Long-term learning in dyslexic children

There is now extensive evidence that the learning processes of dyslexic chi ldren show some abnormalities, generally consistent with failure to complet ely automatise skills. Two studies are reported in which a group of adolesc ent dyslexic children and a group of normal children matched for age and IQ undertook long-term training on a keyboard spatial task and a choice react ion task respectively. It was concluded that, following extended training, the dyslexic children had normal "strength" of automatisation (as assessed by resistance to unlearning, by ease of relearning after one year, and by d ual task performance) but that their initial and their final performance (a s assessed by speed and accuracy) were impaired. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that dyslexic children suffer from cerebellar deficit.