Brief History of dEcode®

ABC dEcode® began over 28 years ago as a method for teaching reading to individuals, mostly people in their early and late teens, who had been trying to read and been through a number of reading programs with little or no success.

Over the years ABC dEcode® has been fine-tuned, in a clinical setting, with new exercises developed as specific difficulties were encountered on a student-by-student basis.

Within 3 to 6 months, we have students reading abilities significantly improved. And a noticeably improvement in decoding ability, reading comprehension and central auditory processing benefits.

Many students advance 3 to 6 grade levels in as many months.

Full History of dEcode®

ABC dEcode® began 28 years ago as a method for teaching reading to individuals, mostly people in their early and late teens, who have been trying to read, had been through a number of reading programs with no positive results. I was the last resort.

The method evolved through my practice and was clinically based.

Dropping all other methods aside, I developed this very unique program as a result of listening to each and every student that came to the clinic. In the early years, depending on the age of the individual , the degree of commitment and severity of reading disorder, each individual learned to read after 1-1 1/2 years.

This method was then extended beyond myself and was brought into a school of which I was co-director. The school was a school for individuals with learning disabilities. Students were taught either on a 1:1 or 1:5 basis.

Through our extensive pre- and post-testing, we discovered that the ABC dEcode® method did much more than merely help the individual to read. It affected the underlying auditory and visual processing that not only prevented the onset of 'reading' but also such processes that affect sequential learning, language, speech, and visual focusing, enabling the individual to succeed in far more academic and social areas than only reading.

Because of public pressure, I was asked to take this method beyond my practice and the school. As a result, ABC dEcode® was then developed into a product. Initially, it was used as a hard copy product in which either myself or my staff would work with parents and help them work with their child at home. There was also a teacher's manual for those who wished to implement it privately.

At this stage, for the most part people were coming to the Centre and working with me or my staff. We established through a pilot study that even at this stage, it was a stand alone product.

Pilot testing was administered with children in St. Catherine's on a 1:2 basis over a period of 3 months. The students who were given ABC dEcode® outperformed the control students who were exposed to other remedial methods at the same time.

The ABC dEcode® program was then developed into a software format. Although rudimentary and still relying on some expert direction, it allows far more exposure to the method, freedom of access, and more affordability. Whereas it took 1 to 1 1/2 years to read in ABC dEcode®'s early years, due to the frequency of exposure as well as constant fine tuning, it now takes 3 to 6 months to see a highly noticeable improvement, not just in the decoding ability, but in reading comprehension and central auditory processing benefits.

A review of the literature irrevocably states that the only truly successful method to teach dyslexics how to read is through a phonological/phonetic approach. ABC dEcode® uses such an approach and has this method very fine-tuned so that it is extremely comprehensive in the number of steps, exercises and pathways necessary to suit individuals with any type of problem within the reading of sound combinations. The latest research utilizing Functional MRI has shown that with such an approach, there have been brain changes in the dyslexic.

ABC dEcode® a program like no other that will teach anyone who has difficulty reading to overcome their obstacles. It has been proven time and time again to be successful where other remedial methods have failed. It has helped hundreds of people to read and we hope to help hundreds of thousands more...