Within a few months of DDAT therapy Tilly knew things were changing. "We used to run up and down throwing a rugby ball, or rather I'd throw it and he'd miss it and we'd stop and he'd pick it up. He now has 10,000 people going through eight UK centres, and has also opened up in Australia and the USA. At every one, clients are beating a path to the door.One person who made that journey was paediatrician Adam Tilly, whose 11-year-old son was severely dyslexic and dyspraxic. Once upon a time she struggled to read a sentence – now she works as a classroom assistant helping children to learn to read And the programme took off. However, he disliked the drug regime that Levinson recommended, and instead got medical experts to devise exercises to "kick start" this part of the brain.His daughter was a successful guinea pig. (See Independent Education, 1 June, 2000) For a dyslexic, says Dore, this is like having a computer held up by a poorly functioning modem, or a car engine hampered by a faulty clutch.

This led him to the work of an American expert, Harold Levinson, who believes the root cause of many learning difficulties is the under-functioning of the cerebellum, a small area at the base of the brain, which controls fine movements and processes sensory information. His own field was the steel industry but, undeterred by his lack of educational expertise, he set off on the trail of research. "People who make their living out of building wheelchairs are never going to like the person who teaches people to walk," he says.His mission started 10 years ago when the problems of his severely dyslexic daughter Susan had made her suicidal. This is a simple and relatively inexpensive way of tackling problems that affect up to 20 per cent of the population, and that not only cause individual frustration and failure, but also cost society millions in providing remedial learning and dealing with the problems that can follow in their wake – about three quarters of all prisoners, for example, have some sort of learning difficulty.It all sounds too good to be true, and critics in the dyslexia world have been quick to urge caution. One child who was not predicted to do at all well at SATs, got Level Fives across the board."The treatment is based on simple exercises which stimulate the brain. "I've been a head for 22 years and I've seen a lot of dyslexic children getting nowhere," says head Trevor Davis, "but with this there have been multiple improvements.

After a year, they had improved their reading age by more than three times compared with the previous year, their comprehension by almost five times, and their writing skills by a staggering 17 times. A small-scale study done at Balsall Common Primary School, in Warwickshire, shows that 36 children given the DDAT programme made wide-ranging gains. He doesn't quite claim it's a cure, but he does say that it is a giant leap forward in the treatment of these problems, and one that will change the fortunes of millions of people, and save society an enormous amount of money in the process. A year ago such grandiose claims were causing him trouble. As long as the training is rigorous enough, it would be churlish for teachers to turn their back on a deal that has many obvious benefits for the profession.. The Government insists those that wish to opt for this responsibility will be given training for their new role while acknowledging that not all those who volunteer will want to go on to become fully fledged qualified teachers. Teachers will also, in time, have a limit on the number of hours a year – 38 – which they are expected to spend covering for absent colleagues. They will also be guaranteed the equivalent of a day off a fortnight from the classroom during school hours for marking and preparation.The quid pro quo for all this is that classroom assistants will be allowed to take over lessons.

Let us welcome the fact that 18 months of intensive negotiations has produced a deal which will see tomorrow's teacher freed from a list of 25 administrative tasks such as exam invigilation and collecting dinner money. These jobs will be transferred almost immediately to support staff. You can imagine the pitch – "Join the NUT – the only union which saw through the Government's shallow promises on workload".However, this is not the moment to forecast gloom and doom. At this stage the union is not talking about industrial action to scupper the deal. Perhaps the NUT's stance is a marketing ploy – a way for the union to recruit new members if the deal fails through lack of funding.