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European researchers said Monday that offering
reading materials with wider spacing between the letters can
help dyslexic children read faster and better.
In a
sample of dyslexic children age eight to 14, extra-wide letter spacing doubled
accuracy and increased reading speed by more than 20 percent, according to the
study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists believe the approach worked because
people with dyslexia are more affected than normal readers by a phenomenon
known as "crowding," which makes a letter harder to identify when it is close to
other letters.
Source: AFP (http://s.tt/1dlEH)
----------If you have a child struggling with reading you might try printing text in different fonts, larger fonts, and increasing the spacing between lines.
I recently found out I have a relative that can not read, in certain fonts. He was fine for the first sixty years of his life, but something happened in the last couple years and he fonts with little curvy things have become impossible for him to read.
I wonder if at some point we'll be able to buy books in easy to read fonts? I would think publishers would take note of studies like this and try to maximize their sales by using fonts which more people can read.
2 comments:
I'm only mildly troubled by dyslexia, but In my entirely unscientific experience, this is true.
I have long reformatted text and webpages to widen the spacing and the space between lines so I can read it accurately and quickly.
Small type, tiny spacing, narrow line breaks = me struggling ten times more and never managing to keep my place let alone read effectively.
Sarah - I'm also mildly dyslexic, but I hadn't picked up on this option for making it easier to read.
Kind of interesting.
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