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| Case Studies
and Results
Please check back often as we continue to update our Case Study and
Results information. If you would like more information about our
Studies or Results, email us at dkurtz@kurtzcenter.com
The Results are In and the Quality Shows!
| Many people learn to learn faster and easier each year with the Processing
and Cognitive Enhancement (PACE ) program. Our treatment team at the Kurtz
Center has always been focused on maintaining the highest possible quality
treatment for our clients.
The results from our implementation of the PACE program prove our dedication
to our clients yet again. In only 36 treatment hours at the Center, our
clients made some astounding gains.
We are proud to announce our average 2001 treatment gains in deficit
skill areas for our PACE programs as follows:
-
Word Identification = 2.81 years gain
-
Word Attack = 2.44 years gain
-
Passage Comprehension = 2.81 years gain
-
Auditory Analysis = 2.58 years gain
-
Logic & Reasoning = 2.83 years gain
-
Visual-Auditory Learning = 4.19 years gain
-
Test for Names = 3.88 years gain
|
|
Jay G.
Before
· Came to us as an eight-year-old,
second grader · retained in kindergarten
·
referred by Sylvan Learning Center after little growth in sight word recognition
and no growth in phonetic word attack ·
had late speech articulation and a frontal tongue lisp ·
became silly, resistive, and difficult to work with in school and at home
·
often pretended to be sick to avoid school ·
watched TV constantly · withdrew from
participation with other kids · aberrant
behavior increased with much passive-aggressiveness. |
| Test Name |
Pre-Test Scores
|
Post-Test Scores
|
| Symbol(s) for Sound Given Test |
14 of 32 known
|
31 of 32 known
|
| Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Testä* |
54/100
|
100/100
|
| WJ-R Word Attack |
13%tile
SS 83
1.3 Grade Equivalent
|
44 %tile
SS 98
3.5 Grade Equivalent
|
| Letter/Word ID |
15 %tile
SS 85
1.6 Grade Equivalent
|
40 %tile
SS 96
3.3 Grade Equivalent
|
| GORT-R Comprehension |
9 %tile SS 6(80)
|
37 %tile SS 9(95)
|
| Passage (fluency) |
9 %tile SS 6(80)
|
37 %tile SS 9(95)
|
After
· 186.5 hours of the Lindamood's
Auditory Discrimination in Depth program* (now
LiPSä ) over a ten-month period ·
was successful in phonetic word attack and spelling ·
speech problem ceased · Jay became enthusiastic
about his academic life · no longer exhibited
the antagonistic behaviors · By fourth
grade, was on the A/B honor roll and continues to be ·
chose to be in school chorus and band ·
accepted into an art enrichment class . tried out and played in
Little League baseball · Jay's parents
now call him "Mr. Self Esteem." |
Danielle
Y.
Before
· Six-year-old
·
fell from high chair at 18 months and suffered an epidural hematoma ·
spent three years in occupational and physical therapy ·
her mother reports that Danielle experienced memory difficulties as well
as information and word retrieval problems ·
normal development prior to the accident included speaking in full sentences
·
after surgery from fall, suffered right hemipareses and was totally unable
to talk · was administered a Kindergarten
Readiness Test by her Seminole County School District and was found to
be in the 15%ile in comparison to her age group
·
placed in Adaptive Kindergarten class in public school ·
kindergarten teacher recommended repeating kindergarten due to Danielle's
struggles with remembering upper and lower case letters; inability to listen
to and discuss simple stories or poems or to apply oral communication pre-reading
and prewriting skills in language experience activities; inability to describe
or dictate a complete sentence relating a feeling or experience; inability
to develop and apply auditory skills through language experience activities
and to develop and apply visual perception skills through language experience
activities that demonstrated left-to-right progression, word boundaries,
likenesses and differences in words; inability to identify initial consonant
sounds or to discriminate sameness and differences of initial consonants
and words · neuropsychologist advised
that Danielle would experience the following difficulties: visual sequential
memory deficit; impaired reception and expression of visual spatial relationships;
memory difficulties; lowered attention and concentration; difficulty recognizing
letters visually; left/right confusion; problems organizing; thinking in
a highly abstract level, forming abstract concepts; shifting mental sets,
altering problem-solving strategies based on performance feedback and learning
new tasks quickly · she also predicted
extensive future remedial assistance to include placement in special education
classes designed to teach Danielle to compensate for her specific developmental
learning deficiencies, as well as private tutoring to assist Danielle in
strengthening her weaker academic skills ·due
to these difficulties, Danielle was introverted with low self-confidence
·
after being placed in a private school for individuals with learning disabilities,
Danielle desired to be in public school with her brothers. |
| Test Name |
Pre-Test Scores
|
Post-Test Scores
|
| Symbol(s) fpr Sound Given Test |
8 of 32 known
|
31 of 32 known
|
| Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Testä* |
36/100
|
94/100
|
| WRMT Word Attack |
9 %tile
SS 80
<1.0 Grade Equivalent
|
84 %tile
SS 115
5.6 Grade Equivalent
|
| Word ID |
<1 %tile
SS <62
<1.0 Grade Equivalent
|
83 %tile
SS 115
4.0 Grade Equivalent
|
| GORT-R Comprehension |
1 %tile
SS <60
|
37 %tile
SS 9(95)
|
| Passage (fluency) |
< 1 %tile SS <60
|
25 %tile SS 8(90)
|
| DTLA-Verbal Absurdities |
Age: 7-06
|
Age: 10-6
|
After
· After 135 hours of the Auditory
Discrimination in Depth program (now LiPSä
)and 28 hours of the Visualizing and Verbalizingä
for Language comprehension and Thinking program, Danielle was able to see
her wish of attending a "normal" public school fulfilled. ·
By the end of the first grade year in the special school, Danielle was
the top reader in the top reading group. She was also a top speller, ·
When Danielle re-entered the regular public school for her second grade
year, she made all A's and B's with ease. Danielle's mother said, "She
can read any word." · Also, Danielle
was able to express herself in complete sentences and paragraphs and could
write her thoughts comfortably and clearly. ·
In addition, Danielle's memory problems disappeared.
Update
· When Danielle was in her second
month of third grade, she was evaluated at Herman Hospital, in Houston,
Texas. She received the following scores on tests administered as part
of a longitudinal follow-up to head injury cases. |
| Test Name |
Age
|
Grade
|
| Word Attack |
72 %tile
SS 109
4.9 Grade Equivalent
|
85 %tile
SS 115
4.9 Grade Equivalent
|
| Word ID |
62 %tile
SS 105
4.1 Grade Equivalent
|
81 %tile
SS 113
4.1 Grade Equivalent
|
| Passage Comprehension |
83 %tile
SS 114
4.6 Grade Equivalent
|
88 %tile
SS 118
4.6 Grade Equivalent
|
| Comment: Danielle's mother reported that the hospital
and the neurologist, Dr. Fletcher, gave Danielle a "clean bill of health"
wherein she requires neither occupational nor physical therapy nor remedial
academic assistance. |
David 0.
Before
· Twelve-year-old,
eighth grader · basic reading skills
quite good · poor reading comprehension
·
poor long-term memory of what he read
·
did not know how or where to begin a project or bring it to conclusion
·
note-taking skills inadequate so he missed vital information during lectures
·
handwriting neat and legible · difficulty
writing down his thoughts and making himself understood ·
in oral and written language, he left out important details and focused
on extraneous ones · lied about due dates
of assignments · wouldn't tell parents
about assignments due · had difficulty
understanding and predicting the consequences of his actions, thus punishments
failed to improve the problem · disorganized
·
had difficulty sequencing information
·
distractible. |
| Test Name |
Pre-Test Scores
|
Post-Test Scores
|
| WRMT Word Attack |
78 %tile
SS 112
12.9 Grade Equivalent
|
NOT GIVEN
|
| Word ID |
56 %tile
SS 102
8.3 Grade Equivalent
|
NOT GIVEN
|
| GORT-R Comprehension |
9 %tile
SS 7(85)
|
37 %tile
SS 9(95)
|
| Passage (fluency) |
16 %tile
SS 7(85)
|
50 %tile
SS 10(100)
|
| Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised |
68 %tile
SS 107
|
86 %tile
SS 116
|
| DTLA - Verbal Absurdities |
Age: 13-0
|
Age: 15-00
|
After
· After 79 hours of the Visualizing
and Verbalizingä for Language Comprehension
and Thinking program (V/Vä ), one hour
per day, four hours per week for twenty weeks, David's posttest results
showed dramatic improvements in all areas of learning.
·
David's grades went from B's, C's, and D's to A's and B's. ·
He felt confident in his ability to study for tests and remember the information
on the day of the test. · David even
noticed that his reading rate was faster because he didn't have to re-read
sentences. He comprehended and retained sentences the first time through.
·
Within the 79 hours there was training in vocabulary building. David's
vocabulary expanded because he could efficiently image the meaning of the
word so that he could accurately and effectively remember and appropriately
use the definition in his daily life and on his assignments. ·
David said, "It [the
Visualizing and Verbalizingä
for Language Comprehension and Thinking program] helped my grades a
lot!. I'm taking better notes . . . I can look up information [for chapter
questions and open book questions] a lot better." |
Nick W.
Before
· Healthy, well-developed infant
and child . all developmental milestones early or as expected except putting
words into sentences at age three · thrived
in preschool. In first grade, problems in reading and writing began as
well as frustration and embarrassment ·
excels in math and art tested by private Ph.D. psychologist who stated
that "Nick had no problems." · retested
by the same psychologist the next year (second grade) and was still within
"acceptable" limits · in 2nd
Grade self-esteem stated as "hitting rock bottom" ·
repeated second grade due to extreme difficulty with reading and writing
·
this added to his feelings of being "stupid" ·
concern by parents over signs of depression ·
two years later (third grade), tested by school psychologist and discovered
to have an I.Q. of 130 · assigned to
Gifted/L.D. program
· needed his mother's
assistance to read to him and complete homework assignments ·
would only read when forced to do so ·
signs of depression continued through seventh grade. Nick lived in the
Miami area. His mother came with him and they stayed for 5 weeks during
one summer. |
| Test Name |
Pre-Test Scores
|
Post-Test Scores
|
| Symbol(s) for Sound Given Test |
9 of 32 known
|
31 of 32 known
|
| Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Testä* |
93/100
|
100/100
|
| WJ-R Word Attack |
10 %tile
SS 81
3.0 Grade Equivalent
|
46 %tile
SS 99
7.0 Grade Equivalent
|
| Letter/Word ID |
4 %tile
SS 74
3.9 Grade Equivalent
|
43 %tile
SS 97
8.1 Grade Equivalent
|
| GORT-R Comprehension |
50 %tile SS 100
|
|
| Passage (fluency) |
37 %tile SS 95
|
|
After
After 104 hours of the Auditory Discrimination in Depth program
(now LiPSä ) over a five week period,
Nick's life changed.
· Reading "seven books at one time"
. He said, "I was told 'Nick you have to read,' now I'm reading because
I want to." · In school, wrote an essay
and got an "A", the first in his life ·
He was put into a regular English class for the first time ·
Nick said, "Mom and Dad, I swear to you, English is my best subject. I've
never enjoyed reading so much and never enjoyed literature before and I
am actually reading!" · He now completes
papers without mother's assistance and does not miss any homework assignments. |
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