Articles

A Right Brain Approach to Reading Intervention Thesis

Jennifer Hedican

My research led me to some very interesting papers and new information. I was happy to find research about chronic non-readers that supported my observations as a learning support and classroom teacher. The functional neuroimaging information was fascinating, as it provided an explanation of what was occurring inside the brain for both chronic non-readers and readers. The most exciting piece was that the neuroimaging research can help guide future practice in how we help struggling readers.

The Use of a Right Hemisphere Reading Intervention Method for Chronic Non- Readers:
A brief summary of the journey, the research and the results

By Jennifer Hedican

This article summarizes my journey of using a right hemisphere reading intervention method with struggling primary readers. Neuroimaging research was used to help understand what is happening in the brains of non-readers. The research suggests that this method will work for students, as there is an asynchrony in the processing time between the visual and auditory components in the left hemisphere for dyslexic individuals (Breznitz, 2008). This method bypasses that system and utilizes the right brain to learn to read. 

This method was first developed by Broun and Oelwein (2007) for students with specific disabilities and the author wondered if this right hemisphere based method would also be good for non-readers. All three struggling readers made progress with this method which has propelled further implementation of this method.