How BRPOD Works
Principles and Practices
The prescribed use of POD (12 daily sessions of one hour each) is designed to enhance Behavioural Reading Techniques, hypothesised to open new neural pathways and ‘create the learning and reading brain’.
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Seemingly simplistic layout and graphics disguise the true design features which unite into a consistently high performing therapy package.
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POD as a dyslexia intervention is based upon a multi-deficit hypotheses including (phonological, cerebellar and magnocellular which utilizes a unique mix of computer-based tasks to effect a therapeutic change.
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POD also acts as a brain stimulus for a wide range of patients and students requiring improvements in many other measurable single deficits, but will then go on to aggregate the single deficits into an efficient complex.
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POD is web- based and available via online subscription. The initial design stimulus of POD occurred following the examination of several software programs commercially available that are becoming more common in this technology space as knowledge, computer technologies and web speeds improve.
Measurement and observation of student responses using standardized testing, anecdotal data, a Behavioural Psychology and Educational Psychology viewpoint has provided the direction for POD software design, including many and various components:
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Phonological awareness skills;
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Central executive sequencing.
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Auditory perceptual skills particularly auditory discrimination;
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Visual perceptual skills (visual tracking, visual memory, visual discrimination, visual form constancy and visual closure)
How to Use BRPOD
for literacy instruction
Use of POD is prescribed and recommended for students from eight years old who have NOT been diagnosed with epilepsy or other neurological disorders sensitive to flashing images.
BRPOD: Recommends for early emergent readers, thorough instruction using the best of evidence-based methodologies within Phonological Awareness and Synthetic Phonics. This should occur within a structured program while at school Grades 1 to 3. Though BRPOD does include some Phonological Awareness content at the auditory processing level, it is incomplete and further explicit instruction should occur following POD by a skilled person to establish a competent rules base.
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In addition to task requirements on the computer, students are instructed to verbalize what they are doing. They also, wear coloured and clear glass lenses, alternating between the right and left eye, daily. This will disrupt pre-learned behaviours and strategically increase the visual load demanding efficiencies within the brain's Central Executive functioning. In addition the student will tap out phonemes, read letter combinations phonetically (nonsense words) and also spell using letter names in order to effect rapid and predictable fluency.
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Within the twelve POD intensive sessions, students are instructed to read using the Behavioural Reading™ techniques. By combining the two therapies, it is anticipated that improvements in processing and phonological awareness skills, combined with explicit reading instruction, are transitioned into effective and efficient reading and broader learning behaviours typical of high achieving students.
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Though there is no explicit reading comprehension tasks, reading comprehension gains are very significant as a by-product of neurological efficiencies created.
