Neuron Learning

First evidence of brain rewiring in children: Reading remediation positively alters brain tissue

there is lts of evidence to show that effective interventions shows brain changes for poor readers. This is is from Canegie-Mellon University and published in Neuron maagazine

First evidence of brain rewiring in children: Reading remediation positively alters brain tissue.

"First evidence that intensive instruction to improve reading skills in young children causes the brain to physically rewire itself, creating new white matter that improves communication within the brain......

APD, Temporal Processing, and Dyslexia

Current APD assessment and identification methods appear to have “serious shortcomings for several reasons according to a study by a group of noted specialists.

There is a core of fundamental auditory skills such as temporal processing, auditory figure-ground discrimination, and auditory memory or attention

They go on to say:

1. APD is a multifactorial description of learning problems, that is there may be a co-existence of issues
2. Auditory impairments co-occur with literacy problems, although they may not be directly related.
3. Categorising issues APD or dyslexia may be the wrong approach as it focuses attention on one issue, while there may be multiple issues that would benefit from attentio

We see this as our students progress through the exercises in Fast ForWord. Language, learning and reading skills depend on an essential group of cognitive skills including attention, memory, processing speed, and sequencing. Often auditory sequential memory is improved as language discrimination improves.Often APD is confused with ADD/ADHD. Improve auditory processing and attention also improves.  So a multiplier approach is essential. A focus on one skill alone rarely works.

The article on Auditory Processing is here
APD, Temporal Processing, and Dyslexia.

For More Information, References, and Recommendations

Dawes P, Sirimanna T, Burton M, Vanniasegaram I, Tweedy F, Bishop DVM. (2009) Temporal Auditory and Visual Motion Processing of Children Diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder and Dyslexia. Ear & Hearing 30(6):675–686.

Noran Doidge on Fast ForWord

Norman Doidge the author of "The Brain that Changes Itself" has written about Mike Merzenich one of the creators of the Fast ForWord family of programmes in one of the chapters. The book is facinating and I will be happy to send a excerpt if you send me an email to john @ neuron.ie.

On his website www.normandoidge.com this is what he has to say about Fast ForWord.

"A reading disorder, caused by an auditory processing problem..... If it is a learning disorder based on auditory processing, Scientific Learning at http://www.scilearn.com/ has a program that has been tested and shown excellent results, with hundreds of thousands of people. This is the Fast ForWord program Dr. Doidge described in chapter 3. Developed by world leaders in neuroplasticity, the program can be ordered and done on one’s computer at home. It is quite fast, if you have the brain problem it treats, and you can do it at home."

We use Fast ForWord very successfully to help students to improve their learning skills. The home based programs have helped students with autism, aspergers, dyslexia, dyspraxia and other learning difficulties to process information more accurately and quicker. It has helped them to pay attention, remember better and follow instructions more easily. See www.neuronlearning.com for more details

We also supply the Positscience programs called Brain Fitness that help older people sharpen their cognitive skills.

Tone deaf? Brain pathway may be missing

 The importance of early language development is continually stressed. The ability to deal with sounds, phonemes, phonics is key to language development and reading skills.

A treatment for tone deafness might also help people with speech disorders such as dyslexia. There has been evidence that people with dyslexia have same auditory processing problems as people with tone deafness. A university lab showed last year that children with musical training performed better on dyslexia tests.Some people are really bad at singing a song they've heard, and scientists are figuring out why.

The phenomenon, called tone deafness, refers to people who do poorly at distinguishing between different musical tones.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, looked at images of the brains of 10 people who tested as being tone deaf, and 10 people who were not. Here's a tone deafness test similar to the one they used.

We have developed exercises to improve auditory processing. Key skills that help attention, memory, sequencing and processing rates.

Previous research has shown that people with lesions in the brain pathway that connects perception and motor areas of the brain have trouble with language, said Psyche Loui, instructor in the department of neurology at Harvard University. People with damage to this area tend to have problems with repeating words they hear.

The new study in the Journal of Neuroscience also found that the pathways in this brain area, which usually have top and bottom branches, were implicated in tonal recognition. In fact, scientists could not identify a right-top branch in any of the 10 tone-deaf participants.

"The better you can tell the difference between two tones, the larger that particular brain pathway was," Loui said.

The findings do not mean there is no hope for tone deaf people, however.

"I think there's a lot of music training in general that could help enlarge these pathways," Loui said.

On the other end of the spectrum, some people have perfect or "absolute" pitch, and can name any musical note they hear. Diana Deutsch, psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, has found people who speak "tone" languages, with words that change meaning entirely depending on tone, seem to have a greater likelihood of perfect pitch. More speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese, two tone languages, tend to have perfect pitch than English, for example, she said.

In theory, in Deutsch's view, it should be as easy to call a pitch "F" as it is to say that an object is red or blue.

"If you assume that there's something missing in our environment in terms of early exposure to the right types of sounds, and that it is bundled in with speech, then the whole thing makes sense," she said.

See the full article on CNN Click here

Research on APD

NEW RESEARCH: Auditory Processing Disorders in children suspected of Learning Disabilities-A need for screening?

Our students who use Fast ForWord have seen improvements in listening and auditory processing-types of skills (whether formal APD testing was completed or not). Here is an interesting insight into the condition.

Dora Eva Bamiou has done some research with Frank Musiek and this is a fascinating article.


Auditory Processing Disorders in children suspected of Learning Disabilities—A need for screening?
Vassiliki Iliadou, Doris-Eva Bamiou, Stergios Kaprinis, Dimitris Kandylis and George Kaprinis

International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, Available online 7 May 2009.

Aim
The current study aims to assess: (a) the prevalence of auditory processing in a population of children reporting learning difficulties, (b) the correlation of APD diagnosis with age, the intelligence coefficient (IQ) and with the presence of a specific learning disability such as dyslexia and (c) to evaluate the reliability of each auditory processing test used in this study in identifying APD.

Method
We evaluated one hundred and twenty-seven consecutive children referred to the academic tertiary LD Clinic of the Psychiatric Department by means of a psychoacoustic mainly non–verbal test battery.

Results
APD was found to be present in 43.3% and co-existing with developmental dyslexia in 25% of cases. The diagnosis of APD correlated with age in that children with APD were younger by 2 years than those without a diagnosis of APD. The diagnosis of APD did not correlate with IQ or with the diagnosis of dyslexia.

Interpretation
High prevalence of APD in the targeted group of children suspected of Learning Disabilities sets the grounds for a possible benefit in screening for the disorder.


This posting originally appeared on SpellTalk, a free online discussion group for educators dedicated to improving spelling and word study skills. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or manage other options, please visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/spelltalk

Fast ForWord, an audiologist's view

Endorsement of the Language products

Fast ForWord was designed to facilitate the development of a child's language skills. It is based on the premise that the language delays and auditory perceptual disabilities of many children stem from a slower rate of processing. When children process information at a slower rate they will miss certain acoustic cues and on a micro level, may mishear individual words and confuse/interchange sounds within words. On a more global level these children may experience difficulty in many areas of receptive and/or expressive language i.e. reduced vocabulary, difficulty remembering and/or sequencing information as well as in reading and reading comprehension. Continued

The Importance of Auditory Processing and Automaticity

Sound discrimination and auditory processing skills are essential to improve the clarity and breadth of the phonological vocabulary. This opens the door to automaticity in reading and to more effective learning. Enthusiasm for learning is inextricably tied to the daily educational experience. If your child is not reading easily, school is already or will become trying. The boost in foundational learning skills that Fast ForWord achieves can make the school day more manageable by reducing frustration and building confidence. This improves the likelihood of a positive effort every day leading to a more productive educational career.

Auditory Processing Disorder

Auditory Processing Disorder (or Central Auditory Processing Disorder/ CAPD)

Auditory Processing is basically the role the brain plays in the hearing process which ultimately enables us to develop learning skills. In order to help children to overcome any CAPD issues we focus on developing their cognitive processes. This ensures the breakthrough that gives long lasting improvements of language, reading and learning skills.

It is not a very well known aspect of learning difficulties in Europe. In the USA there is more awareness. Fast ForWord works on auditory processing very successfully.

Send me an email and I will forward you a copy of our report on Auditory Processing.

I will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.