Sensory White Noise Improves Reading Skills and Memory Recall in Children with Reading Disabilities

First published: June 6, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2114

Commentary

Reading disabilities (RD) reflect phonological problems and are characterized by slow and inaccurate word reading development.

Previous research has shown that exposure to white noise can rapidly improve cognitive performance in children with ADHD, and this study was investigating whether exposure to white noise is similar for RD.

The study was conducted in two comparison groups groups with 30 children with RD and 30 children with phonological decoding difficulties: one consisting of skilled readers (N = 22) and another of children with mild orthographic reading problems or age-appropriate phonological decoding (N = 30). White noise was presented experimentally in visual and auditory modalities, and the children performed tests of single word reading, orthographic word recognition, non-word reading, and memory recall.

Results showed that visual and auditory white noise exposure improved some reading and memory capacity "on the fly" in children with RD and phonological decoding difficulties. A control group showed either no benefit or a gradual decline in performance with increasing noise.

This new finding suggests that readers who have difficulty with phonological decoding may be helped by white noise, but future research is necessary to determine the practical impact.