Sound Training Study

The MACCS Sound Training Study is testing three controversial issues about developmental dyslexia and specific language impairment (SLI). The first is whether some children with dyslexia or SLI have a sound processing deficit. The second is whether a sound processing deficit can be fixed with training. The third is whether fixing a sound processing deficit has an effect on reading or spoken language.

Nearly 200 children were screened for the study. One hundred children had dyslexia or SLI and 40 children had average reading and language (controls). These children were all tested for their behavioural responses to sounds presented in psychophysical tasks (frequency discrimination, rapid auditory processing, vowel discrimination, or consonant-vowel discrimination) and for their brain responses (event-related potentials; ERPs) to single sounds (pure tones, masked tones, vowels, and consonant-vowels). Children with dyslexia or SLI who had abnormal scores on at least one of the psychophysical tasks were trained using custom-made sound training program at home for 30 minutes per day, 4 days per week, for up to 6 weeks. After they finished training, they were retested for their behavioural and brain responses to the sounds and also their reading and spoken language (immediate training effect). After a 6-week break, they were tested again for their low-level sound processing, reading, and spoken language (delayed training effect). So far the results show that around 40% of children with dyslexia or SLI have a sound processing deficit, this can be fixed with training, but this does not effect their spoken language or reading.

 

Supported By

NHMRC Project Grant (2003 - 2006) Auditory processing in specific language impairment and specific reading disability: Their effects and treatment McArthur, G., & Coltheart, M. ($295,000)

NHMRC Howard Florey Centenary Fellowship (2003 - 2005) "Auditory processing in specific language impairment and specific reading disability: Their effects and treatment". McArthur, G. ($158,500)

Research Infrastructure Block Grant (2004) "A 32 channel electroencephalogram (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) research laboratory" McArthur, G., Coltheart, M., Cupples, L., Green, M., Kinoshita, S., Langdon, R., Newall, P., Palermo R., & Rossell, S. ($65,000)

Macquarie University Visiting Scholar Fellowship (2006) Understanding developmental disorders of language, reading, spelling and face recognition. McArthur, G., Coltheart, M., et al. ($4,450)

Need more information?

Information about the study can be obtained from:

Dr Genevieve McArthur & Carmen Atkinson,
Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science,
Macquarie University,
Sydney, NSW, 2109
Australia.
Telephone: (02) 9850 9599
Fax: (02) 9850 6059