Special Education Column

Computer games specifically designed to help children understand speech and use language boost users' language skills significantly, researchers have found.

The researchers expect their findings, outlined in the Jan. 5 issue of Science, to help remedy language impairments that send millions of children to special education. The findings may also be relevant to children with the reading disorder dyslexia, the authors contend.

A total of 30 children between the ages of 5 and 10 took part in studies led by Paula Tallal, a co-director of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J. The children had normal intelligence but...