US RESEARCHER RETURNING TO CHECK ON 'REMARKABLE' PROGRESS

Youngsters in trials to beat dyslexia

GROUND-BREAKING trials are taking place in Leamington in an effort to find a world-wide cure for chil dren wlth dyslexia.

Around 50 youngsters and teenagers have been taking part in pioneering new treatrnent for th ereading and writing disorder.

The clinical trials are the brainchild of New York-based psychiatrist and neurologist Dr Harold Levinson, whose research linking dyslexia to a dysfunction of the inner-ear has been hailed a major breakthrough.

He wlll return to Leamington on Wednesday to witness the 'remarkable' improvements in dozens of patients who have been taking part in the pilot scheme he set up last May.

The youngsters have been taking medications similar to those used by astronauts to prevent 'space dyslexia' which have significantly improved their reading, writing, spelling and memory levels.

Leamington Dyslexia Support Group organiser Wendy Harrison said: 'About 50 dyslexic children and youths were given his special medication and the results have been as outstanding as they have been in the United States.'

It was during the 1970s that Dr Levinson and a colleague realised that the symptoms of dyslexia were due to simple, signal-scrambling disturbances in the inner-ear. On examining thousands of New York students with reading difficulties he was surprised to find that 95 per cent only had an inner-ear dysfunction.

Dr Levinson will give a lecture at the Manor House Hotel in Leamington at 7.15pm on Wednesday.