Edublox Online Tutor Explained and Your Questions Answered

15 Apr Edublox Online Tutor Explained and Your Questions Answered

What is Edublox Online Tutor?

Learning is like building a house. The first step is to lay a foundation. Unless there is a strong and solid foundation, cracks will soon appear in the walls, and with no foundation, the walls will collapse.

In the same way one needs to lay a proper foundation before it becomes possible for a child to benefit from a course in reading, writing and arithmetic. If this foundation is shaky, learning “cracks” will soon appear.

Simply put, Edublox Online Tutor (EOT) is a system of cognitive exercises, aimed at building a strong and solid foundation for learning.

Foundational skills should not be confused with processes, strategies or techniques. The difference between these can be explained by using the game of basketball as example. In order to be a basketball player, a person first has to master the foundational skills, e.g. passing, dribbling, defense, and shooting. Only after that can he be taught strategies or techniques.

EOT develops and automates the foundational skills of reading, spelling, writing, mathematics and the skills required in the learning of subject matter. A list of the most important foundational skills addressed by EOT includes:

Edublox Reading Tutor offers application in the form of reading, spelling and vocabulary exercises. Once completed, Writing Tutor will offer application via reading, spelling, vocabulary and handwriting exercises; and Math Tutor via the understanding of math terminology, mental arithmetic, and math concepts such as word sums, reading time, etc.

Edublox Online Tutor is multisensory

People not only learn at different rates, but also in different ways. Some students want their teacher or lecturers to write everything on the board. Others prefer to listen. Some like to sit in small groups and discuss a question; others like to listen to a lecture, translating it into pictures or doodles in their notebook. Such individual learning preferences are known as learning styles.

Learning styles are generally divided into three categories: (1.) visual learners, who need to see it to know it, (2.) auditory learners, who need to hear it to know it and (3.) tactile/kinesthetic learners, who prefer a hands-on approach.

Although there is some value in adjusting to a preferred learning style, we should not overlook that a child must be prepared for the real world and real time. “In the real world, and real time, learning styles theory is often an academic luxury,” writes James Atherton in an article entitled Learning styles don’t matter. Therefore it is essential to teach a child a versatile learning approach from a young age, which means that he will be able to use multiple senses when learning. We must not improve only his strengths, but also his weaknesses.

There is no doubt that a person’s weaker senses can be improved. A blind person, being deprived of sight, usually develops all the other senses to a remarkable degree. To learn to read Braille, for instance, his tactile sense must be developed to a remarkable degree. This fact is important because it shows without the help of complicated tests that every sense can be developed and improved.

EOT is multisensory and addresses the visual and auditory skills of a learner — all at once.

Based on solid learning principles

The first learning principle is that human learning does not take place on a single level, but is a stratified process. This characteristic is worldwide accepted as a didactic principle. The way in which the school system throughout the whole world is organized is an acknowledgement of this. One cannot send a child to university first. He must start in the first class and then progress year after year to the higher levels of education. Unless he has mastered a sufficient amount of the learning material presented to him in one year, to form a firm enough base on which to build the knowledge of the following year, he will not make progress in the next class.

Another simple and practical example is the fact that one has to learn to count before it becomes possible to learn to add and subtract. Suppose one tried to teach a child, who had not yet learned to count, to add and subtract. This would be quite impossible, and no amount of effort would ever succeed in teaching the child to add and subtract. This shows that counting is a skill that must be mastered before it becomes possible to learn to do calculations.

In the same way, there are also certain skills and knowledge that a child must have acquired first, before it becomes possible for him to benefit from a course in reading.

Based on 30+ years of research and practical experience

Over the last 30+ years, the company behind the Online Tutor e-learning platform, Edublox, has helped more than 150,000 people in approximately 40 countries to read, learn and achieve through home kits and learning clinics internationally.

It all started as a school readiness program with only a few cognitive exercises in 1979. Purely as an experiment, in 1980, the program was used for a learning-disabled child who completely overcame his learning difficulties as a result. Over many years, in a quest to perfect the program and later programs, our team has done extensive research on learning, learning principles, brain development and neuroplasticity.

School results define our success. Annually, since 2010, we have been requesting Edublox clients, long-term and new, to complete an online survey to help us measure our performance. In our latest survey the key question, “Did your child’s academic performance improve at school?” received a 94% positive rating.

Our other 600+ documented successes include research from Singapore in 2014 with 27 Grade 6 learners and a matching control group. The results were analyzed by the CEA in the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria, and showed a statistically significant improvement in focused attention over a period of five days (18 hours of training). Over and above the effect size is large.

The experimental group in Dr. Jaidan Mays from the University of Johannesburg’s study showed an improvement of 1.3 years in visual memory and 1.5 years in visual sequential memory, after receiving intensive Edublox training over a five-day period (22.5 hours hours of training).

Dr. Lee DeLorge in Ohio tested 67 students aged 5 to 18 with ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia and non-specific learning disabilities. The processing speed of 94% of the learners improved significantly:

* 35 ADHD students: 52.45% combined increase (37.24% pre-test avg/89.69% post-test avg);
* 13 dyslexic students: 46.76% combined increase (41.31% pre-test avg/88.07% post-test avg);
* 2 students with dycalculia: 57.38% combined increase (39.76% pre-test avg/97.14% post-test avg);
* The remaining students were non Specific LD: 64.14% combined increase (30.40% pre-test avg/94.54% post-test avg).

A long-term study of 60 deaf learners in Grades 1-3, who did Edublox daily for a year, demonstrated a significant increase in reading and spelling performance, as compared to the control group. Another study at the University of Pretoria by Dr. Wynand de Wet found an increase in non-verbal IQ scores of 11.625 in deaf children after 27.5 hours of Edublox instruction, which was confirmed by our own trials of hearing children: an improvement of 5.6 in verbal IQ and 12.5 in non-verbal IQ after 40 hours of instruction.

Lastly, visit our reviews section for many testimonials and case studies, covering Edublox users from all over the world, at various stages of implementation and for various needs — from improving the cognitive skills of children without learning difficulties to overcoming dyslexia, dysgraphia and math problems.

More questions and answers

My daughter, age 10, has been diagnosed with ADHD. I would like help.

Edublox Online Tutor is a cognitive training program. Cognitive training is an avenue of non-drug treatment that parents may wish to explore for ADHD.

Research has shown that cognitive skills are a determining factor of an individual’s learning ability, according to Oxfordlearning.com the skills that “separate the good learners from the so-so learners”. In essence, when cognitive skills are strong, learning is fast and easy. When cognitive skills are weak, learning becomes a challenge.

The intention of cognitive training is to strengthen underlying cognitive deficits. If the brain can change — and it can — it means that the deficits in cognitive skills that ADHD children so frequently experience, like focused attention, processing speed, working memory, as well as problem solving, can be overcome.

Areas addressed by Edublox Online Tutor include focused attention, processing speed, auditory memory, working memory and logical thinking.

A research study by Dr. Lee DeLorge in Ohio (2010) tested the effect of an Edublox cognitive training program on 67 learners; 94 percent of the learners improved significantly. Thirty-five of the learners were diagnosed with ADHD. The processing speed of the ADHD learners showed a combined increase of 52.45 percent, from a pre-test average of 37.24 percent to a post-test average of 89.69 percent. It is well known that children with ADHD suffer from slow processing speed.

In 2014, the Edublox program was presented to 27 Singaporean learners, ages 10 to 12. The program took place over a five-day period, with seven or eight half-hour sessions per day. A control group comprising of 25 learners of similar age, gender and ability did not attend the program, but continued to go to school.

Results of the study show an improvement in focused attention, in just five days. Focused attention is the ability to selectively concentrate on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other things. This type of concentration is both physically and mentally tiring. People with attention problems such as ADHD are known for their inability to filter out distractions and focus on one thing only.

If an ADHD child struggles with reading as well, we recommend Edublox Reading Tutor. However, if there is no reading problem present, Development Tutor is recommended.

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I am not sure what product would be best for my son. He is eleven and going into 6th grade. He is homeschooled and I have struggled to teach him to read for years and have tried many reading and phonics programs. I began to see that he is specifically struggling to blend the letter sounds. I had him tested recently and he was diagnosed as dyslexic. On the Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Test of Auditory Discrimination he scored in the 7th percentile on the noise test. From my research I believe him to have dysphonetic dyslexia.

I of course desire for my son to be able to read and write as well as his peers. I have looked into private tutors which are very costly. I am interested in learning if your online program would be helpful for him in learning to overcome these challenges.

There are few things that create so much tension within a parent as a child who struggles with reading, spelling and writing. Whereas most children find it easy, or relatively easy, for one out of five children this experience is very different. For them learning to read is so difficult that the word “dyslexia” is often used to refer to this severe struggle. Fortunately, Edublox offers a solution — feel free to visit our website and learn more about our viewpoint on dyslexia. 

We advise that your son use the Edublox Reading Tutor program to overcome his reading difficulties. The reading and phonics programs you have tried in the past most likely did not work for your son because they failed to address the foundational skills of reading. Edublox Reading Tutor, on the other hand, aims at improving the cognitive skills that are foundational to reading and spelling, including concentration, auditory and visual processing, memory and reasoning ability. The program also comprises a comprehensive exercise aimed at teaching reading and spelling, and at expanding vocabulary.

The following is a list of some of the most important foundational skills addressed by Reading Tutor:

• Attention and concentration
• Accurate perception
• Visual discrimination of color, foreground-background, form, size, and position in space
• Visual analysis and synthesis of position in space
• Auditory discrimination of foreground-background, and position in time and space
• Auditory analysis and synthesis of position in time and space
• Decoding and integration of information
• Visual closure
• Imagination
• Visual, auditory, sequential, short-term and working memory
• Reasoning and logical thinking
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Before starting Reading Tutor the parent or guardian needs to select the introductory level best suited for the learner. By default it is set to Basic but you can choose between one of these three: Basic, Intermediate or Advanced.

• Basic: 2-4 letter words, starting with at and hop, and ending with twig and hope.
• Intermediate: 4-9 letter words, starting with kite and straight, and ending with continue and encourage.
• Advanced: 6-15 letter words, starting with thwart and rhythm, and ending with ophthalmologist and extraordinaire.
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To purchase the Reading Tutor program, please open the Products and Pricing page, and then click on the “Buy Now” button at the bottom of the table. If you require assistance with the program or have more questions to ask, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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Edublox Online Tutor seems like a new program. How will I know it will work for my child?

The exercises aren’t new. Although they have been refined and improved, the biggest difference between our dated home kits and computer programs and Edublox Online Tutor (EOT) is that EOT has been packaged differently. We have gone to great lenghts to add entertainment to EOT.

Here is a good example. This student on the right is doing the old Pattern exercise at one of our clinics. The photo was taken because he got to 52 blocks, which is quite amazing!

The same exercise is part of all the EOT programs, but there are move levels (10 compared to 3) with beautiful avatars, collectable creatures and worlds to discover: