only has it helped with Mattie’s knowledge and brain development but it also helped his fine motor skills and increased his attention span to the point where at just three years of age he can concentrate on one activity for an hour.”

The only downside is what it’s costing the family in gadgets - including a Nintendo DS for the next birthday - and $70 for each game after that.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
http://tinyurl.com/3p7a7s

A study of a research team of the State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), demonstrated for the first time that brains of dyslexics differ in readers of different languages.

The study, which compared dyslexic children who are readers of Chinese to those of English, indicated structural and functional differences between both groups. The findings implied that dyslexia may be different neurological conditions in readers of different languages. This research may help tailor-making therapies for children who grow up in different cultures.

The work “A structural-functional basis for dyslexia in the cortex of Chinese readers” by Dr Siok Wai Ting and her colleagues in HKU was published in April 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States of America, a prestigious international multi-disciplinary scientific journal. Dr Siok is Principal Investigator of the State Key Laboratory and Assistant Professor of Linguistics.

Developmental dyslexia affects 7% to 9% of children in Hong Kong, and up to 17% throughout the world. It results in a severe learning disability in acquiring reading skills.

Previous neuroimaging studies have revealed that dyslexic readers of alphabetic languages like English have decreased gray-matter volume in posterior brain systems, and have weak reading-related activity in the left temporoparietal and occipitotemporal regions of the brain.

In order to assess whether these abnormalities were universal, or culture-dependent, Dr Siok said her team had been studying dyslexic Chinese children. She explained that while alphabetic languages like English were learnt using letter-to-sound conversion rules, pronunciations in a non-alphabetic language like written Chinese, which is composed of square-shaped or picture-like characters, must be memorized by rote.

In this latest study, the team used two brain imaging techniques.

Firstly, voxel-based morphometry, an established whole-brain gray-matter assessment technique, was used to analyze the high-resolution 3D anatomical images acquired with magnetic resonance images (MRIs) from 16 Chinese dyslexic subjects and 16 age-matched normal children as controls. The children, who were studying in Beijing primary schools, were all native speakers of Putonghua, on average aged 11, and all strongly right-handed.

It was found that the gray-matter volume in the left middle frontal gyrus region, which is important for the coordination of cognitive resources in working memory and previously has been shown to play a role in Chinese reading and writing, was significantly smaller in dyslexic children than in normal subjects. But at the same time, their more posterior brain systems remained unaffected. Previous studies have revealed that dyslexic English readers have decreased gray-matter volume in their posterior regions.

Secondly, a functional MRI experiment was conducted on a subset of 12 of each of the dyslexics and control groups. They were asked to decide whether two Chinese characters viewed simultaneously rhymed with each other. The rhyme judgment task involves phonological processing which would reflect in activation of some regions in the brain. It was found that the normal subjects had much stronger activation of the left middle frontal gyrus region during the task than the dyslexic group. The dyslexic Chinese readers demonstrated little activation in the posterior brain regions related to reading-related activity in English readers.

The fact that Chinese and Western dyslexics show structural abnormalities in different brain regions suggests that dyslexia may even be two different brain disorders in the two streams of culture.

“What causes brain structure abnormalities for dyslexia is currently unknown. Previous genetic studies suggest that malformations of brain development are associated with mutations of several genes and that developmental dyslexia has a genetic basis. Our brain imaging findings may well provide useful clues for further genetic studies in dyslexia,” said HKU’s Professor of Linguistics Tan Li-Hai, who is also Principal Investigator of the State Key Laboratory.

Dr Siok, lead author of the study, said the study would certainly help in the development of more efficient tests for early identification of Chinese children with reading disabilities, and more effective strategies to remediate dyslexia, tailored made for Chinese.

Dr Siok explained that the left middle frontal gyrus is responsible for working memory and is spatially close to the motor cortex, whereas the left posterior brain areas are involved in letter-to-sound mappings and are spatially close to the auditory cortex. “Our findings suggest that educational intervention for Chinese dyslexia may involve working memory and sensorimotor tasks. Current treatments of English dyslexia already use the aspects of letter-sound conversions and phonological awareness“, she said. (…)

Source: ScienceBlog.com, CA
http://tinyurl.com/5v8wpr