After a successful trial in Wales, a new way to identify children at high risk of dyslexia and related reading disorders, will deploy its first large test on Crete, Greece.
The initiative, conducted in cooperation with the Hellenic Mediterranean University and the Region of Crete will receive €500,000 in funding to initially assess 1,500 children before rolling out to the rest of the island.
The Governor of Crete, Stavros Arnaoutakis, said:
Here on Crete, we are addressing many pressing concerns including infrastructure modernisation, efforts at sustainability, and job creation, but none is more crucial than ensuring the future for our children.
We believe this cooperation with Dr. Ioannis Aslanides and his RADAR team will help eliminate a huge hurdle that might otherwise affect many of our schoolchildren.
The study is the first of its kind where doctors, speech therapists, informatics specialists, and social workers monitor the prevalence of dyslexia. This digital diagnostic approach will lay the foundation for digital-based treatments for the first time.
With more than 4,000 experiments completed and ongoing evaluation studies at Harvard University in the United States and Cardiff Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, the RADAR method of screening is the first-ever objective and quantifiable early screening method for dyslexia.
Dr. Aslanides said:
When we first began developing RADAR a decade ago, the mission was to defeat dyslexia.
Now, with the help of some of the world’s most dedicated engineers, doctors, educators, and willing leaders, we are inches away from winning a major battle against learning disorders.
Experts in the field estimate that about 15% to 20% of the world’s population suffers from some form of dyslexia or related reading disorders – but most are never diagnosed.
While it cannot be cured, early diagnosis and proper therapies will help students reach their full potential outside the world of reading.
The steps taken to screen all the children on Crete will provide a model for creating a new ways of diagnosing and managing the condition.
Image: Luke, one of the recent test subjects, at Cardiff Metropolitan University in the UK, with RADAR research scientist Panagiota Makrostergiou. RADAR / Cardiff Metropolitan University