ACADEMIC BENEFITS
"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."- Langston Hughes
Academic benefits are advantages offered to enhance the academic success of students. Students who benefit academically, are those who gain skill in memory, knowledge, and comprehension.
According to Kraus and others, in "Differential Effect of Reading Training on Functional Connectivity in Children with Reading Difficulties with and without ADHD Comorbidity," dyslexia or reading difficulties is a disorder affecting approximately 5-15% of children that is characterized by major challenges in fluent and accurate reading, which can be accompanied by a secondary language in reading comprehension and with some deficits in executive functions." Executive functions are a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior and ability to process information.
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This shows that reading acceleration programs are designed to target word process and development, informational intake, and reading skills.
"As reading challenges are common in children with reading deficits and ADHD, improvement in reading fluency is an important goal for both conditions. Fluent reading is crucial for intact reading comprehension, which is a measure used for assessment of knowledge gained in the classroom, and fluency depends on accurate, timely decoding of words. Word decoding relies not only on intact phonology, orthography, and semantics, but also intact basic cognitive abilities, such as attention, speed of processing, and working memory (Kraus et al.)."
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"The Reading Acceleration Program (RAP) is an executive function based computerized reading intervention that focuses on language abilities, while also exercising the domains of attention, working memory, and speed of processing that supports executive function (Kraus et al.)."
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This is important because spoken word targets the ability to become critical thinkers, expand creative expression and skills, and allow for voices to be heard in many contexts; both politically and at a local level.
