Advancements are being made to identify as early as possible that when children will struggle to read. A team of researchers from Northwestern University researchers has gone a step further in this subject and assessed brain waves of children aged three.

The research published in the journal PLOS Biology has unveiled that children can be identified as who will have more chances to face the trouble by knowing how effectively their brains can recognize specific sounds like consonants amid background noise.

Study’s senior author Nina Kraus, director of Northwestern's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory said that if the strategy works then it will prove extremely beneficial for parents, doctors and children. “If you know you have a 3-year-old at risk, you can as soon as possible begin to enrich their life in sound so that you don't lose those crucial early developmental years”, said Kraus.

In the study, the researchers have used an EEG to measure the brain's response to sound. The researchers attached electrodes to children’s scalps and recording the patterns of electric activity when nerve cell fired. The research involved 112 children aged between 3 and 14.

While the researchers were busy in the task, children were watching a video of their choice. Soundtrack was played in one of their ears and an earpiece in the other that periodically has thrown sound of ‘dah’.

The way brains’ circuitry responded, the researcher came up with a model to predict about the problem occurrence. The test was also carried out on older children.