PATH: A NEW Scientifically Proven Program For Problem Readers!

1. PATH: A NEW Scientifically Proven Program For Problem Readers! Teri Lawton, Ph.D. Perception Dynamics Institute (PDI) 253 Sea Forest Court, Del Mar, CA 92014 www.pathtoreading.com tlawton@pathtoreading.com

2. Introduction • I am a neurobiologist who has studied vision and reading for over 30 years. We will discuss • Reading problems • Associated neurobiological issues • The PATH Therapy approach to resolving reading problems • Clinical trials and results - Path Therapy improves reading skills from 1-3 years and reading fluency 2-11 fold

3. Poor Reading • Confusing b’s and d’s, p’s and q’s, ‘saw’ and ‘was’ • Not seeing small words, like ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘on’ correctly, but seeing larger words correctly • Needing a pointer to guide reading • Difficulty judging the direction and speed of moving objects. • Spelling and creative writing problems • Difficulty remembering lists of instructions • Reduced brain activity in the motion area.

4. Why is Reading so Difficult for Some Children? • Poor reading is not a matter of bad teachers, inadequate schools, old textbooks or student motivation • My research shows that poor reading is primarily the result of neural timing deficits thatcan be corrected • Traditional strategies like better teaching, and harder work will not work unless this timing issue is addressed. • Tuning the brain's pathways unlocks a child's ability to read. • Let me explain:

5. Schematic of Dorsal & Ventral Pathways ( ‘Where’ or Motion Pathway) ( ‘What’ or Pattern Pathway)

6. Immature Motion Pathways Account For Reading Deficits • Normally the ‘where’ or motion pathway signals the presence of an object in advance to guide the ‘what’ or pattern pathway. • In children with reading problems, the ‘where’ and ‘what’ pathways signal the brain at the same time, so the ‘what’ pathway does not know where to look.

7. Direction Selectivity Signaled ByChanges Over Time Efficient Reader Inefficient Reader (Sluggish Motion Sensitive Cells) Motion (Magno)Cells: Respond at Pattern Onset and Offset Firing Rate Relative ToChanges Across Space Pattern Sensitive (Parvo)Cells: Respond best to edges Firing Rate Pattern Turned Off Pattern Turned On

8. PATH* to Reading Therapy • Based on this new understanding, PDI has developed PATH Therapy • A clinically proven program that displays specially designed patterns which address timing deficits by removing the source of the deficits, not just the symptoms • Provides a comprehensive, rapid, and effective regimen for remediating reading problems • Used successfully on over 900 students in 7 different public elementary schools. • PATH training twice a week for 12-15 weeks increased reading speed 2 - 11 fold, improving comprehension, word identification, and spelling from 1 - 3 years. * Protected by US and foreign patents.

9. PATH Patterns • Tune the ‘where,’ or motion, visual pathway that the brain uses to locate patterns and objects.

10. PATH to Reading Benefits • Permanently improves a child’s reading effectiveness, including fluency, comprehension, spelling, and pronunciation. • Improved ability to pay attention and follow instructions. • Effectively treats children with a wide spectrum of reading difficulties: • From ordinary slow reading to more severe reading deficits like Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Amblyopia, and Autism. • It also improves learning ability, the desire to read, and self-esteem. • The more PATH Therapy is used, the more reading skills improve.

11. PATH Differs From Traditional Vision Therapy • Traditional vision therapy typically improves pathways involved with ocular-motor deficits, eye movements, eye teaming, depth of focus, and tracking ability (midbrain activity). • PATH Therapy strengthens an entirely different visual pathway--the brain’s dorsal (motion) pathway--by retraining neurons to function optimally. • PATH Therapy is believed to causea change in neural timing that produces permanent improvements.

12. PATH Therapy Regimen • Determine type and severity of reading problems using standardized literacy tests. • Show short movies to instruct students • Administer reading rate program to determine initial reading speed and assess reading improvements. • Administer therapy for two sessions twice a week, each followed by coached, guided reading, for a total of12 weeks. • After training, determine improvements in reading skills using standardized literacy tests.

13. PATH Stimulus Patterns • The stripes in the center test pattern move left or right. • The width of the striped patterns on striped backgrounds, and amount of movement are designed for maximal activation of motion sensitive cells. • Striped patterns activate motion pathways at both early (retinal and lgn) and later (cortical) processing levels. • Contrast of center stripes is varied, since contrast is directly related to output of neurons. - Low contrast threshold means high sensitivity.

15. A PATH Therapy Session • The stripes in a fixed fish-shaped window are moved to the left or to the right on a striped background. • The child plays the ‘fish game’ by pushing an arrow key to indicate the direction the stripes are moving. • The computer measures a child’s ability to see these movements with varying degrees of contrast and tracks the child’s improvements over time. • Positive auditory feedback helps the child to learn the game quickly. A score is given to make the therapy more game-like.

16. Child playing the fish game

17. Validation Study Methods • Subject Population • During 2002-2003: 107 second grade students • During 2003-2004: 106 2nd and 3rd grade students in four public elementary schools in Santa Monica and Los Angeles, California. • A dyslexia screener (DDT or DES-D) was used to establish whether the student was an inefficient or efficient reader. • Students received instructions that were comprehensive and standardized by watching QuickTime movies (4 min) to learn how to play direction discrimination and word discrimination games and reading speed to measure fluency.

18. Test Conditions • Conducted in the morning before directed reading at each elementary school in either the computer lab or the classroom. • Run in masked manner. Readingassistants thought both games useful, so results not biased by data collection. • Data collection done automatically by iMac computers and analyzed using multifactor ANOVAS.

19. Contrast Sensitivity Function for 2 cpd Test Pattern on Different Backgrounds.

20. Contrast Sensitivity for Normal Readers Over Time for Each Test Pattern

21. Contrast Sensitivity for Dyslexics Over Time for Each Test Pattern

22. Contrast Sensitivity Function for 1 cpd Test Pattern on Different Backgrounds.

25. Reading Skill Improvement Following PATH Therapy • Reading is easier • Reading out loud and silently is noticeably faster • Comprehension improves • Reduces the need for rereading • Individual words stand out more easily • Letters are more easily distinguished • Spelling is easier • Writing to summarize a story is easier • Reading is less tiring • Reading assignments take less time • Following a sequence of instructions is easier

31. Results Summary • The greater the reading deficit, the more reading skills improved. • Training on left-right movement discrimination improved reading skills from 1 - 3 years. • Reading speeds increased 2 - 11 fold following training on left-right movement discrimination as: 1) The number of training sessions increased; 2) Pattern complexity increased, and 3) The therapist and child spoke words together.

32. Summary • PATH Therapy: • Is a clinically validated program based • on careful research in neurobiology • Rapidly and effectively improves most types of reading deficits, including problems in fluency, comprehension, pronunciation and spelling, in addition to sequential processing. • Tunes brain pathways to operate in synchrony. • Is rapid and easy to administer. • Improves the ability to attend and remember.

33. PATH Therapy Tunes Up Dorsal Stream Using Programs Designed to Train At Low and High Levels of Processing in Attention Gateway • PATH to Reading with Stationary Backgrounds (Increases Speed of Processing) • PATH to Reading with Moving Backgrounds (Increases Useful Field of View) - Moves Same Direction as Test Pattern - Moves Opposite Direction as Test Pattern • PATH to Reading with Multiple Pattern Presentations Before Responding (Increases Sequential Processing and Visual Memory)

34. Path Training Generalizes • Rarely does perceptual learning generalize to a new task, that is, it is specific for the trained task. • PATH Therapy demonstrates that training on left-right movement discrimination leads to significant improvements in most reading skills, at least doubling reading fluency and improving reading efficiency at least one year on a wide range of literacy skills. • The PATH Therapy remediates both phonological awareness (auditory) and visual processing issues.

38. NIH Clinical Validation Study • Compared reading ability in 7-year-old inefficient and efficient readers after training on 1) left-right movement discrimination task or 2) another computer-based word discrimination game, compared to only the school’s reading program. • Studied 7-year-olds, since brain most receptive for learning to read, therefore remediation more rapid. • Measured reading skills using standardized tests at beginning and end of study to determine improvement in reading fluency.

39. Contrast Sensitivity Improvements

44. Average Reading Improvements • Average improvement [either speed (words/minute) or Grade Level (GL)] on each of the reading skill tests for inefficient readers who receivedtraining on PATH therapy, the word game and no game, in that order, ± 95% Confidence Intervals (CI).

45. Significance Levels • Significance levels for t-tests comparing improvements in reading skills tests for Inefficient Readers in direction-discrimination training versus pooled control groups(* indicates significance at Bonferroni corrected level of 0.01)

46. Dyslexia Determination Test (DDT) • The child reads 10 words with irregular spelling at each grade level (pre-kindergarten+). • The grade level preceding 5 or more rapid (< 2 sec) pronunciation errors is the decoding reading grade level. • The child then spells the last 10 words they pronounced correctly (eidetic challenge). • They then spell 10 misread words the way they sound (phonetic challenge). • Total words spelled correctly and the decoding grade level determine the classification (above normal, normal, borderline, mild, moderate, markedly below).

47. Contrast Sensitivity Improvements • When test and background frequencies were equal, direction discrimination was hardest for dyslexics and easiest for normal readers. • Contrast sensitivity improved rapidly initially, and then more gradually over time for both dyslexic and normal readers. • Following training on direction discrimination, the contrast sensitivity of dyslexic students approached the contrast sensitivity of normal readers. • The more PATH Therapy was used, the more each student’s contrast sensitivity improved.