MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'dyslexia'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:00:43 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118805&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fresearch-bytes-gs-glr-ran-ga-and.html Double click image to enlarge- iPost using BlogPress from Kevin McGrew's iPad (Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner)) Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118805 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:41:00 +0100 5118805 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5077868&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FbVs7OP1xH_I%2F In recent years, we have witnessed the beginnings of a revolution in education.  Technology has fundamentally altered the way we do many things in daily life, but it is just starting to make headway in changing the way we teach.  Just as television shows like Sesame Street enhanced the passive learning of information for kids by teaching in a fun format, electronic games offer to greatly enhance the way kids and adults are taught by actively engaging them in the process. The Entertainment Software Association estimates that sixty-seven percent of American households play video or computer games [1].  They are especially popular among young males, with a recent study of teenagers by researchers at Yale reporting that 76.3% of male (and 29.2% of female) teens play video games [2].  These... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5077868 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:36:31 +0100 5077868 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050918&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F07%2Fresearch-brief-orthographic-processing.html Click on image to enlarge- iPost using BlogPress from my Kevin McGrew's iPad (Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner)) Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050918 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:27:00 +0100 5050918 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5050919&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F07%2Fresearch-bytes-multivariate-prediction.html Interesting study demonstrating effective multivariate prediction of dyslexia. Click on images to enlarge.- iPost using BlogPress from my Kevin McGrew's iPadintelligence IQ tests IQ testing IQ scores CHC intelligence theory CHC theory Cattell-Horn-Carroll human cognitive abilities psychology school psychology individual differences cognitive psychology neuropsychology neuroscience psychology special education educational psychology psychometrics psychological assessment psychological measurement IQs Corner general intelligence intelligent IQ testing validity dyslexia Ga Gv Gc Glr Gc Gsm Generated by: Tag Generator (Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner)) Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5050919 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:47:00 +0100 5050919 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008450&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2Fim1unD-albg%2F Great article in the Wall Street Journal today: Unlocking Dyslexia in Japanese. Quotes: - “Experiences like that of the Lundays are providing scientists and educators with clues about how people with dyslexia learn and how best to teach them. Researchers have long observed that some dyslexics have an easier time with languages like Japanese and Chinese, in which characters represent complete words or ideas, than they do with languages like English, which use separate letters and sounds to form words.“ – “Learning experts don’t suggest that studying Chinese or Japanese will help dyslexics learn to read English; there’s no getting around the fact that reading English well requires being able to identify and blend sounds. But improved understanding of the way dyslexics absorb char... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008450 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:56:17 +0100 5008450 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4992816&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F07%2Fcognitive-efficiency-measures-as-brain.html Yet on more study linking poor global processing speed (Gs) with a clinical disorder, this time reading (again). It is very clear that during the past decade one of the most robust research findings (based on the relations between psychometric measures of abilities and all kinds of clinical disorders) is the importance of "cognitive efficiency" in identifying individuals with a wide variety of disorders. The CHC domains of processing speed (Gs) and working memory (Gsm-WM) have repeatedly been found to be strong indicators that something is wrong in cognitive function, across many clinical disorders. I like to describe measures of cognitive efficiency (Gs+Gsm) as brain thermometers. They can tell you that the cognitive system is not operating efficiently, but they lack specificity to make s... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4992816 Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:48:00 +0100 4992816 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4841743&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F05%2Fresearch-bytes-what-works-for.html This article reviews research on the achievement outcomes of alternative approaches for struggling readers ages 5–10 (US grades K-5): One-to-one tutoring, small-group tutorials, classroom instructional process approaches, and computer-assisted instruction. Study inclusion criteria included use of randomized or well-matched control groups, study duration of at least 12 weeks, and use of valid measures independent of treatments. A total of 97 studies met these criteria. The review concludes that one-to-one tutoring is very effective in improving reading performance. Tutoring models that focus on phonics obtain much better outcomes than others. Teachers are more effective than paraprofessionals and volunteers as tutors. Small-group, phonetic tutorials can be effective, but are not as effect... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4841743 Wed, 18 May 2011 15:16:00 +0100 4841743 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734337&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F04%2Fneuropsychological-abilities-related-to.html Very interesting study on the neuropsychological constructs related to beginning writing. The abstract, initial CFA/SEM model, and the final CFA/SEM model are presented below. The initial model was not found plausible due to significant multicolinearity between a number of the measures (variance from some measures could be perfectly predicted from other tests, either singly, or in linear combination with other measures). Most intriguing conclusion for me is the clear importance of executive functioning (very broadly operationalized in the final model) for beginning writing. A good article for this interested in early writing and writing disabilities to get and digest.Double click on each image to enlarge.- iPost using BlogPress from my Kevin McGrew's iPadintelligence IQ tests IQ testing IQ... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734337 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:48:00 +0100 4734337 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4580981&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F03%2Fresearch-bytes-wisc-iv-adhddcd-rapid.html Double click on images to view larger versions of abstracts- iPost using BlogPress from my Kevin McGrew's iPadintelligence IQ tests IQ testing IQ scores CHC intelligence theory CHC theory Cattell-Horn-Carroll human cognitive abilities psychology school psychology individual differences cognitive psychology neuropsychology psychology special education educational psychology psychometrics psychological assessment psychological measurement IQs Corner ADHD dyslexia temporal processing DCD WISC-IV Generated by: Tag Generator (Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner)) Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4580981 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:50:00 +0100 4580981 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4532383&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F03%2Fresearch-byte-phonological-awareness.html DeSmedt, B., & Boets, B. (2010). Phonological processing and arithmetic fact retrieval: Evidence from developmental dyslexia. Neuropsychologia, 48(14), 3973-3981.AbstractThe triple-code model, cognitive neuroimaging and developmental behavioral data suggest a specific association between phonological processing and arithmetic fact retrieval. Accordingly, individuals with deficits in phonological processing, such as individuals with developmental dyslexia, are expected to show difficulties in arithmetic fact retrieval. The present study tested this proposal in 25 adults with developmental dyslexia and 25 matched controls by examining strategy use during single-digit multiplication and subtraction and its associations with phonological processing. Findings revealed that individuals with dysl... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4532383 Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:27:00 +0100 4532383 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4482880&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2011%2F02%2Ffyipost-70-dyslexia-support-links.html This is an FYI link request that may be of interest to IQs Corners readers, that comes from another blog, Onlinecollegecourses."Since we write in a similar niche, thought you might want to share a recent article of ours, "70 Excellent Links for Dyslexia Support", with your readers. .- iPost using BlogPress from my Kevin McGrew's iPad (Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner)) Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4482880 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:00:00 +0100 4482880 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4241836&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=36582&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FSharpBrains%2F%7E3%2FCbgT4ZmtPK0%2F Did you read The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, the great book on neuroplasticity by Norman Doidge? If  so, you will have heard about the Arrowsmith School/ Program, which was also one of the Top Ten Finalists in 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards.  The following is an excerpt from Brain School: Stories of children with learning disabilities and attention disorders who changed their lives by improving their cognitive functioning (November 2010; $22), a new book from Eaton Arrowsmith School’s (EAS) founder and director, Howard Eaton. It tells the story of how children with learning disabilities (dyslexia, ADHD, etc.) can overcome educational obstacles by reorganizing their brains. An inspiring book about how cognitive progra... SharpBrains blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4241836 Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:17:20 +0100 4241836 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4203228&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fresearch-byte-temporal-processing.html An interesting article suggesting that temporal processing (temporal sampling) may play a crucial roles in various forms of reading disabilities (dyslexia). IMHO this theory may explain a good portion of individuals with dyslexia, but no single theory or causal mechanism can account for the diversity of causes that have been suggested for severe reading disabilities. Nevertheless...the prominent role of temporal processing is interesing.As per usual when I make a research byte/brief post, if anyone would like to read the original article, I can share via email---with the understanding that the article is provided in exchange for a brief guest post about it's contents. :) (contact me at iap@earthlink.net if interested). Also, if figure/images are included in the post, they can usually be ma... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4203228 Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:38:00 +0100 4203228 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4203229&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fresearch-byte-cognitive-development-of.html Double click on image to enlarge- iPost using BlogPress from my Kevin McGrew's iPadintelligence IQ tests IQ scores CHC theory Cattell-Horn-Carroll human cognitive abilities psychology school psychology individual differences cognitive psychology neuropsychology special education educational psychology psychometrics psychological assessment psychological measurement IQs Corner Reading reading fluency dyslexia Ga Glr rapid naming RAN Phonological processing Orthographic processing (Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner)) Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4203229 Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:41:00 +0100 4203229 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3876784&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2010%2F08%2Freading-fluency-and-reading-lddyslexia.html The following is a guest blog post (previously called virtual scholars at this blog)  by John J. DeMann, NCSP, School Psychologist, North Allegheny School District.  John took advantage of my standing offer to readers of my blogs to receive a PDF copy of any article I mention in a research brief (or byte ) or any article that may be in a recent "IQs Corner Recent Literature of Interest" post.  I know that many practitioners do not have access to journals......so if a person volunteers to make a brief written post, I'm willing to send them a PDF copy of the article in exchange for the post.This feature benefits all readers as the post is "added value and commentary" which then allows me to provide a link to the full article (via the "fair use doctrine"---esp. for educational ... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3876784 Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:45:00 +0100 3876784 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3794914&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2010%2F07%2Fresearch-bytes-7-27-10-working-memory.html Conclusions: In the past 10 years, important new theoretical insights into the range and nature of WM deficits and relation between these limitations and the language difficulties in SLI have occurred. New, robust diagnostic assessment tools and computerized treatment methods designed to enhance children’s WM functioning have also been developed. The assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of the language difficulties in SLI should consider the potential influence of WM.Meisinger, E. B., Bloom, J. S., & Hynd, G. W. (2010). Reading fluency: implications for the assessment of children with reading disabilities. Annals of Dyslexia, 60(1), 1-17.The current investigation explored the diagnostic utility of reading fluency measures in the identification of children with reading disabilities. P... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3794914 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:22:00 +0100 3794914 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3603705&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F%3Fp%3D251 I had the great pleasure of attending a symposium held in the College of Education at my alma mater, the University of Portland, focused on this interesting subject, and the implications that it bears for effective learning and teaching. My co-participants were distinguished professors in linguistics and education science (Ellyn Arwood and Richard Christen), and [...] (Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D.) On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3603705 Wed, 26 May 2010 20:27:55 +0100 3603705 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3435136&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fresearch-bytes-4-3-10-gf-gs-gv-ga.html DiscussionAcknowledgementsReferencesWolbers, T., & Hegarty, M., (2010). What determines our navigational abilities? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(2), 138-146The ability to find one's way in our complex environments represents one of the most fundamental cognitive functions. Although involving basic perceptual and memory related processes, spatial navigation is particularly complex because it is a multisensory process in which information needs to be integrated and manipulated over time and space. Not surprisingly, humans differ widely in this ability, and recent animal and human work has begun to unveil the underlying mechanisms. Here, we consider three interdependent domains that have been related to navigational abilities: cognitive and perceptual factors, neural information proce... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3435136 Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:40:00 +0100 3435136 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3279948&cid=t_105250_87_f&fid=34935&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedicine.com.my%2Fwp%2F%3Fp%3D8325 Luqman Michel writes in: I have been teaching Dyslexic children on a one to one basis for more than 5 years. I have now started blogging so that parents with dyslexic children can benefit from what I have learned. Please pass on my website to all parents who may have dyslexic children. My weblog : http://www.parentingdyslexia.com Great start Luqman. We wish you all the best in your blog ventures. It is an interesting perspective - dyslexia in Asian languages, something many of us are not familiar with. from the Malaysian Medical Resources Dyslexia - A Different Perspective (Source: Malaysian Medical Resources) Malaysian Medical Resources blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3279948 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 3279948 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3019123&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2Fless-is-more-smaller-corpus-callosum.html Conclusions: Although these results were not predicted, perhaps, as suggested by Bogen and Bogen(1988), decreased callosal connectivity enhances hemispheric specialization, which benefits the incubation of ideas that are critical for the divergent-thinking component of creativity, and it is the momentary inhibition of this e hemispheric independence that accounts for the illumination that is part of the innovative stage of creativity. Alternatively, decreased CC size may reflect more selective developmental pruning, thereby facilitating efficient functional connectivity."The data are particularly interesting given our work with gifted dyslexics - during development, gifted dyslexics may be able to do relatively pure left-hemispheric tasks well (e.g. logic, analytical reasoning) and relativ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3019123 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:01:00 +0100 3019123 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2904995&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fvisual-and-dyslexic-thinking-and.html There's a lot of talk lately about 'Anti-Learning Styles' proponents like Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist who says "cognitive psychologists know they (learning styles) don't exist." Huh? Here he is being interviewed in the Washington Post.But a good question raised by his discussion is whether too much burden is placed on teachers to teach toward different learning styles rather than students to identify how they learn best (or how they learn worst). The essential thing for teachers is to be aware of the need to present information in different forms (redundancy) - words and pictures - and consider working memory for students who have trouble keeping up with the class. But many types of instruction can't be easily translated into kinesthetic terms - what makes more sense is if ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2904995 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:03:00 +0100 2904995 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2883112&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fsensory-processing-and-school.html Over the weekend, I was reading an article about students with disabilities in college, and I was struck by the conclusions that students with hidden disabilities had much poorer outcomes than students with obvious physical impairments (blindness, physical disability). The conclusions had a ring of truth. Disabilities that occur often without obvious physical signs, like sensory processing disorders or dyslexia, are often harder to 'prove', harder to qualify for accommodations, and often faulted as being due to laziness, poor effort or motivation, or retardation. Sensory processing disorders are probably among the most common reasons children underachieve in school, although they are often not formally recognized because of the lack of a definitive diagnostic standard like a blood test or ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2883112 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:06:00 +0100 2883112 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2876182&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=38275&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drjonathanreed.co.uk%2Fwordpress%2F2009%2F10%2Fcomputer-games-can-improve-reading-and-maths%2F I have just seen the preliminary findings of the first independent research study on Neurogames, the games I have developed to help reading and maths.  The study was undertaken on 20 children aged 4 to 6.   10 children were given the computer games to play for 20 mins twice a week for 13 weeks at school.  10 children were not given the game and received normal teaching in a different class.  Both groups were tested on standardized reading and maths tests (WIAT) before and after the intervention.   The results show that the computer game group had an average maths score of 102 (average) before using the games which rose to 123 (above average) after playing the game for 13 weeks.  The average group reading score before playing the games was 101.7, which increased to 114.9 after the gam... Child Neuropsychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2876182 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:48:53 +0100 2876182 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2865403&cid=t_105250_146_f&fid=38266&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsleepeducation.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fsleep-dyslexia-reading-between-lines.html A new study from Italy analyzed the sleep of 16 children with developmental dyslexia. The results were published in the Oct. 1 issue of the journal Sleep.The children had an average age of 11 years. Their sleep was evaluated during an overnight sleep study in a sleep lab. Results were compared with 11 children who read normally.The study found that dyslexic children had a higher percentage of light, stage 2 sleep; they had a lower percentage of deep, slow wave sleep. These stages occur during non-rapid eye movement sleep – or NREM sleep. Children with dyslexia also had fewer periods of REM sleep.Further analysis found additional differences during stage 2 sleep. Children with dyslexia had an increase in the power of fast, “sigma” brain waves; they also had an increased “sleep spind... Sleep Education blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2865403 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:18:00 +0100 2865403 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2851865&cid=t_105250_111_f&fid=36048&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAHeartyLife%2F%7E3%2FLbMBxYDKE4A%2F I recently read and reviewed the book Smart But Feeling Dumb by Harold Levinson and really found it an amazing resource for parents and people with dyslexia. I learned a lot from it, and was happy to give it away as a gift for one lucky Blisstree reader. Our winner was: Denologis! For anyone who is interested in this book and didn’t win, be sure to check out his website, which offers tons of info on dyslexia, Dr. Levinson’s books, and more. Image: Harold Levinson Post from: Blisstree Winner of Smart But Feeling Dumb (Source: A Hearty Life) A Hearty Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2851865 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:42:10 +0100 2851865 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832233&cid=t_105250_111_f&fid=36048&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAHeartyLife%2F%7E3%2FGNgT1vdnEOE%2F Any parent that has a child with dyslexia can appreciate just how frustrating the disease is. While you want to sympathize with the child, sometimes it is difficult to know exactly what is going on to make them experience the difficulty with reading and comprehension. I learned so much from this book it was amazing. Dr. Levinson, author of Smart But Feeling Dumb, describes dyslexia in terms anyone can understand. He’s been studying dyslexia since the 1990s and brings every bit of his knowledge to this book. It’s a wonderful resource for any family touched by dyslexia. Want to win? Leave a comment on this post by Tuesday, September 29th. I’ll choose a winner at random and announce the lucky guy or girl the next day. Image: Dr. Levinson Post from:... A Hearty Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832233 Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:58:30 +0100 2832233 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2814560&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fdyslexia-entrepreneur-lawyer-idealist.html “By rewarding me for the careful consideration of one idea instead of reading hundreds of pages of text, philosophy helped me conquer dyslexia." - Dov Seidman, CEO LRNDov Seidman struggled in school and was a classic dyslexic late-bloomer: "“My high school transcript boasted A’s: two of them, in Phys Ed and auto shop,” he joked, when he gave the commencement address at the UCLA in 2002. His SAT scores never topped 1000. Only later did he realize that he was dyslexic."Seidman managed to get admitted to UCLA, then stumbled into philosophy class because it wasn't full. "Philosophy and ethics became his passion, and he went on to earn a B.A. and an M.A. in philosophy from UCLA, a B.A. in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford (where he captained the Balliol college crew team) a... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2814560 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2814560 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2772608&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fvisual-overload-and-visual-crowding.html "If there were only 10 problems on a page, I could do them all. But when there are 40 on a page, I can't do any of them." - 10 year old studentVisual overload and visual crowding are common problems in every school classroom or company work group, but the mistakes and errors that result from them are rarely recognized or traced back to their true source. It is a paradox - the more you see, the less you see, but it all makes sense if one recognizes that a child or an adult's visual working memory deskspace can become easily overloaded. For visual scientists, visual crowding is a specific term that refers to a greater difficulty in seeing when other visual objects are present. When we look at a complex scene, for instance the picture above, it is impossible to take in all the other visual de... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2772608 Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2772608 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2762009&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=38275&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drjonathanreed.co.uk%2Fwordpress%2F2009%2F09%2F5-reasons-to-develop-computer-game-based-learning%2F There is a lot of debate particularly in the media about the pros and cons about computer use with children.  I believe that there are some fantastic potential benefits in developing computer games to teach children.  Here are 5 of them: Dissemination of information- Our knowledge about child neuropsychological development is increasing all the time.  But there is a problem communicating this to teachers and parents and applying this knowledge. Computer game based learning allows this knowledge to be disseminated to a large number of children.  An example is dyslexia (by this I mean difficulties in learning to read). As neuropsychologists we know how reading develops, what part of the brain is involved, how to intervene to improve reading and how this  changes the brain areas involve... Child Neuropsychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2762009 Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:02:29 +0100 2762009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2748029&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F08%2Fdyslexia-and-autism-are-opposites.html s Structural studies from Michael Casanova and colleagues showed that the brains of dyslexic and autistic subjects had opposite findings. Microcolumns are repeating groups of neurons that share a common dendritic bundle. The microcolumnar hypothesis is the idea that the microcolumn is the basic unit in the cortex, not individual neurons."Dyslexia and autism are on opposite tails of the normal distribution of the width of minicolumns...Autistic individuals have increased number of smaller minicolumns and dyslexic children have decreased number of larger minicolumns..." When the depth of gyral depths were measured of dyslexics compared to controls, "mean gyral white matter depth was 3.05 mm (SD ± 0.30 mm) in dyslexic subjects and 1.63 mm (SD ± 0.15 mm) in the controls." Researchers specula... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2748029 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2748029 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2727275&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F08%2Fbad-good-and-variability-of-time.html "Time is more flexible than most of us think." - Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiWe know them, we love them, we are them - the time blind are constantly running into trouble for being late or missing assignments, but they also can persist longer than non-blind people at projects or activities (forgetting to eat, sleep, etc.) and achieve things that time-keepers can only dream of.Who is Time Blind?Time perception is worse for children than adults, and children diagnosed with ADHD and children diagnosed with specific language impairment, but some variations in time perception occur in healthy people (apparently we are better at perceiving time in the morning compared to the evening...makes sense), and video games like Tetris causes adolescents to lose time (underestimate video game time vs. reading).... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2727275 Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2727275 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2705212&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F08%2Fmusings-on-spatial-thinking-dyslexia.html "Thoughts die the moment they are embodied by words." Arthur Schopehauer, philosopherSpatial thinking has been on our minds a lot lately because we're interviewing highly creative dyslexic adults for a book that we're planning to write, and spatial thinking is a recurring theme. Some people equate spatial thinking with visual thinking - but it's not the same. Sometimes spatial thinking involves vivid or vague visual images, but sometimes (as people assure us)...it involves no pictoral images at all. As far as a multiple intelligence, spatial thinking gets short shrift, and young spatial experts (kids who seem to love maps, mazes, legos, physics, military history, etc.) seem better suited to life outside, rather than inside the classroom. We've been re-reading Spatial Child and Psyhology of... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2705212 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2705212 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2664023&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F08%2Fmore-vision-wars-visual-training-for.html The role of visual challenges in dyslexia has a long and contentious history. Although the authors of the recent consensus statement on Vision and Dyslexia were trying to clarify the most effective approach to diagnosing and treating visual processing issues in dyslexia, their statement is more likely to misinform than inform. While not all children or adults with dyslexia have visual processing problems, many--at least two-thirds in some studies--do. This makes sense from a neurological standpoint, because several of the structural neurological features associated with dyslexia appear to predispose to visual difficulties. For example, coordinated control of the movements of the two eyes requires sending signals over long distances in white matter tracts, as well as sharing information bet... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2664023 Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:05:00 +0100 2664023 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2664024&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F08%2Ffamous-people-with-dyslexia-pga-golfer.html "One strength he has, and it ties into his ability in golf, is very strong spatial skills," - about JB Holmes, PGA golfer and 2008 Ryder Cup WinnerFrom this Craig Dolch article:Excerpt: "Holmes would open a schoolbook and feel as if he were trapped in a maze. An assignment that might take his friends 30 minutes to complete would take him hours as he inevitably became distracted."I used to say, 'Son, you're just not paying attention,' " Maurice Holmes said. "We didn't know what to do."His parents sent him to several tutors. It didn't help. His third-grade teacher wondered if Holmes might have dyslexia, a learning disorder, but his parents could not find anyone in the state to test him for it."I made good grades, but just being able to read real slow kind of makes you not feel real good," he... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2664024 Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2664024 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2616764&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F07%2Ffamous-people-with-dyslexia-master-game.html "Gaming is actually a very important part of my life. I think the reason for that is that I was very severe dyslexic. I couldn't read, really." - Jordan Weisman, Game Designer, EntrepreneurA prolific game designer for over 20 years, creating role-playing, board, interactive site-based and computer games that have won more than 50 design and market awards, Weisman is also a serial entrepreneur (founded 5 companies) and helped create the first virtual reality immersive networked game. Weisman was Creative DIrector for the Microsoft Entertainment group (helped launch Xbox), founded Wizkids that created the category of collectible miniature games, and many others. His current company, Smith and Tinker is working on "reinventing play for the connected generation." From an interview:"I went thro... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2616764 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2616764 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2615419&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=34755&url=http%3A%2F%2Fneuropsychological.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F07%2Fdyslexia-history-of-concept.html Are you interested in reading disorders or, generally, in learning disorders. If so, the new issue of JINS (Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society) has an excellent article by Dr. Jack Fletcher on this topic.Unless you subscribe or have a Cambridge University Press account, you would likely need to track it down at your nearest academic library, but it is a worthwhile read on the topic (Source: BrainBlog) BrainBlog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2615419 Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:22:00 +0100 2615419 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2572993&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F07%2Fparadigm-shift-for-big-picture-thinking.html What is 'big picture' thinking? Business consultant Andrew Sobel described it as:1. Having a simple framework2. Using analogies and metaphors3. Developing multiple perspectives4. Looking for patterns and commonalitiesBig picture thinking is usually lauded in the world of corporate leadership, but it doesn't cut the mustard in most K-12 classrooms. What makes a good grown-up leader and innovator, doesn't make an ideal student let's face it. But maybe we need a paradigm shift.Instead of training for compliance, careful rule-following, and exact memorization or a paragon of crystallized intelligence, we need to make more room for 'big picture' thinkers - while still recognizing the need for basic skills and knowledge.Pint-sized big picture thinkers really do exist and they seem to be over-rep... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2572993 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:03:00 +0100 2572993 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2572994&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F07%2Ffamous-people-with-dyslexia-silicon.html "I invested a lot of hours disassembling door locks and things like that. My mother just called it mischief."- William Hewlett, co-founder Hewlett-PackardBill Hewlett was co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, currently the largest technology company in the world. Hewlett had a difficult early childhood because of his dyslexia and loss of his father in his teens. What started out as a few hundred dollars and space in a garage would soon grow into a high technology company with offices in nearly every country in the world. Hewlett's accomplishments were not limited to technology, however. Some believe his greatest accomplishment was in creating a model for creative corporations today..."...an egalitarian, decentralized system that came to be known as 'the HP Way'..."...one of the first all-company ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2572994 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2572994 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2553141&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Ffamous-people-with-dyslexia-william.html “Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” - William Butler Yeats, poet, Nobel Prize Winner in LiteratureWilliam Butler Yeats is one of the most famous poets of all time, but fewer people know of this quote from Yeats Autobiographies: "My father was angry and impatient teacher and flung the reading book at my head." But lest you get a permanent wrong impression of WB Yeats' father, this was also said of him (from Eileen Simpson's wonderful book Reversals):"When John Butler Yeats finally realized how useless it was to bully his son to rad aloud, when his son was clearly incapable of doing so, the father took over the reading himself. From the time the boy was nine until he was sixteen, father read to son from Macaulay, Scott, Shakespeare, Shelley, Rossetti, Blake- the nar... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2553141 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2553141 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2515239&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fintelligencetesting.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fmath-disabilities-jpa-special-issue.html The current issue of the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment focuses on math disabilities (often referred to as dyscalculia), an area less investigated than reading disabilities (aka, dyslexia).Highlights from the issue are summarized in the guest editors introductory article:Grégoire, J. & Desoete, A. (2009). Mathematical Disabilities:  An Underestimated Topic?  Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 27, 171-174According to the special issue editors, and well understood by most people, is the fact that math literacy is becoming increasing important in our technological and information-based society. Furthermore, "differences in mathematics skills and abilities between and within individuals are normal. Teachers are expected to cope with learning differences and to adjust their... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2515239 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:12:00 +0100 2515239 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570897&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F%3Fp%3D248 I received a wonderful comment about the hypothesis that early umbilical cord clamping might contribute to the risk of origin of autism from a wonderful former colleague, Dr. David Blake, a researcher in the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia. His observations: Fraternal twins typically have different placentas, whereas identical twins share a placenta but have different cords. The blood supply, and pre-clamping susceptibility to anoxia, would surely be different. There are plenty of reviews associating prenatal or perinatal anoxia with autism already (as well as advanced maternal and/or paternal age). Given that early cord clamping clearly impacts perinatal anoxia, and has been recommended against, it would seem prudent to just change practice and see where that lea... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570897 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:42:51 +0100 2570897 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510175&cid=t_105250_86_f&fid=36669&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffadelibrary.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F06%2F23%2Fidentifying-and-teaching-children-and-young-people-with-dyslexia-and-literacy-difficulties-an-independent-report-from-sir-jim-rose-to-the-secretary-of-state-for-children-schools-and-families-june-2%2F Title: Identifying and Teaching Children and Young People with Dyslexia and Literacy Difficulties:  An independent report from Sir Jim Rose to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families June 2009 The Skinny: This review aims to help policy makers and providers strengthen practice, and assure parents that provision for children with dyslexia will be as good as possible.  Identifies: What is dyslexia? Identification of children with dyslexic difficulties Tackling reading difficulties Services children with dyslexia and their families Tackling difficulties beyond reading that are also associated with dyslexia Publisher: DCSF Size of Document: 216p Published: 22/06/2009 Posted in Children, Disabilities, Young People Tagged: Children, Dyslexia, Education, Grey Literature, You... Fade Library blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510175 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:20:27 +0100 2510175 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2511998&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fstrategic-reasoning-super-theory-of.html Does super strategic reasoning sometimes mean super EQ (emotional intelligence) or theory of mind? Yes, but it depends on the game. In this recent fmri-game study, high strategic reasoning (winners) correlated with strong activation of the medial prefrontal cortex, an area important for 'mind reading' of other peoples' intents and behaviors or theory of mind.Neuroeconomists are interested in studies such as this because many types of business and financial industry success depend upon accurate prediction of others' behaviors (e.g. customer, investor, competitor). Well, there is a significant body of research to support the importance of emotional intelligence in business as well as classroom environments. And emotional intelligence appears to be much more 'trainable' than IQ...In our dysle... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2511998 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:03:00 +0100 2511998 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2511999&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Ffamous-people-with-dyslexia-dinosaur.html "If you do something no one else has done, you don't have to read very much, you can just write your own stuff." - Jack Horner, one the world's most famous paleontologists, inspiration for Jurassic ParkMany dyslexics excel in spatial problem solving, analytical ability, and science in general - talents well-suited to the field of paleontology."I found my first dinosaur bone at the age of eight during a fossil-hunting trip with my father...Kindergarten through eighth grade was extremely difficult for me because my progress in reading, writing, and mathematics was excruciatingly slow. I would never stand to read out loud in class, even if the teachers threatened to give me failing grades...Eventually, I managed to graduate high school, but just barely, having received Ds in all required clas... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2511999 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2511999 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2512002&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Ffamous-people-with-dyslexia-legendary.html "I'm not a word man, I'm a picture man." - David Lean, filmmaker, producer, screenwriter, and editor of Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago, A Passage to India, and Ryan's Daughter.From David Lean: A Biography: "David was sent to kindergarten...here it became apparent that brilliant families do not always produce brilliant children. By the standrads of the time, with their ruthless emphasis on the three Rs, David was dim. By comparison with his brother, who was still only four, he was alarmingly backward.'I remember my mother coming back one afternoon from a visit to Miss Clayton. She said, 'Dave, Miss Clayton has told me a terrible thing about you. She's afraid you will never be able to read or write.' And she burst into tears...The kindest theory was that perhaps th... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2512002 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2512002 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2463118&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fgifts-and-talents-of-dyslexia-dyslexic.html NBC's leading foreign correspondent, Richard Engel was once "a frustrated child (who) got into frequent fistfights and struggled with dyslexia". From the Washington Post: "He was down in the mouth and low on self-confidence...He lived in the shadow of his older brother, Mr. Perfect," who is now a cardiologist. In fact, she had only "a very faint hope" that he would be able to go to college.When he was 13, Engel asked his parents to send him to a wilderness survival program in Wyoming. Frustrated by his learning disabilities, he was eager to escape the comforts of Upper East Side life and try a tougher environment...When the teenager returned, he told his mother: "I learned a lot about myself...Engel says the experience began a transformation that largely enabled him to overcome his dyslexi... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2463118 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2463118 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2447841&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fvisual-processing-fixing-my-gaze.html Sue Barry's wonderful book Fixing My Gaze is now in stores, and it's a terrific read for all neurophiles, professionals in the neurorehabilitation field, as well as parents, educators, and other professionals working with children.10% of children have vision problems and in our learning clinic, almost half have some difficulties that are vision-related. But vision problems are grossly under-recognized because conventional eye chart tests assess vision one eye at-a-time and without movement, and children (and even adults) have difficulty putting into words what problems they have with seeing (for more on this check out Check out Chapter 4 in our book The Mislabeled Child). Dr. Barry had been "cross-eyed" and stereo-blind since early infancy. She had strabismus surgery to correct the alignme... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2447841 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2447841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570902&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F%3Fp%3D181 In a July 9th, 2008 post, I added oxygen deprivation incurred at childbirth as another factor potentially contributing to an increased incidence in autism. As I noted in that blog: “We have published compelling evidence that peri-natal anoxia meets all of the other criteria for adding to “noisy” brain processing. It can have strong, selective impacts on cortical inhibitory processes, and degrades the ability of the cortex to develop normally-selective characteristics of response (see Strata, Merzenich et al, PNAS, 2005). At the same time, we had dismissed perinatal anoxia as a likely factor contributing to autism’s apparent rise because we could not see how ITS incidence could be growing over the past several decades. However, it has recently been argued that the... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570902 Sat, 30 May 2009 22:13:15 +0100 2570902 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570903&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F%3Fp%3D217 The several-month-old report by the Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on the “Omnibus Autism Proceeding” is old news, but I thought I’d put an oar in, by saying that this is something that the courts got right. There is a large body of evidence that demonstrates, to a level of near-certainty, that the mercury compound used as a preservative for a baby’s immunization injections does NOT cause autism. Perhaps in part because the onset of autism commonly occurs over the time window in which these shots are administered, the popular myth that may be the source of an increase in autism incidence has grown, even in the face of a very large body of evidence to the contrary. I have earlier argued that the ‘red herring’ of mercury has distracted scient... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570903 Thu, 28 May 2009 21:26:06 +0100 2570903 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570904&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F%3Fp%3D230 If you have just discovered this topic, go back to Part 1 (April 3), Part 2 (April 5), Part 3 (April 7) and Part 4 (April 24); whereupon you shall be fully qualified to advance to Part 5. Before I begin to talk about commonly applied strategies of prevention and rehabilitation designed to reduce the numbers of criminal offenders and recidivists amongst us, let’s begin with a note about statistics. In all of my earlier blogs, I talk about the “average” offender and their neurological and personal history. In reality, there are many classes of offenders. While the majority fit the wide bounds that I described, there are innumerable exceptions among the 7+ million individuals operating under the jurisdiction of an American court — including a significant minority who d... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570904 Tue, 26 May 2009 19:56:02 +0100 2570904 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2442132&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fdyslexic-mind-dyslexic-advantage-social.html We've just launched a new social network called Dyslexic Advantage at Ning (http://dyslexicadvantage.ning.com). We recognized a tremendous need for a community that approaches dyslexia from the big picture - recognizing as much (if not more) of the strengths associated with dyslexia as its frustrations and learning obstacles. Dyslexia also changes dramatically through the life span - and needs of an 8 year old are different from a 16 year old, are different from a college student, and an adult at the peak of their career. Dyslexia also runs in families - and there are issues and that affect siblings, spouses, and the whole household dynamic - and we really found little discussion of that aspect of the dyslexic experience. Our site also has videos, podcasts, journals, and discussion forum.F... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2442132 Tue, 26 May 2009 07:35:00 +0100 2442132 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2442349&cid=t_105250_133_f&fid=35129&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwhitterer-autism.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fmake-your-mark.html This is quite a coup for the tactile defensive amongst us, to say nothing of the fine motor skills and the good old indefinable 'motivation.'I'm told that you can buy them "here" at S&S Worldwide, although I couldn't spot them myself, or at "Oriental Trading" on "this page." I have spent a fortune at that shop over the years. I used to be annoyed that everything came in multiples, however as whatever it was used annoy my boys intensely, it usually took several or many tries before we were even in with a chance. In this particular instance I have his Occupational Therapist to thank. Now there's a woman with spectacular powers of persuasion!And if you have a free mo, try out this test or better still persuade your small people to try it out. You can't be too careful. Test Your Eye Color Blin... Whitterer on Autism blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2442349 Mon, 25 May 2009 06:59:00 +0100 2442349 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2415556&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Fspatial-thinkers-not-visual-and-not.html Although learning styles experts often mention "visual-spatial"together, a closer look at many of these people reveals distinctions - some who are both visual and spatial, but also other who seem nearly exclusively spatial, but not visual or vice-versa. Spatial thinkers are more common than most people think (in our clinic, this applies to many children of engineers, physicists, mathematicians, architects, and dyslexic kids in general), but though they may initially think of themselves as visual thinkers, when questioned carefully, they confess that their thinking is not actually pictoral. Rather, thought processing seems to involve space or kinesthetic / bodily sensations or associations. Ideas are located at different positions in space (or associated with the body), or bodily "feelings"... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2415556 Mon, 18 May 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2415556 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2390103&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F05%2Ffeeling-learning-and-brain-why-lefties.html We've heard it so many times..."He can only do well in a class if he likes the teacher," or "The material has to mean something to her, before she can learn it...", but the link between feeling and personal relevance, and learning and memory has never been clearer for some of these students with this latest study from Johns Hopkins:When performing an auditory word memory task, lefties (mixed dominance / left-handedness are more in dyslexics, individuals with spatial talent...), activated their emotions (amygdala) and personal relevance (left hippocampus) areas when remembering. This pattern is likely why we see such a personal (i.e. not impersonal or rote memory) preference among dyslexic students in our clinic.It explains why some students really struggle to learn in classes where they fe... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2390103 Mon, 04 May 2009 18:58:00 +0100 2390103 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2365264&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=38275&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drjonathanreed.co.uk%2Fwordpress%2F2009%2F04%2Fneurogames-free-demo%2F You can now try Neurogames for free with the demos online for the basic maths game Nutty Numbers and the reading game Letter Lilies. The games are specially formulated to help children who find learning difficult including children with dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD and Learning difficulties.  However, they are based on normal child development and so can be used by anyone learning to read or learning maths.  I use them clinically in my practice and I have had great feedback from children of different abilities who have played the games.   I believe that using games to help children learn holds great promise for the future.  So try the games for free here and let me know what you think. (Source: Child Neuropsychology) Child Neuropsychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2365264 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:24:58 +0100 2365264 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2349076&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fbill-passed-to-improve-dyslexia.html Good news for dyslexic students and their families in Washington state - Senate Bill 6016 establishes:1. An educational program for identifying and addressing the academic needs (reading, writing, and spelling) of dyslexic students.2. Develop a "Dyslexia Handbook" for Washington state (modeled after other state handbooks)3. Each educational district must report to the superintendent for public instruction to account for the number of individuals being trained in dyslexia programs.Washington schools fall woefully short in their understanding of dyslexia and dyslexic students - this legislation is very needed. Although dyslexia may be the most common learning disability, in our practice it is often missed or misdiagnosed as poor effort, low intelligence, or attention deficit disorder. An exa... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2349076 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2349076 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2349055&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=38275&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drjonathanreed.co.uk%2Fwordpress%2F2009%2F04%2Fchanging-childrens-lives-to-make-a-better-society%2F Scientific and technological knowledge is developing very fast. This post is about some of the ways in which we could use this knowledge to help children develop in ways that will help them and change society in the long term.  These are just a few examples of what we know and what we could do.   1. Eliminate dyslexia- not being able to read as well as being difficult for the individual involved also is associated with significant social problems for example approximately 50 % of adult in prison in the UK have difficulty reading and 80% have difficulty with writing.  We know how to treat dyslexia (see this post) Eliminating dyslexia has been attempted in one school district in Scotland with great success.  Why can’t we do this everywhere?  2. Teach children how to be... Child Neuropsychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2349055 Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:30:19 +0100 2349055 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2320427&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=38275&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drjonathanreed.co.uk%2Fwordpress%2F2009%2F04%2Fchanging-childrens-lives-to-make-a-better-society%2F Scientific and technological knowledge is developing very fast. This post is about some of the ways in which we could use this knowledge to help children develop in ways that will help them and change society in the long term.  These are just a few examples of what we know and what we could do.   Eliminate dyslexia- not being able to read as well as being difficult for the individual involved also is associated with significant social problems for example approximately 50 % of adult in prison in the UK have difficulty reading and 80% have difficulty with writing.  We know how to treat dyslexia (see this post) Eliminating dyslexia has been attempted in one school district in Scotland with great success.  Why can’t we do this everywhere?  Teach children how to be happy... Child Neuropsychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2320427 Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:30:19 +0100 2320427 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2320509&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fpolicy-change-for-better-eligibility.html Until recently, college-bound students with learning difficulties faced a huge obstacle qualifying for accommodations for the SAT (much better for the ACT - so we generally recommended students choose that test over the SAT, all other issues being equal). The reason for this was an elaborate requirement for 3-part documentation (including recent IQ testing), but the good news now is that the latest posted eligibility guidelines have changed, are much more reasonable and in line with ACT requirements, and posted here. Many of the same tests are listed (e.g. WIAT-II, Nelson-Denny), but there seems to be a more flexible pathway for determining eligibility.The change may have occurred because the passage of the ADA Amendments Act late last year. The ADA Amendments Act overrides some narrowly w... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2320509 Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:01:00 +0100 2320509 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2320440&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fintelligencetesting.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fiqs-corner-reading-inbox-4-3-09.html What's in IQ's Corner reading inbox for 4-3-09? Click here to find out. Articles about effectiveness of Fastforward program, math disabilities (dyscalculia), and reading disabilities (dyslexia).Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, education, special eduction, SLD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, reading, math, FastForward, IQs Corner (Source: Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner)) Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2320440 Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:46:00 +0100 2320440 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2320448&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fintelligencetesting.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F04%2Fmore-on-rapid-naming-ran-phonemic.html This study provides construct validity evidence in the form of behavioral genetic evidence.This work’s objective was to offer additional insights into the psychological and genetic bases of reading ability and disability, and to evaluate the plausibility of a variety of psychological models of reading involving phonological awareness (PA) and rapid naming (RN), both hypothesized to be principal components in such models. In Study 1, 488 unselected families were assessed with measures of PA and RN to investigate familial aggregation and to obtain estimates of both the number and effect-magnitude of genetic loci involved in these traits’ transmission. The results of the analyses from Study 1 indicated the presence of genetic effects in the etiology of individual differences for PA and RN... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2320448 Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:16:00 +0100 2320448 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2320513&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F03%2Fgifted-2e-online-conferences-with-drs.html We're delighted to invite you to our upcoming online Gifted / 2E conference sponsored by OGTOC (Our Gifted Online Conferences) to benefit our daughter Karina's cancer / health fund.It should be a wonderful event: Topic: Gifted /Twice-ExceptionalGuest Experts: Drs. Brock & Fernette EideAuthors of The Mislabeled ChildDate: April 21- 23 2009 Register by April 18th!Time: 8:30 - 10:00 PM EST -USA 5:30 - 7:00 PM PST - USADay 1: Understanding Gifted Children - Comprehensive framework for understanding differences and similarities of gifted kids - Development, Neurobiology, Motivation & Interests, Temperament, and Experience.Day 2: Twice Exceptional: Gifted Children with Dyslexia / Gifted Children with DysgraphiaDay 3: Twice Exceptional: Gifted Children with Attention, Sensory Processing, and Soc... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2320513 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:29:00 +0100 2320513 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2259408&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F03%2Fpassion-and-flow-as-learning-strategy.html "When we look at highly successful dyslexic individuals, we see that they succeeded by following their substantial gifts, not by focusing on their difficulties." - Thomas G. West, In the Mind's Eye, Thinking Like Einstein"I was at the bottom in reading skills and spelling. I was a very, very, slow reader and couldn't read out loud or silently...when I was a freshman in high school, I became fascinated with nitrogen chemistry so I got organic chemistry textbooks and read them and various aeronautic journals..." - Roy Daniels, dyslexic biochemistWhen a student struggles with learning, the most common response of a parent or teacher would seem to be to have them work longer and harder on weaknesses. Presumably strong areas should be able to take care of themselves. But this strategy could bac... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2259408 Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:34:00 +0100 2259408 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2207927&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=38275&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drjonathanreed.co.uk%2Fwordpress%2F2009%2F02%2Fcan-dyslexia-be-eliminated%2F There is a very interesting debate in the US at the moment about how to tackle reading problems (dyslexia). There is increasing interest in the Response to Instruction (RTI) approach- summarized here.    This approach focuses on how to teach reading for everyone rather than just identifying and treating children with dyslexia.  It is a public health approach focusing on prevention rather than an individual disorder approach focusing on treatment.  In the UK the focus is more individual and based on clinical identification of dyslexia- i.e. does this person have dyslexia or not.  Parents and teachers need to find someone - often a clinical or educational psychologist to diagnose dyslexia.  This in turn depends on the parent or teacher recognizing the problem in the first place... Child Neuropsychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2207927 Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:11:10 +0100 2207927 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2113646&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F01%2Fgifted-with-learning-disability-brain.html Since the 2004 re-authorization of the IDEA, twice exceptional students (students with gifted abilities or talents and LDs) have qualified for individualized educational support in the form of 504 accommodations or an IEP. That said, twice exceptional students are often overlooked in conventional school settings because their gifts may compensate enough to avoid identification for help, but not enough to avoid emotional problems and often gross academic achievement.From Successful Strategies for Twice Exceptional Students above, it's easy to see how students' gifted abilities might be missed; often it is only parents or teachers who develop a close relationship with a student who notice advanced conceptual ability, abstract reasoning, self-initiated creative activities in the presence of o... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2113646 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:01:00 +0100 2113646 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2097951&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F01%2Fboys-think-in-pictures-girls-think-in.html Here's an interesting study looking at the different ways boys and girls process language. At almost every age, girls trump the boys in terms of language performance, but the surprising finding in this study was that strong performances were activated by different brain regions depending on gender. The implications? -boys and girls are wired to learn language differently.Among the strong language performers who were girls, fMRI activations were highest in "conventional" language areas such as the left inferior frontal gyrus or left middle temporal gyrus. Among the strong language performers who were boys, however, the highest brain activation areas were visual association and imagery areas if words were presented visually or sound association (phonology) areas if the words were presented a... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2097951 Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:01:00 +0100 2097951 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2081146&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F01%2Fcareer-success-of-adult-dyslexics.html "It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between." — C.S. LewisWe've been reading a great old book over the New Years holidays - Margaret Rawson's Dyslexia over the Lifespan, a 55 year longitudinal study of a group of 56 boys attending a school for dyslexia (Rawson put finishing touches on the book when she was 93 years old!). The Rose Valley School seems to have had a large population of gifted dyslexics. IQs ranged from 94 to 185, and the median Binet IQ was 131. 20 of the boys were moderately to severely dyslexic. Their dyslexia was diagnosed between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Following these kids over a 55 year period showed a positive future awaiting these kids - something that is often overlooked when a c... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2081146 Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:01:00 +0100 2081146 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2207933&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=38275&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drjonathanreed.co.uk%2Fwordpress%2F2008%2F12%2Fneurogames%2F I have just developed a new concept combining my knowledge of neuropsychology with computer games.   It is called Neurogames and the games are available for purchase on my new website neurogames.co.uk.  At present I have developed four games helping children to develop maths and numeracy.   The games are based on the science of the development of reading and numeracy drawing on some of the work from the contributors writing in our book Child Neuropsychology as well as some of the research studies highlighted in this blog.  The games take a developmental course mirroring the normal developmental sequence of reading and maths acquisition.  The games also draw on my clinical expertise in terms of what helps children with neurodevelopmental difficulties.  This includes errorless learning... Child Neuropsychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2207933 Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:03:15 +0100 2207933 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2021573&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F12%2Fflash-from-past-right-brained.html His mother was a doctor who was concern her son would get sick in the epidemics, so he chose to school him at home. His unemployed uncle taught him, and he had many strong ideas about not liking rote learning: " He...avoided teaching me the alphabet and multiplication tables (even today they give me trouble). Most of the time we played chess and read maps." Today he still says he doesn't know his multiplication tables past fives.But despite a disdain for conventional rote learning, this flash-from-the-past's uncle encouraged him to read and "pay attention to miscellaneous facts." His approach to learning was transdisciplinary, but this also had its toll on goal-directed learning and project completion. "Every so often I was seized by the sudden urge to drop a field right in the middle of w... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2021573 Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:01:00 +0100 2021573 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1964122&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F11%2Fbetter-remembering-with-stories.html Because remembering a story is easier than remembering sentences, and remembering sentences is easier than remembering word lists, story-based learning may be essential for children (and those of us adults) who have small auditory verbal working memories. In fact research studies in the 1970's established that story learning could enhance memory retention by 2- to 7-fold.Whether listening to or reading a story, story comprehension is a bilateral brain process (see below) - although a special contribution is made by the right hemispheric to get the main point or gist of the story. This right-brained importance probably accounts for why dyslexic individuals may show little trouble comprehending story meaning though verbatim accuracy with reading or listening may be quite off. Other ways to i... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1964122 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:01:00 +0100 1964122 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1964125&cid=t_105250_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F11%2F15%2Fcomfort-able%2F For the first time in months and months — far longer than it should have been, but there we are with the insane busyness of life — a friend and I got together at her house for dinner. “You look like you’re finally relaxing,” she said after I’d been there a little while, and we decided [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1964125 Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:41:01 +0100 1964125 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1908837&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F10%2Fmental-math-and-dyscalculia-in-brain.html From the Ansari lab, more data about how the brain does or does not do math. Having a spatial sense of number quantity is something that takes time to develop. Young children memorize number meanings (prefrontal), but having a sense of number quantity and inter-relatedness only develops as the parietal cortex matures. fMRIs of children with developmental dyscalculia (often seen with dyslexia)confirm the absence of a distance effect (the farther apart numbers, the quicker the ability to judge that one number is larger) compared to typically-developing children. So a critical feature of developmental dyscalculia is a failure to have a spatial or distance sense of numbers. Having this 'feel' for numbers helps one perform mental math quickly; if lacking, calculations must be performed in a mor... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1908837 Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:01:00 +0100 1908837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1522217&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F06%2Fboys-and-girls-brains-are-different.html A Northwestern team has found that boys and girls (ages 9 to 15) respond to language tasks differently. Whereas girls abstract language information in a similar fashion whether they listen or read words, the accuracy of boys' responses depended more on the patterns of activation of their auditory (listening to words) or visual (reading words) cortices. Excerpt from Science Daily:"One possibility is that boys have some kind of bottleneck in their sensory processes that can hold up visual or auditory information and keep it from being fed into the language areas of the brain," Burman said. This could result simply from girls developing faster than boys, in which case the differences between the sexes might disappear by adulthood.Or, an alternative explanation is that boys create visual and a... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1522217 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:01:00 +0100 1522217 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1419675&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F05%2Fwhat-works-dyslexic-ceo.html Great little story from CNNmoney.com about how a dyslexic CEO was able to build a successful $36 million business despite struggling to read and write. Highlights: - Hired a writer, drew ideas for business plans- Use crayon and pencil to convey with ideas, meet with top executives to explain ideas to their departments- Phone or personal meetings instead of email- First names and personality or doodle physical traits to remember- Tape record notes, tape record phone calls - Franklin Talking DictionaryFor some middle, high, college, and beyond dyslexics, having a system for improving the efficiency of communication or learning may be more important than remediation. Eide Neurolearning Blog: Big Picture Thinking, CEO Orfalea...Eide Neurolearning Blog: Why Dyslexics Make Great EntrepreneursEid... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1419675 Mon, 05 May 2008 07:01:00 +0100 1419675 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1386866&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F04%2Fdyslexia-plus-specific-language.html Dyslexia-Plus, which means dyslexia combined with another learning difficulty, like specific language impairment (SLI). When SLI occurs in the setting of dyslexia, basic reading skills may be mastered, but receptive and expressive language problems (and therefore academic underperformance) may remain. Language impairment is easy to recognize in the preschool years; but among older children, SLI can be confused with inattention, carelessness, or poor effort.In the figure at left, one can see that reading and language are much more than phonology and orthography (letter blend-sound decoding). There's also semantics (word meanings), grammar and syntax (sentence organization), and discourse processing (i.e. tying together sentences into a coherent whole).It's not always easy to identify SLI st... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1386866 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:14:00 +0100 1386866 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1364952&cid=t_105250_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F04%2F11%2Fmore-trap-bias%2F Whenever I read statistics about the “increasing rates of autism”, I heave a big sigh. Those statements invariable contain a whole number of assumptions, many of them flat-out wrong, or at least unexamined. In the epidemiological data, there are diagnostic issues and census issues and statistical issues and of course, the inevitable agenda issues [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1364952 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:46:44 +0100 1364952 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1362456&cid=t_105250_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2F267499876%2F The root of dyslexia is different in speakers of Chinese than it is in speakers of English, according to a new study in the April 7th Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dyslexia is a learning disability; children with dyslexia have trouble learning to read. Scientists at the University of Hong Kong have found that the cause of a child’s dyslexia depends on what language they are trying to learn. From Nature: In 2004, Li Hai Tan at the University of Hong Kong and his colleagues examined patterns of activity in the brain as English and Chinese speakers — some dyslexic, some not — worked on various reading-related tests while inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. Results from this study suggest that the brain areas involved in dyslexia vary between languag... Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1362456 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:08:39 +0100 1362456 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1306556&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F03%2Fout-of-sync-brain.html This study used fMRI to examine how different networks had to be coordinated for time perception (visual and sound stimulus). The multifocal nature of these pathways underscores how easily it must be to get "out-of-sync." If either visual or auditory pathways are disrupted, visual-auditory synchrony would be disrupted. Add in problems in position sense and motor control, and you've got a lot of asynchrony on your hands.Excerpt: "Consistent with the foregoing research, our results suggest that a network of areas comprising prefrontal, sensory and parietal cortices establishes the perception of asynchrony, whereas just the sense of the presence of timing association (without any specific relations, synchrony or asynchrony) activates only sensory and prefrontal areas."Multisensory Integration... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1306556 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:01:00 +0100 1306556 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1289785&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F03%2Fvisual-thinking-imagery-and-brain.html Although "Visual Thinkers" seem to comprise a large group of learners, people often mean very different things by this term. For some, it means to taken in information visually, that is by watching or observing. For others, it means to process information visually, by translating words or events into personal visual images.In this in press article, Marcel Just introduces more complexity into the field of visual thinking, by discussing the different brain processes associated with the understanding of processing complex meaning, images, and representations. Among individuals with high functioning autism (HFA), there are various studies that suggest that autistics process more types of information (e.g. language) through visual and spatial areas vs. language alone. When scientists looked at ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1289785 Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:01:00 +0100 1289785 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1184805&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=36506&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FBrainSciencePodcastBlog%2F%7E5%2F224816126%2F29-brainscience-Wolf.mp3 Discussion Forum Audience Survey Subscribe via iTunes™ Subscribe in a reader or podcatcher Subscribe to Brain Science Podcast with Dr. Ginger Campbell by Email Donations and Subscriptions (Source: the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell) the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1184805 Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:52:20 +0100 1184805 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1167232&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F01%2Fwhy-dyslexics-make-great-entrepreneurs.html Articles in Business Week and NY Times highlight the interesting finding that dyslexia is much more common among successful entrepreneurs than its incidence in the general population. How could successful entrepreneurship be related to dyslexia? Several possibilities come to mind - on some tests of creativity, dyslexics score higher than non-dyslexics, and in many instances, dyslexia seems to associate with strong personal communication skills (strong verbal fund of knowledge, strong personal memory, social perception), good divergent and analytical problem solving skills, in additional personal traits of independent thinking and resilience. Now the question for those of us working with children, can be spot these strengths in children (which may or may not correlate with conventional scho... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1167232 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:20:00 +0100 1167232 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1134655&cid=t_105250_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F01%2F08%2Fmystery-jam-and-other-achievements%2F I lost a label. I don’t mean the sticky label missing from the jar of “mystery jam” in my pantry (the goo is yellow, so I’m pretty sure it’s last summer’s ginger-pear jam), but rather a diagnostic label. For many parents, one of the highlights or milestones in life is for their [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1134655 Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:10:46 +0100 1134655 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1132722&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F01%2Fwhen-learning-differences-are-family.html The New York Times has an article, Your Child's Disorder May Be Yours, Too which is currently available with free registration. Excerpt: "...after Phil and Susan Schwarz received a diagnosis for their son, Jeremy, of high functioning autism, they began to think carefully about their own behaviors and histories.Mr. Schwarz, a software developer in Framingham, Mass., found in his son’s diagnosis a new language to understand his own life. His sensitivities when growing up to loud noises and bright light, his own diffidence through school, his parents’ and grandparents’ special intellectual skills — all echoed through his and Jeremy’s behavior, like some ancient rhythm.His son’s diagnosis, Mr. Schwarz said, “provided a frame in which a whole bunch of seemingly unrelated aspec... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1132722 Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:01:00 +0100 1132722 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1019391&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F11%2Fsmart-but-underachieving-when-knowledge.html "I know he knows this. I can't understand why he's not able to..."This unfortunate scenario plays out all too commonly at parent-teacher conferences, or when digging in the backpack for returned tests or getting back report cards or important test scores.Why is that that some kids choke on their academic performance while their knowledge base seems so good? There are many possible reasons for this, but one paper I came across this week reinforced the notion that knowledge, creativity, and knowledge or information retrieval are very different things.Information retrieval is not as catchy a notion as attention these days, but it is a distinct process in the brain, and it what you are asking students to do when you ask them to repeat back what they learned in class or from their homework. In ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1019391 Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:49:21 +0100 1019391 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=950911&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F10%2Fimagery-by-ear-or-eye.html Here's a study that highlights the trouble with thinking about simple classifications of visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners. Whether we read or listen to words that have strong images, the intraparietal sulcus or IPS seems to be an important brain area to be activated. Images, like the IPS, are very multimodal, incorporating visual pictures, sound, sense of space, and movement. The graphs below show that whether strong image-evoking words were read or heard, the left IPS became quite active. The intraparietal sulci (right and left) are very cross-modal and interestingly implicated in some of the dyslexia-plus traits such as dyspraxia / motor planning difficulties, dyscalculia / impaired number sense, and verbal short term memory. Because in crossmodal areas, different senses and mot... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=950911 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:12:00 +0100 950911 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=894228&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F09%2Fdifferent-types-of-dyslexia.html More progress in identification of different types of dyslexia:From the Hansen group at Oxford (college dyslexics) Excerpt: "The results revealed a striking heterogeneity of profiles. Nine dyslexics exhibited only a phonological deficit; one a phonological and a visual magnocellular deficit; a further three a phonological and a cerebellar deficit; two either a cerebellar or a visual magnocellular deficit." These findings once again highlight the importance of comprehensive assessments in the diagnosis of dyslexia, and reinforces the "more than reading" aspect of the condition. What this field really needs are more case histories of dyslexic individuals throughout the life cycle. Scientific research is too narrow in their selection of experimental endpoints; what we do not know is how dysle... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=894228 Mon, 24 Sep 2007 07:01:00 +0100 894228 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=853570&cid=t_105250_109_f&fid=35088&url=http%3A%2F%2Fqw88nb88.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F09%2F09%2Fhow-hard-can-it-be%2F A few years ago I had the pleasure of providing the annual Inservice training session for a university’s tutoring department. One of the themes I explored in brief was how tutees, especially those with various learning disabilities, may have processing difficulties. We have to take information in, make sense of it, retrieve information, [...] (Source: Andrea's Buzzing About:) Andrea's Buzzing About: blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=853570 Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:38:47 +0100 853570 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=840678&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F09%2F04%2Feating-crow%2F Some months ago, after my grand-daughter Leila’s school in Oakland, California burned down and its rebuilding seems to be drowning in a bureaucratic swamp, I predicted that it would NEVER be rebuilt in time to begin the 2007-8 school year on time. I was wrong. The Oakland Unified School District and the contractors that they hired came through. Parents, students, teachers and friends of the school worked furiously for a week or so before school started — and up to almost midnight on the night before the first day of school — to have a new, better, cleaned-up Peralta School ready for action, right on time!! I underestimated what good will and great good spirits from administrators. teachers and parents can accomplish, when it involves the welfare of the children that they ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=840678 Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:30:12 +0100 840678 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=838867&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F09%2Fthinking-more-in-dyslexia.html It's nice to see more data about non-reading differences and dyslexia. At right, MIT researchers found that dyslexic groups didn't just have less active signals in the posterior pathways important for sound-letter correlations; they also had more activation in prefrontal cortex. And these differences were seen even if dyslexic and non-dyslexic subjects were matched for reading ability.One possibility is that the extra prefrontal cortex reflects the extra effort (e.g. working memory) required to read to a certain level of proficiency; it's also possible more activation is because dyslexics are using more analytical skills in the reading process.Many professionals working with dyslexic students notice how many seem to demonstrate such strong analytical skills. Perhaps we are seeing some of t... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=838867 Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:01:00 +0100 838867 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=806014&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F08%2F17%2Fa-connected-kid%2F I know a 16-year-old boy who is addicted to video games. By ‘addiction’, I mean that he is compelled to play them for several to many hours each day, even while he knows that it is in his own best interests to limit his play time, even while his parents continually (ineffectively) try to curtail the time he spends at this activity, and because, more than a little ashamed of himself, he often attempts to conceal his level of game play. Does this matter, for this boy? There is a book titled “Everything Bad is Good for You” by Steven Johnson that is all about the benefits of video game play (and other media) for children. It describes video games as a rich, positive basis for learning and reasoning. And so they are. A person can acquire a magnificent body of knowledge ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=806014 Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:33:01 +0100 806014 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=803731&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F08%2F16%2Fexercising-action-loops-a-followup-on-thoughts-about-baby-einstein%2F Dr. X (another commentor who is reluctant to use a name) made an important point in responding to my August 14 entry considering a recent study in which Baby Einstein was found not to improve, and to possibly modestly delay normal language development — a claim that I argued was simplistic. In Dr. X’s words: Aside from the possibility that these videos strengthen alternate [to language] …. capacities, I wonder if a non-responsive environment alone could have a negative impact on developing vocabulary and expressive fluency? I also wonder if there is anything about the relational dynamics of families who choose to use these videos that might account for any of the differences in verbal abilities seen in this research? See but don’t talk as a habit, from a very young ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=803731 Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:07:24 +0100 803731 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=799302&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F08%2F14%2Fwhat-you-do-matters-also-applies-of-course-if-youre-a-youngun%2F The extent of confusion about the relationships between what infants and young children spend their time doing, the development of their behavioral abilities, and the genesis of their ‘interests’ and ‘personality’ is massive, both in the lay and scientific communities. l was reminded of this once again when I read the comments of scientists (the use of this label is giving these individuals a considerable benefit of doubt) at the University of Washington, who had demonstrated that exposure of infants to ‘Baby Einstein’ didn’t help their language development, and probably set it back a tad. To which I say, “Well, duh.” Let’s say that a child is engaged in largely passive, speechless activity (ala Baby Einstein) for one hour/day LES... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=799302 Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:49:37 +0100 799302 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=785948&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F08%2F07%2Fwhats-it-all-about%2F The objective over a 2-3 year period, is to continue to elaborate this blog content and to write a short series of such books (3 more are on my schedule), to provide a brain science perspective about normal brain development, function, aging, and disease, and about brain plasticity-based therapeutics designed to address a wide variety of problems that variously limit the achievements of children and adults in need of help. When this ‘backgrounder’ information about the book appears at this site, we’ll stow it at a place where you can easily avoid it! On the other hand, if the book captures your interests to the extent that you want to read or understand more about its stroll through the neuroscience of brain plasticity through a lifetime, if you’re up for it, I&#82... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=785948 Tue, 07 Aug 2007 18:20:48 +0100 785948 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=781449&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F08%2F05%2Freactive-attachment-disorder-part-2%2F If you did not read yesterday’s entry, do that first, before reading today’s followup. The situation in a nutshell: An adopted Chinese girl, now 3.5 years of age, has a “reactive attachment disorder” that is commonly expressed by night terrors, parental rejection and an overlay of other cognitive problems. Every standard therapy has been tried, without much success. What can we say about the neurology of this situation as it applies to the child and to her primary caregivers that might be helpful for them? 1) The parents should be hopeful. Their positive good spirits, and the consistent signals that arise from them, are going to be a key to overcoming this estrangement. The brain of this little girl is massively plastic. It CAN change positively, to slowly replace ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=781449 Mon, 06 Aug 2007 01:19:38 +0100 781449 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=777798&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F08%2F03%2Fpoor-high-school-age-readers-break-out%2F We often receive feedback from school administrators, teachers, and therapists like that expressed in the note below. Because they are anecdotal, they usually die in my email Inbox. I thought that I’d post one, just so you get the flavor of what has been a common message: “I have been in the public and private education business for over 30 years and have worked as a teacher, coach, principal, teacher trainer and assistant superintendent. I have served in high schools with (a) majority of disadvantaged students as well as in high schools with many affluent students. Over the years I have tried many different programs to improve reading comprehension, decoding and processing speed of my students. FastForword clearly has produced the most significant gains in a shorter time than ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=777798 Fri, 03 Aug 2007 18:08:49 +0100 777798 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=763080&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F07%2F27%2Fa-city-on-the-move-the-jacksonville-brain-summit%2F I’m in Jacksonville, Florida today, participating in what is a very unusual and special event –– “The Jacksonville Brain Summit”. In an earlier entry, I told you that Jacksonville has adopted a leadership position in their use of the most advanced brain-science-based strategies to improve the academic performance and the mature working skills and performance abilities of its citizenry. There efforts have been inspired by a combination of great leadership and vision from the administration and on the School Board of the Jacksonville public schools, combined with exceptionally strong support from informed leaders in the wider community. This school district (the 19th largest in the US, extending from dense urban through extensive suburban to rural areas across one of the largest te... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=763080 Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:45:26 +0100 763080 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=720441&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F07%2Fdifferent-experiences-of-reading-speed.html Our schedule is still pretty unpredictable, but we'd like to post interesting articles that we've found when we get a chance (maybe weekly?). Thank you all for your outpouring prayers and encouragement. We are taking everything day-by-day. So, on to the post:Some interesting new papers shed insight into the biology of differences among readers and possible implications for gifted dyslexics as well. We've mentioned before the recent Asilomar presentation The Literate Brain, but added to that is paper that made the interesting observation that better or more fluent readers had less interhemispheric connectivity than weaker or slower readers.Excerpt: ..."this axon size and density interpretation also suggests that good readers have fewer total callosal connections passing through this part of... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=720441 Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:08:49 +0100 720441 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=703139&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F06%2F28%2Fon-the-brain-gets-a-new-url%2F Those of you who struggle to spell “Merzenich” might be happy to know that you can now (and forever after) access this blog at www.onthebrain.com. (Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D.) On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=703139 Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:13:21 +0100 703139 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=703140&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F06%2F28%2Fthe-computer-game-syndrome%2F You may have heard that the AMA recently decided that a child’s “addiction” to computer games should, in the extreme, be recognized as a medical disorder. You probably understand that the AMA has two reasons for elaborating the lists of maladies that are recognized as deserving treatment by its members. 1) They really do have a genuine interest in helping the mentally and physically impaired populations in our society. And 2) they really do want to be reimbursed for that help. It’s difficult to set up reimbursement from insurers or the government if you have to identify the malady that you’re treating as: “Loves to play video games WAY too much”!! So what do WE think about this issue? Is obsessive video-game playing pathological? Is it a “dis... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=703140 Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:08:45 +0100 703140 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=697002&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F06%2F25%2Fbuilding-a-tree-house%2F I spent much of the last two weekends working with my two sons-in-law constructing a tree-house for their children (Diane and my grandchildren). It’s a beauty. You enter tree-house paradise via a ladder (still under construction) that wraps around a large oak tree to deliver the kid to a notch that opens out onto a beautiful platform that ties together two magnificent old oak trees. A delightful slide runs off one side. Kids get onto the slide through a magical gateway formed by two large, parallel vertical trunks. Through another notch, you can enter (or exit) the tree-house from above, by first climbing up a net that extends from the ground up through the notch, than stepping down from the notch onto the platform. Future plans call for a net between two other large branches for a kind ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=697002 Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:28:13 +0100 697002 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=683503&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F06%2F18%2Fperalta-school-hits-the-jackpot%2F As I mentioned in an earlier blog, my grandaughter Leila’s neighborhood public elementary school in Oakland, California is being reconstructed at all deliberate speed — and I emphasize the word ‘deliberate’ — after it was largely destroyed by an arsonist. Because schools and institutions in general have just lost the skill of doing anything FAST, much less on an actual schedule, it won’t be open in time for the start of school. But it’s not ALL bad news! Two benefactors have joined forces and decided to give Peralta School a computer cart and Fast ForWord software to jump-start their little brains, beginning at the start of the 2007 school year! Their BRAINS can go faster, even while the Oakland Unified School District can’t. This gift of hop... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=683503 Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:56:24 +0100 683503 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=683274&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F06%2Fvoluntary-control-of-attention-visual.html In this recent study from the Just lab, we see why multi-tasking is hard, whether it's looking and listening at the same time while watching and listening to a lecture or demonstration, take notes, or learning multi-stepped math procedures.There is a yin and yang effect between visual and auditory attention. When one is looking, then auditory processing areas go down, and when one is listening, then visual processing areas go down. Mixed visual-auditory stimuli have an underadditive effect, so that if you have to do both at the same time, total brain activation goes down, and interestingly, language processing becomes more left hemisphere-dominant.This is interesting because we often see children with strong right hemispheric language processing style whose parents report they "hyperfocus"... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=683274 Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:02:00 +0100 683274 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=676713&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F06%2F15%2Fwhat-is-wrong-with-american-schools-part-1%2F There are too many answers to this question, and in a sense, THAT’S what’s wrong. I used this ‘headline’ as a cheap trick to get you to read my little story. I have a specific partial answer to this question in mind, which I would like to present to you by way of a little story that perhaps elucidates something not quite right about our public institutions – and about the state of our modern society. In late March, my eight-year-old granddaughter Leila’s Oakland, California public school was torched by an arsonist. This school was a typical cheap-construction, low-slung wooden affair, not exactly architecturally complicated. No bricks or mortar were involved. About half of the classrooms and the administrative offices of the school were damaged in the fire. Peralta School’s t... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=676713 Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:51:22 +0100 676713 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=676988&cid=t_105250_97_f&fid=35601&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mrhunnybun.com%2F2007%2F06%2Fmild-dyslexia.html I agree with NHS Blog Doctor on this.“She’s very intelligent, doctor, but she is dyslexic.” I struggle with this concept. A layman’s definition of intelligence – and I happily admit to being a layman on this – is “the ability to understand and process information.” Just as it is no longer acceptable for children to fail exams, it is no longer acceptable to label them as being of lower intelligence. Instead, we sub-divide intelligence into a number of categories and look at each one individually. Let us suppose that Amanda is very poor at analysing data presented to her in words and is labelled as dyslexic. Surely this means that one area of her intelligence is poor or, in to put it in simple terms, she is not as intelligent as she might be.Because we have the label “dysle... A day at the pharmacy. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=676988 Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:30:00 +0100 676988 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=660491&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F06%2Fliterate-brain-what-we-need-to-read.html Here's an excellent new presentation from Stanford's Bob Dougherty re: what brains need to read. Highlights: A more balanced view of the different neurobiological processes involved in reading (i.e. not phonics-only) ...In our clinic, many of our gifted dyslexic students have the "engineering-dyslexic" combo, more interhemispheric connectivity is good for many things (like advanced mathematics, spatial visualization, Johns Hopkins CTY), but may be bad for early reading acquisition (lower interhemispheric connectivity means better language lateralization)!Below are examples of visual data showing the developmental variation in word visibility. Because of maturation factors in the visual cortex, it really is harder to recognize words at younger ages.So...considering the normal variation in t... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=660491 Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:02:00 +0100 660491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=676717&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F06%2F06%2Fpride-in-reading%2F In an earlier blog, I recommended that you look at “Children of the Code” as a reference for gaining a deeper understanding of dyslexia and its human costs. I really hope that you’ve taken a look at this wonderful resource. One of the best treatments in this outstanding series of documentaries summarizes the often-tragic human consequences of reading failure that begin with the failed kid being very ashamed of themselves. Every teacher and every clinical professional that is dedicated to helping these children understands that reading failure, with rare exception, has consequences for the kid that extend far beyond the classroom, and that stem from the fact that such a girl or boy is a self-identified academic bust. It is just not very self-reassuring to be a Red Bird, or... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=676717 Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:13:13 +0100 676717 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=651331&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F06%2F01%2Fa-great-resource-for-a-general-understanding-of-dyslexia-and-its-human-and-societal-impacts%2F David Boulton’s “Children of the Code” is a wonderful, general resource for educating yourself, a class, a teaching staff, your professional assistants — or any other group with a need to know — about the miracle of reading. A second, very enlightened focus of Boulton’s opus is on the origins of, and the great personal and societal costs, of impairments in reading. David’s basic strategy was 1) to record beautifully guided conversations with more than a hundred scholars, scientists and educators who have something useful to say about reading and reading failure; 2) to collect a large series of straight-from-the-heart interviews with less-than-proficient and busted readers; then, as a skilled documentarian, 3) to summarize the wisdom represented by... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=651331 Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:48:37 +0100 651331 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=651332&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F05%2F31%2Fmea-culpa%2F One of my favorite former research fellows, David Blake, has chided me for posting multiple blog entries on some days, followed by several entry-less days. “Spread ‘em out!”, says Dave. “There should be something new and worthwhile to read EVERY day.” Since David is considerably smarter than me, and because he’s a real engineer who technologically intimidates his old professor and knows a well-run blog-site when he sees one, I know he’s right, and will obey! From now on, at least one new entry will appear at this blogsite, every day. Count on it! Thanks, Dave! (Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D.) On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=651332 Thu, 31 May 2007 23:39:11 +0100 651332 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=651157&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F05%2Fvisual-crowding-is-real-phenomenon-that.html In this study, the training period consisted of just 30 hours (hey, summer vacation is coming)...maximum 2 hours per day, minimum 5 hours per week, maximum 8 hours per week.Have a great weekend - see you next Monday on the blog!Action Games Increase Spatial Resolution pdfEide NL Blog: Video Games Training BrainUnreal TournamentEide NL Blog: Visual Crowding for Faces and Words - Implications for Autism and DyslexiaTechnorati tags: visual processing, dyslexia, autism, video game training, brain, rehabilitation, science, readingEide Neurolearning Blog (Source: Eide Neurolearning Blog) Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=651157 Thu, 31 May 2007 07:01:00 +0100 651157 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=651335&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F05%2F30%2Fdown-syndrome-children-can-greatly-benefit-from-early-training%2F A child therapist who I very greatly respect, Ann Osterling (from Champaign, Illinois) wrote me an email message in response to my (undoubtedly superficial) comments about Down Sydrome that I thought everyone interested in helping these kids would enjoy reading. In her words: You threw out the idea of intensive early intervention as one option for improving the learning outcomes of children with Down Syndrome. Not only do I agree, but we actually have already seen the tremendous positive impact of early intervention (in these) children. If I had Down Syndrome when I was born 50 years ago, it is highly likely that I would have been put into an institution. After all, we knew that people with Down Syndrome were very retarded, and had very low IQs. We knew that because that’s where mos... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=651335 Wed, 30 May 2007 22:37:52 +0100 651335 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=629443&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F05%2F21%2Fjacksonville-is-moving-up%2F Jacksonville, Florida is making an unprecedented attempt to move up in the world. How can a large American city accomplish that? There is one slow-but-certain way: Improve the brain potential of, and the possibilities for achievement for EVERY child. How on earth could an entire city begin to achieve THAT? Led by a great Superintendent of Schools (Dr. Joseph Wise), and an enlightened school-administration team and Board (and by other key civic leaders), Jacksonville is investing heavily in new technical infrastructure, in computers, and in the most advanced computer-based brain-plasticity-based training programs so that an outstanding array of the best brain training tools in the world are available in every public school in their metropolitan area. Their goal [which ought to be on the fro... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=629443 Mon, 21 May 2007 14:29:12 +0100 629443 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=620645&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F05%2F16%2Fone-million-children%2F Sometime over the next days, the millionth child willl enroll in a Fast ForWord language or reading program. For Paula, Bill, Steve, Bob, Glenn …………. and the thousands of other good people who have helped make, sell, manage, train, support, HELP those million children — THANK YOU! One of the nicest things that can happen to a nerdy scientist like myself is for a parent or grandparent or aunt or teacher come up to me in some public place (or in a letter or email) and thank me, for saving a child’s bacon. When this kind of message is delivered, I know, as do my colleagues who get these messages (no one more than Paula Tallal), that I am the recipient of thanks being delivered to all of those thousands of folks who have played a role in helping Fast ForWord... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=620645 Wed, 16 May 2007 19:33:41 +0100 620645 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=620202&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F05%2Fslow-handwriting-how-dysgraphia-affects.html Which is more important? Thinking ability or handwriting? Most people wouldn't have trouble answer this, but handwriting fluency, or the speed of writing by hand, may be one of the most common causes of underachievement in middle school, high school, and college. Now researchers have found that slow handwriting of undergraduate students constrains overall performance in exam essays. When UK researchers looked at undergraduates who had the slowest handwriting speeds, they found that they differed dramatically from their age peers, and that in terms of speed they closely matched to 11 year-olds. "The relationships between handwriting fluency and writing quality were also very similar to those of published data on 11 year-old children, with handwriting fluency accounting for large amounts of ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=620202 Wed, 16 May 2007 07:02:00 +0100 620202 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=620204&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F05%2Fvisual-processing-problems-when-its.html Most people don't understand how primitive our understanding of vision is. Medical science does pretty well with refractive errors of the eye, but it often drops the ball when it comes to recognizing brain-based disorders of visual perception or processing.The problem is, we don't really know what other people see - and because it is subjective, it is also hard to study "higher order vision" in animal models. Too often we see children with brain-based visual processing problems who have been unrecognized or misdiagnosed for years because no one knew that an eye chart was a poor way to identify problems with brain-based or central visual impairment.In studies of young adults with a perinatal injury to the corpus callosum, researchers (see right) found that these individuals had to work much... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=620204 Tue, 15 May 2007 07:02:00 +0100 620204 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=592732&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F05%2Frepetition-without-comprehension.html In medical school, all students learn that the most common aphasias come down to four questions: - Can he or she name (e.g. objects)? - Repeat? (as in sentences) - Express? (information, ideas in fluent sentences) - Comprehend? As it turns out, these 4 questions may come in handy for more ordinary classroom situations, too.Because of the way the brain is organized, it is possible to repeat back information without any comprehension. So if a person has the misfortune of experiencing a stroke in just a particular spot, he or she might struggle to understand speech, but still be able to repeat back like a tape recorder. The auditory information is registered or received, but it's not fully comprehended. This is often easy for family members and clinicians to recognize in the abrupt presentati... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=592732 Mon, 07 May 2007 07:05:00 +0100 592732 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=588382&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F05%2Fhow-brains-develop.html Brief post today because we've got Jet Lag Brain after returning from that Learning & the Brain Conference in Boston. Some great presentations, but many reminders of the obstacles bridging the gap between neuroscience research findings and applications to classrooms or individual students.Dr. Jay Giedd (NIMH) gave an informative and entertaining presentation about updates in our understanding of brain development. He showed the "bluing in" (myelination) of the brain that we blogged about previously in our post on Teen Brain, but the movie caught our attention by how late the superior temporal cortex (implicated in dyslexia) was to mature. More NIMH Child Psychiatry research articles can be found here. In Giedd's recent child and adolescent brain development (pdf) paper, we also noted that ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=588382 Thu, 03 May 2007 07:04:00 +0100 588382 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=586066&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F05%2F01%2Fjacks-hippocampus-is-bigger-than-yours%2F My dog Jack, shown here, thinking, has a proportionally larger hippocampus than you do. If I had a pet bunny, its hippocampus would be (proportionally) larger, still!! You’ve probably heard a lot about the crucial role that the hippocampus plays in recording our “episodic” (historic, serial, ‘long-term’) memories. Does this mean that we should revise that age old saying to “Molly has a memory like a ………….. rabbit!”. Or what?! Or put another way, what can a rabbit or dog DO, that is decisively superior to YOU? It turns out that dogs and especially rabbits have an exquisite ability to reconstruct and remember their spatial environments, on the basis of visual and olfactory cues in their landscape environments. I learned this ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=586066 Tue, 01 May 2007 16:41:34 +0100 586066 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=586067&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F05%2F01%2Fnew-%25e2%2580%259cvisual%25e2%2580%259d-fitness-programs%2F It was big local news at Posit Science last week when its scientists and engineers completed the development of a new suite of intensive brain plasticity-based training programs targeting declining visual perception, visual attentional control, eye movement control, and related cognitive abilities — and released the programs internally, for evaluation by its “outcomes research” team. Very extensive testing has already shown that these new programs can substantially rejuvenate the visual capabilities – and related visual cognitive skills — of the older brain. Now, controlled scientific studies shall determine the overall effectiveness of this program suite, as well as the additive and possibly synergistic values of applying this very extensive new program with Posit’s al... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=586067 Tue, 01 May 2007 15:54:05 +0100 586067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=586068&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F05%2F01%2Fultrasound-and-autism%2F A former UCSF medical student, Carolyn Rees, now a doc in rural Idaho, wrote me a very informative letter — and raised several interesting questions — that are definitely worth a little discussion here. Dr. Rees asked: Is there any evidence that ultrasound examination can affect brain development? In fact, that evidence is mixed. Over the past 10-15 years, a number of smaller studies conducted principally in North America recorded cognitive and language impairments in children that were attributable to ultrasound examination — while results in several other subsequent large studies conducted principally in the public health systems in Europe were negative. On the other hand: 1) Elegant studies conducted in monkeys by an eminent brain scientist at Yale (Dr. Pasko Rakic) ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=586068 Tue, 01 May 2007 15:46:49 +0100 586068 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=571673&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F26%2Fwhat-underlies-the-documented-increase-in-autism-incidence-results-of-a-new-study%2F Studies from the Center for Disease Control and elsewhere have compellingly documented a rapid increase in the incidence of autism in the United States. WHAT THE HELL IS CAUSING IT? Given the enormous human and societal costs of this malady, few practical scientific questions are more important to we Americans, in our current era. Whether a single or multiple factors, the cause(s) of an increased incidence of autism has to meet three obvious criteria: 1) It has to be widely dispersed in our environment — because autism rate increases are EVERYWHERE, at least in the United States. 2) It must be steadily increasing in its concentration or its power over the past several decades. 3) It must further exacerbate the abnormal brain-development processes that account for autism origin in c... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=571673 Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:57:38 +0100 571673 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=570491&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F25%2Fcomputers-go-to-school%2F The U.S. Department of Education recently published a report that they prepared for Congress summarizing the gains achieved by children using computer-based training in reading and mathematics, comparing randomly assigned classes of children who did or did not use these tools (”Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort”; Report to Congress from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences). If you read this report you would discover, perhaps surprisingly, that the use of computer-based training offers NO measurable advantages over standard teacher/pencil-and-paper/print-based training. Educational publishers and software compani... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=570491 Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:15:31 +0100 570491 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=568307&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F04%2Fbenefits-of-mixed-dominancelefties.html If you are frustrated by what's not easier to do with mixed-dominance, then read on- In a recent study by Australian researchers, lefties and dyslexic subjects were found to be faster at interhemispheric transfer than more conventional right-handed controls. Although it seems to be a right-handed world (90%), people with quicker interhemispheric connections are over-represented among the mathematically gifted and they tend to perform more quickly and accurately in demanding and complex tasks. In the figure at right, BDA corresponds to "Bilateral Distribution Advantage". So the idea is that although "L-brain" folks may be better at simpler visual or motor response activities, when visually demanding tasks are given (challenging both hemispheres simultaneously), the mixed-dominance folks win... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=568307 Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:01:00 +0100 568307 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=565742&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F04%2Fvivid-visual-thinkers-blessings-and.html When one of our vivid visualizing preschoolers was being tested for a gifted private school, the school psychologist gushed about the possibility he might have a near-photographic memory, but unfortunately he wouldn't make the cut-off for the school. This wouldn't be the last time this student and his parents would see that gifts can also turn out to be burdens, depending on the expectations and tasks at hand. Webster's dictionary defines eidetic memory as involving "extraordinarily accurate and vivid recall especially of visual images" and in the first systematic study of this form of memory, when elementary school were told to look at a picture like the one on the right, 2-15% were able to recall the picture with a high accuracy of detail, the images seem to last for 40 sec on longer, an... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=565742 Tue, 24 Apr 2007 07:01:00 +0100 565742 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=556192&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F04%2Frecovering-lost-literature-on-dyslexia.html In this study, Dr. Denckla tested dyslexic children (and followed them over time) on a map-walking test that involved drawing a similar pathway as one outlined in dots on a floor. "The younger dyslexic children, that is children below the age of 10 years...had the worst performance of hte three groups, as measured by walking these routes correctly. A startling "late blooming" effect, however, shone forth in the data on children over 10 years old. The teenaged dyslexic group, and in particular the familial dyslexic adolescents demonstrated superior (my italics added) performance on this test, averaging better scores than the nondsylexic, otherwise learning-disabled and normal groups. What could these results possibly mean, and what do they have to do with the history of good athletic abilit... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=556192 Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:03:00 +0100 556192 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=552124&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F18%2Fwhy-we-do-research%2F Why do we study autistic or dyslexic or schizophrenic or other subjects, in our scientific experiments? That is a question that was asked, rather impolitely, by “dyslexic in LA”, who challenged the “arrogance” of a perspective that engages such individuals as “scientific guinea pigs”. There are two simple answers to this question. 1. We want to understand. 2. If possible, we want to help. There are few if any individuals in the current era who have contributed more to understanding and helping autistic individuals than Tito, Soma, and Portia. I’ve tried to help them. I have the GREATEST respect and admiration for Tito, and for every other individual that has been clinically identified as “autistic” that has contributed to the struggle ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=552124 Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:25:46 +0100 552124 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=552125&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F18%2Fthe-brain-and-the-law-when-bobby-goes-bad%2F Each year I deliver a “guest lecture” in a medical ethics course at Stanford. My friend Bill Hurlbut, a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics, is the course director. The issues that I raise in this course were addressed in part by an interesting cover story in the March 11th New York Times Sunday magazine (“The Brain on the Stand”), which considered some of the ways that contemporary neuroscience could be used in our legal system to neurologically determine truth from falsehood, or guilt from innocence. The article stated, quite correctly, that it should soon be possible to reconstruct a brain’s historic involvement in a past criminal event, or at least to query a subject in a way that the brain’s lying or truth-telling about it would be unequivocally documented. Th... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=552125 Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:15:41 +0100 552125 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=547009&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F16%2Falvaro-asked-a-tough-question-how-do-you-define-%25e2%2580%2598smart%25e2%2580%2599%2F Alvaro asked this question as a comment after a blog entry discussed recent evidence that physical exercise contributes to academic success. Alvaro, “smart”, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. You do not necessarily want a computer jockey next to you in your foxhole. You do not necessarily want a great world scholar managing your finances. If I lifted you up and dropped you down into a community of Aleuts or Bedouins or Ainu, it would take a very, very long time before anyone in that community viewed you as “smart”. “SMART” IS CONTEXTUAL. We commonly define “smart” in terms of academic success in school. We commonly define it in terms of the accumulation and capacity for regurgitation and manipulation of content from memory, becaus... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=547009 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:20:19 +0100 547009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=539641&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F12%2Fmore-better-quicker-new-middlehigh-school-computer-based-language-training-programs%2F I attended a scientific meeting two weeks ago in which Bill Jenkins, the program development team leader at Scientific Learning, described a radically improved version of one of their middle- and high school-targeted language learning programs (which they call “Literacy Advanced”). They have completely re-worked the game-play aspects of these exercises. Changes resulted in very significant improvements in training efficiency. Even though the content in the exercises has been increased by 29%, these more efficient and more engaging exercises are actually completed (high-schoolers’ speech reception and related cognitive abilities reach an asymptotic performance level) in 23% LESS time. Most importantly, in that shorter time, the average kid asymptotes at a 37% HIGHER performance level.... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=539641 Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:44:06 +0100 539641 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=530660&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F09%2Fmore-better-quicker%2F I attended a scientific meeting two weeks ago in which Bill Jenkins, the program development team leader at Scientific Learning, described a radically improved version of one of their high school-targeted language learning program (that they call “Literacy Advanced”). They have completely re-worked the game-play aspects of these exercises. Changes resulted in major improvements in training efficiency. Even though the content in the exercises has been increased by 29%, these more efficient and more engaging exercises are actually completed (high-schoolers’ speech reception and related cognitive abilities reach an asymptotic performance level) in 23% LESS time. Most importantly, in that shorter time, the average kid asymptotes at a 37% HIGHER performance level. In a phrase, More, Bett... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=530660 Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:06:56 +0100 530660 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=520760&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F04%2Fthe-price-we-pay%2F A recent study in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine focussed on autism spectrum disorders. A paper in that issue authored by a public health economist, Dr. Michael Ganz, used a rich variety of sources to determine the societal costs of autism. In today’s dollars: $3.2 million/autistic individual/lifetime. $35 BILLION overall, in direct and indirect expenses/annum. Which raises 3 simple questions in my mind. 1. Given these costs, how in hell can we justify spending so few dollars to determine why the apparent incidence of this devastating condition is still on the rise? Discovering that cause is obviously worth many, many billions of dollars to us all. “Pennywise, pound (in our case, dollar) foolish.” When autism was first identified as... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=520760 Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:50:25 +0100 520760 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=520761&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F04%2F04%2Flearning-math-on-the-streets%2F As in many places in the “3rd World”, Mexican cities have many children on their streets and plazas, begging, or selling small trinkets of toys or whatever to whoever passes by. It is often difficult to turn these bright-eyed kids down ,and by the end of the evening I can find my pockets full of little things that I have no use for — even while these street children are usually the obvious sales force for a supervising adult (usually mom). Interacting with these bright little salespeople reminds me of a study conducted on the streets in Recife, a large city of more than a million people on the northeast coast of Brazil. Brazil has a large population of abandoned children who live largely on the streets, and who survive in large part as street merchants. A mathematics rese... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=520761 Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:24:40 +0100 520761 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=515937&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F04%2Fflash-from-past-she-had-dyslexia-but.html This weekend, we watched Something the Lord Made (discussed more at our Classical School Blog) and wondered about the real life story of Dr. Helen Taussig. Dr. Taussig was apparently as a frail child, missed quite a lot of school, and had dyslexia, but "managed to overcome it and excelled in her higher education." She attended Radcliffe and Harvard Medical School, and became one of Johns Hopkins' first female professors. She was a pediatric cardiologist who pioneered work in heart defects. Severe hearing loss was present as she was just finishing her medical training (? contributed to her difficulties with dyslexia). Remarkably, this hearing loss didn't keep her from her work in cardiology, where she found she could distinguish rhythms of normal and damaged hearts in babies "by touch, rath... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=515937 Mon, 02 Apr 2007 07:01:00 +0100 515937 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=513149&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F03%2F30%2Fmarch-30-does-exercise-make-kids-smarter%2F That’s the claim of a lead article in the last issue of Newsweek (for the full article, see MSNBC Article). The authors cite interesting evidence from a study conducted at an outstanding brain plasticity-oriented neuroscience research institute at the University of Illinois, where investigators have found that the kids with the fittest bodies are the kids with the fittest brains. There is a growing body of evidence that has argued that physical exercise is good for your brain. A University of Illinois scientist Bill Greenough conducted a landmark study that showed, more than a decade ago, that physical exercise has a direct, positive impact on enriching the blood supply to a brain region that is engaged by that exercise (for example, the sectors of the brain controlling running movem... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=513149 Sat, 31 Mar 2007 04:26:51 +0100 513149 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=513154&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F03%2F30%2Fmarch-29-kids-in-car-seats-unintended-consequences%2F I’m in Queretaro, Mexico this week, visiting a world-class Neuroscience Insitute that is a part of the great Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). I am struck by the beautiful, happy children in the 17th-and 18th-Century old city center where my wife and I are staying. We’ve seen many children out in this beautiful, old city having great fun with their parents and grandparents and other kin. We’ve also seen lots of children playing together, making up their own games and fun on the spot. One great change that has occured in child rearing in most of North America over the past several decades has been the gradual assumption of a planning role for childhood activities and play by parental authority. 50 years ago, kids were still largely in charge of organizing their game... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=513154 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:49:05 +0100 513154 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=511521&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F03%2Fmath-learing-disability-developmental.html Math disabilities are notoriously difficult to specifically diagnose because math processing and problem solving often require the cooperation of many cognitive abilities. Our understanding of the biological basis of developmental dyscalculias greatly lags the dyslexias, but this latest review by Dehaene and his colleagues is a step in the right direction. The figure below shows three candidate locations for different subtypes of dyscalculia. I can add a little personal knowledge to this discussion too, because I have a deficits in both "number sense" and "multiplication facts" retrieval. My visual perception of number is absolutely fine, however.A math disability can be absolutely mind-boggling to a person doesn't have one. How is it possible that I still count on fingers, but managed to ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=511521 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 07:04:00 +0100 511521 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=513155&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35373&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmerzenich.positscience.com%2F2007%2F03%2F29%2Fmarch-28-a-recommended-book-about-neuro-plasticity%2F The Brain That Changes Itself (2007) by Normal Doidge, M.D. This interesting just-published book chronicles some of the stories of the men and women who have ushered in the new “brain plasticity” revolution in neuroscience. As we repeatedly emphasize in this blog, the brain is no longer viewed by neuroscientists as a machine that is hard-wired early in early life, unable to adapt, and destined to “wear out” with age. This book attempts to document how scientists are unlocking the secrets of the powerful, lifelong, adaptability – or “plasticity” – of the brain, for the benefit of child and young-and-old adult populations. The implications for treating neurological disease, for addressing performance problems that arise in aging, and for making dramatic improvements in human ... On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=513155 Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:25:35 +0100 513155 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=490877&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F03%2Fmisdiagnosis-of-dyslexia.html Although dyslexia may be the most common learning "difference" or disability, in our practice it is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed conditions that leads to school struggles. What's alarming is the number of different conditions that students are misdiagnosed with:1. Not Trying, Careless (Underachievement)\Children with unrecognized dyslexia are often told they're just not trying hard enough or they're careless. Students may be unfairly accused of being overly perfectionistic, unrealistic about how hard they may need to work, or sloppy.When tested orally, these students are often able to demonstrate their intelligence; their submitted work may be far below their orally-tested knowledge because of dysgraphia, the need for extra time, and misreading and miswriting errors.2. Attention D... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=490877 Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:17:00 +0100 490877 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=487385&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F03%2Fpower-and-perils-of-praise.html Thank you everyone who sent us this link to NY Magazine article, How Not to Talk to Your Kids. Bronson makes some good points and cites research by Carol Dweck (Praise the effort, not the child, but there are more issues to consider when children don't seem to be flourishing in school.1. The Context: In the article's example, Thomas, a young man with a super high IQ test, "wasn't very good at spelling" and had trouble with cursive handwriting. Was this parental praise run amuck? Or perfectionism, unrealistic expectations, gender-related "delays" in writing, or an unrecognized challenge like dysgraphia or "stealth dyslexia"? It's easy in a magazine article, research study, or blog post, to give a quick answer to a problem (e.g. "Giving kids the label of "smart" does not prevent them from un... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=487385 Wed, 21 Mar 2007 07:04:00 +0100 487385 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=487401&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F02%2Fnormal-developmental-increases-in.html Children with visualspatial weakness often struggle with reversals, math calculations, and Spelling. This can run in families, it can occur in the setting of birth stress or prematurity, early deprivation (overseas adoptions), or dyslexia.The figure below shows the normal developmental pattern for visualspatial memory. In most cases, some improvement in visualspatial memory is seen from the late elementary school years to adolescence, but if it does not, then verbal strategies (describe in words what you see) can be used fairly effectively to overcome weaknesses.Developmental Increases in VisualSpatial MemoryTechnorati tags: visual memory, development, adopted, memory, preemie, dyslexia, brainEide Neurolearning Blog (Source: Eide Neurolearning Blog) Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=487401 Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:04:00 +0100 487401 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=487403&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F02%2Ffluent-reading.html How about these correlations between fMRI brain activation and reading fluency? Poor (red) and fluent (green) readers were compared in the 3rd and 5th grades, and their performance correlated quite well with activation in the left middle temporal gyrus (well-known to be affected in dyslexia) and the right parietal lobe. The ages of students were well chosen because 4th grade tends to be around the time when big jumps in reading fluency can be seen; it's also when the brain is very active establishing connections to multisensory areas.The parietotemporal activation is particularly important to note here, because of it is distinct from pure sound processing. It may be more noticeable, too when individuals are sentences instead of single words. Reading fluency is often what well-compensated d... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=487403 Tue, 27 Feb 2007 08:15:00 +0100 487403 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=487405&cid=t_105250_122_f&fid=35065&url=http%3A%2F%2Feideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F02%2Fvideo-games-training-brain-visuals.html Who's gaming in your house? You change your brain depending on how you use it, so what are we doing?This latest study from Rochester shows that action-based video games can broaden and visual spatial attention - for central as well as peripheral targets. Is this a good thing? Well, like a lot of brain activities, it depends. For many disciplines requiring motion-related visual spatial expertise (fighter pilot, air flight controller, soldier, cinematographer, spatial modeling researcher), this could definitely be a good thing. For individuals with limited visual spans due to wiring differences (dyslexia, autism, prematurity, etc.), this might also be very valuable. But for those 1st and 2nd graders whose are complaining they aren't paying attention, probably not. When resources are scarce, ... Eide Neurolearning Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=487405 Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:07:00 +0100 487405