Educational Videos
The iCept Story
Stuart Warren is the developer of iCept. With a background in optometry Stuart's interest in students with learning difficulties began when a local education center started referring students to his practice. After looking into the scientific literature Stuart found that there was almost no research on how higher level visual skills changed with age. This surprised him given that reading is such a visual task. He then came across the work of Professor Burkhart Fischer in Germany at the Freiburg University who had collected extensive data on visual and auditory processing skills in students with dyslexia. Fischer's data showed that rapid processing skills, both in the visual and auditory domain, continue to develop until the end of high school and that the vast majority of students with dyslexia (99.9%) have either a visual or auditory problem. Fischer also identified key aspects of eye movements that are a problem in dyslexia independently of language.
The Origins of iCept
​​When Stuart visited Fischer in 2005, he had assessed some 3000 students with dyslexia. Subsequently, Stuart hired Fischer's equipment (including a 1000Hz eye tracker shown to the left) to investigate eye movements and sensory processing in dyslexia. This was able to assess multiple parameters that could account for the development of these skills with age. It was obvious to Stuart that students with learning delays, both dyslexic and non-dyslexic, had problems with their eye tracking and rapid sensory processing and that these could normally be fixed with daily training resulting in a positive effect on learning outcomes.
Stuart Warren (left) & Prof Burkhart Fischer, 2005
Given how common these problems are, Stuart decided to create an app to make the testing and treatment of processing skills more accessible to schools & parents. The app targets spatial awareness in younger children (visual spatial), dynamic visual processing (eye tracking), central visual processing (visual count), para-central visual processing (visual span) as well as aspects of auditory discrimination (volume, gap detection, frequency & temporal order). Although not widely appreciated there is a large body of evidence to support the training of such skills. For more information see FAQs.
About the Developer
Future Possibilities
Stuart would like to see head-free eye trackers that can be placed inside a laptop computer to be used by optometrists for better diagnosis of eye movement problems. Finally, based on the available evidence, policy makers should consider non-language interventions such as iCept to complement existing approaches, especially for the neurodiverse population which is about 20% of students. He is currently working with various groups in NZ to deliver better quality solutions to those who need it.
