THE CARIBBEAN DYSLEXIA CENTRE (CDC) has introduced an international training programme aimed at helping children to overcome the problem at an early age.

It is the Teaching Handwriting Reading and Spelling Skills (THRASS) technology programme created by education psychologist Alan Davis of Britain, which is also popular in South Africa, Australia andthe Cayman Islands.

Davis and his wife Hilary facilitated a three-day workshop coordinated by the CDC at Goddard's Training Centre in Fontabelle, St Michael, recently.

Twelve teachers drawn from Montserrat, Canada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados participated in the workshop.

Yvonne Spencer, director/co-founder of the CDC, said this form of teaching involved "the use of phonetics incorporating letter sounds using the 44 letter sounds for 26 letters of the alphabet".

Research has shown that with an early intervention, children can overcome the problem much faster, she added.

"Right now we test at age four; we used to test at age seven, but the British Dyslexia Association introduced an early intervention programme at a conference two years ago.

"Very few programmes cater to children with special needs in language. At the Dyslexia Centre, a programme starts from age four and goes to adult. You can overcome dyslexia with special lessons," she said.

The CDC, which was established almost 13 years ago, has been coordinating training programmes for teachers for nine years. (KB)