FAQ for Parents

PATH neurotraining only works if you are using a Google Chrome Browser.

1. If my child or I have trouble reading quickly or trouble paying attention, will PATH brain-training help me or my child? Yes!
Studies on PATH to Reading found (see publications in leading scientific journals) that with only 15 minutes of PATH training 2-3 times a week for 12 weeks, reading speed improved as much as 11-fold and attention span and memory retention improved up to 3 grade levels, by speeding up the visual timing in the brain, as proven by thousands of the program’s users, and published in leading scientific journals.

2. How do you motivate the user to do the brain-training as directed?
– Each time the user sees the direction of movement when moving stripes are very dim, then user earns a fish in a net, and a high score, as shown at the end of each pattern.
– The parent provides feedback, and builds engagement with their child, and can celebrate the improvements together, by providing a sticker for each level of complexity completed, in addition to the star shown for each level of complexity.
– Make sure screen brightness is 100%.
– Make sure arrow key is not pushed, until screen is blank.
– If direction fish stripes move are so dim cannot be seen, then push the same arrow key (each time incorrect, stripes get darker) until movement of stripes can be seen again.
– If not sure of the fish stripes movement, and fish stripes are clearly visible, then push the space bar to see a new pattern.
– Make sure do not stare in one spot, blinking eyes frequently, and keep entire fish pattern in field of view, so also see background stripes.
– When discriminating left-right movement for widest fish stripes, if nose of fish gets lighter, stripes moved left, and if fish nose gets darker, stripes moved right.
– When doing MotionMemory program, and using Adult program, ask: Did the fish stripes move in one or two directions? If in one direction, then push the up (right-right) or down (left-left) arrow keys. Otherwise you push the arrow of the direction they moved first.
– Since some children have great difficulty doing motion memory, we have created a new version: Child Motion Memory that instead of pushing one key, like in the motion memory training movie, you press two keys in a row using only the left and right arrow keys to signal the direction of the first and second pattern in that order. Therefore, no sticker is needed to guide the person doing the motion memory program. The adult motion memory uses one key to signal the direction of movement, whereas the child motion memory uses two keys in a row and will not progress until two keys have been pushed.
– If MotionMemory program is still too difficult, then return to the Motion program and change the complexity level by pressing the ‘c’ key when in the Motion program to begin it again at complexity level 1. If too slow, then increase complexity level to a higher level, increasing in increments of 4 to get a faster speed of left-right movement.
– If do Motion program a second time, provides more motivation to learn MotionMemory, improving function of brain pathways so increase timing even more. Motion program alone benefits focusing attention and working memory. MotionMemory is to be used when want more challenging task than Motion.
– If vision blurs, then should blink eyes more often (which resets the brain’s gain) and not stare in one spot.
– You should follow each session of the PATH to Reading program (both Motion and Motion Memory) by at least one reading rate threshold by clicking on Reading Rate under Motion. Parents should read the words with their child to help them with pronunciation. Please watch video on dashboard for Reading Rate first. Then you should choose a story that is at the person’s reading grade level. The six words of text will be presented slowly until they are presented so quickly that all six words cannot be read correctly. Remember to wait until the 6 words disappear before pushing the right (correct) or left (incorrect) arrows. A staircase method determines the reading rate threshold in words per minute. A graph is displayed at the end of the reading rate threshold showing the speed of different 6 words of text and whether the observer was correct (1) or incorrect (0) at that speed. The ‘x’ in the upper right corner of the graph must be clicked to close graph. The Data under Motion (at very bottom of Data page) will then keep track of this reading speed, date, time, and story read. By clicking on the number of words/min you can see this graph again.

3. What does the PATH Brain-Training improve?
– PATH is a computer program that uses visual exercises to improve the brain’s timing so that both visual and auditory impairments are reduced. PATH helps people with Dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, slow processing speeds, Amblyopia, Autism, Speech and Language problems, and Concussions (traumatic brain injuries). PATH was found to improve figure/ground discrimination, reading speed, comprehension, pronunciation, spelling, writing, focusing attention, sequential processing, processing speed, problem solving, multitasking, and visual and auditory working memory.
– PATH neurotraining improves the function of brain pathways, that is, the visual, attention, and executive control pathways, by using patterns that optimally activate motion cells (left-right movement) relative to the pattern cells (stationary background). Therefore, these improvements are rapid and are sustained over time.

4. How much improvement should the user experience in reading comprehension and other cognitive skills that include focusing attention and working memory retention?
Previous studies found that the user should see improvements from one to seven grade levels in 12 weeks. There will soon be a free reading rate program included with the purchase of PATH or reading aloud with your child can be done after PATH Brain-Training is used, after three months of PATH Brain-Training the user can experience up to 11-fold faster reading speeds.

5. When should we see start to see improvements?
Sometimes you will notice improvements right away. Usually by the 12th session, significant improvements will be noticed in the student’s ease of reading and understanding what is read. What improvements are seen is based on what is practiced after completing the PATH brain-training and how often PATH training is completed. Reading only improves if practice on reading out loud follows the PATH training.

6. How long is a normal brain-training session? Only 15 minutes!
It is recommended to do two sessions per sitting every other day, or one session each morning. Each session takes between 3 to 10 minutes. It should be followed by at least 15 minutes of reading, 30 minutes is recommended. If another therapy or educational activity is being done following the PATH session that can be counted as the 15 minutes of reading.

7. How much supervision is needed?
This depends on how much attention is focused on the task. For some children, an adult is needed to provide constant supervision and motivation, whereas for others, having someone in the same room might be sufficient. Feedback should be provided after every pattern showing the user you are paying attention, and providing feedback about how well user completed the last pattern. The user can do this on their own, but he/she must be motivated enough to do so.

8. How do I see my child’s data?
On the dashboard for each person, they can see their data by clicking on: Performance (under Complexity Level) to see graphs of each test frequency contrast sensitivity (=1/contrast threshold*100), and Data (following word Performance) to see the contrast threshold and standard deviation (in brackets) for each of the 20 patterns, in the same order used to train on each pattern, showing the duration (dur) needed to see the five patterns for each test frequency (0.5, 1, 2, and 0.25 cyc/deg) for each complexity level (far right side of each row).
To see graphs of individual data, click on the contrast threshold value, which shows person’s response on each trial (1=correct and 0=incorrect response), as well as mean, standard deviation, score, number of times this measurement process was repeated to measure threshold, and time of day threshold was finished.

9. What is a good regimen to use following PATH training?
Have your child read an interesting story, like Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, for 30 minutes, helping them read words that are hard to pronounce, defining words they don’t know, and stopping after every few paragraphs to ensure they are following the story line (e.g. where are they, who is there, what are they doing, pointing out important concepts needed to understand story line). Then, for about 10 minutes have your child complete word, math, and spatial (figure-ground) puzzles found in brain games like: Brain Games for Kids Book.

10. What if PATH doesn’t work for my child?
– You have a one-week free trial to make sure it works for you before purchasing PATH Brain-Training,
– You have a money-back guarantee if PATH Brain-Training is used as directed.

11. What if I can’t afford PATH neurotraining? Please contact PDI to discuss payment plans.

12. How does PATH brain-training differ from all other therapies that are available?
PATH brain-training requires a shift in treatment from learning to sound out individual syllables in words to improving the ability to see individual words before trying to see the letters in each word correctly (Lawton, 2016; Lawton & Shelley-Tremblay, 2017; Lawton, 2019).

13. How does PATH brain-training differ from FastForWord?
PATH neurotraining which improves visual timing was found to be much more effective than FastForWord which improves phonological timing (how words sound), in reading speed, comprehension, attention, and both visual and auditory working memory (Lawton, 2016; Lawton, 2019).

14. How does this differ from Raz-Kids (computer-based guided reading) ?
Raz-Kids uses repeated reading, not designed to improve the speed of brain processing. PATH neurotraining was found to be much more effective than repeated reading (Lawton and Shelley-Tremblay, 2017; Lawton, 2019) in improving reading fluency, attention, and memory.

15. How does this differ from Accelerated Reader?
Accelerated Reader is a reading list, while PATH to Reading is program that fixes the timing in the brain, enabling reading, attention, memory, and multitasking to be easier and faster.

16. What if I need more training to use the program or understand the data as shown when I click on Performance?
You can hire staff at PDI to answer all your questions, train you more extensively to do the PATH neurotraining, or interpret your results for only $150/hour (half the normal rate for training).

17. What if I can’t see the bottom of the background pattern and the bottom of the graphs?
This means the google chrome browser’s zoom is set to 110% instead of 100%. Change by clicking in the upper right corner of the browser window (on three vertical dots if Mac user or Up arrow if Windows user), and changing the zoom to 100% or 10% less than its current zoom setting.

View Publications to see details of these studies that were conducted over the past 20 years.

Call Perception Dynamics at (310) 903-6009 OR Email: info@pathtoreading.com