An early cognitive training at school can improve reading abilities

Purpose: This research project is aimed at enhancing sensory and cognitive neural processes in kindergarten and in primary school students. This approach aims at strengthening the neural bases of the language areas, so that significant improvements in the phonological abilities and in the reading skills of pupils in early childhood can be achieved. In particular, the strengthening training is performed by means of the administration of an ad-hoc implemented audio-visual program. Method: A battery of tests has been administered before and after the strengthening training in order to evaluate the cognitive and reading functions of the subjects. The implemented audio-visual training program is based on neuroscientific theories and it consists of different exercises that require to detect and process specific auditory and visual stimuli. So far, this project has involved 5 Italian schools and 300 students ranging between 5-7 years, half of which has been employed as control groups. Results and Conclusion: As far as these preliminary results are concerned, a main finding is related to the fact that the administration of our training determines an improvement of both auditory and visual attention in the 5 years pupils, whereas only in the case of primary school students, an improvement of the ability of discriminating sounds and of the reading abilities has been observed with respect to the control group. The approach adopted so far resulted to be promising, therefore the project will be continued for several school years in order to understand its preventive potential to reduce the dyslexia.