AN East Lancashire tutor has become the first in the country to offer a pioneering interactive course to improve pupils' reading and concentration skills.

The tutor in question is Pauline Vaughan, who for the last 20 years has been helping learners in Burnley and Blackburn with their literacy and maths from beginners through to GCSE level.

The launch comes on the back of this year's Key Stage Three (KS3) results which revealed a third of 14-year-olds are not reading as well as they should.

Now Pauline, 45, of Belvedere Road, Wilpshire, has been chosen by Neuron Learning to launch its Fast ForWord Language computer programme in England.

The tailor-made programme is aimed at people with reading difficulties and uses sounds and visuals based on 30 years neuroscience research - a study of the brain and mind.

The interactive computer programme tests a host of criteria ranging from word recognition to memory levels.

The programme, aimed at pupils aged six right through to adults, has been running in US schools for the last 10 years.

And now it is now being rolled out to private tutors and eventually schools in Lancashire and across the UK.

From tomorrow Pauline will become the first tutor in England to operate the scheme which she will run on Tuesdays at Burnley Central Methodist Church and at Blackburn's Wesley Hall on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

She will be running the course with her son Paul, 22 - a former Blackburn College student who himself battled with dyslexia - one of the reasons why she has embraced the scheme.

She said: "We wish that something like this had been available when Paul was younger. In mainstream schools pupils are leaving without the basic reading skills they need. It is no criticism of teachers who are doing a great job but in a group situation you will always get the odd ones who do not meet their full potential and this programme allows them to do that."

For course details call 01254 245709.