- What is different about Cellfield and other Programs?
Most children who fall behind in their reading have reading difficulties which can be helped with phonics based tuition or regular reading support. Increasingly, such tuition is repackaged and delivered by computer.
Some children have reading disorders, which have biological causes. They work much harder for little gain. This overloads their capacity to perform the big tasks of language and comprehension.
Cellfield restores this capacity. This is why average gains in comprehension of one year in just two weeks are achieved by the Cellfield Intervention*.
- Why does Cellfield work?
Brain imaging research shows a 'bottleneck' in areas where 'cross-communications' between the auditory, visual and motor functions normally take place. Addressing this neural abnormality is critical to the development of language skills.
Cellfield is the first to target these 'cross communications' by simultaneously activating visual, auditory and motor pathways. Cellfield's research based design also induces attention, expands working memory and provides novelty with reward.
- How do you know that this works?
Evidence for the effectiveness of Cellfield's approach is confirmed by a peer reviewed and published study, and by professionals using Cellfield in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
These professionals see average gains of almost two years in the ability of children to decode unfamiliar words, similar to the study. This is compelling evidence that profound changes must have occurred.
*Peer-reviewed and published study of 262 subjects who completed Cellfield Intervention, Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities Volume 10 - Number 2, 2005.
- Who can benefit from the Cellfield Intervention?
Children 8 years and above:
Whose reading age appears to have reached a plateau and falls further and further behind their chronological age with each passing year.
Who are screened as having symptoms of dyslexia.
Who are assessed as having language disorders.
Who have difficulty in repeating orally given instructions.
Who have poor reading, spelling and writing skills.
Who have adequate phonological skills but not the required reading fluency, accuracy and comprehension.
Who read at an age appropriate rate but cannot recall what they read.
Whose reading is normal but feel discomfort or suffer from fatigue.
Who have poor working memory.
Who feel uncomfortable looking at black letters on white paper.
Who have eye movement control problems.
- How much time does the Cellfield Program take?
The Cellfield Intervention consists of ten one-hour sessions conducted over two weeks. This achieves the reading skill changes indicated in the published study*. A post Intervention reading fluency phase is required, consisting of ten one-hour sessions conducted over ten weeks. The reading fluency phase requires guided reading at home, supervised by parents or guardians, and weekly small group sessions at the Cellfield clinic.
Older children usually emerge from the Cellfield Intervention motivated to read for the first time. It is not uncommon for them to consolidate their gains and achieve fluency through self regulation and their further reading.
- Are there other improvements?
After the Cellfield Intervention, there are other improvements reported by parents anecdotally, such as 'my child now remembers what they read', 'they remember what I tell them now', 'they do not lose their place when they read', 'they express themselves much better now' and 'words do not move around so much for them now' and 'they do not get so tired reading now'.
Reports of improved self esteem, confidence and initiative are very common, as are reading street signs for the first time (for younger children) and picking up books and reading them right through.
There have also been cases where schools and parents have reported improvements in expressive language and in balance and coordination.
Some Cellfield licensees use additional assessments before and after intervention, which includes some aspects of central auditory processing disorders, visual perception and visual retention measures. These results have so far been very positive.
Children who had undertaken post intervention support, large gains in reading rate are common with further improvements in comprehension and accuracy. Those with moderate post intervention gains, usually have greater gains following the post intervention support phase.
- Is it possible to repeat the Cellfield Intervention?
There are three levels of the Cellfield Intervention. In cases where the Cellfield Intervention pre-assessment has indicated severe reading disorders, Cellfield has recommended to parents that they may need to repeat the Cellfield Intervention at a higher level, 6 to 12 months later. This has proved to be an effective strategy.
During the last few years, increasing numbers of parents have been returning voluntarily to Cellfield to repeat the Cellfield Intervention at a higher level.
In one case, parents opted to put their daughter through the Cellfield intervention three times in a year, starting with the lowest level and ending up with the highest. The daughter's gains were the largest on the third time.
- What success rate does Cellfield claim?
There is a hierarchy of interconnected networks of multiple skills required for fluent reading with good comprehension. Although a 100% success in restoring some of these skills may be a worthy achievement, this may still not still not result in fluent reading with good comprehension.
A child may achieve all the necessary skills and still not be able to read fluently with good comprehension. All skills need to be present and also all skills need to be of a sufficiently high level.
Success rate needs to be defined in the context of what is necessary and sufficient. A 97% success rate in one of the skills that are necessary may signify a very small progress towards what is necessary and sufficient.
Cellfield sees a post-intervention assessment success rate of about 80% in phonological awareness, passage comprehension, reading accuracy and reading comprehension, immediately after the post treatment assessment. Eye movement control success rate is even higher. Assessing professionals regularly see children employing newly gained phonological skills that were not evident at pre-assessment.
Almost all children treated have shown improvements in some areas at post assessment. Some of the biggest improvements in reading rate, comprehension and accuracy come after the post intervention reading fluency phase.
Success rate should also be judged against the following:
Cellfield bases its success rates on assessments that have valid parallel forms. (Parallel forms are different assessments of equivalent difficulty, designed so that the practice effect from pre-treatment assessment does not influence the post treatment outcome).
Cellfield tells parents when assessments for their children suggest outcomes that are likely to be minimal or in doubt. Yet many parents still want to proceed. The results are nevertheless added to our aggregate data, which has a bearing on our success rate.
- Who is not suitable for the Cellfield Intervention?
The Cellfield treatment requires that the subject applies 'sufficient' cognitive effort during the treatment sessions. Anything that prevents a subject from applying that cognitive effort, either through injury, impaired vision, hearing or motor functions, or severe psychological problems, could make that subject less likely to derive benefit from the Cellfield Intervention.
Subjects also need to have some basic knowledge and skills. There needs to be reasonable letter/sound correspondence skills in place.
If a child does not distinguish between 'a' or 'o', or 'ow' or 'au', then that child is not likely to gain full benefit from the Cellfield treatment. For this reason, children 7 years or under are generally not suitable for the Cellfield treatment. Although Cellfield has accepted children as young as 7 years old, we recommend that children be a minimum of 8 years old. (7 year old children who had produced good outcomes, also had above average cognitive abilities, an extensive exposure to literacy and were able to concentrate well).
Those with epileptic tendencies require written medical clearance to undergo the Cellfield treatment.
- Why is it necessary to have an assessment?
The Cellfield assessments are used to construct a profile that can be matched against Cellfield's database of pre and post intervention outcomes. This is used to assess probable outcomes and provide a baseline from which ongoing support can be determined.
- How does one get onto the program?
Check this Website for your closest Cellfield Licensee, then Ring or Register on line.
