Individuals with dyslexia can have weak working memory skills and there are many "brain training" programs, with slick marketing behind them, that purport to improve or even cure dyslexia by having the student complete exercises that target working memory and brain training. The research literature is clear that these techniques do not generalize to reading, spelling, or comprehension (or math). Pam Cook, M.Ed. presented this informative handout (printed here with permission) at the LDA conference in 2014. We are sharing it here so that parents can ask the right questions and know the answers when brain training programs are recommended for dyslexia. Quite honestly, no professional who understands how to treat dyslexia will make a recommendation for a brain training program because we know that structured literacy (which brain training programs are not) is the research-based approach to treating dyslexia.
~Joanne Marttila Pierson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, May 2018
