Comenius EduMedia Award Ceremony 2015

Excerpt from the press release issued by the IB&M– Institute for Education and Media on June 25, 2015

Digital innovations in Europe

 

20 Years of the Comenius Award Ceremony

On June 25, 2015, the most prestigious German and European awards for exemplary ICT-based educational media were presented at a ceremony in Berlin entitled
“20 Years of the Comenius Award – Digital Innovations in Europe.”
This For the 20th time this year, more than 200 publishers, media producers, and educational institutions from Germany and Europe accepted the invitation of the Society for Pedagogy, Information, and Media (GPI) to Berlin. In the 20 years of the Comenius Award, almost 3,000 educational media from over 30 countries have been evaluated and awarded.
With the Comenius EduMedia Awards, the GPI promotes ICT-based educational media that are particularly valuable in terms of pedagogy, content, and
design: didactic multimedia products (DMP), general multimedia products (AMP), teaching and learning management systems (LMS), and computer games with competence-promoting potential (CKP). Even after twenty years, the focus remains on pedagogical content and didactic-methodological aspects. […]

Our software Richtig Lesen Lernen (Learning The Right Way) was awarded a Comenius EduMedia seal during the event.

 

Thank you very much for promptly sending me the new program versions!
I have been working with the reading and spelling programs for years and am very satisfied with them. Both are very well thought out and well structured programs that can be used to train a wide range of difficulty levels. The spelling program is one of the few that covers everything from basic skills (sound differentiation, etc.) to practicing entire dictation texts.
Of course, the uncomplicated and friendly support when problems arise is also particularly positive!

Best regards, Brigitte A.

Our school is also very enthusiastic about celeco Writing, and the children are making great progress! I have been working with your programs in my school districts for several years now and have seen so many wonderful successes! I have also been able to convince some of my colleagues from the special-purpose association. I think the program is brilliant because it can be used quickly and the children can also work with it independently. In addition, unlike many other programs, it offers good value for money.

Psychology Today (Psychologie Heute)

A computer programme helps dyslexics achieve success quickly

The television breaks down in the middle of the most exciting scene. The picture is black, nothing works. The TV mechanic arrives, takes it apart and thinks about what the problem could be. He checks the fuses, measures the cables and replaces the broken module. The television works again. Reinhard Werth from the Institute of Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the University of Munich says that a similar approach can be used to treat “reading and spelling difficulties” – formerly known as dyslexia – and that it can be just as effective. As soon as the correct cause has been found – the defective module has been discovered, so to speak – children can immediately read without errors. That is the promise of the neuropsychologist. He has developed a computer programme which he uses for therapy and diagnosis and which is also available to buy. Until now, dyslexia has been diagnosed using specially developed standardised test procedures and compensated for with speech therapy exercises. This means that there are lots of extra lessons in which the child has to memorise the correct rules for writing and speaking. The problem with this is that all dyslexics receive the same treatment. Individual differences are not taken into account. This is where Reinhard Werth comes in. For the Munich-based medical psychologist, there is no such thing as a dyslexic. For him, reading is the result of numerous brain functions. The various regions responsible for reading are spread across large areas of the brain. Reading is possible when the brain is able to bring these different areas together in an organised way. However, if one or more of these brain functions or their coordination is impaired, reading problems can arise. To identify the areas in which there are coordination or reception difficulties, Werth proceeds in the same way as the television mechanic. He looks for the defective module. To do this, he uses a computer programme he developed himself called celeco. This programme contains exercises that systematically identify sources of interference. Werth has been able to identify 14 major subgroups of reading disorders, such as the “dyslexic who pronounces too early”. Normally, when we read, we do not let our gaze flow from one letter to the next, but focus on an entire word or word segment. The sequence of sounds and their meaning associated with the sequence of letters we see are recalled in the brain, and then we make a jump in our gaze. The recall time for children aged seven years is a maximum of 300 milliseconds. A dyslexic child who pronounces “too early” needs several seconds to do this. If it tries to read faster, the brain cannot search long enough for the correct word in its memory. So the child guesses – and gets an F in reading. To check whether a child is a “dyslexic who pronounces too early”, Werth gives the child individual words to read on the monitor. First, the word is shown for 200 milliseconds. If the child reads the word incorrectly, Werth adds a signal to the word, which only sounds after several seconds. Only after hearing the signal is the child allowed to say the word aloud. In many cases, the child can read without mistakes for the first time in their life at this speed. Werth then reduces the waiting time until the signal at which the child begins to make mistakes. This gives him a benchmark that can be three or more seconds for a “dyslexic who pronounces too early”. This means that this child can read without errors if it takes at least three seconds for each word or segment. Werth has therefore quickly found the defective module and can swap it for a functioning one, namely a longer retrieval time. The child now has to practise the new reading behaviour. They should first internalise their individual retrieval time and then gradually reduce it. To do this, they are given the exercise with their individual retrieval time on a USB stick to take home with them. Further sessions with the therapist take place at regular intervals, during which the recall time is gradually reduced. Werth’s experience with many of the dyslexics he treats is that with daily practice of around 15 minutes, the child can read fluently and without errors in three months, even without a computer programme. “It may be a slow reader, but it will learn to read and understand without errors,” explains Werth. Another subgroup are “spelling dyslexics”. Many children labelled as dyslexic have considerable difficulty making the transition from reading letters to reading words. This means that the child can read individual letters correctly, but the moment the individual letters come together to form a complete word, the child is unable to read the word.

Psychologie heute Magazine

Translated by celeco

Deutsche Apothekerzeitung 142nd volume 25.04.2002 No. 17

Neuropsychologist Reinhard Werth from the Institute of Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the LMU Munich has developed a learning programme to combat dyslexia. Schoolchildren affected by reading difficulties can be treated individually on the computer. Werth originally used the method of visual field determination to treat children who had problems seeing due to brain disorders.

Reading is a complex process in which the brain has to perform various tasks: the fixation of a part of a word, the recognition of letters, words and word segments, as well as the gaze jump to the next part of a word. In all of these processes, errors in brain function can occur, which then lead to reading difficulties, known as dyslexia. With the help of various reading exercises and lots of training, it is usually possible to compensate for the weakness, but this is not easy for the children affected. Perhaps the computer will be able to help them with reading in future. The learning programme developed by Werth was designed in such a way that all possible phenomena can be dealt with. The neuropsychologist first uses the computer-assisted learning and diagnostic programme to investigate the individual reason for a child’s reading difficulties.

When “Thursday” becomes “Thursday” The programme can display letters, word segments and whole words in such a way that the cause of a reading disorder can be identified. The cursor shows the children where or what they should be reading. A common cause of dyslexia is, for example, excessive eye jumps over ten letters, says Werth. This causes the reader to make a big leap with their eyes to the next word segment, which means they can no longer see some letters. “For example, instead of Thursday, they only read Thursday,” explains the neuropsychologist. The programme can be used to train away this disorder by marking the text to be read in colour and making the following word segments on the right only faintly visible. Over time, the contrast on the right is then increased and the word segment becomes increasingly easier to read. “The effect of the learning programme varies,” says Werth. In difficult cases, the children need six months to see a positive effect. For some, however, half an hour is enough.

Translated by celeco

Münchner LehrerZeitung 1/2002

In the presentation “Dyslexia and other reading disorders. A new diagnosis and therapy programme”, which was presented at the German conference of the BLLV’s vocational science department on 8 December 2001, the speaker, Dr. Dr. Reinhard Werth, who works in Munich, explained where and how reading deficiencies can be identified from a medical point of view and which therapies can be used as countermeasures. The first prerequisite for reading is recognising or knowing letters, segments and/or words. Fluent reading consists of a sequence of fixation phases and gaze jumps during which visual performance is continuously switched on and off. In order to read a word, a sequence of sounds must be associated with the word segment/word. We must be able to memorise the sounds and sound sequences associated with letters and letter combinations and, at the moment of reading, be able to retrieve what is stored in our memory quickly and without errors. In addition, the meaning of words and sentences must also be recalled or recognised from memory.

1. fixation

A pupil (and adults too) reads in stages. This sequence of stages is tripartite. Werth said that reading deficits can occur during each stage. A narrowing of attention in the search for the fixation point results in some children, for example, with increasing distance from the fixation point.

2. Segment/word recognition

Many of those affected can read individual letters on their own, but no longer recognise the same letters if they are masked. However, this is always the case when reading a word segment or a word.

3. Gaze jump

Measurements at the third stage, the “gaze jump”, normally result in a rhythmic jump curve. This sometimes looks very different in children with deficits. In these children, the eye jumps uncoordinated from left to right and the gaze does not move normally to the right. Incidentally, all reading deficits are closely linked to hyperactivity and ADD (attention deficit disorder), noted Werth. Parents, teachers or therapists can localise the deficits relatively easily using a PC test. Werth describes the core of his therapy programme as follows: “Reading must then be targeted at the specific point in the sequence of stages. But beware of incorrect diagnoses or overlooked reading errors! Reading errors are also systematically trained!

The software is available on the Internet at www.celeco.de info@.celeco.de. Here you will also find further information on the subject.

Heinz Preß

Translated by celeco

BUS 40 – 2/2000

Due to the “inability or reduced ability to learn to read and write at the level expected for their age”, many pupils are deprived of a school leaving certificate which they could easily achieve due to their otherwise good and in some cases even far above-average intellectual abilities. The Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs has revised the regulations for dealing with dyslexia and partial learning disorders in Bavarian schools (see Official Gazette Dec. 1999). This further expands the key role of teachers in diagnosing and dealing with pupils with reading and spelling difficulties. The appeal to take account of the particular difficulties that these children face is intended to help prevent the pupils concerned from being undervalued. The provision of targeted support measures is intended to alleviate or remedy reading and spelling difficulties in order to pave the way for an appropriate school and career path.

As correctly characterised in the state government’s guidelines, what is subsumed under the term dyslexia is a biologically determined disorder with different manifestations that can be based on very different causes. The importance of cause-related support measures can be illustrated by two simple examples from therapeutic practice. For example, in a large number of children whose reading performance lags far behind that of their classmates, a completely incorrect gaze strategy with inappropriately short fixation phases is observed. These are resting phases of the eyes during which several letters (word segments or words) are read simultaneously. These children give the impression that they are simply not looking properly at what is written in the text. Endings or whole words are omitted, read words are distorted, often the children seem to fantasise about what could be in the text. If you only practise reading with these children without correcting the inadequate fixation phases, no decisive improvement can be achieved and the too short fixation phases can continue to become entrenched. However, if the gaze strategy was corrected in the children treated by the author who suffered from this type of reading disorder, the error rates were drastically reduced within a few weeks. The same applies to reading disorders in which word segments are fixated for a long time, but an attempt is made to recognise more letters simultaneously within a fixation phase than is possible for the reader concerned. In this case, it is important to teach the pupil a reading strategy in which only as many letters are recognised within a fixation phase as the pupil’s ability allows. Here, too, it would not lead to the goal of simply practising reading without considering the cause of the disorder.

In most cases, it is not a single cause that has led to the reading disorder. Several causes overlap and influence each other. Nevertheless, cause-related reading therapies have so far only been carried out in exceptional cases. Cause-related support was not feasible simply because the investigation of reading disorders generally did not include adequate research into the causes, as this is technically complex and usually reserved for university research institutions. Today’s knowledge of the biological processes involved in reading and their disorders enables us to develop computer-aided procedures that allow the causes of reading disorders to be narrowed down quickly and yet with sufficient accuracy for practical use. In addition, programmes for the therapy of reading disorders can be designed that target the causes of the reading disorder. Such developments should take place in close co-operation with teachers, who are largely responsible for implementing scientific findings on the diagnosis and treatment of reading disorders.

At the Institute of Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, we have developed computer-aided procedures based on many years of experience in the diagnosis and treatment of reading disorders, which make it possible to identify the causes of reading disorders that cannot be detected in the known reading tests and which allow cause-related therapy. We have used these methods in clinical practice for several years and can now make them available to teachers. We would like to ask teachers from primary schools to take part in trialling computer-assisted diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and to contribute their experience and advice to the further development.

If you are interested, please contact celeco at

info@celeco.de or call: +49 +89 +82006916

Prof. Dr Dr Reinhard Werth

Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 39 Friday, 15 February 2002

Around four per cent of all German schoolchildren find it so difficult to learn to read and write, even though they are normally intelligent and resilient, that they are classed as dyslexic. Encouragement and training usually have little success – until now. But now there is a new method with which practitioners such as Bettina Kinn, head of the Dyslexia Forum at the Sabel School Centre, have had “extremely positive experiences”. The patented computer-aided diagnosis and exercise programme for teachers, therapists and parents is based on the research of Munich neuropsychologist Reinhard Werth from the LMU Institute of Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Werth has also been treating children who have gone blind following accidents or strokes for a long time. He has further developed the methods of visual field determination and finally had a visual training device built for older children with partial blindness. Word got around among paediatricians, and soon they were also sending him young patients with reading disorders to be examined for possible neurological causes. “This showed that the diagnosis of dyslexia is far too crude,” says Werth. In reality, there are a number of different performance disorders. “Reading” apparently takes place in three phases: the brain reacts to simply seeing a word or part of a word by “focussing attention”. This is followed by “recognition” – the memory associates the letters with sounds and then with a meaning. Only then does it move on to the next word (part of a word) with a “visual jump”. According to Werth, there can be defects in each of these phases. Visual disturbances caused by “inappropriate eye movements” are particularly common. Or unconscious attention deficits that lead to a child only recognising two or three letters of a word. Or the eye jump is too large due to a malfunction of the brain, “which is not brain damage”, and the child skips whole parts of a word. Some children also unconsciously try to recognise the words as a whole. This works with short words such as “I”, but not with words with five or more letters. All of these disorders can be “very well regulated” if they are diagnosed accurately enough, explains Werth, who recently published a book on the subject (“Legasthenie und andere Lesestörungen. How to recognise and treat them”, Beck series). All it takes is “between two weeks and three months with five to ten minutes of practice a day”. Together with electrical engineer Tobias Barner, Werth has developed special software for this purpose and founded the sales company “celeco GmbH” with the support of the Bavarian Ministry of Science. The principle is difficult to explain, but very simple for the child to use: depending on what is to be practised in detail, the cursor on the screen moves slowly or quickly over the words of the exercise text. Some dyslexic children have to practise “looking properly at all”, says Werth. Others see correctly, but struggle to recognise the meaning. There are also special programmes for this, which are reminiscent of a guessing game. Werth speaks of astonishing successes: “Some children figured it out in my lab after half an hour.” In very stubborn cases, it can also take six months. Failures? “They’re very rare”. He is now trying to convince experts up and down the country with lectures at the teacher academy in Dillingen, in schools and at speech therapists. Incidentally, unlike textbooks, the screen training takes into account the fact that many boys are red-green-blind, i.e. they confuse red and green. “This is important because there are hardly any girls among dyslexics.” Werth, who has also made a name for himself as a brain researcher with studies on the neurobiological foundations of consciousness, cannot yet say why this is the case.

Elisabeth Höfl-Hielscher

Translated by celeco

Dear celeco team,
The celeco programme is extremely good if you want to train the perception of dyslexic pupils. First of all, you can test when a pupil’s head is confused by too many letters, then you can stimulate the brain to learn to look by fading the words in and out over time. The rewards are great too. Our son, who was very happy to start reading a page from the centre, was extremely trained to read in order by being forced to read from left to right in syllables with the mouse. So, I am very enthusiastic and as you can see, I am referring to your old version. I am very curious to see what your new version can do and will be very happy to give you feedback. I have also mentioned your old version to some schools. But I’m not quite sure whether they will use it. But it would also be a great way for schools to train children at school. There are so many support groups in primary schools that this would certainly be an interesting way of using your programme.

Yours sincerely
Cristina S.

Translated by celeco

celeco RICHTIG LESEN LERNEN is the first software for the treatment of dyslexia and dyslexia to be nominated for the German Educational Software Award. The German Educational Software Prize is awarded annually by the Stiftung Lesen, the Institut für Bildung in der Informationsgesellschaft e.V. and the magazine Bild der Wissenschaft.

We are delighted to receive this award!