Case Study: Using Forbrain for Dyslexia by a Certified Dyslexia Tutor

Professional: Rosemarie Hoffman, M.A. master Certified Tutor for Dyslexia

Client Name: Bethany [ Name changed to maintain confidentiality]

Gender: Female

Age: 10

Date: November 24, 2023

CASE SUMMARY:

Bethany presented with severe reading difficulties at the age of 10-years old. She confused sounds, could not blend sounds into words, and guessed at words. After almost three months of using Forbrain during tutoring lessons and at home, Bethany demonstrated marked improvement in these skills. Before the use of Forbrain, Bethany had been unable to make any significant progress.    

CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS:

Bethany was not diagnosed by a psychologist. In my professional opinion, as master certified tutor for dyslexia with over 25 years experience, Bethany likely is dyslexic.

CLIENT PROFILE:

Bethany is a 10-year-old girl who is in the fifth grade. She is homeschooled. Her mother reported significant struggles in reading despite years of effort to help her read. Bethany confused s/sh, ck/ch, short e/i, and short e/a. She could not reliably produce the short vowel sounds. Bethany almost always gave the incorrect short vowel sound when a vowel was presented either by itself or in a word. She was unable to blend words. She would look at the whole word and guess. Bethany did not have developed enough phonological memory to remember the sounds when blending, so that she could make a word at the end.

Bethany began intervention with Orton-Gillingham tutoring for dyslexia at the beginning of February 2023. She did not make progress. The Forbrain was introduced after 1 month.  

THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTION:

• The therapeutic intervention was Orton-Gillingham instruction, an organized, systematic, multi-sensory approach to teaching reading that is considered to be best practice for remediating individuals with dyslexia.
•  Tutoring sessions were twice a week for 30 minutes each session.
• Bethany did not make any progress during tutoring. Forbrain was introduced on March 9, 2023. Forbrain was used during tutoring for 20 minutes.
• Forbrain was used at home for an additional 20 minutes 5 days per week. Bethany read assignments while using the Forbrain.

1. Who introduced Forbrain to the client?
   I introduced the Forbrain to the client. I am the master certified tutor for dyslexia.
2. What are the main reason(s) why the client uses Forbrain? 
   The Forbrain was used to help the client differentiate between the sounds that she confused as explained in the profile. The Forbrain was also used to improve attention in an effort to increase the number of sounds that the client could retain in memory.
3. Usage: Number of weeks? 
   11 weeks in tutoring and at home. The client still had the Forbrain for 11 weeks after tutoring was concluded for use at home.
4. Usage: Number of days per week and minutes per day (average)?
   Bethany used Forbrain 5 days per week, 40 minutes two days a week and 20 minutes 3 days a week.
5. Did the client use Forbrain alone or with a tutor? (You/another therapist/parent/others) 
   The client used the Forbrain with me, the tutor, and with a parent.
6. If the client uses Forbrain with someone else, can you please specify? 
   The client also used the Forbrain with a parent. The activity was reading assignments were given by me.
7. Where does the client use Forbrain? 
   At home and during tutoring.
8. What type of exercises does the client do with Forbrain?
   At home, the client, read words, sentences and stories. During tutoring sessions, the client did phonological awareness exercises, spelling, and reading while using the Forbrain.
9. How did you introduce Forbrain to your client? 
   I work as an online tutor. I had the Forbrain sent to the mother. I had the mom open it and charge it, but I asked her not to try it until our next tutoring session together. During our session together, I showed her my Forbrain. Then I showed her how to turn it on and put it on. Then I had her try it.
10. How did your client react the first time she used Forbrain (comfortable, uncomfortable, surprised…)? 
    My client was reserved and taken aback.  She was not comfortable at first. It seemed strange to her.
11. Did you/ your client’s parent/tutor use the secondary mic as well ? 
    My client's parents used the secondary mic. Since I work online, I could not use the secondary mic.

CASE CONCLUSION:

The use of Forbrain for my client was a game changer. She went from not being able to reliably produce vowel sounds, to saying the short vowel sounds correctly. At the conclusion of using Forbrain in tutoring, Bethany could discriminate between the short e and short i. She could discriminate between the short e and short a. Bethany also could produce the correct sounds for s/sh and no longer confused them. This was also true for producing the correct sounds for ck/ch.

In addition, Bethany learned to attend to each individual phonogram, produce the sound, and blend the sound as she read the word. She could not do this before Forbrain therapy was initiated.

Fluency in reading sentences improved significantly. Fluency improved to the point that Bethany could read short stories. Before Forbrain, Bethany read so inaccurately and slowly that stories were not presented to her because it was too frustrating for her to be confronted with so much print.

 The use of Forbrain was very effective for this client. The difficulties that she had struggled with for years were significantly overcome in 11 weeks with the use of Forbrain.

Other resources for using Forbrain for Dyslexia:

Webinar for parents by Dyslexia Expert

How to use Forbrain for Dyslexia by a Speech and Language pathologist