Das, Hayward, Samantaray, and Panda (2006) Study
This study, done in 2006, was the first pilot investigation of COGENT (Cognitive Enhancement Training). It was essentially a demonstration of the possibilities of the COGENT program when applied to a significantly disadvantaged group of children. Admittedly, we did not meet rigorous scientific criteria; however, the study gave us an opportunity to illustrate the appropriateness and efficacy of the program.
Three of the modules were administered to a group of 11 disadvantaged children, ranging in age from 4 to 7 years, living in an orphanage in India. Caregivers at the orphanage reported that these children exhibited academic, emotional, and attentional problems, and were considered most at risk for academic and reading failure. Pretests and posttests of reading and cognitive measures show that 88 percent of the children made modest gains in word reading in the posttest.
The performance norms on this test were for American children whose mother tongue is English, whereas the children in the mentioned sample only spent approximately one hour daily learning English as a subject in school. We suggest that because the quality of schooling these children receive was not comparable to schooling available in North American schools, and because English was not spoken in the community in which the children lived, even these small gains in word reading were remarkable achievements.
The gains in the cognitive test scores were also encouraging, with 54 percent of children showing gains in all four cognitive processing domains on which they were tested. Thus, COGENT not only appeared to help the children with academic performance, but also helped them in many ways which were not reflected in the standardized tests. It was observed that all children responded positively to program activities and the interactive learning ambience.
Hayward, Das, and Janzen (2007) Study
This study was motivated by the challenge of improving the reading abilities of aboriginal children who have experienced several years of reading failure. Reading is probably the single most important skill that children need to succeed in our current educational system. Statistics reveal chronic school dropout rates among Aboriginal youth. While the reasons for such statistics are necessarily complex, one contributing factor to school failure is early reading failure and our education system’s inability to properly identify and assist those with persistent reading disabilities. Aboriginal youth have reported that reading difficulties contributed to their decision to leave school.
We examined whether or not COGENT would result in significant improvements in reading abilities of children (2- to 3-year-olds) who had been failing in regular classroom reading programs. The children were Canadian First Nations (FN) children who had been identified as poor readers in Grade 3. We were most interested in the meaningful and practical reading outcomes from this study as they related to “bridging” or “narrowing” the gap between poor readers and their peers with an average reading ability.
Two classes of Grade 3 children were provided classroom intervention three times weekly, in 30 minute sessions with COGENT, over the school year (October to May). Accounting for school holidays and cultural and community events, a total of 30 hours of instruction was offered. One class had 11 students who were poor readers, while the other class had six children who were poor readers and had been diagnosed with having Fetal Alcohol Effects, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Conduct Disorder, and so on.
A “no-risk” control group consisted of two classes of students (n = 23) who did not need remedial work according to the school and should benefit adequately from classroom instruction. All children were tested on reading tasks in September, December, and May.
There were several educationally significant findings regarding bridging and narrowing the gap mentioned earlier for many children. Participation was seen to narrow the gap in both word reading and reading comprehension, and bridge the gap in decoding of pseudo-words, a noteworthy finding for FN children, who have been regarded as chronically poor readers.
When we examined individual child records, the performance following COGENT intervention exceeded our expectations for children with long-standing reading failure. We refer here to the ongoing concern that interventions only result in stabilization of reading deficits for children with long-standing reading disabilities. The study found that even the weakest readers gained from the COGENT intervention, as shown by a significant decrease in the number of children below the 5th and 10th percentiles. The majority of children were performing at or below these percentiles across all measures in the pretest. At the posttest stage there remained only two or three children at or below these percentiles.
On tracking the effect of treatment by calculating improvement rates per hour of instruction, we found that following both intervention periods, the benchmarks suggested by Torgesen (2002) were surpassed. These alternative methods of tracking improvement led us to suggest that the gap had been bridged for word decoding and narrowed in both word reading and reading comprehension.
These are important findings, particularly related to word reading and passage comprehension, which have historically been the most difficult areas in which to effect change in children with long-standing reading failure. Given the population of children we worked with, where there is a history of poor school attendance, low motivation, and differing cultural experiences related to home literacy, these improvements have an added importance.
Snapshots of the COGENT study of First Nations (Canadian native) children
• Tested COGENT over a full school year.
• Grade 3 children with severe reading problems.
• One class also had children with multiple problems such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and severe emotional/ behavioral problems.
• Tested against a group of normally functioning children who got regular classroom instruction only.
• Pretested in fall, and administered posttest in January and in May/June.
Conclusions
• COGENT provided a means to improve reading in all areas (decoding, word reading, and comprehension).
• This improvement was significantly greater than a control group (relative to their starting point), so much so that many children were within the “normal” range of reading by the end of the remediation.
• The classroom-based administration had obvious advantages in terms of resources.
• Kids loved it, and teachers came to see how effective it was.
• The school saw huge improvements on the last year’s provincial achievement testing, and a majority of children met provincial standards.
• Huge improvements were noted in written composition and comprehension.
Future directions
• There are still many things we need to learn about literacy among aboriginal learners.
• We need to start much earlier to prevent reading problems.