A new study shows that wider spacing between the letters in reading materials can help dyslexic children read faster and better. European researchers found that extra-wide letter spacing doubled accuracy and increased reading speed by more than 20 percent among dyslexic children age eight to 14.
The researchers 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.
The children in the study read short sentences in their native languages, either French or Italian. Among dyslexic children, those who had most difficulty identifying letters experienced the greatest improvements in reading speed with the wide-spaced text.
Children without reading challenges showed no increase in reading speed when given materials in which letters were more widely spaced, suggesting that the benefit was unique to children with dyslexia.
Our view: This study reinforces the importance of visual processing in reading, and provides further insight as to why some Davis techniques are helpful. Davis programs begin with mastery of upper and lower case alphabet through clay modeling, which enhances letter recognition ability. Davis Spell-Reading encourages readers to identify each letter in a word in sequence, one at a time, which adds to the ability to distinguish one letter from the next.
Research Citation: Marco Zorzi, Chiara Barbiero, Andrea Facoetti, et al, Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia, PNAS 2012 : 1205566109v1-201205566. Abstract Full Text
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AbigailM
June 6, 2012 at 1:32 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Did you notice that the text on this web site is more widely spaced than typical?
This was easy to to with the CSS style specification, letter-spacing.
For more info on how to use HTML coding to increase spacing between letters, see:
http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_text_letter-spacing.asp
Aileen McGonigal
June 6, 2012 at 9:01 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Hello,
Free app, called DYS, developed by same team of researchers allows trying out optimum spacing ( available from App Store for iPad/iPhone). The technology employed within the app is the very same CSC/html technique.
Wider letter spacing helps dyslexic children read » Dyslexia the Gift … | whatisdyslexia.info
March 15, 2013 at 10:13 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
[...] A new study shows that wider spacing between the letters in reading materials can help dyslexic children read faster and better. European researchers found …blog.dyslexia.com/wider-letter-spacing-helps-dyslexic-childre… [...]