Information for Schools

SCREENING

The standard school vision and hearing screening only measures if the eyes and ears themselves are working properly (eg. 20/20 vision) but they do not tell us about how well we are using our visual or auditory skills.

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 1

Unlike eyesight and hearing visual and auditory skills are not fully developed by the time a child starts school.

They continue to develop until well into the teenage years… up until 16-17 years of age! Example…

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 2

Visual and auditory skills play a critical role early in the learning pathway by enabling a student to attend to tasks such as reading, spelling, maths, handwriting & following instructions.

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 3

In particular, phonological skills (mapping sounds to words) depends upon visual & auditory skills to be working normally.

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 4

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 5

BUT problems with visual and auditory skills are common.

Click here to see evidence linking these skills with learning.

Research shows that 99.9% of dyslexics have a problem with their visual or auditory skills and that 82-90% have a problem with BOTH visual and auditory skills (Visual Aspects of Dyslexia 2012, page 40).

Apart from dyslexia they are frequently found in students with mild to moderate learning problems and even in some students doing well at school but who have learned to compensate with other skills!

A delay in visual and auditory development creates a barrier to academic learning.

The extent of the barrier will depend on the number & severity of the problems.

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 6

Although visual and auditory skills improve with maturation, there is no guarantee that they will reach age normal levels.

In fact, a number of students leave school still unable to track along a line of text or adequately follow instructions!

Scientific and clinical evidence however shows that these visual and auditory skills can be trained (eg. training eye tracking can improve the natural maturation by at least 10 times - Perception 2000).

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 7

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 8

Training visual and auditory skills results in better academic outcomes.

This is supported by the American Optometry Association and numerous clinical and scientific reports.

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 9

Spending more per student does NOT necessarily mean better learning outcomes.

INTERESTING FACT – NUMBER 10

Without eff ective treatment the performance gap gets worse for students with learning disabilities (LD).

(US National Center of Learning Disabilities, 2011 ).

WHAT ARE VISUAL & AUDITORY SKILLS?

They comprise of a range of skills that help us to make sense of what we can see and hear in order for the brain to perform higher functions relating to learning. Examples…

A student may have normal hearing but struggle to tell the diff erence between a high sound and a low sound.

A student may have normal eyesight but struggle to follow a line of text or take in adequate information per look.

These consist of 4 visual tests and 4 auditory tests that are explained in the following slides.

iCept does not test ALL visual and auditory skills, but it does target key visual and auditory skills needed for learning.

Testing is done on the iPad and takes about 40 minutes.

A school screening can be carried out by an optometrist with a specialty interest in this area.

WHAT ARE THE ICEPT TESTS?

They are NOT tests of IQ, academic performance or dyslexia.

If problems are found however this may impact on academic performance.

The more problems that are found, the more likely they are contributing towards a learning disability .

WHAT THE ICEPT TESTS ARE NOT

EYE TRACKING – important for keeping place on the page… leading to better accuracy for reading, maths & handwriting.

VISUAL SPAN – important for capturing an adequate amount of information per look… leading to faster reading.

VISUAL COUNT – important for having a sense of number concept… leading to better maths skills.

VISUAL SPATIAL – important for knowing where we are on the page… leading to keeping place, neater handwriting and better visualizing (eg. letter orientation).

THE ICEPT VISUAL TESTS

THE ICEPT AUDITORY TESTS

VOLUME – important for telling the diff erence between loud and soft sounds.

GAP DETECTION – important for detecting gaps in sound.

FREQUENCY – important for telling the diff erence between high and low sounds (ie. pitch).

TEMPORAL ORDER – important for judging the order of sounds over time.

These are all auditory discrimination skills… leading to better word discrimination, spelling and following verbal instructions.

THE ICEPT TASK MENU

EYE TRACK

VISUAL SPAN

Visual CountVISUAL COUNT

VISUAL SPATIAL

FREQUENCY

REPORTSICEPT REPORTING

After completing the testing an iCept Report is emailed to the parents and classroom teacher.

The report will display the findings including scores and a “Pass”, “Borderline” or “Fail” for each task.

All results are compared against a database of around 700 students no more than 6 months behind in reading, spelling or maths.

Smart reporting evaluates individual results to provide a more targeted report to parents.

ICEPT RECOMMENDATIONS

If problems are found then we may recommend training to overcome the problem OR monitoring.

If multiple visual tasks are below age expected level then we recommend referral to an optometrist that specializes in this field.

A greater emphasis is placed on the visual findings since it is estimated that at least 80% of learning in the classroom is from vision.

The iCept Testing app is FREE to download. It can be found on the App Store under “icept testing”.

Visual and auditory skills can be improved with training, usually to age normal levels.

Training takes a strong commitment – about 10 minutes a day ranging from weeks to months.

Directions for training are provided with the iCept report.

ICEPT TRAINING

ICEPT TRAINING IN SCHOOLS

Training is currently available on computer (Windows or Mac) or iPad (recommended).

Training on the iPad creates the option for students to do their daily training in the classroom.

REASONS TO SCREEN

Visual and auditory skills play a critical role in the learning pathway.

Problems can occur in students with a range of abilities (including those doing well at school) but especially those with a background of learning diffi culties.

These problems frequently remain undiagnosed and can persist throughout school.

Failure to identify and treat these problems costs the school, the parents and taxpayer……and ultimately the students themselves.

All schools should aim for better learning outcomes.

Website: www.icept.co.nz

By Vision For Learning

117 Sunnynook Road, Sunnynook, Auckland, NZ

Contact: info@visionforlearning.co.nz

END

The Visual Model of Learning

iCept – For Students with Learning Delays

iCept Screening – Information or Schools

OTHER PRESENTATIONS