[ti:Study Suggests Video Games Might Help Dyslexics]
[ar:June Simms]
[al:Technology Report]
[by:www.chinavoa.com]
[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, 
[00:01.83]this is the Technology Report.
[00:05.13]Dyslexia is a learning disorder, 
[00:08.79]it interferes with the ability to recognise words, 
[00:13.05]and for some readers to understand what they have read.
[00:18.20]Experts say dyslexia affects 
[00:22.06]about five to ten percent 
[00:24.30]of the population of the United State. 
[00:27.61]Researchers have long known 
[00:30.56]that people with dyslexia 
[00:32.92]write or read words and letters backwards 
[00:36.76]in the wrong order.
[00:38.37]But a new study shows 
[00:40.86]that people with dyslexia 
[00:43.23]may have trouble redirecting 
[00:46.19]their attention between senses, 
[00:48.59]from seeing something to hearing something. 
[00:52.09]The study suggests 
[00:54.70]something that might help 
[00:56.83]dyslexic people learn more quickly - 
[00:59.79]play video games.
[01:01.88]Vanessa Harrar of Britain's University of Oxford 
[01:06.82]led the study. 
[01:08.09]She reported the findings in the journal 
[01:11.44]Current Biology. The study suggests 
[01:15.04]that dyslexic people 
[01:17.29]may have trouble moving quickly 
[01:19.71]from what they read to what they hear. 
[01:23.13]Doctor Harrar calls this 
[01:25.78]a "sluggish shifting of attention across the senses."
[01:30.63]"So, if you are trying to read something 
[01:32.74]and then trying to listen to somebody 
[01:34.19]who's reading aloud and you're trying to follow along 
[01:36.39]with what they are reading -- 
[01:37.35]they have to switch their attention from 
[01:38.74]hearing what they are saying 
[01:39.80]to looking at the piece of paper and back again. 
[01:41.60]So we found they have quite sluggish shifting 
[01:43.81]of attention across the senses," said Harrar.
[01:46.46]In the study, Doctor Harrar tested 17 people with dyslexia, 
[01:52.22]and 19 others without reading problems. 
[01:56.63]The volunteers were asked to push a button 
[02:00.89]as quickly as possible when they heard a sound, 
[02:04.24]saw a light or experienced both together. 
[02:09.01]Doctor Harrar compared the speed of their reactions.
[02:13.57]She found that people with dyslexia 
[02:17.57]were just as fast as the others 
[02:20.37]when they saw only a picture 
[02:22.92]or heard only a sound. 
[02:25.98]But the dyslexics had a slower reaction time 
[02:30.34]when they heard a sound 
[02:32.78]and saw a picture at the same time.
[02:36.24]Doctor Harrar feels like playing action video games 
[02:40.89]could help dyslexic people shift from seeing 
[02:45.30]to hearing more quickly. 
[02:47.15]She adds that images in video games 
[02:50.96]force the eyes to move and focus quickly.
[02:54.96]"Video game types of things pop out of here and there, 
[02:57.56]they move your eyes around the screen quite quickly 
[02:59.66]in response to things quite quickly, 
[03:01.36]and the more you play a video game 
[03:03.36]the faster you get that kind of thing. 
[03:05.11]So, the video game is really training 
[03:07.36]the attention system to move quickly," said Harrar.
[03:09.26]The study also shows that dyslexic people 
[03:13.41]have the most difficulty going between 
[03:17.02]what they saw and what they heard, 
[03:19.22]this may have an effect 
[03:21.73]on how dyslexic children are taught how to read.
[03:25.34]When children learn the alphabet£¬
[03:28.54]they usually see the letter first 
[03:31.10]and then hear the sound, 
[03:33.45]or they see and hear the letter at the same time. 
[03:37.91]The study shows that dyslexics might learn more quickly 
[03:43.36]if they hear the sound of a letter 
[03:45.97]or word first before seeing it.
[03:49.47]And that is the Technology Report 
[03:52.73]from VOA Learning English. I'm June Simms.