January 21, 2014

One of the challenges of teaching children to read is knowing when to push them and when to be patient as they slowly acquire their linguistic knowledge. Skilled teachers are able to read the body language and verbal cues of their students and shepherd them accordingly through this often arduous, but seminal, part of the education process.

But for the more than one million students with a learning disability, such as dyslexia, this process brings with it an entirely different set of challenges that require a more individualized approach to teaching and learning. A Drexel researcher is trying to shed new light on the learning process -literally- by using near-infrared light to study the brain function of students with learning disabilities in hopes of making a tool that can help guide them along the way.

As a CONQUER Collaborative project, Meltem Izzetoglu, PhD, a research professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, is teaming up with experts in reading disabilities and software developers at Haifa University in Israel to gain a better understanding of brain function in people with learning disabilities. They will create a reading tutorial program that can adapt to their learning pace. The study monitors brain activity of students using tutorial software called the Reading Acceleration Program (RAP), developed at Haifa.  This program’s Hebrew, German and Arabic versions have proven to be effective for teaching youngsters who have difficulty reading or have been diagnosed with a learning disability.  Izzetoglu’s research will guide the development of the first English version of the software.

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