Why Forbrain® headphones are a worthwhile investment
How Forbrain® headphones improve reading fluency and focus
Adults and children alike love a good story; it can take us to a faraway place and lift our spirits without leaving home. Recently, I joined a book club. The organiser, a former headteacher, is very knowledgeable and has already introduced us members to some excellent authors.
“Narnia was constantly on her mind when her head hit the pillow at night and the vacant moments between school and play.”
The voice that is inside us.
When we read, most of us visualise the characters, the scenery, events in our mind's eye. For a good few years, when my child was in primary school, she was obsessed with C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series. If caught in staring into space, I would ask, "What are you daydreaming about?" Her reply was always "Narnia!" It was constantly on her mind from the moment she got up to when her head hit the pillow at night. Narnia! Narnia! Narnia!
The internal narrator’s voice combines with the associated images to help us jump into the pages of our favourite book.
Learning to read aloud.
Yesterday, I heard an emerging reader read a short story by Rudyard Kipling, How the Leopard Got his Spots. The font size was larger than usual, so that his eyes could track with greater ease. While he read all of the words correctly, there was no flow, no rhythm, no intonation. I asked him to highlight all the full-stops in a pink colour, and the commas with an orange pen. We started again, this time with a ‘stopping’ gesture (palms facing away from the body) each time we came to a full stop. When he reached a comma, we used a gesture of a pet with its paws up, to remind him to take a pause. As 'stop,' and 'paws,' were established, we laughed, and he gained more rhythm and flow. Then I got out my special set of Forbrain® Headphones. This allowed him to listen to his voice as he read.
As we read together in tandem, the passage came to life. Even when the gestures to aid punctuation were forgotten, the pattern of stopping at the full stop were better established.
Now, the sentences were not merging into one another. Forbrain® headphones do take a bit of getting used to, but we pretended he was an airline pilot, and this appealed to his six-year-old brain.
What are Forbrain® Headphones?
Forbrain® headphones contain a little microphone and it is a very slick lightweight piece of kit that any child will be curious to try out. You talk into the microphone like any other headphone set, and the sound of your voice feeds back into the headphones for you to hear as you talk.
The sounds you hear are not taken into your ears directly, rather they are conducted through your skull. It may seem a bit odd, but our hard skeleton conducts sounds as well as our ears. These headphones are better known as 'bone conduction headphones.'
This equipment offers a real sense of entertainment value too. Children always start off laughing at this strange experience of hearing their own voice played back to them, but in no time, they begin to enjoy the experience. In my time so far using Forbrain® Headphones, I have never had any child refuse or dislike using them.
“This, in turn, goes towards reading with less hesitation and more understanding.”
Use your voice to boost your brain
What makes these headphones so unique?
Around 1957, Dr. Alfred Tomatis, an ear, nose and throat specialist, said many problems of the speech production were difficulties in processing or hearing sounds. He said, "the voice cannot produce what the ear does not hear." Dr. Tomatis created the first specialised listening therapy programs.
The student with me yesterday, cannot hear the difference between the 'f' and 'th' sound. He often mispronounces 'thing' as 'fing' and 'thumb' as 'fumb.' These are not the only sounds that get confused. Students can use Forbrain® headphones to practise listening to their voice when making such sounds. As this student practises reading and processing words starting with 'f' or 'th' sounds, he begins to audibly hear the difference between 'f' and 'th,'. This, in turn, goes towards reading with less hesitation and more understanding. With emerging readers, they sometimes read one word at a time, but Forbrain® headphones help them to gain speed as they listen and it improves contextual understanding.
How else to use Forbrain® headphones?
We use it extensively with the Alpha to Omega program: the dictation exercises and the proofreading element especially. Not many schools do dictations with children, but most therapists specialising in teaching spelling, reading, and writing will use these in some form.
When proofreading sentences out loud, using the headphones, children pay full attention to the words they are looking at as they read. For example, when they misread a word, for example; stop and spot, they look again and self-correct.
Finding joy in reading
Children need to know that the joy of a good story is not exclusive to children who can read. The performance element of this tiny device allows children to jump into the story in place of reading one word at a time without any destination or momentum. Mistakes are made, but hearing them back and analysing them for themselves gives a different perspective, and they cope with this more often in a happier, and more spirited way.
Improving reading skills using Forbrain Headphones
Dyslexia? Dyspraxia? ADHD? ASD? Speech & Language? Developmental Delay? Anxiety?
Is every school day a struggle? As a parent, you may feel exhausted and on this journey alone. Each year you see the gap getting wider. You need to do something - change the approach, help your child learn for themselves, find a way to turn this around - to help while you can - do this NOW. the first step is free.
