Study Shows Remedial Instruction Benefits Dyslexia
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 07, 2008
A recent Carnegie Mellon University study has shown how the brain can rewire itself to overcome reading difficulties if students are given a minimum of 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction.
There have been numerous studies using brain imaging to see how targeted instruction can benefit students with Dyslexia. A recent Carnegie Mellon University study has shown how the brain can rewire itself to overcome reading difficulties if students are given a minimum of 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction. The article, posted on ScienceDaily.com, tells how scientists studied changes in the regions of the brain responsible for reading and decoding. The looked at the brain activity prior to increased instruction, and then again one year later after receiving the instruction. After one year, the gap in brain activity between the students with Dyslexia and the students with no reading difficulties had significantly decreased, showing that the extra instruction the students received had greatly improved their ability to decode and form words while reading. The scientists determined that “any kind of education is a matter of training the brain. When poor readers are learning to read, a particular brain area is not performing as well as it might, and remedial instruction helps to shape that area up.” They feel that their study can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching methods and curriculum, or even shape educational policy.
Educators currently involved in Response to Intervention can already attest to the changes in educational policy. Response to Intervention will be helping students target those areas where they are having difficulty, and provide additional instruction for them to “train their brain.” Obviously educators have already known that the findings from the study would show that 100 hours of additional targeted instruction would benefit the students with Dyslexia. Yet, schools do not have brain imagaing technology. How will we know if the specific instruction we are providing is helping our students make gains? How can we track the fidelity of the interventions to make sure they are effective?
To read more on tracking fidelity and intervention effectiveness, click here