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No evidence that an exercise‐based treatment programme (DDAT) has specific benefits for children with reading difficulties
Author(s) -
Rack John P.,
Snowling Margaret J.,
Hulme Charles,
Gibbs Simon
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
dyslexia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.694
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1099-0909
pISSN - 1076-9242
DOI - 10.1002/dys.335
Subject(s) - dyslexia , spelling , psychology , fluency , reading (process) , literacy , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , pedagogy , mathematics education , linguistics , philosophy
Reynolds and Nicolson ( Dyslexia : An International Journal of Research & Practice , 2007) report follow‐up data 12 and 18 months after a period of intervention consisting of an exercise‐based treatment programme (Dyslexia Dyspraxia Attention Treatment Programme, DDAT). The findings suggested the treatment had effects on bead threading, balance, rapid naming, semantic fluency and working memory but not on reading or spelling. We argue that the design of the study is flawed, the statistics used to analyse the data are inappropriate, and reiterate other issues raised by ourselves and others in this journal in 2003. Current evidence provides no support for the claim that DDAT is effective in improving children's literacy skills. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.