Educational Videos
Who Can Benefit from iCept?
Almost any student could benefit from iCept training to enhance their processing skills since rapid visual and auditory processing continues to develop until the end of high school. That said, the group that may benefit the most are are those with mild to moderate learning delays including third wave learners. This includes neurodiversities such as dyslexia, ASD, dyspraxia, ADHD & mild developmental delays. For younger students with dyspraxia or very poor attention however a motor based programme with an occupational therapist may be a better starting option. The most common age group that uses iCept is 8 to 12 years but processing skills can also be successfully trained in older students. BEFORE starting training, a student should be screened or tested by an optometrist for near vision problems and they should have normal hearing.
What is the Problem?
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The key issue is a delay in rapid sensory processing in the visual or auditory domain. Unlike eyesight & hearing, rapid processing (including eye tracking) continues to develop until the end of secondary school (see graph to left). A delay in these skills results in reduced reading proficiency, especially as it relates to fluency (speed and accuracy), which can also have a downstream effect on reading comprehension. The reason for the delay can be genetic (such as dyslexia) or non-genetic (such as premature birth) but we don't always know the exact reason. If a child receives academic instruction without any consideration for their broader development this may lead to improvements in some aspects of their learning but not in others. An example is the "twice exceptional" child who can skim read a Harry Potter book with excellent comprehension but their performance drops off when they have to slow down and read a simple question.
Can These Skills Be Trained?
Yes! There are many studies to show that visual processing and eye tracking (dynamic visual processing) can be trained resulting in better learning outcomes. A systematic review by Peters et al (2019) found that training visual attention can produce significant reading gains equal to or greater than conventional approaches. The Mayo Clinic has shown that the physical act of training eye movements improves reading fluency (see video right). In addition, to this, training visual skills results in fewer reading errors, better memory, a faster rate of learning (Chan et al 2021, Solan et al 2003) and reduced symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, and poor concentration (Murray et al 2021). Auditory skills can also be successfully trained but the benefit may be more specific to skills such as spelling & word discrimination (Schäffler et al 2004).
How Does Training Help?
The Brain Connectome
The reading pathways in the brain are well known and include the upper sub-lexical pathway for decoding words and the lower lexical pathway for sight word reading once a word has been added in to our vocabulary (blue arrows). In both cases this requires the word to be identified in a region of the brain called the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA). It has long been known that this region is under active in dyslexics which has historically been attributed to a lack of reading practice but we now know that this is NOT the case. Furthermore, brain imaging studies show, the more connected the visual attention network (green arrow) is to the reading network, this leads to better reading outcomes (Taran et al, 2022). Infact the visual attention pathway is MORE connected to the VWFA than it is to the reading pathway (Chen et al, 2019) thus providing a clear framework for the training of rapid visual processing skills.
Is a Visual Deficit a Myth?
Although some authorities argue against a visual link with dyslexia these arguments are usually flawed due to a failure to target the appropriate visual skills OR a failure to account for the development of the visual skills with age. An example is the study by Hutzler et al 2006 which claims that dyslexics have normal eye tracking when doing a simple visual search task. In this study the mean age of the dyslexic group is about 13. If a more difficult task was given (or the SAME task given to younger students) it is likely the authors would have observed a difference. In contrast, a study by Bilbao & Pinero, 2021 compared students 7 to 12 years of age with neurodevelopmental disorder (NDDG) such as dyslexia, ADHD & developmental coordination disorder to a control group (CG) by rating their saccadic eye movements using direct observation (NSUCO test) & found a significant difference (see graph to right).
