The Listening Program and Dyslexia, improve reading ability, speech.

Ten to 15% of the US school population has dyslexia. Dyslexics have an inherited neurological difference, resulting in language, perceptual, processing, and attention/concentration differences. In other words, it is a neurologically based language and cognitive disorder that affects our ability to learn and function. It is no longer considered just a reading disorder, and it can not be corrected by simply improving reading skills with a tutor.

The regular classroom teacher normally does not have the time or the knowledge to accommodate the dyslexic child. The dyslexic child learns differently and requires accommodations to be successful in the classroom. A list of classroom accommodations has been created. With the proper recognition and intervention, dyslexics become successful individuals using their talents and skills to enrich our society.

According to Dr Chris Singleton a Chartered Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology -University of Hull-the following perspectives have been established:

Developmental precursors of dyslexia

At the pre-school stage many dyslexic children are already showing early signs of their disorder. The key is usually an uneven developmental profile, particularly in cases where there is a family history of speech or literacy difficulties, or where there is evidence of significant birth difficulties. Characteristic difficulties include one or more of the following:

There is substantial evidence that both phonological processing and short-term memory are important factors in dyslexia. It is now well-established that phonological processing ability is very closely related to reading development.

The value and validity of early identification of dyslexia
Without early identification procedures the teacher may easily assume that the child is lazy or simply requires more time for reading skills to develop. When children are diagnosed as dyslexic late in the school career, a typical complaint made by parents is that they felt there was something wrong from their child's earliest years at school.

However, when the parents expressed these misgivings to the teacher, the response was often: 'Don't worry, s/he will pick it (i.e. literacy) up in time'. In these particular cases the child did not 'pick it up' and consequently required specialist remediation some years later after the problem was eventually diagnosed. By this time the child will often have lost motivation and even become difficult or disruptive in class. This state of affairs is often the focus of strong parental resentment and dissatisfaction with the education system.

Recent research has led to the development of early screening and diagnostic tools which can be used to identify very young children (4:6) at risk of reading difficulties. In addition, early methods of intervention have been developed which allow the possibility of preventing the difficulties from ever arising.

DEST (Dyslexia Early Screening Test) is provided by incredible Horizons. It is used with pupils aged 4 years 6 months to 6 years 5 months to provide a profile of strengths and weaknesses which can be used to guide the development of support. Sub-tests are: Rapid Naming, Phonological Discrimination, Rhyme Detection/First Letter Sound, Digit Naming, Bead Threading, Postural Stability, Forward Digit Span, Sound Order and Shape Copying.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON DEST

CLICK HERE FOR A CHECKLIST OF INDICATORS OF NEEDING DEST

CLICK HERE FOR GENERAL INFO ON DYSLEXIA

Supportive research has been established through Dr. Levinson that dyslexia can be an inner ear dysfunction.

ABOUT DR LEVINSON

Dr. Harold N. Levinson, a world-renowned psychiatrist and neurologist, is credited with being largely responsible for bringing about dramatic change in Americas perception of Dyslexia or Learning Disabilities (LD) as well as related Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Phobias.

He began his work on these disorders 30 years ago within the New York City Board of Education. Previously Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Medical Center, Dr. Levinson is currently the director of The Medical Dyslexic and ADD Treatment Center on Long Island.

Ever since the early 1970's, Dr. Harold Levinson's groundbreaking research has continued to demonstrate that the symptoms of Dyslexia or Learning Disabilities (LD), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and related Phobic symptoms are due to a simple signal-scrambling disturbance of inner-ear (cerebellar-vestibular) origin.

In other words, the inner-ear acts as a "fine-tuner" for all motor (balance/coordination/rhythm) signals leaving the brain and all sensory and related cognitive signals entering it. As a result, normal thinking brains will have difficulty processing the scrambled or distorted signals received. And the final symptoms will depend on: (1) the degree of signal-scrambling, (2) the location and function of the varied normal brain centers receiving and having to process these scrambled signals, as well as (3) the brain's compensatory ability for de-scrambling.

Dr. Levinson's research has clearly and definitely shown that Dyslexia and LD are sometimes the same. In other words, Dyslexia is a syndrome of many and varied symptoms differing in intensity. And thus some dyslexics will have severe reading, spelling and speech difficulties while others will have major problems with only math, memory and concentration. Yet all suffer from an inner-ear-determined dysfunction.

"The wide range of expected and unexpected improvements due to my medical treatment more than justifies my theory of the inner-ear system as the fine-tuner for the brain's entire sensory input and motor output. Furthermore, the observed improvements have clearly highlighted the inner-ear-determined and related mechanisms previously noted to be responsible for creating the diverse symptoms characterizing the dyslexic syndrome."

In the May 2002 issue of the PATOSS Bulletin, Authorized Provider Ann Davies wrote of her initial use of TLP in an article entitled "Sound Therapy Through The Listening Program®" which we reprinted in the June/July 2002 PPOV. Since then she has documented results with five of her pupils and this new article was published in the May/June 2003 issue of PATOSS. We have added the charts Ann supplied us with showing each pupil's progress. The PATOSS Bulletin is the publication of The Professional Association of Teachers in the UK of students with specific learning difficulties.

Ann Davies followed the progress of five of her pupils who have been attending the Education Centre in Nottingham for three years or longer. Over these years they all had multi-sensory teaching, access to computerized learning, and targeted teaching to their individual needs. In spite of these learning aids, none of these students made substantial improvement in their reading abilities over any one year period.

However they did make impressive gains in reading and other areas after the completion of one cycle or 20 hours of the music based auditory intervention called The Listening Program®, or TLP, developed by Advanced Brain Technologies, given alongside their normal teaching program. The Listening Program® is a method of enhancing auditory and other sensory processing that utilizes intentionally produced acoustic music with proprietary sound processing techniques.

To illustrate the dramatic changes in function and auditory processing, each pupil's background is given along with the professional evaluation of the benefits of the program. (The benefits they experience are highlighted in blue)

Pupil One
Pupil One is in his fifth year of tuition at the Centre. He is both dyslexic and dyspraxic and made slow progress in literacy. He is 14 years old and is shy and lacking confidence. He has had multi sensory teaching and fatty acid supplements.

After having sound stimulation with TLP for 20 hours over an eight week period, Pupil One went from 8:8 years (8 years, 8 months) on the WRAT single word reading test to 12:8 years. His reading had improved by four years in a five month period. In four of five Scan A* tests Pupil One scored in the Disordered range prior to listening. His auditory skills moved out of the Disordered range into the Questionable area moving towards Normal post listening.

Prior to the course Pupil One had often appeared to be "vacant" and had difficulty formulating sentences, let alone generating a page of text. He is now more alert, has increased his speed of recall of information and can complete phonological tasks he was unable to do prior to the sound stimulation program. He has also gained personal confidence and has at this crucial period of his education become motivated to achieve. Prior to the sound stimulation intervention, his goal was to 'get out of school as soon as possible.'

Pupil Two
Pupil Two is 13:9 years and in his third year of tuition at the Centre. He has severe dyslexia affecting both the auditory and visual pathways. He had been labeled by primary school as disruptive and disinterested in school. In spite of this, he is a quick thinker, knowledgeable, has practical skills, and shows excellent non-verbal reasoning ability.

After having sound stimulation for 20 hours, Pupil Two went from 7:9 years on the WRAT single word reading test to 10:3 years. His reading had improved by 2:6 years in a three month period. Pupil Two moved from the Disordered range in auditory processing prior to listening into the lower part of the Normal range.

In addition to improved reading ability, he gained an improved sense of well-being and alertness. Whilst on TLP, he awakened easily in the morning and was more alert and energized than usual.

Pupil Three
Pupil Three is 9:10 years and is in his fourth year of tuition at the Centre. He has semantic pragmatic disorder and is dyspraxic. Due to language deficits he has had both social and educational problems. He is generally restless and unable to keep on task. His reading and spelling are below his age level.

The Scan C pre-test for Pupil Three was in the Normal range but with a low competing words score and mixed dominance. His Scan C post-test showed he was in the Normal range in all areas. His reading scores on the WRAT single word reading test went from 9 years to 11 years following TLP showing a 2 year gain in 7 months.

Pupil Three responded positively in numerous areas in addition to scores demonstrated in the auditory Scan A and reading tests. His spelling ability improved by 3:1 years in a 7 month period from a level of 9:5 years pre-test to a level of 12:6 post test. He also had noticeable improvement in gross motor coordination, body tone, concentration, and a reduction in the level of restlessness. This pupil has completed a second cycle of The Listening Program with the outcome of improved fine motor coordination expressed in even handwriting, and the ability to write creatively and imaginatively, a skill that had hitherto eluded him. In addition he has moved from being hesitant and repeating phrases to give himself time to formulate his next idea.

This now happy, confident, and literate pupil is aiming for University and wants to continue using The Listening Program® for the rest of his school life.

Pupil Four
Severely dyslexic, Pupil Four is in his fifth year of tuition at the Centre. He is 14:3 years and has weak auditory and visual memory and poor phonological ability.

Pupil Four jumped two levels in the pre and post Scan A testing. He went from Disordered auditory processing to Normal. Because he has had so much difficulty with literacy he did not take the WRAT single word reading test. At the time he was reading "The Live Wire Series" with a reading age of 6-8 years. However after TLP, he was given the NFER Group Reading Test 9-14 Form Y. He had last attempted this test in June 2000 and had gained a Standardized Score of -70. In November 2002, post TLP, he scored at 11:3 years with a Standardized Score of 84.

He can now blend sounds, complete phoneme deletion tasks and read from materials for GCSE. His reading is slow and hesitant but he is able to read and understand the text.

Pupil Five
Severe dyslexia affecting both auditory and visual pathways brought Pupil Five to the Education Centre in 1995. He has attended for the past seven years but his problems have proved fairly intractable and he has responded only minimally to a wide range of teaching strategies. Now 14 years, he has had regular assessments since the age of seven with a local Educational Psychologist.

His non-verbal skills are in the superior range and received and expressive vocabulary 16+ years. However his reading and spelling skills lagging five years behind his chronological age, he had poor phonological and poor visual recall of words for spelling. He has learned to type, used voice activated software, and has been an avid audio book listener.

The Scan A pre-test showed Disordered auditory processing in the competing words test. The Scan A test taken four months later showed all tests within the Normal range with scores overlapping suggesting an integrated auditory processing system. Reading scores for Pupil Five for the WRAT single word reading test went from 8:9 years to 11 years, an improvement of 2 years 3 months in a 4 month period.

Conclusions
Results for all five pupils are supported by standardized assessments.

The auditory Scan A tests show that changes have taken place in the auditory system.
The age range of pupils included here along with their developmental histories show that change has occurred through means other than developmental progress.
No other interventions were in place during their listening period other than their normal weekly lesson, which all have had for three years or more.
None had ever made the kind of improvements in their reading ability over a one year period as they have made on completing a 20 hour cycle or more of TLP.

Thus it is suggested that The Listening Program® has had a distinct impact on the pupils' learning. It suggests that sound stimulation intervention can bring faster immediate improvement, thus allowing the pupil to benefit much more fully from the 'normal' multi sensory teaching interventions put in place concurrently and thereafter.

*Scan A is a standardized test to assess an individual's auditory processing skills over four key areas. There is a Scan C for pupils up to and including those aged 11 years. Scan A is used for those 12 years of age and upward. Both Scan C and Scan-A are provided by Incredible Horizons 321751-1313

What can you expect The Listening Program^®to do?
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General Info on Dyslexia & other tools that may help

DYSLEXIA The word "dyslexia" comes from the Greek and means 'difficulty with words'. It is a congenital and developmental condition that causes neurological anomalies in the brain. This affects the underlying skills that are needed for learning to read, write and spell. In other words, it is a neurologically based language and cognitive disorder that affects our ability to learn and function. It is no longer considered just a reading disorder, and it can not be corrected by simply improving reading skills with a tutor.

Possible difficulties caused by dyslexia include: hesitant reading misreading that makes understanding what you read difficult, difficulty with sequences poor organization or time management, erratic spelling, & difficulty organizing thoughts clearly. However, people with dyslexia often have specific strengths. These may include innovative thinking excellent troubleshooting creativity lateral thinking intuitive problem solving. See The Gifts Of Dyslexia

"These characteristics can vary from day-to-day or minute-to-minute. The most consistent thing about dyslexics is their inconsistency."
Ronald D. Davis The Gift of Dyslexia

Our other tools for Dyslexia

According to Dr Chris Singleton a Chartered Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology -University of Hull: "There is substantial evidence that both phonological processing and short-term memory are important factors in dyslexia. It is now well-established that phonological processing ability is very closely related to reading development. Children who, when they start school, show good phonological awareness (i.e. are aware of syllables and can detect rhyme and alliteration) are the ones who are most likely to make good progress in learning to read. On the other hand, children with difficulty in carrying out these types of phonological tasks when they begin school are the ones who are most likely to have difficulties with learning to read even though they may overcome their difficulties with speech sounds as such. This is what makes developing the auditory processing skills so imperative to treating dyslexia. The Listening program seen above is a great tool for that.

In general, it is argued (a) that phonological processes underpin the development of a phonological decoding strategy in reading, and (b) that working memory plays a significant role in this strategy, enabling constituent sounds and/or phonological codes to be held in short-term store until these can be recognized as a word and its meaning accessed in long-term memory."

This makes SoundSmart an ideal tool for early intervention for dyslexia. Once children master the letter/sound relationship they can successfully read and write hundreds of words.

If a child lacks phonemic awareness, they will have difficulty learning the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent in words, as well as applying those letter/sound correspondences to help them "sound out" unknown words. Sound Smart also works on math and memory skills.

The reading struggles that dyslexics face can be resolved through reading software specially designed for the way they need to be taught. The Lexia family of products improve the student's reading skills through a phonics based, multi-sensory approach. Based on the Orton-Gillingham method, Lexia uses a combination of sound, images, and software-based manipulatives.

Light and Sound-builds neural pathways through multi sensory stimulation. New pathways will allow the dyslexic brain to function more efficiently.

Captains Log-Visual skills module-IMPROVES VISUAL PROCESSING SKILLS & SPEED- THE ATTENTION MODULES AND MEMORY MODULES MAY BE USEFUL FOR CO EXISTING COGNITIVE DIFFICULTIES

Present research is beginning to confirm the biochemical differences in the dyslexic/ADD child and adult. An understanding of these differences is necessary for developing a holistic program which addresses them not only from an academic but from a physiological standpoint.

Balance Formula 1 may be the first supplement to help Dyslexia. There are two ways it can help dyslexia.

"Dyslexic children use nearly five times the brain area as normal children while performing a simple language task, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of University of Washington researchers. The study shows for the first time that there are chemical differences in the brain function of dyslexic and non-dyslexic children". (Science Daily 10/1999)

This study demonstrated that learning/reading with Dyslexia uses almost five more neurons/neural connections in the brain than the normal brain. It would seem that if learning/reading requires that much more brain activity that their brains would need more brain food/amino acids to keep up with its needs. (Just like bodies that exercise more have more nutritional demands.) This would explain the known inconsistencies/variances in academic and functional skills. Balance Formula 1 would provide the perfect balance of amino acids and nutrients to improve neurotransmitter production. This would smooth out the communications between the neurons, thus improving the pathways for learning.

"Relieving some of the physical and biochemical stress can be beneficial to the learning and behavioral situation. Understanding how to control the dramatic biochemical shifts through natural means is extremely important for more level functioning and to prevent other physiological, emotional, and medical problems in the future" (The Dyslexia Research Institute).

When the Hypothalamus is not working correctly, when it’s not functioning up to par, the wrong neuro-signals are generated and the wrong neuro-messages are received, resulting in an inaccurate integration of all our sensory input, leading to faulty perceptions which affect how we learn & experience life. Balance Formula 1 can correct the inaccurate perception and integration of visual and auditory stimuli by supporting hypothalamic functioning. For More information Click Here

Our Assistive Reading Software allows you to transfer any reading material into a computer file. Then the program reads the material aloud while the student follows the cursor on the words being read. The wonderful part of this software is that anyone struggling with reading will benefit from the multi-sensory input. The enlarged letters and additional audio while reading will increase attention and reading comprehension.