Waterford Institute’s most recent software development is Camp Consonant™, a unique and effective program in the area of intervention software because it uses a multi-sensory curriculum to provide children who need to overcome reading problems with the consistent, intense, structured study they need.
The prevalence of reading problems in school children cannot be overstated. Current studies indicate that 20% of U.S. elementary school-aged children needs tutoring. Within that population, it is estimated that almost 85% have dyslexia. Dyslexia is often referred to as a “hidden” disability because it is thought to lack visible signs. Research now shows that dyslexia is neurobiological in origin and people with dyslexia process information in a different part of the brain than individuals without dyslexia. What continues to remain “hidden” about the disability is early identification and assessments. While some children who cannot learn to read are identified in first or second grade, a majority of dyslexics are not recognized until the third grade, and by then reading disabilities are much more difficult to address. If a young child falls behind in reading, the pattern of reading failure can cause that child to lose interest in reading and develop self-esteem problems. Recent research has identified this as a very traumatic and important hidden disability for many young children.
Several years ago, Waterford’s research school, Waterford School, discovered that 1 child in 7 (1/7th) of its students was suffering from some kind of reading disability. This was not expected because the students had been selected from a broad applicant pool and those with learning problems had been screened out. Furthermore, the school prided itself on having an excellent faculty and small class size. What this data suggested was that probably 1 child in 5 (20% of all students nationally) required tutoring. The NIH data reported above supports this startling thesis.
As students were diagnosed and tutoring staff were hired and trained to help alleviate the problem, it became clear that traditional tutoring models were inadequate, and the school sent experts to be trained in the latest research to establish what the most effective tutoring approaches were. After the researchers were trained in the multi-sensory approach, a new problem surfaced: This requirement for large allocation of resources to the tutoring program was cost prohibitive, and the time children spent in tutoring sessions was taken from their daily class time, negatively impacting schedules and workloads for both teachers and students.
To Waterford, the challenge became an opportunity to develop a successful intervention that was affordable and scalable enough to help all children experiencing similar problems. At this point, Waterford turned its focus towards developing Camp Consonant, a technology-based solution. Waterford was able to address the tutoring problem in an innovative way because its researchers were knowledgeable about the latest findings on dyslexia and reading difficulties as well as educational software development. Waterford also worked closely with trained expert practitioners willing to share their experience and frank opinions.
