OUTPATIENT TREATMENT OF DYSLEXIA THROUGH STIMULATION OF THE CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES

Although a number of experimental investigations into the effects of h emisphere stimulation on the reading performance of individuals with d yslexia are currently available, only a few studies have addressed the effects of treatment in the setting of an outpatient clinic. The pres ent study reports on the reading results after a treatment that was ba sed on the balance model and incorporated notions from cognitive psych ological origin in 80 children with severe dyslexia who were referred to the outpatient clinic of the Paedological Institute in Amsterdam. T reatment was individually tailored, depending on the type of dyslexia, the phase of the learning-to-read profess, and the intermediate resul ts of treatment. Effects on reading performance, measured after precli nical (home-training), clinical, and postclinical intervention periods , were analyzed through multiple time-series and multilevel analyses. Treatment with flash cards, exercising automatic letter-sound conversi ons, appeared to have a robust and slight effect in the preclinical an d clinical phases, respectively, whereas hemishpere stimulation produc ed robust effects in both the clinical and the postclinical period. Th e results are discussed in terms of theoretical models, experimental f indings of other investigations, intellectual and scholastic character istics of the subjects, and such treatment factors as compliance (see Note).