Automaticity
By developing fluency in the foundation skills of reading and math, students can lay the necessary groundwork to achieve their academic goals. Fluency, as defined in the Literacy Dictionary, is the "fluent processing of information that requires little effort or attention" (Harris & Hodges, 1995). At the core of fluency is the concept of automaticity, the idea that the basic components of reading and math, such as letters, syllables and math facts, must not only be learned, but learned to such a rapid level that processing becomes automatic.
According to the National Reading Panel, automaticity "involves processing complex information that ordinarily requires long periods of training before the behavior can be executed with little effort or attention." Only by developing automaticity in reading and math foundation skills can students begin to focus on higher-level learning, such as comprehension and strategic competence.
Brain-based research explores the neurological reasons why developing automaticity is so important to the learning process. Clinical trials for a very different computer-based intervention approach demonstrate real-world results in the classroom.
Automaticity Research
- Studies show that the brain is a limited-control processor that isn't capable of efficiently managing both fixed knowledge processing and higher-order reasoning at once (LaBerge and Samuels, 1974)
- Clinical trials demonstrate that by automatizing fixed knowledge, such as letter decoding, learners can focus on higher-level comprehension and reasoning (Fiedorowicz, 1986)
- fMRI studies show dramatic changes in brain processing as automaticity develops, with more than 90% reductions in cortical activity as the skill is acquired (Schneider, W., & Chein, J. M., 2003)
- Proton echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (PEPSI) research displays tissue-based lactate changes caused by a temporary mismatch of oxygen delivery and consumption in response to neuronal activation. A test group of dyslexic readers released four times the amount of lactate compared to the control group of fluent readers but expended just 1.8 times the energy one year after receiving automaticity-based reading intervention (Richards, et al., 1999)
- Read more about the importance of automaticity for decoding and math facts
Unique Instructional Approach
- Academy of READING and Academy of MATH are the only intervention solutions that train subskills to the level of automaticity by measuring accuracy, processing speed, and consistency
- Student responses are timed in milliseconds as part of the skill mastery criteria to precisely gauge whether decoding and math facts have been automatized
- Tutorial-practice-train methodology gives students multiple opportunities to become fully proficient in each skill area
- Mastering foundation skills to the level of automaticity ensures that the resulting gains in ability are both significant and permanent. See Classroom Results for studies based on Academy of READING and Academy of MATH implementations
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