The MD4 Reading curriculum is designed to provide the prerequisite cognitive and phonological skills needed for fluent reading.  You could say that we have hundreds of apps all linked and sequenced to provide the best reading skills possible.  They may entertain, but they don't look as high tech as Angry Birds because that would distract and detract from the skill building process.

I am often asked why our games are so "basic looking." The answer lies in the nature of dyslexia and effective research based educational therapy methods.

In developing the MD4 Reading program it was critical that the Digital Educational Game Therapy (DEGT) being used be effective and efficient while, at the same time, entertaining. Early in that developmental process it became very clear that the more basic a particular game, the more effective it was. To understand this reality of educational therapy, it is helpful to know a little more about dyslexia itself. Learn more by clicking the "Educational Technology" tab.

Difficulty learning to read or dyslexia as it is sometimes called is a human condition that impacts one's ability to learn to read especially in a standardized system. Wow, that’s great, but what is it really?

Dyslexia is a lack of or weakness in certain neuro-pathways in the brain that are critical to the process of reading.  These poorly functioning neuro-pathways can be spread across a number of areas and can exhibit different types and severity's of weakness. These huge variables cause each individual dyslexic to be somewhat different and makes treating dyslexia a complex matter. As a result remediating this in a traditional classroom setting is difficult to impossible.

OK, back to the simplicity of the MD4 Reading therapy games. To achieve maximum effectiveness, each individual MD4 Reading game is attacking a very specific phonological or cognitive weakness and building neuro-pathways in a limited area. This isolation of an area of weakness is necessary in order to build strength in that area, and the amount and type of information, and the challange that the student is presented with must be limited to the target area - thus the simplistic look of MD4 Reading's digital therapy. 

Even though MD4 Reading's therapy games look basic, they are very effective and efficient.  Each therapy game targets a specific area of weakness and builds on the games before it and on all the other games around it, so the total effect is building neuro-pathways in all areas of possible weakness so an individual can read.  That is why even though a game may look simplistic to the non-dyslexic, it is just what the doctor ordered for building the skills a dyslexic needs.  

Appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes less is more!