Using Neuroscience and Technology to Build Learning Capacity

Using Neuroscience and Technology to Build Learning Capacity

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience • New area of neuroscience (15 years old) • Evolving thanks to the new noninvasive technologies to study the brain (f. MRI, PET etc. ) …reading is the one area of the school curriculum where neuroscience has made its greatest contribution… Sousa, 2005

Neuronal communication system

Neurotransmitter Chemicals • Acetylcholine: focused attention/reward • Dopamine: reward, novelty • Norepinephrine: novelty

This Student is Prepared to Learn: Paying Attention, Storing Multiple Commands and Assigning Meaning to What is Said

This Student is Not Prepared to Learn: Not Paying Attention, Not Storing Multiple Commands and Not Assigning Meaning to What is Said

National Institute of Health Cited Reasons for Poor Reading Ability

Causes of Poor Reading Research by National Institute of Health (after a ten-year public study) concluded: 80% of the time cognitive skill weakness… » Working memory » Ability to attend » Auditory and visual processing speed » Following sequences of directions …is the source of the difficulty

Reading is Simply WRITTEN LANGUAGE But…. “If a student cannot identify sounds in spoken words…he will have difficulty with decoding and thus reading. ” Dr. G. Reid Lyon, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH 1997

Five Domains of Language Proficiency 1. READ 2. WRITE 3. SPEAK 4. LISTEN 5. COMPREHEND

What are Some Causes for Poor Language Ability? Weak or missing neural maps can be caused by: • Limited exposure to the language of the classroom • Inner ear infections • Neurological problems • Processing speed • Heritable factors • Many other factors we haven’t identified

Language Literacy Continuum Perceptual weakness Weak phonological representations Oral language weakness Reading, writing, spelling problems Learning and academic problems Struggling students

Estimated Cumulative Words Addressed to Child (In Millions) Language Experiences by Group Professional 45 Million Words Working-class 26 Million Words Welfare 13 Million Words 12 24 36 (Age Child in Months) 48 Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children by Betty Hart & Todd R. Risley. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. (1995).

The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language on Reading Growth (Hirsch, 1996) 16 High Oral Language in Kindergarten 5. 2 years difference 15 14 Reading Age Level 13 12 11 Low Oral Language in Kindergarten 10 9 8 7 6 5 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Chronological Age 14 15 16

Consequences in the Classroom Problems with processing spoken language lead to difficulties with: • • • Following directions Doing multiple choice tests Reading paragraphs Understanding pronouns Understanding embedded clauses For written material this is exaggerated by slow labored decoding

Research has taught us: • • Both challenge and feedback are required for brain growth. At birth, we have an equal potential to learn any language. Literacy in the 1 st language accelerates literacy in the second. Socioeconomic level affects learning environment and vocabulary

Research has taught us: • People who are functionally bilingual can delay the onset of dementia over 4 years longer than monolinguals.

Meet the Reseachers: Paula Tallal • A world-recognized authority on languagelearning disabilities • Active on many scientific advisory boards and government committees • Researches developmental language disorders and learning problems.

Processing Speech • Students need to distinguish speech sounds correctly so they can learn the rules of language and associate sounds with letters • Speech sounds can differ by as little as 10 milliseconds • Fast For. Word emphasizes the differences in sounds to make them easier to distinguish

Auditory Processing Differences 100 Percent Correct 95 90 85 80 2 -Tone Sequence Task 75 Normals 70 Language Delayed 65 60 40 55 50 8 15 30 60 150 350 428 947 1466 1985 3543 3023 4062 Faster (milliseconds) Slower Tallal, P & Piercy, M (1973) Nature, 241

Why Processing Sound Is a Challenge For the Brain. .

Small Changes in Timing Big Changes in Meaning 100 milliseconds

The Foundations to Literacy & Learning Brain Fitness Reading for Information Relationships and Viewpoints Comprehension Vocabulary “By building a strong foundation, literacy and learning can be accelerated. ” Fluency Phonics Phonemic Awareness Foundational Language Skills Memory Attention Processing Sequencing “Cognitive Skills Development”

Meet the Researchers: Michael Merzenich • • • Considered by many to be the father of Brain Plasticity Has been conducting research that supports Brain Plasticity theories for nearly 30 years Has been using f. MRI technology to take images of the brain before and after a student learns to read.

Cognitive Skills: The Foundation to Reading! Memory Attention Processing Sequencing LEARNING MAPS

Neuroscience Findings on The Learning Brain 1. Conditions in the brain are dynamic. They change and “rewire” at any age 2. The brain’s ability to change, or be trained, is known as Neuroplasticity 3. The brain can change and learn at any age, and certain conditions encourage learning

Neuroscience Findings Struggling readers show significantly slower and less active neural activity in the areas of the brain affecting cognitive skills: • • working memory attention processing speed phonological awareness

Neuroscience Principles Frequency and intensity Adaptivity Simultaneous development Timely motivation

Acoustically Modifying a Sound Creates a “Pure” Signal da da

Progress Towards Natural Speech

How New Technology Helps • When acoustic differences are stretched and emphasized, students can perceive them

Consistent Trials for Maximum Performance Learning Trials Fast For. Word Middle & High 45, 000 trials Fast For. Word Elementary 35, 000 trials Other Software 6, 000 trials Number of 50 -minute Sessions

Reading Skills Improve Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing; Phonological Awareness Test; Test of Phonological Awareness

Reading Scores Improve Terra. Nova (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program)

Improvements Are Maintained Woodcock-Johnson Revised

Improvements Observed By Teachers and Parents • • • Processing spoken language Following directions Quality and quantity of verbal expression and conversational skills Reading and comprehending paragraphs Understanding embedded clauses Self esteem Confidence Writing longer responses and paragraphs Interest in reading Greater ability to focus and answer in class FEWER REFERRALS TO SPECIAL EDUCATION

The efficacy of the strategy crosses a variety of student populations.

Memory Improves Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing

Attention Increases ADHD Rating Scale- IV

Processing Improves Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Test of Auditory Discrimination

Sequencing Improves TAPS-R (auditory sentence memory subtest)�

Harvard Medical School Independent Study Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience 25 (2007) 295– 310 295 IOS Press Neural correlates of rapid auditory processing are disrupted in children with developmental dyslexia and ameliorated with training: An f. MRI study N. Gaab, ∗, J. D. E. Gabrieli, G. K. Deutsch, P. Tallal and E. Temple, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA Stanford Institute for Reading and Learning, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Department of Education, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA Children’s Hospital Boston, Developmental Medicine Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Cornell University Independent Study Signature of Average Readers Signature of Dyslexic Readers, before Fast For. Word Signature of Dyslexic Readers, after Fast For. Word Dyslexic children’s reading ability had been raised to normal levels by the end of the eight (8) week remediation period. Adapted from Temple et al. , Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 2003

Stanford University Independent Study Normal Readers Dyslexic Readers Right Left Adapted from Temple et al. , Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, 2003

Good Reading

www. positscience. com

Using Neuroscience and Technology to Build Learning Capacity