‘Like switching the light on’ - The Raviv Method and its contribution to
overcoming learning difficulties.
Frost, Penny
Email frostp@blueyonder.co.uk
August 2007
Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual
Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007
Key terms:
Neuroscience, neural circuits, brain wave activity, dyslexia, attention and focus
Abstract
This paper describes the findings of a small research project run in the summer term 2007 at a primary
school in North Hampshire, during which time the Raviv Method was introduced to a group of 12 students
from Year 1 to Year 6 who have a history of significant attention difficulties, or difficulty in gaining literacy
and numeracy skills.
The writer has a background in special needs education as SENCO at a mixed comprehensive secondary
school in the London Borough of Richmond. Her interest in neuroscience results from a desire to understand
more about the apparent impairment of the neural circuits of the brain in students who are dyslexic or who
experience difficulty in attention and focus. This has led her to take seriously the claims made for the Raviv
Programme, that regular daily practice of the exercises in the programme can create the specific neural
structure required for learning, and provide focused strategies for controlling the brain activity necessary for
attention and concentration. The writer has trained in the Raviv Method, and is a licensed practitioner.
The Raviv Method makes substantial claims for learning in three particular areas:
 Pre-school learning, where the purpose of the programme is to develop the neural infrastructure
that is required for efficient learning, and prevent later learning difficulties from occurring
 Managing AD(H)D, where the programme is based on teaching the individual to control the brain
wave activity needed for attention and focus
 Improving academic performance, and teaching individuals to deal with the stress and anxieties
that accompany studying and taking exams
In order to learn more about the effects of the Raviv Method, the writer set up a small-scale one term
research project at a primary school in Hampshire. This enabled her to introduce the Raviv Method to a
group of pupils and their families, and to deliver the programme on at least a weekly basis over one term in
a supportive environment. The pupils invited to receive this input were selected because they have
significant difficulty in gaining literacy and numeracy skills, and families who agreed to meet the time
demands of the programme. It was intended that the pupils would be tested at the start and finish of the
programme, to identify gains made, such as increases in reading accuracy, ability to concentrate, and other
improvements (for instance, increased confidence in tackling classwork) which may be identified by
teachers or parents. However, the paper explains the difficulties the researcher experienced with collecting
measurable data both for the group undergoing the programme, and also for a control group to provide a
comparison of progress made.
The paper to be presented to the SIG examines the pupils’ learning achievements identified in the context of
the normal expectations of the teachers and parents, and what conclusions can be drawn from the experience
of running the Raviv programme for a period of time at the school.
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Introduction
This paper covers the following areas:
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The background to this investigation
An outline of the theory underlying the Raviv Method
A brief discussion of the role of teachers as researchers, an account of the research
methods I used and a reflection on the function of evaluation in innovative
practice
A summary of my findings from my investigation, and detailed individual
reflections on the progress of the pupil involved in the investigation
Conclusions
The background to this investigation
I am currently a literacy teacher at a mixed secondary comprehensive school in SW
London. Until Easter of this year, I was SENCO, but my increasing desire to be more
proactive in developing new approaches in teaching young people with learning
difficulties, and less trapped in a role where my time was spent responding to a mountain
of paperwork generated by the School Improvement Plan and the Code of Practice, led me
to step down from my full-time role at the school. I currently work part-time at the school
and have a twilight visiting lecturer role at St Mary’s University College, teaching on the
CPD MA for teachers researching in the area of school improvement.
I became interested in the claims made by Raviv practitioners when I had the opportunity
to meet a representative from the Raviv Method at the Islington Special Needs Exhibition
in October 2006. Having been working with young people with reading and attention
difficulties since 1994, I had been interested in the new knowledge about dyslexia to be
gained from neuro-imaging through the work of Goswami, and I was ready to experiment
with new approaches that I might use to extend my ‘toolkit’ as a teacher. Goswami opens
her article with the words:
‘Both educationalists and neuroscientists are interested in learning and how to optimise
learning.’ (Goswami 2004),
and this exactly my own intention with respect to my interest in the Raviv Method.
I attended the four training weekends in London run by Nili Raviv between November
and February, and I was fascinated to hear the accounts credited to the Raviv Method of
the way in which many young people had been helped to overcome their learning
difficulties. I wanted to set up a means of testing for myself the claims made for the
Method.
I was given an opportunity to carry out a small-scale research programme at a Church of
England primary school in Hampshire. I ran a project for 12 children, starting the first
week after Easter and continuing until the end of the summer term. This paper analyses
and reflects on the results I obtained during the summer term, and outlines the conclusions
I have drawn from my investigation
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The Raviv Method
The Raviv Method was developed by Israeli mother and son, Nili Raviv and Barak Ben
Shimchon, to develop and correct learning and attention skills in children and adults.
They draw their neuro-cognitive approach from research published by two researchers at
the US National Academy of Sciences, Sally Shaywitz MD and Bennett Shaywitz MD,
using imaging techniques to analyse the reading process.
The Method requires the subject to walk for 20 minutes each day in a figure-of-eight
pattern, which is referred to in this paper as the ‘8-walk’, with a visual and auditory
stimulus source (this might be a TV or DVD player) at the central point of the crossover.
The practitioner establishes that the subject can manage to cross-walk (ie to touch the
opposite hand and leg whilst marching) before the subject is asked to undertake the walk.
During the walk, the subject has to keep their eyes – and thus also their ears – exactly on
the visual and auditory stimulus. The subject is asked to maintain their walk at an even
pace. The practitioner will use this time to give the subject a range of mental sequencing,
rhyming and numerical games and exercises, designed. to develop sequencing and
memory skills. These exercises are supported by ball catching and throwing. At the start
of each day, and at the start of each walking session, the subject is also trained to carry out
a breathing technique and a ‘clockface’ focusing exercise. There are other stand-alone
exercises available as part of the package, including exercises to correct spelling, develop
a ‘photographic memory’, correct letter and number directionality, dysgraphia and exam
nerves. These exercises can be given as a focussed intervention when a developmental
gap is found, and the plasticity of the brain will create new, more efficient structures for
the learner to use.
The Raviv Method makes a number of claims to change the working of the brain. Nili
Raviv believes passionately (a view shared by a number of primary school teachers of my
acquaintance in England) that English children start their formal schooling far too early,
and the basis of many so-called learning difficulties are the result of children whose brains
are still operating solely three-dimensionally at a time when reading and spelling requires
them to shift their understanding of the universe into two dimensions. The most telling
example of this is that a chair is a chair whichever way up you hold it, whereas the letter
‘b’ or ‘d’ or ‘p’ or ‘q’ takes on a new identity at each rotation. She feels that the
directionality and spelling exercises created for the Raviv Method are a very effective
method of controlling the functioning of the neural circuitry in the brain, enabling the
brain to set up new structures to compensate learning deficits which may be affecting
reading and spelling.
The Raviv Method is also claimed to be an effective method to enable learners to learn to
focus their brain’s mental activity. The Raviv Method theory associates high frequency
brain activity with efficient learning and low frequency brain waves with poor
concentration, judgement and organisational skills, lack of control of impulses and
ineffective cognitive functioning. The purpose of the 8-walk is to establish the correct
high frequency brain waves for attention and learning. Ultimately, it is expected that the
subject will learn to focus the brain for high frequency brain wave activity for controlling
the learning process, and reduce brain activity for the purpose of relieving stress,
managing test anxiety and general relaxation.
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My experience of the Raviv Method in action
At the first training weekend I attended, I was able to meet a number of practitioners who
had come back for refresher sessions, and to hear the keynote lectures by Professor John
Stein, Professor of Physiology at Oxford University, and Dr Duncan Milne,
neuropsychologist and educational resources designer at ‘Smart Kids UK’. The majority
of the practitioners I spoke to had been using the Raviv Method privately, with one
practitioner working in a primary school. There were many accounts of children
experiencing a breakthrough in learning following use of the Raviv Method, and teachers
had come from as far as Australia to be trained in its method.
A particular experience of my own led me to take very seriously the effectiveness and
potential of the Raviv Method in use. Whilst we were in training, we were all encouraged
to carry out the 8-walk daily, and Nili explained to us that it was important to avoid doing
the walk too late in the evening because of the stimulation to the brain that follows from
the walk. I carried out the walk diligently each evening, and was able to recognise that
during the day at school I was seeing and understanding issues in my work in a more
holistic way. On one occasion, when I had arrived home late and carried out the walk just
before midnight, I was still awake at 4am the following morning, and my mind was
tackling weighty issues such as the reorganisation of the Special Needs Sections of my
own and the contiguous Local Authority, in order to provide a more efficient service to
our pupils.
Later in the paper, I will outline the results I obtained during my investigation, but at this
point I will share one other example of the effect of the Raviv Method on one person
connected with the project. Before I launched the project at the primary school which I
will refer to as St Margaret’s C of E, I had the opportunity to meet the parents who were
interested in joining the project to explain a little of the background and answer questions.
Once the project was under way, I was happy for parents to be present at their children’s
sessions, so that they were more confident to follow up the exercises at home. The
mothers of several of the children in Years 1 to 4 often attended, and I got to know them
quite well.
On my final day at St Margaret’s, I met individually with as many parents as possible, to
gather their own reflections of the progress of their children. One mother with mobility
problems (walking with difficulty, using a stick) had previously commented to me that
she thought she might try it herself. This particular mother, who has agreed that I can
mention her in this paper, was keen to tell me of her own experience. She explained to me
that she has MS, which affects and weakens the right side of her body. She started to carry
out the 8-walk at home by herself shortly after I introduced it to her daughter, and found
that at the start it made her feel very nauseous. However, she persisted over an eight week
period, and found that the right side of her body was regaining some strength, and she
described herself as feeling more evenly balanced. She was able to walk without having to
watch the ground to see where her right foot was going, and when she was using the
computer, which she uses regularly for her work, her right hand was stronger and
consequently the action of her typing felt ‘more even’. She was very pleased with this
improvement in her condition, and was intending to continue to use the 8-walk as she felt
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it was of great benefit to her. I feel that this is an important unexpected by-product of the
programme which I should record, and which should be followed up by her consultant.
My experience of combining teaching and researching
In his 1996 Teacher Training Agency lecture, David Hargreaves called upon teachers in
schools as a matter of urgency to research their educational practice and move towards
establishing an agreed knowledge base. His concern was that teachers are relying heavily
on their own experience, ‘private trial and error’, whilst at the same time, millions of
pounds are spent on university-based educational research which is not improving the
quality of education provided in schools. By 2000, David Frost was able to describe the
model of support for teacher-researchers where schools enter into partnerships with higher
education institutions, such as the CANTARNET programme. For a brief period, teacherresearchers had the opportunity to support their research with small but useful Best
Practice Research Scholarships awarded by the DfES. Many schools have used
programmes such as research MAs to encourage their teachers to investigate aspects of
school practice and incorporate their findings into school policy or the School
Improvement Plan. Teachers are most likely to be able to see their research findings taken
up by their Senior Leadership when schools are aware of the potential value of teachers
researching practice in situ and reporting back. However, teachers who are working fulltime and carrying out a research project are likely to be over-stretched and very tired,
which is not the best way for effective research to be carried out.
My own desire to investigate the Raviv Method led directly to my leaving full-time work,
with consequent loss of income. On the other hand, I have been able to explore aspects of
my practice and this is likely to lead to me making significant changes in my future work.
The drawback for me in carrying out the Raviv investigation is that I do not have a
classroom or sponsoring Senior Leadership Team through which I can feed back my
results, and this is likely to lessen the impact of what I have learned.
St Margaret’s school and the setting up of the programme
I was fortunate that my strong connection with St Margaret’s School enabled me to
establish myself in the very short time I had to set up the project. At the end of the Spring
term, I wrote to St Margaret’s parents to explain the intentions of the Raviv Method; this
was circulated generally to the parents at the school and directed specifically to parents of
children who were considered by the school to have difficulties with literacy or attention
and focus in the classroom. The school itself is small – only 100 children altogether on
roll – and the children are taught in vertically grouped classes. St Margaret’s is a very
nurturing school, achieves well, and the children are well known and understood by the
teachers. It is a country school, and the relationship between teachers, parents and
governors is very close.
I held a meeting for interested parents at the start of the summer term, and was pleasantly
surprised that about 14 parents showed an interest. The Head made it clear to parents that
the school was housing but not sponsoring the programme, and benefits could not be
guaranteed. I explained carefully that parents would have to agree to support their child to
carry out all the Raviv exercises for the whole term, which would include the 8-walk for
20 minutes each day. In the event, 12 parents agreed to go forward with the programme.
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Over the following few weeks, an additional two parents asked for their children to join,
but they dropped out fairly quickly.
My research methods
I had been expecting to follow a case-study method of close study of a small number of
participating children. Once I understood that the number was much larger than I
expected, I had to bring in my husband to help me by sharing the sessions under my
direction. I could see the benefit of larger numbers, which not only gave me a wider
research base, but also meant that my input could have a noticeable effect on the whole
school, since I was working with 12% of the whole school population spread from Year 1
to Year 6. The school staff were enormously helpful, and arranged for me to work in a
comfortably-appointed barn in the farm across the road. This enabled me to take children
completely away from the environment of the school, and provided opportunities to
admire several clutches of ducklings during the course of the summer term! But it did
mean that either my husband or I had to escort the children across the road between each
session, for collection and return to the school.
I started by requesting information by questionnaire to be completed by both
SENCO/class teacher and parents about the difficulties experienced by each child in
advance of the start of the programme, and the parents’ aim for their child. On each
questionnaire, I requested details of the most up-to-date literacy or other relevant tests, as
I knew I would not have time to collect my own data. I précised this information to
compile my own record for each child, outlining my plan week-by-week and noting my
interventions and what was achieved, together with any important additional data.
Towards the end of the programme, I circulated a second questionnaire, reminding
teachers and parents of the original aim for each child, requesting observations on any
changes noted and for updated test results. On the last day, I spoke to all the parents and
children individually except two, and I also spent some time with the SENCO. The day
was a little chaotic, as I was vying with last-minute preparations for the school summer
fete!
The difficulties affecting the running of the investigation
There were significant drawbacks to working with 12 children in a school day of less than
3 hours in the morning and 1.5 hours in the afternoon. Specifically, these difficulties
were:
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No time or opportunity to carry out any of my own baseline testing or end of
programme testing, making me reliant on the school and the SENCO’s records
The need to share sessions, which made it a little more difficult for me to monitor
the children and ensure that the children were all receiving comparable input
Lack of time between sessions for record-keeping, exacerbated by the need to
escort the children between each session
Sessions which were generally too short for me to go through all of the Raviv
exercises with each child each session, which made the success of the programme
more reliant on parents supervising children at home
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Another problem for me was lack of access to some parents and the class teachers. Parents
of the older children did not come to the sessions, and often did not return the weekly
contact sheets. My breaks and lunchtimes were spent reviewing the children and trying to
get records written up, and my long journey home on the M4 meant that I could not stay
to talk to teachers after school. The SENCO did not work on the day I attended St
Margaret’s, although several times he made the effort to come in so that he could catch up
with me. We had to contend with School Journey and Activity Week in the middle of
June, which affected my access to the children. And following that, the school had a snap
OfSTED and Section 48 Inspection (as a Church of England school). Of course, it passed
with flying colours, but it meant that the teachers were all very preoccupied at the time
when I was trying to get feed back on individual children’s development. However, the
children were, without exception, completely delightful, and it was an enormous pleasure
working with them.
Evaluating the intervention
I had hoped to provide data which would show beyond doubt that my cohort of children
had made significant progress as a result of my intervention – nothing is ever that simple!
The OfSTED and Section 48 inspections at the end of June affected the teachers’
opportunity to write their end-of-term reports, and this had a knock-on effect on the
opportunity for the SENCO to retest my cohort and to gather observations from class
teachers. My concern about the effect of this on the evaluation of my project was
somewhat alleviated by reading Timmins and Miller (2007) on the work of Pawson and
Tilley in 1997 on ‘Realistic Evaluation’ of initiatives or innovations in professional
practice. Their reflection on traditional forms of evaluation, where measurements are
made before and after an intervention as a yardstick of success, is that this approach is
predicated on a belief that a programme will have equal impact on all participants in the
experimental group, and fails to take into consideration the different outlooks, perceptions
and skills that participants will bring to a study. In Realistic Evaluation, the premise is ‘to
discover whether programmes work’ (They quote Pawson, 2003, p 472), and to identify
the resources and approaches supporting change embodied in a particular programme. My
own evaluation draws to some extent on the task in Realistic Evaluation, ‘to determine
which contexts are most effective in triggering the mechanisms that result in the desired
programme outcomes’ (Timmins and Miller 2007).
Summary of findings - proviso
One proviso I must make with regard to my delivery of the programme is that the claims
for success made for the Raviv Method are based on its delivery over a minimum12 to 14
week period. This was simply not possible for me. The children carried out the Raviv
exercises from Friday 27th April and I recommended that they continued until at least the
start of the summer holidays which gave a maximum of 12 weeks. I was able to visit the
school and give focused input on 8 occasions, but for two of those weeks I saw alternate
groups of children, so each child only received 7 sessions. During the whole of the term,
only two children missed one session each through illness. It is important that my results
are viewed in the context of the shortness of the programme, as the feedback I received on
the progress of the children reflected only 10 or 11 weeks, one week of which was
affected by the school residential.
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Summary of findings – overview of emerging themes
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Spring/summer births
Going through the evaluation questionnaires, I was struck by the number of children who
were late spring/summer births. All except two of the children participating in the
programme (one in Year 5 and the other in Year 6) were born in the second half of the
school year, which appears to be impinging on their learning difficulties as they move up
through school. This evidence underlines the argument that many children’s learning
difficulties are at least exacerbated, if not brought about, by their starting school too early.
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Attention difficulties
Almost all of the children put forward for the programme had attention and focusing
difficulties, and in every case, teachers and parents noted that the there appeared to be a
significant lessening of these difficulties whilst the children were participating on the
programme. Two parents whose children had only completed the 8-walk sporadically
noted a correlation between good focus on work and behaviour during the weeks when
their child was carrying out the walk.
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Increase in reading and spelling levels
Teachers or parents recorded some increase in reading accuracy in 8 pupils, and
underlined the increase in motivation to read with the majority of these children.
Generally, the children I was working with already had competent reading and writing
skills, and I was not expecting dramatic improvements in reading scores. There was little
increase in overall spelling scores, which contrasted with the remarkable results I was able
to achieve with pupils learning individual words through the ‘photographic memory’
technique. This suggests that some of the children may benefit in the longer term from
using the wider range of techniques included in the Raviv Method to learn spellings.
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Short-term memory
During the programme, I worked with all the children on a range of memory development
exercises, including digit recall, and was pleased that for 10 children tested, seven
showed a significant increase in their Digit recall tests, with some increase in a further
two. It is not possible to tabulate increases, because they were tested by the school at
different times.
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Overall effectiveness of the programme
I was struck by the number of parents and teachers who noted an increase of confidence in
their children, which they attributed to the Raviv programme. ‘More focused’, ‘less easily
distracted’, ‘happier’, ‘confident to tackle his homework by himself’ are some of the
comments I have included in the detailed analysis. The question must be posed whether
this would have been achieved through 7 weekly sessions of individual tutoring using
more traditional methods, or whether the unique approach of the Raviv Method has
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actually released the brain to find more efficient neural pathways to support the learning
of these children. I believe there is evidence to support these claims made for the Method.
Conclusion
The positive nature of the evaluations I have received indicates to me that the Raviv
intervention has had a noticeable effect on each of the participants in my investigation.
Generally, I was working with children with reasonably competent literacy, who had been
referred to the programme because of attention difficulties which, in the school’s opinion,
needed correction in order to ensure the efficiency of their current and future learning.
Raviv practitioners working with children in other settings have recorded significant
increases in reading ages. I was not able to achieve a significant increase in reading age
for the one severely dyslexic boy in my cohort, but both teacher and parental evaluations
indicated that the boy showed an increased motivation to learn. I have to keep an open
mind regarding the effectiveness of the programme in increasing reading age, as I do not
have adequate data of my own to make a judgement. I was, however, able to achieve
remarkable spelling recall with my cohort, which I demonstrated to interested parents and
the SENCO, and I hope that the children will use the Raviv spelling technique in the
future for themselves.
I believe that my results overall are evidence that the Raviv exercises have significantly
improved the focus of all the children with whom I worked. Parents have identified the
breathing and clockface exercises as valuable tools for their children to use at school and
at home to help them to calm themselves and focus on the task they are about to
undertake. Several parents described their children using the clockface before a sports
grading or musical activity.
It is more difficult to assess the effect of the regular repetition of the 8-walk. Clearly, the
8-walk is intended to strengthen the brain’s ability to connect the neural messages across
the corpus callosum, and requires the brain to receive and process auditory and visual
stimulation at all angles from a single point. This is a whole-body extension of the theory
behind ‘brain gym’, which has been regularly employed in primary schools in England
over the last decade. Short-term memory has been strengthened in all of the children in
my cohort through the exercises undertaken during the 8-walk, and this can be
demonstrated in the general improvements in the Digit recall test results.
I do not know what effect the 8-walk has on the brain itself, and I hope that my
investigation will encourage neuroscientists to take this up as a relevant area of
educational research. It clearly is having some effect – my own experience of the
stimulation of my brain through the 8-walk led me to take the Raviv Method further.
The experience of the mother with MS described earlier in my paper should be taken
seriously, as it may have a useful function to perform where part of the brain has been
damaged by illness or accident. I understand from Nili Raviv that Haifa Hospital in Israel
has become interested in the success her clinic has achieved by using the 8-walk with
brain-damaged adults who have been caught up in the effects of war there.
It is possible to use some the Raviv exercises with children as part of a traditional tutoring
package to support their learning, but I hope that my investigation has demonstrated that
when these exercises are combined with regular practice of the 8-walk, there is a
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significant increase in children’s capacity to focus on their work, and an increased
confidence in their ability to tackle independently the work they have to do.
Detailed analysis of individual results
The names of all the children have been altered, but all other data is as collected or
observed.
Lisa Year 1
Lisa is very young for her year group (late August birthday) and is clearly an able child,
but she has a very short attention span and poor focus. Her behaviour is difficult and
attention-seeking, and she has some traits of oppositional behaviour. Before the
programme, her mother noted that Lisa lacked confidence with reading, and with wholeword recall. She commonly reversed some numbers and letters. By the end of the
programme, I was able to get Lisa to co-operate for longer periods than at the start, and
she was really quick at the clockface exercise right from the start. Lisa was barely
prepared to carry out the 8-walk for me, but her mother’s weekly records indicate that
Lisa had quickly built up from 5 to 20 minutes walking each night. Lisa’s mother was
strongly supportive of the programme from the beginning, and has attended most of the
sessions.
Teacher evaluation:
 More confident, focused and motivated generally
 Accepts criticism and willing to learn from mistakes
 Now using the phonic skills that she has learned
 Confident about ‘having a go’ and motivated to write greater quantities
 Only reversing ‘b’ and ‘d’
 Digit recall improved from 5.08 to 6.10 between April and July
Mother’s evaluation:
 Reading and writing steadily improved
 Willingness to read and write have improved considerably
 Lisa now says she ‘loves spelling’ (her spelling is accurate on words she knows)
Kim Year 2
Kim is another child who is young for his year group (late July birthday), and is a very
hard-working boy who is anxious to succeed who lacks confidence particularly because of
poor reading and spelling. Working with Kim was a great pleasure because he tries very
hard to follow instructions, and clearly enjoyed his Raviv sessions. Kim’s mother has
been strongly supportive of the Raviv sessions and has attended most of them.
Teacher evaluation:
 Definitely more focused and motivated in all areas – ‘like switching the light
on…’ – ‘enthusiasm abounds!’ ‘Kim wrote 4 pages for his last story as opposed to
the usual half page!’
 Kim achieved 2B for his SAT Reading comprehension, which exceeded his
expected target of 2C
 Improvement in Digit recall test, from 2 to 9 between March and July
Mother’s evaluation:
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Kim does the clockface exercise before tackling school tasks, as feels that he then
performs the tasks better.
He is more enthusiastic and motivated about his work, and will now go off by
himself at weekends to do his homework.
Lana Year 3
Lana is new to the school, and it was noted that she can lack confidence in social
situations. Her birthday is the end of April. Areas of concern for Lana included slow
processing and retention of information, and a poor visual memory for spelling. Lana
clearly enjoyed her Raviv sessions, although it was difficult holding her focus at times on
the exercises. Lana’s mother sometimes attended the sessions, and if she could not be
present, she would send in a note to keep me up-to-date with Lana’s progress.
Teacher evaluation:
 Improvement in reading accuracy and comprehension – reading more fluent, and
comprehension improved by 4 sub-levels in end of year test
 Better organised in class – attention, focus and motivation all improved
 Seems generally more confident and happy at school
 Quicker and more positive to respond in class
 Far fewer reversals in her writing of letters, although end of year spelling test
result still low (my experience with Lana was that she still liked to ‘illustrate’ the
words she was learning to spell, so she was still operating in a 3-dimensional
mode)
Mother’s evaluation:
 Agrees fully with the feedback that Lana is more confident and organised
 Her writing and spelling seem to have really improved
 Lana herself is happy to feel more confident, and feels that people like her more
Annie Year 4
Annie has a mid-April birthday. Her NFER verbal reasoning score places her as a high
average student, but she struggles to process mental maths and remember tables and
spellings. She sometimes reverses ‘b’ and ‘d’. Annie’s attention and focus have always
been good. I worked with Annie on strengthening her visual memory and helping her with
strategies for mental maths and learning spellings.
Teacher evaluation:
 Improvement of one year on digit recall
 Some improvement in reading comprehension
 No discernible improvement in spelling
 Overall impression that Annie is more confident and happier as a result of
attending the Raviv sessions
Mother’s evaluation:
 More confidence in her own ability
 Huge improvement in spelling tests – but still needs support with spellings
 Definite improvement in memory
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Annie feels that she can concentrate better, especially in class, and can ‘figure
things out better’
Annie loved Raviv, and would like continued support to deal with self-esteem
issues relating to her learning difficulties
Tom Year 4
Tom is bi-lingual in Dutch, has an April birthday, and his slow processing has affected his
reading accuracy and comprehension. He has a tendency to ‘dive in’ to work without
thinking. My experience with Tom was that I had to spend a noticeable amount of time
correcting his pace on the 8-walk, to achieve a more even pace and measured speed.
Teacher evaluation:
 4 months improvement on Digit recall test
 Considerable improvement on reading accuracy (10 months increase) and
comprehension (18 months increase), and now reading with more confidence
 Steady improvement in spelling, although not reflected in his end-of-year test
 A significant improvement in Tom’s handwriting between April and the end of
June
Mother’s evaluation:
 Tom did not like doing the 8-walk, although he enjoyed the Raviv sessions
 He is now tackling his homework by himself with more confidence
 Tom believes he is now better at everything!
 Tom used the breathing and clock exercises to calm and focus himself before a
‘very nerve-wracking Tai Kwon Do’ grading and achieved success
Jenny Year 5
Jenny, July birthday, is easily distracted, processes slowly and struggles with reading, and
has a poor visual memory for spellings. Jenny was the only student out of the whole
cohort who ‘took ownership’ of the programme by making her own record sheets of her
daily progress with the Raviv exercises at home.
Teacher evaluation:
 12 months improvement in Digit recall
 10 months improvement in reading accuracy and reading rate, and this has
increased her confidence with reading
Mother’s evaluation:
 Jenny has been very keen to do the exercises, and has been able to do them
without a reminder
 Significant increase in Jenny’s ability and willingness to read. She now readily
picks up new books which she did not before starting the Raviv programme
 Jenny feels that she is more confident with her reading, and can understand more
words more quickly. She also finds long words easier now
 Jenny wants to continue with the exercises and feels they have helped her to
concentrate on her schoolwork
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Jim Year 5
Jim (November birthday) has significant problems with dyslexia, has a tutor and has been
to schools in both the maintained and independent sectors. Jim struggles with reading and
spelling, as he has great difficulty making phoneme-grapheme correlations. It was very
interesting working with Jim, as he has a vivid imagination and original approach. I had
considerable success with helping Jim to practise directionality and to learn spellings
using the Raviv Method’s ‘photographic memory’ approach. Jim showed quite
remarkable focus when he was doing the 8-walk, although I do not think he practised it
very often at home.
Teacher evaluation:
 Slight increase in Digit recall score
 Motivation to work has increased noticeably this term, particularly on the
residential trip and his most recent Iron Age project
 Jim can now identify component sounds for spelling simple words
Mother’s/tutor’s evaluation:
 Whilst there has not been a marked change in Jim’s general classroom attitude, his
diary work on the residential trip showed ‘two wonderfully focussed occasions
during which he achieved far beyond what is normally seen in class, eg focus on
task, prolonged concentration, sentence construction, letter sounding and word
formation/ordering.’
 He seems more prepared to ‘have a go’
 Jim feels he is able to use the 8-walk and clockface exercise to help him to focus
Wayland Year 5
Wayland has a March birthday, and he has a very short attention span, is distractible and
‘jumps from thing to thing’. He has a good memory, but processes too quickly, with the
effect that he is always ahead of himself. I found that I had to remind Wayland to slow
himself down on the walk and the breathing and focusing exercises. Wayland is easily
wound up by other pupils, and I have tried to help him to use the Raviv focusing
techniques as a strategy to help calm himself and to manage his outbursts.
Teacher evaluation:
 Some improvement on digit recall
 Generally better focused, but a greater incidence of one-off outbursts
 Wayland’s reading and spelling have always been good – comprehension slightly
behind accuracy
Mother’s evaluation:
 An acknowledgement that Wayland has not kept up with the 8-walk, although he
has regularly completed the breathing and clockface exercises
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He is finding it marginally easier to concentrate, and has tried harder with his
writing
Wayland is slightly less inclined to mis-read questions, but when bored will still
jump from one thing to another, particularly when working without supervision
Wayland does not feel he has progressed much, although he feels he now finds it
easier to concentrate, and is using the calming exercises ‘quite a lot’ at school to
help him concentrate on his work
He has found the sessions ‘really fun’ and worthwhile
Alice Year 5
Alice, who is a late June birth, is a bubbly girl with a short attention span and is easily
distractible. Her poor short-term working memory affects her spelling and she has great
difficulty with remembering numbers. Alice has an Educational Psychologist’s report for
dyslexia, and she has a private tutor.
Teacher evaluation:
 3 year 4 month improvement in digit recall
 ‘Vast improvement in short-term working memory – not expected!’
 Alice has shown improvement in levels of attention, focus and motivation. She
settles to work more easily and her concentration is better. She is more involved in
discussion and is eager to answer questions.
 Alice’s confidence and motivation are better. She is keen to read and re-tell
stories. Her reading accuracy has shown a 10 month improvement during the
Raviv programme.
 Alice’s handwriting is much neater and more carefully presented. There has been a
slight improvement in her spelling.
 Alice has improved by 3 SAT levels in her end of year test
 Alice is much happier and more content at school
Parents’ evaluation:
 Alice has been willing to do the exercises without nagging
 She is a lot more positive and confident – more willing to try things out
 Her reading has improved immensely, with a great increase in reading accuracy
 She has a sunnier outlook on school life
 Alice feels she is concentrating and listening better, and can use the clockface
exercise to help her to focus and manage her distractions
Callum Year 5
Callum is a July birth, and has a short attention span, is distractible and has a poor visual
memory with little retention for spellings. He processes slowly. Whilst working with him,
I noticed that Callum’s 8-walk was very fast, and at several points over the summer term
I spent some time establishing a slower rhythm. Callum has carried out the walk at home
irregularly, and was suffering from ill health for part of the term.
Teacher evaluation:
 Some improvement in reading accuracy
 Focus has improved, but this was improving steadily throughout the year
 No noticeable improvement in spelling, but written work is generally neater
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 2 sub-levels of improvement in end of year tests
Mother’s evaluation:
 The weeks when Callum has done the exercises have been significantly better
weeks (no indication to denote in what way the weeks were ‘better’)
 Callum has shown a new confidence and desire to read and write, which has gone
hand-in-hand with a marked improvement in concentration
 Callum feels that his work has not improved, but he does feel that he is
concentrating better and for longer
Imogen Year 6
Imogen is a December birth, and has had a dyslexia assessment. She is of above average
ability, but suffers the difficulties that go along with dyslexia; an inconsistent attention
span, slow processing, poor sequencing, poor visual memory and problems with word
retrieval. Imogen gets frustrated at her own slowness. Imogen plays the flute and is a keen
dancer (since January, she has been dancing for 6 hours every Saturday). In working with
Imogen, I discovered that she can hold quite complicated words in her visual memory and
achieve perfect spelling recall both forwards and backwards. We worked on strategies for
developing her word retrieval, using her ability to make mental pictures.
Teacher evaluation:
 No evident change in the pace of Imogen’s work
 No increase in Digit recall
 No evident increase in spelling accuracy
Mother’s evaluation:
 Since starting the Raviv exercises, Imogen has done several things which are
different from the norm; in one week on the flute, she worked out 3 new tunes by
herself, and on another occasion, she started to read a book for research, reading
aloud from the book ‘beautifully’, and talking lucidly about what she had been
reading – described by her mother as ‘jaw-dropping’ in its significance
 She has maintained concentration with her flute practice, and it generally seems to
be easier for her
 Imogen says that the Raviv programme has not benefited her, and has not found
that any of her work is easier
Adam Year 6
Adam, a mid-June birth, is above average ability, dyslexic, and has an inconsistent
attention span, poor visual memory, slow processing and poor sequencing. Adam’s
mother explained that he did all the Raviv exercises ‘rock solid’ for the first 4 weeks of
the programme leading up to SATs, and he was calm and focused for his exams.
Teacher evaluation:
 8 months improvement in reading accuracy and more than a year in
comprehension during the course of the programme
 Achieved level 4a for SAT reading test, which was higher than expected
 Adam has become more focused and less distracted during the Raviv programme
Mother’s evaluation:
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Adam is aware that he was calm and focused, and could concentrate better when
he was doing the Raviv exercises daily, and wishes to restart the exercises when
he moves up to his next school
In a letter to me, his mother has written: ‘Thank you for introducing us to this
useful life-tool that each child can own for him or herself, and, as in Adam’s case,
apparently judge and feel the benefits for themselves’
Bibliography
Carter, R. (1998) Mapping the Mind. London: Phoenix
Davies, P (1999) ‘What is evidence-based education?’ British Journal of Educational
Studies 47 (2)
Frost, D. (2000) ‘Teacher-led school improvement: agency and strategy Part 1’,
Management in Education 14 (4)
Goswami, U. (2004) ‘Neuroscience, education and special needs’, British Journal of
Special Education 31 (4) 175-183
Hargreaves, D. H. (1996) ‘Teaching as a research-based profession: possibilities and
prospects’, Teacher Training Agency Annual Lecture
Khalsa, D. S. (1999) Brain Longevity. NY: Warner Books
Milne, D. (2005) Teaching the brain to read. SK Publishing
Pawson, R. (2003) ‘Nothing as practical as a good theory.’ Evaluation 9 (4) 471-490
(quoted in Timmins and Miller 2007)
Pawson, R. and N. Tilley (1997) Realistic Evaluation. London: Sage (quoted in Timmins
and Miller 2007)
Raviv, N. and B. Ben Shimchon (2006) The Eight Path – the Raviv Method Handbook.
www.thelearningsociety.com
Timmins, P. and C. Miller (2007) ‘Making evaluations realistic: the challenge of
complexity’, Support for Learning 22 (1).
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