What makes this truly astounding, though, is how much this can help dyslexic children.
People with dyslexia are significantly slower than the average person at correctly responding to sound following visual stimulation. Since these children have a disorder that hinders their ability to read overall, playing video games could be a way to strengthen those skills without the frustration or anxiety that comes with reading.
This isn't just a theory -- in 2013, researchers invited children with dyslexia to play video games for nine sessions, 80 minutes a day, for a total of 12 hours. They tested the children in reading, phonological, and attention skills both before and after the gaming. And the results were stunning!
While non-action games didn't make much difference, the research notes that “We found that only playing action video games improved children's reading speed, without any cost in accuracy, more so than 1 year of spontaneous reading development and more than or equal to highly demanding traditional reading treatments.”
Can you imagine being told that 12 hours of action-packed video games would be more effective than your school's new state-of-the-art reading program?