Question 1

What is the research on reading therapies?

Lorraine Driscoll · Accepted Answer

Reading Rockstar incorporates the most widely researched methods for corrective reading. These methods are recognized and supported by internationally known leader in the science of how the brain reads and changes, and director at the Yale Centre for Learning, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, author of "Overcoming Dyslexia". The therapies used in Reading Rockstar are also researched and supported by experts such as Dr. Phyllis Books, author or Reversing Dyslexia as well as Dr. Norman Doidge, international New York Times Best Selling author of The Brain that Changes Itself. Reading Rockstar incorporates the Orton-Gillingham method, brain integration therapy, vision therapy (eye tracking, teaming and saccadic eye movement exercises), exercises that stimulate the auditory center in the brain, as well as primitive reflex integration. These exercises are used by Educational Therapists, Reading Therapists, Occupational Therapists and many other professionals in the field of learning and education. Reading Rockstar goes far beyond 'extra practice' and instead seeks to identify and correct the underlying and unique reason why your child is struggling with reading. One of the reading therapies that is used, the Cellfield Reading Intervention, has several studies to support its success with even cases of severe dyslexia. See below for more details.

A peer-reviewed study, published in the Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities 2005, showed that Cellfield achieved key skill learning rates up to 40 times faster than a normal child. This is unprecedented.
In 2009 Professor Coltheart from the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, supported the position that Cellfield outcome gains, were not augmented by test/retest effects, (given the two-week time interval between the before and after assessments), or by regressions towards the mean, (a statistical tendency for very low scores to improve the second time without any intervention). Coltheart's closing comments: "There is clear statistical evidence that the Cellfield treatment improved these children's ability to read".
In 2009, a study of Cellfield's efficacy was performed at the University of Tasmania. Twelve children, all screened as being dyslexic (according to the Dyslexia Screening Test (DST) by Fawcett and Nicholson) participated. The research team recorded neural activity during reading, using Event Related Potentials (ERP) methods. Before Cellfield, none of the children showed the left hemisphere activity typical of reading. Seven children performed the Cellfield dyslexia treatment and five in the placebo group played a computer game. Both groups then had three weeks of regular schooling. The Cellfield group showed a 33% drop in their DST dyslexic risk index compared to the placebo group which dropped by only 10%. ERP results indicated neural changes only within the Cellfield group, which shifted activity from the right hemisphere to the left hemisphere "suggesting, at least neurally, a partial return to language processing which more closely resembles that of normal readers".

Question 2

What is the research on reading therapies?

Lorraine Driscoll · Accepted Answer

Reading Rockstar incorporates the most widely researched methods for corrective reading. These methods are recognized and supported by internationally known leader in the science of how the brain reads and changes, and director at the Yale Centre for Learning, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, author of "Overcoming Dyslexia". The therapies used in Reading Rockstar are also researched and supported by experts such as Dr. Phyllis Books, author or Reversing Dyslexia as well as Dr. Norman Doidge, international New York Times Best Selling author of The Brain that Changes Itself. Reading Rockstar incorporates the Orton-Gillingham method, brain integration therapy, vision therapy (eye tracking, teaming and saccadic eye movement exercises), exercises that stimulate the auditory center in the brain, as well as primitive reflex integration. These exercises are used by Educational Therapists, Reading Therapists, Occupational Therapists and many other professionals in the field of learning and education. Reading Rockstar goes far beyond 'extra practice' and instead seeks to identify and correct the underlying and unique reason why your child is struggling with reading. One of the reading therapies that is used, the Cellfield Reading Intervention, has several studies to support its success with even cases of severe dyslexia. See below for more details.

A peer-reviewed study, published in the Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities 2005, showed that Cellfield achieved key skill learning rates up to 40 times faster than a normal child. This is unprecedented.
In 2009 Professor Coltheart from the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, supported the position that Cellfield outcome gains, were not augmented by test/retest effects, (given the two-week time interval between the before and after assessments), or by regressions towards the mean, (a statistical tendency for very low scores to improve the second time without any intervention). Coltheart's closing comments: "There is clear statistical evidence that the Cellfield treatment improved these children's ability to read".
In 2009, a study of Cellfield's efficacy was performed at the University of Tasmania. Twelve children, all screened as being dyslexic (according to the Dyslexia Screening Test (DST) by Fawcett and Nicholson) participated. The research team recorded neural activity during reading, using Event Related Potentials (ERP) methods. Before Cellfield, none of the children showed the left hemisphere activity typical of reading. Seven children performed the Cellfield dyslexia treatment and five in the placebo group played a computer game. Both groups then had three weeks of regular schooling. The Cellfield group showed a 33% drop in their DST dyslexic risk index compared to the placebo group which dropped by only 10%. ERP results indicated neural changes only within the Cellfield group, which shifted activity from the right hemisphere to the left hemisphere "suggesting, at least neurally, a partial return to language processing which more closely resembles that of normal readers".