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A world renowned pioneering American doctor whose ground-breaking treatment for dyslexia has brought hope to millions is opening a clinic in Leamington Spa - his first in Europe.
Dr Harold Levinson, a New York-based psychiatrist and neurologist whose research and treatment will be the subject of a BBC documentary later this year, already has hundreds of patients in the Leamington area since launching a highly successful medical treatment programme there last May.
Internationally, he is credited with being largely responsible for bringing about a dramatic breakthrough in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia and ADD.
His unique medical-educational therapeutic insights have already helped tens of thousands of sufferers world-wide and have proved so successful that supporters in Britain have called for centres to be set up across the country to extend his therapy to countless millions in need.
Because of his incredible following, Dr Levinson's February lecture in Leamington -which had been widely previewed on television - had to be delivered in two sittings. The large auditorium could not accommodate the hundreds and hundreds who arrived for help.
In discussing his medical treatment study set up in Leamington last May, Dr Levinson said: "Between 80 and 90 per cent of dyslexics responded favourably, rapidly and often dramatically to simple and safe inner-ear-improving and fine tuning medications and nutrients, similar to those given the astronauts before space flights. When properly combined with tutoring and other helpful inner-ear-improving non-medical therapies, the results are often truly outstanding."
Already the author of seven books, Dr Levinson has just completed two additional new-millennium works now ready for publication. His medical text, described by scientific colleagues as 'decades ahead of its time' - The Discovery of Cerebellar Syndromes & Therapies - A Solution to the Riddle - Dyslexia - will be available within days.
His other latest book, Feeling Smarter & Smarter, an up-dated sequel to his best-selling book Smart But Feeling Dumb, will clearly and simply convey his groundbreaking discovery that dyslexia and ADD are linked to the inner-ear's difficulty in fine-tuning sensory, motor and related concentration, linguistic and cognitive signals - not to brain damage as mistakenly believed for the past 100 years.
Most importantly, his new scientific instruments can now screen for this disorder - even before symptoms arise or result in emotional scarring. "And, as a result of early medical and non-medical treatment, prevention is now possible - for the very first time," he said.
Dr Levinson's books and their uniquely original scientific insights - derived from the examination and treatment of over 35,000 children and adults world-wide - have been supported by independent reports published recently in The Lancet and other medical journals.
Unable to attend this year's 12th European Conference of Neuro-Developmental Delay in Children with Specific Learning Difficulties, sponsored by The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Pyschology in Chester and attended by 90 delegates from around the world, Dr Levinson has been re-invited as a keynote speaker to next year's conference. Also, when he returns to Britain in the next few weeks, he will be lecturing at those schools and colleges attended by his dramatically improved dyslexic patients, both young and old.
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Dr Levinson's decision to open a clinic in Leamington - the Dr Levinson Med-Ed Dyslexia Treatment Centre - came in response to the enthusiastic appeals of the parents constituting his Dyslexia Support Group - chaired by lecturer Wendy Harrison and including professionals (doctors, lawyers and academics), businessmen and women.
Anyone wishing to know more about the dyslexia syndrome and Dr Levinson's treatment of it can call the UK helpline 01483 571248. In response to increasing demand, a new UK web site will soon be launched to enhance Dr Levinson's existing site - dyslexiaonline.com.
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March 2000
Issued by Nigel Robinson, Clarendon PR.
NOTES FOR EDITOR:
It was in the 1970s that Dr Levinson and a colleague first began to realise that the symptoms of dyslexia or LD were due to simple, signal-scrambling disturbances in the inner-ear - a disturbance later discovered to trigger attention deficits as well as fears, phobias and panic.
When asked to examine thousands of students in New York with reading difficulties Dr Levinson was surprised to find that 95 per cent only had a simple inner-ear dysfunction, leading to difficulties with balance, co-ordination and rhythm. Even Olympian dyslexics like decathlon Bruce Jenner have poor eye co-ordination when reading and poor hand co-ordination when writing. "In other words, you don't have to be a klutz to have inner-ear dysfunctioning," said Dr Levinson.
"The inner-ear acts as a 'fine tuner', similar to the vertical and horizontal tuners on a television," he said. "We found that any dysfunction of the inner-ear led to blurred, scrambled, reversed and distorted sensory and motor signals."
Dr Levinson's findings led for the first time to a new medical means of diagnosis and treatment. Medications, similar to those used by astronauts to prevent 'space dyslexia' were used and were found to significantly help the reading, writing, spelling, math, memory, concentration and anxiety levels in more than 75 per cent of those treated.
"From that moment on I dedicated my work to resolving the traditional misconceptions of dyslexia (and related attention deficit and anxiety disorders) so that countless millions might be relieved and spared untold suffering and be helped to attain dreams and ambitions that might otherwise never be theirs.
"Dyslexia is not just a severe reading disorder and it is not due to brain damage as was traditionally thought. It is a syndrome of many and varied symptoms affecting over 20 per cent of children and adults - severely impairing their self-esteem. And, the smarter dyslexics are, the more frustrated they become and the dumber they feel," he said - hence the titled of his best-selling book Smart But Feeling Dumb.
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