I'M SITTING in the back garden of Aaron Hammersley's home in Oakdale, Poole, chatting to the 15-year-old and his mum Christine about his dyslexia.

Aaron is talking about the problems his learning difficulty has caused him with schoolwork, and how badly dyslexia has affected his self-esteem but you wouldn't know it.

He's also telling me, excitedly, about his improving grades, his new job as a paperboy, and his plans for the future his desire to play the guitar in a band and his ambition to get an apprenticeship as a carpenter at Sunseeker in Poole.

"A year earlier, if we'd have sat here and done this interview, I wouldn't have said anything. I might have said my name and that would've been it.

"To have got my self-confidence up has made a difference with everything," he confides.

"I did work experience at Sunseeker last week and if I'd have done it last year I would've been afraid to ask the guy I was working with where I could find a hammer. Now I've got the confidence to ask."

So what has happened in the last year to make Aaron such a changed boy?

Well, it's all thanks to a relatively new therapy called the Dore Programme, which trains the brain to work more efficiently and relieves the symptoms of dyslexia.

The programme developed six years ago by a Welsh millionaire called Winfred Dore to help his dyslexic daughter involves carrying out a series of simple, repetitive exercises twice a day, every day, for a year.

The exercises such as balancing on a "wobble board", juggling, and focusing the eyes on moving objects stimulate the cerebellum, which is the back part of the brain responsible for eye tracking and co-ordination.

For the last year Aaron has been travelling every six weeks to his nearest Dore Centre in Romsey for assessments and to be given different exercises to do.

Christine found out about the Dore Programme through a magazine article written by a lady whose dyslexic son had been successfully treated.

Although it was hard to afford the £2,000 cost of the treatment, Christine was eager to see if it would help Aaron while Aaron was desperate to try anything that could make him more like his school friends.

"It was a lot of money, but we were sent a video about the programme first and because we'd seen that and all the other people on there said how well they had done, we thought we would give it a go," says Christine.

"We did say if we're going to test the programme properly we've got to make the commitment and do the exercises every day but Aaron was determined anyway because he wanted to be like his friends.

"All his friends were in the higher sets at school but he's always been put into the lower sets with all the disruptive pupils who don't want to learn. Aaron has always wanted to learn but he found it hard because of his dyslexia."

But since completing the programme, Aaron has shot up into the higher sets in his classes at Poole High School and has been predicted Bs and Cs for his GCSEs rather than Ds, Es and Fs.

"We didn't notice much difference with his schoolwork until six months into the programme, but then we started to get letters from the school saying he's done really well with his subjects," says Christine.

"I think to go for an apprenticeship at Sunseeker they ask for a grade C in English and maths. He knows he's on target to get a B in English and hopefully he'll get his C in maths too there's no way before this programme he would've been able to achieve that."

She adds: "All the schools he's been to have recognised he's got a problem and have given him the help that they have available, but the Dore Programme seem to have the right way of dealing with it.

"It's a shame the programme isn't available in schools if it was there wouldn't be any dyslexic children."

Former GP Dr John Ponsford, who treated Aaron at the Dore Centre, says there's no danger of a person regressing once they've finished the programme.

"As long as the cerebellum has learnt and isn't still in the process of learning, it doesn't lose the ability to function properly. We've followed up a lot of people for three years after the programme and it's like tying your shoelaces or riding a bike once you've learnt, you never have to start again."

As far as Aaron is concerned, the Dore Programme has totally transformed his life.

"I tried to play the guitar when I was younger but I just couldn't pick it up at all. While I was doing the course I tried again and now I'm playing it all the time.

"My dad has played the guitar for 40 years and we've now written 25 songs. I want to get into a band," says Aaron.

"I started a paper round three weeks ago and I wouldn't even have contemplated that before because I wouldn't have been able to read the road names properly.

"I feel as though I can reach not for the moon, but for the stars. I can go as far as I want to go now and nothing's stopping me."

  • For more information about the Dore Programme call 0870 880 6060 or visit www.ddat.co.uk