Georgetown Opens Six-Week Camp for Children With Math and Reading Difficulties

Video above: Dr. Guinevere Eden describes her research with children who have math and reading disabilities.

WASHINGTON (June 8, 2016) — Does your child struggle with math and reading? If so, consider a special camp this summer hosted by Georgetown University Medical Center.

Georgetown’s Center for the Study of Learning (CSL) is hosting a six-week intervention/research summer camp June 27th to August 5th for children age 8 to 11 who have challenges with reading and math.
The camp will allow researchers to find out more about learning difficulties and find out how the brain changes as a result of interventions. The research is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers led by Georgetown neuroscientist Guinevere Eden, DPhil, director of the CSL, hope tutoring conducted during the camp will reveal the brain bases of reading and math difficulties as well the neural signature for intervention-induced improvement.

Children who are eligible for the camp will receive daily intervention (6 hours per day) for 6 weeks (3 weeks of math and 3 weeks of reading intervention). Tutors from Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes (new window) conduct the interventions in small groups (1 tutor: 3 students) at Oakwood School (new window) in Annandale, Va.

“Math and reading interventions can be successful in children with math and reading disabilities, but seeing and understanding what’s happening in the brain will provide important insights into the mechanisms,” says Eden. “We want to examine what’s happening in the brain prior to the interventions, between the math and reading interventions, and following both interventions.”

Three times during the camp, each child must be brought to Georgetown University Medical Center by a parent for testing and non-invasive functional MRI brain scans.

To determine eligibility for the camp, a CSL member will conduct a phone interview to obtain information on the child’s medical history and test the child at Georgetown University on reading, math, and IQ. (Additional eligibility requirements apply).

The camp runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm, June 27 to August 5, 2016 and participants must attend the full duration.

The interventions are paid for by a grant awarded to Georgetown University, however campers must pay $50 per week to cover the cost of administrative expenses.

More information can be found here (new window). For questions and/or to find out if your child meets camp criteria, contact: Melanie Lozano at 202-687-8265 or at mcl261@georgetown.edu.

Learn more about Eden’s research in this video (new window).

Eden’s research is supported by a $2,857,767 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a part of the National Institutes of Health (1R01HD081078-01A1).

About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC’s mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis — or “care of the whole person.” The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization, which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.

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