The Power of Neuroplasticity: Enhancing Human Potential

1. The Power of Neuroplasticity:  Enhancing Human Potential 12 11 1 2 10 9 3 4 8 7 5 6 Paula Tallal, Ph.D. Rutgers University, NewarkCo-Founder Scientific Learning Corporation Research funded by NIH and NSF

2. News Flash ! Spoken language communication is the foundation upon which social/emotional, behavioral, academic and occupational outcomes depend. For a variety of biological, social and cultural reasons, increasing numbers of children are entering school without sufficiently strong spoken language skills on which to build adequate literacy and other academic skills. The most effective route to improving reading, academic and social competency is to strengthen the basic perceptual, cognitive and linguistic skills that build language communication proficiency.

3. Neurobiology of Language • Our research has focused on understanding the neurobiological basis of language development and disorders. • We began our research program with the observation that many children with specific developmental language impairments (SLI) and reading deficits have particular difficulty at the phonological (speech) level of language.

4. Neurobiology of Language Our earliest studies led to the discovery that language impaired children have particular difficulty in both perceiving and producing brief, rapidly successive signals,specifically in the tens of millisecond time range.

5. Children with weak language developmentcan’t sequence 2 tones at rapid presentation rates Tone Duration = 75 msecTone 1 = 100 Hz, Tone 2 = 300 Hz Tallal & Piercy (1973) Nature.

6. 10’s of milliseconds can determine which syllable we hear Many speech sounds (phonemes) differ only by brief spectral and/or temporal changes, specifically within 10’s of milliseconds

7. Not all speech sounds contain rapid spectrotemporal changes Steady-state vowel portions of syllables do not incorporate brief spectral or temporal changes

8. Language impaired children have selective deficits in discriminating those speech sounds that differ by rapidly changing acoustic cues Tallal & Piercy (1974) Neuropsychologia, 12.

9. Speech can be computer modified to slow down the fast acoustic changes

10. Children with slow language development show significant improvement in syllable discrimination when the fast acoustic changes are extended in time Tallal & Piercy (1975) Neuropsychologia, 13.

11. For speech, 10’s of milliseconds can change the meaning of a word “say” Amplitude “stay” 100 ms Time (milliseconds) These waveforms are identical except for an inserted 100ms silent gap, yet we hear two different words. In order to be able to read and spell we need to hear these small acoustic differences in words.

12. Rapid auditory processing (RAP) can be studied in infants An operantly conditioned head-turn procedure is used to reward an infant for discriminating a change in a 2-tone sequence

13. Electrophysiological differences (mismatched response - MMR) to rapid tone sequences are observed in infants with a family history of language learning impairment Control Family History • No significant group difference in mismatch response at 300ms ISI • Infants with LI family history show significantly reduced MMR at 70ms ISI • Significant group differences at 70ms ISI occur primarily in left hemisphere • Benasich et al.(2002) Dev. Psychobiol. 278-292.

14. Neurobiology of Language • Subsequent studies discovered that difficulty in both perceiving and producing brief, rapidly successive signals: • extended to attention, sequencing and memory problems • 2) extended to other populations of struggling learners (ADHD, Autism)

15. There is a highly significant correlation between nonsense word reading and rapid auditory processing in dyslexics Tallal (1980) Brain & Lang. 9.

16. Language Literacy Continuum Perceptual weakness Weak phonological representations Oral language weakness Reading, writing, spelling problems Learning and academic problems Struggling students

17. Goals for intervention Strengthen the underlying linguistic as well as perceptual/cognitive building blocks for learning, which include memory, attention, processing speed and sequencing.

18. Goals for Intervention Strengthen Perceptual/Cognitive Skills Sharpen phonological representations Enhance oral language abilities Strengthen reading, writing, spelling Reduce learning and academic problems Successful students

19. 4 mm Neuroplastic physiological changes are induced by behavioral auditory temporal training in mature rats • The cortical area responding to complex sound was much smaller in naïve rats (A) than in trained rats (B) • Cortical responses evoked by periodic trains of FM sweeps were less in number and persistent in naïve rats (C) than in trained rats (D) A 16 kHz 2 1 sec. B C Mean # of spikes D Post-stimulus Time (s) Histograms Mercado et al. (2001) Neuroreport.

20. Variables Driving Neuroplasticity Frequent / intense input Adaptive trials Sustainedattention Timelyrewards

21. The goal of this exercise is to detect whether the two tones are both rising, both falling, or rising and falling • As training progresses the rate of presentation increases

25. Computer-Based Cognitive and Literacy Skills Training Literacy: Stellar Stories

26. Randomized Control Trial of Intervention Group Performance on Matching Variables Natural Speech Processed Speech

27. Intervention Results: Language Pre-Test vs. Post-Test Differences

28. Average -1 SDBelow Average Scaling Up:Randomized control trial in Cherry Hill, NJ schools Fast ForWord® compared to classroom intervention Performance on standardized language assessment battery • 73 students identified as struggling with phonemic awareness were randomly assigned to one of two groups matched on degree of language impairment • The participant group used Fast ForWord® Language for an average of 34 school days, while the control group received regular school intervention • Pre- and post-assessments show that, on average, Fast ForWord® participants made significantly greater gains in language ability than controls MAPS for Learning Educator Reports (2004) 8(4)1-4.

29. Goals for Intervention Strengthen perceptual/cognitive skills Sharpen phonological representations Enhance oral language abilities Strengthen reading, writing, spelling Reduce learning and academic problems Successful students

31. Spelling—Repetition—Automaticity McCutchen, 1996 Graham, Harris, & Chorzempa, 2002 Reading 2: Magic Bird

32. Applying Rules of Grammar in Context Reading 3: Hog Hat Zone

33. Reading improvements after intervention Real Word Reading Non-Word Decoding Passage Comprehension 120 115 110 105 100 Average *** p < .0001 Standard Score (Mean = 100, SD = 15) 95 * p < .005 90 ** p < .0005 -1 SDBelow Average 85 80 75 70 Dyslexic Control Dyslexic Control Control Dyslexic Group Before Intervention After Intervention Temple et al. (2003) PNAS 100.

34. fMRI activation while viewing two letters and determining whether their names rhyme Control Frontal AND Temporo-parietal Dyslexic Frontal but NOT Temporo-parietal Example: B D = Rhyme B K = Do Not Rhyme Temple et al. (2003) PNAS, 100.

35. fMRI Activation While Rhyming Letters Controls Dyslexics Pre- Intervention Frontal & Temporo-parietal Dyslexics Post-Intervention Frontal but NO Temporo-parietal Increased activity in Frontal & Temporo-parietal Metabolic Brain activitydiffers between controls and dyslexics: Training alters functional activity such that it more closely resembles normal activity Temple et al. (2003) PNAS

36. State-wide Achievement Results : St. Mary’s Parish, LA Thomas Gibbs Elementary 12% white 194 students total 87% African American 86% free & reduced

37. Generalizability: High-Stakes Math Achievement Test- St. Mary’s Parish, LA Thomas Gibbs Elementary 12% white 194 students total 87% African American 86% free & reduced

38. Attendance, Teacher Intervention and Time on Task Matters

39. Goals for Intervention Strengthen perceptual/cognitive skills Sharpen phonological representations Enhance oral language abilities Strengthen reading, writing, spelling Reduce learning and academic problems Successful students

40. Advanced Sentence Combining

41. Paragraph Development Reading 5: Quack Splash

42. Randomized Control Trial: Effects of Computer Intervention on Writing Skills in Middle School Students 80 general education 6th grade students Pretest Posttest 39 Experimental TRAINING 41 Waiting Control Posttest Pretest Rogowsky, Kropiewnicki, Waskiewicz, & Dompier, 2010

43. Randomized Control StudyRogowsky, Kropiewnicki, Waskiewicz, & Dompier, 2010 Effect size pre to post Exp. Group d = 1.12

44. OWLS Written Expression Scale Experimental-Pretest . Experimental-Posttest

45. Effects of Computer Intervention on Writing Skills in College Students Comparison (n= 27) • General population students • Freshmen in developmental writing courses • LSAMP Students (under representative minorities in STEM majors) Training Group (n= 25) PRETEST PRETEST Training 50 min/11 wks POSTTEST POSTTEST

46. Writing Scores on the OWLS Rogowsky et al, 2013 Frontiers in Educational Psychology, v 4 (137) pp 1- 11

47. Goals for Intervention Strengthen Perceptual/Cognitive Skills Sharpen phonological representations Enhance oral language abilities Strengthen reading, writing, spelling Reduce learning and academic problems Successful students

48. Improving Language and Literacy is a Matter of Time To date, over 2 million children in the US and in 44 countries internationally have completed Fast ForWord® Language and/or Reading intervention programs. On any given day approximately 150,000 log in to work on Fast ForWord.

49. For More Information and Research on ForWord®www.scientificlearning.comI thank the thousands of educators, clinicians, students and the dedicated professionals at Scientific Learning. for their invaluable collaboration in the development of Fast ForWord® training programs.