Dyslexic kids read better with wider spacing of letters

European researchers say reading materials with wider spacing between the letters can help dyslexic children read faster and better.

In a sample of dyslexic children age 8-14, extra-wide letter spacing doubled accuracy and increased reading speed by more than 20 percent, according to Italy's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study.

Scientists believe the approach worked because people with dyslexia are more affected than normal readers by a phenomenon known as "crowding", which makes a letter harder to identify when it is close to other letters.

"Our findings offer a practical way to ameliorate dyslexics' reading achievement without any training," says the study led by Marco Zorzi of the department of general psychology at Italy's University of Padova.