EDU-Therapeutics - Notes and Definitions

Aging and Memory
As we mature we find that we become more ingrained in maintaining habits, beliefs, and preferences. As these seem to solidify we find that we take less opportunity for creative or divergent thinking.   Unfortunately, this works against us because we need to have new stimulation, think of new ways of doing things, and exercise or cognitive skills daily or they will begin to fade.

Memory, logical reasoning, and response speed are three of the key components that we need to work with in order to maintain an agile, growing brain. Research shows that with dietary support and active brain work we can maintain our thinking skills and memory and avoid age related dementia.

Several programs are useful in sustaining active thinking and this programming is featured in EDU-Therapeutics training. The Interactive Metronome increases response speed, auditory awareness and attention focus skills. Several of the listening programs are very beneficial in maintaining auditory processing and increasing hearing attention.    Freeze Framer is helpful in reducing anxiety and maintaining organization and attention. These programs are available through the center and can be accessed by appointment or phone consultation with Dr. Smith.

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Attributes For Learning
A teacher asked the other day..."By attributes, do you mean talents?" The answer is yes and no! While attributes may be talents, they are also skills or characteristics an individual possesses. In EDU-Therapeutics we evaluate the attributes that are most important in learning. Some of these attributes are: memory, attention, language (reception and expression), creativity, motor skills (like writing), intellect and executive function (strategy and planning).

These are the key attributes which may enable or stress learning. Usually, learners find that many of these attributes are skills. If one or more of these attributes is inefficient or seriously immature, then it often results in inconvenience or frustration in learning.

We think that being specific about the attribute profile of a learner gives the information that is needed to resolve learning challenges. The attribute profile which is developed from the Competency Assessment Battery (CAB) helps us identify the learner's profile. EDU-Therapeutics training system provides the interventions to develop the attributes to resolve learning frustration

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Attention Skills
In learning, attention is one of the most important of our attributes. Good attention skills enable us to maintain our focus even when there are distractions around us or in our thoughts. There are several different types of skills that are required for attention.

First, we must be able to stay on task. If we experience inattention we will find ourselves daydream or being distracted.

Second, we need to be able to respond in a reasonable amount of time. If we find that it takes a long time to react to something it will make us appear that we are not attending.

The third skill we need is to be able to resist being impulsive. If we react too fast to something, we may not have thought it through and may do or say something that is inappropriate. Inattention, impulsivity or response time are often the issues for learners who are identified as experiencing attention deficit disorder.

Many attributes of attention can be developed with exercises which are taught in EDU-Therapeutics.

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Auditory Memory
Memory skills are responsible for many of the frustration and fear associated with learning. In particular, auditory memory or listening skills are among the most irritating. Children around the age of eight usually can recall six items or units of information. After eight, they will usually continue to develop their recall until they can remember seven or eight items.

When learners have difficulty in remembering what they hear, they often miss information, miss assignments, confuse directions and gather less information than their peers. As youngsters they will find it difficult to make sound to letter associations, like in reading. They will have difficulty hearing the sequence of the sounds in a word, like for spelling.

Since memory skills usually develop early, lags in development often follow the learner into the adult years. Auditory memory is the skill in remembering what we hear. It can be developed at any age and improves a learner's comfort in social situations, school and work.

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Auditory Conceptualization
This is the skill which allows us to enjoy a description of a scene or event when we hear or read about it. This attribute enables us to take what we hear and register it as both with verbal comprehension and visual image. It relies on effective reception of the auditory input. The visual image is then matched or constructed based on the detail of auditory information received.

Auditory conceptualization is reading comprehension. It is the ability to listen to our inner language, read a story and to match visual images, to create a scene, character, or event.

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Cognitive Skill Development
These skills include vocabulary knowledge, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning skills. They require an integrated brain processing. Training is frequently required in this area when a learner has had a head injury or brain trauma.

Cognitive skills include all of the processing skills and executive function applications. They provide the foundation for effective performance of reasoning, math, communication, and all integrated skills. The EDU-Therapeutics system is designed to develop these skills to resolve the inefficiencies associated with cognitive immaturity or disruption.

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Competency Assessment Battery (CAB)
The CAB is a computerized competency assessment which provides a profile of the attributes of a learner. The CAB measures the primary skills required for efficient learning. The skills measured are:

Visual and Auditory Memory (matching, memory and construction)
Time Knowledge and Conceptualization (including sequence of days, months and holidays; the amount of time required for various events).
Cognitive Skills (vocabulary, quantitative concepts and reasoning skills)
Attention Focus (for heard information and integration of planning for retention of visual information)
Auditory Skills (focusing on rhyming, discrimination and identification of syllables).
Academic Concepts for reading, comprehension, spelling and math: The CAB provides the foundation for implementing EDU-Therapeutics by identifying inefficiencies and challenges in competency areas. It is competency based rather than normatively constructed. Therefore, the teacher or professional can move directly from the assessment information to programming with confidence.
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Dyslexia
There are three profiles of learners which tend to create the learning style identified as dyslexic. These profiles are extensively discussed along with remediation advice in You Don't Have to Be Dyslexic. The profiles include visual symbol confusion, auditory comprehension confusion and attention focus disruption. Visual symbol confusion is the easiest dyslexic learning style to identify because there is obvious difficulty in learning to recall words and to read with traditional instruction.

Auditory comprehension confusion is not as obvious in the beginning. The learner may actually read words but finds extreme difficulty in understanding meaning and enjoying the reading process. The most frequently misidentified dyslexic learning style is attention focus disruption. It is often identified as attention deficit disorder but almost always is isolated to times when the learner is required to work with symbol material (including: reading, spelling, math and writing.)

The symptoms of dyslexic learning styles may be identified related to the attributes which the learner experiences. Special attribute training often removes the symptoms which have stressed the learner and created the dyslexic learning style.

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EDU-Therapeutics
Education and therapy is the perfect combination for resolving learning inefficiencies. EDU-Therapeutics is a system which utilizes many effective therapy techniques for developing attributes and skills. Teachers, parents and professionals who are trained in the Dyslexia Remediation Specialist Certificate program learn to implement EDU-Therapeutics for developing learning success.

The techniques enable the specialist to develop the basic processing attributes such as memory, language, motor coordination and attention. They use unique training techniques for developing strengths in these areas. EDU - Therapeutics recognizes the importance of a variety of well-known techniques in developing learning attributes.

The intervention techniques are selected for the learner based on the information obtained from the Competency Assessment Battery - CAB. EDU-Therapeutic techniques and programs are then implemented to relieve the stress in learning and develop appropriate strength in the essential learning attributes.

An EDU-Therapeutics Professional Newsletter is included in this web-site and is updated consistently regarding special events and techniques which our specialists have found effective.

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Executive Function Skills
Tasks which require more than one step for successful performance, usually require executive function skills. Executive function refers to the ability to analyze a task, identify an appropriate strategy for performing the task, using the strategy, evaluating the effectiveness of the strategy, modifying it as needed, and generalizing the strategy for use in similar tasks.

Executive Function skills are necessary for writing a paper, planning a vacation, completing a project, studying for a test, and any task which requires more than one step to perform. Executive function skills are not efficient unless the learner also has appropriate processing (memory, attention, language and motor skills).

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Interactive Metronome
The IM program is a computer based program which assists children, teens and adults increase their response speed, attention focus, and skill in responding to information. It utilizes auditory feedback for adjusting response speed and teaches auditory discrimination and utilization of auditory information. Programming generally requires fifteen to twenty sessions for apparent neurologically based change to be complete. Training is available through our center.

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Listening Programs
Listening programs increase children, teen or adult listening skills by developing responsiveness to the full spectrum of sound. It is especially important for subjects with a history of ear-infections or hearing interruption or with speech and language issues. Programming is primarily done at home over a sixteen week period. Monitoring is provided by our center.

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Math and Dyscalculia
We often hear about dyslexia but rarely do we hear of dyscalculia! It refers to the difficulty some learners experience in learning their number facts and math applications. Dys - partial inability to + Calculia - calculate. Difficulty in math work is often associated with inefficiency in the attributes of memory and the executive function skill of verbal dialogue. Some learners have difficulty from the beginning in just recalling the combinations for addition, subtraction or multiplication.

These skills require basic memory strength in both the visual and auditory systems. Other learners may know the combinations but cannot recall the steps for performing a problem or cannot reason through the logic of working a problem. They often have difficulty in using their language reasoning skills or verbal dialogue. EDU-Therapeutics addresses these inefficiencies by developing the appropriate attributes and skills to allow the learner to support recall and application skills.

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Reading and Comprehension
Reading assumes the ability to look at a combination of letter symbols, recognize them as a consistent sequence of letters, and understand the associated meaning of the resulting word. At the very beginning level of reading an understanding of sound to symbol and symbol to sound associations is important.

In order to unlock the decoding system and recognize words, a knowledge of sound and symbol associations is important. Some learners appear to jump over this level and automatically recognize words as whole units. They are unlikely to experience decoding difficulty because they would appear to have extensive visual memory capacity and good integration with their auditory memory.

Learners who experience challenges with memory function often have great frustration with learning to read early and easily. The EDU-Therapeutic system for teaching reading skills involves the development of the processing attributes concurrent with the development of sound-symbol training. As the learner's capacity to use memory extends the likelihood of symbol, syllable and word retention increases.

Some learners experience challenges with understanding what they read even though they can pronounce the words adequately. Most learners experience this in their early efforts with reading. This is because of the energy and effort required to convert symbols to sounds, blend them and close on a word. This process is often repeated word after word. The comprehension confusion which occurs at this point is akin to the skilled reader being asked to quickly spell every word as he reads it and then take a comprehension test without going back and rereading the material. At a serious level this confusion is reflected in the dyslexic learning style - Auditory Comprehension Confusion. It is readily resolved with application of specific techniques from EDU-Therapeutics.

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Spelling
If reading requires a conversion of symbols to sounds, then spelling is the conversion of sounds to symbols. The frustration with our English language is that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the sounds and symbols. If there were we would spell laugh as laf! In addition, to the inefficiency in attempting to write the sounds we hear, we must be aware of these unique spelling patterns.

Spelling requires the skills of visual memory - remembering the image of the word, auditory memory - recalling the sounds in sequence and motor skills for writing. Spelling difficulties are often correlated with challenges on the CAB tasks requiring construction from memory. They improve with a variety of training techniques which include memory development, sound conceptualization and imagery application skills.

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Time Concept Development
Understanding where we are in time is an essential attribute for planning, organizing, and implementing our executive function (strategy) skills. It is crucial to understand the sequence of the hours in a day, days in the week and months in the year. This skill enables us to play, schedule and organize our time. Many learners have no concept of time passing. They are unaware of the length of a minute or an hour. They have little idea how many tasks they could perform in ten minutes or how long it might take to do a specific task.

This is often a serious issue for children regarding their homework. To them it seems like it will take forever. In fact, the task would take ten minutes but by the time they have complained and stalled and whined about it over an hour has been used. The same issue remains for adults. Many adults find themselves working past their work hours because they have committed to doing something that takes longer then their estimated time. Time concepts are evaluated on the CAB tasks.

The training program in EDU-Therapeutics includes many exercises and strategies for development of this attribute.

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Visual Memory Skills
Most learners with appropriate vision have visual memory skills. They can recognize their family members by sight or recognize where they live. This memory relies on experience of actually seeing the person or place for recognition with multiple exposures.

The visual memory skill which is needed for recognizing words in spelling or reading requires considerably more detail and memory sophistication. The sequencing of relatively similar symbols in close proximity to each other requires a more effectively developed memory. It also requires an understanding of spatial orientation to allow for the spaces between words and letters.

Learners with visual memory inefficiencies often are performing at a three to four digit recall level. This means that they are able to recall three or four letters when they see them and say or write them. This first level of recall uses short term memory. The learner may not be able to recall the same sequence of letters another day.

For developing a reading (or spelling) vocabulary the learner must be able to retain a short term recall of at least six letters and have the capacity for long term recall. These are often two distinct skills within the memory attribute. These skills are measured on the CAB and EDU-Therapeutics memory development resolves the majority of these issues to improve reading and spelling skills.

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Visual Conceptualization
Visual Conceptualization is the companion skills to Auditory Conceptualization. It assumes that the learner has the attribute that enables him or her to see something and use words to describe it. It is an important communication skill. It is the ability to describe what happened, what one saw, or to communicate to another what we have seen. It is an essential skills for communication through writing and a powerful learning technique for recalling information. For more information on these attributes read You Don't Have to Be Dyslexic or Learning Victories.

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