Neuropsychologist Jeannine Herron

Developer of the Read, Write & Type!™ Learning System

1992: CNS celebrates its tenth anniversary

Establishes Research Organization

Her experiences with children in Mississippi, her history in the classroom, her research in dyslexia, and her discoveries from teaching her own children to write, fueled her desire to develop practical tools to help children learn to read and write. In 1982, she established California Neuropsychology Services (CNS), a non-profit organization whose purpose was to research and develop teaching tools and host seminars across the country. CNS seminars informed teachers, speech pathologists and psychologists about the most current research on the brain and how it influences learning and behavior.

Dr. Herron and her staff at CNS investigated how computers and existing software could be used more effectively in all aspects of education. Recognizing the potential of computers as non-judgmental tools for mastering the basics in the sometimes frustrating task of learning to read, she set out to find the best in educational software for early readers. Finding no writing-based software that was both engaging and educationally sound, she spent twelve years developing Read, Write & Type!™ (the prototype was the Apple computer program, Talking Fingers™). A grant award from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1998 launched Talking Fingers, Inc., the CNS subsidiary. NICHD funds were used to in the development of new materials and the research for the new Read, Write & Type! Learning System™.

Dr. Herron has published journal articles in Science, Brain and Language, Journal of Electroencephalography, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Neuropsychologia, and International Journal of Neuroscience, and a feature article in Psychology Today. She has been a contributing editor for Science and Brain and Language, has led many workshops for teachers, and has lectured widely.

Dr. Herron's future plans include versions of RWT™ for teens and adults, and for the Deaf, using Cued Speech - a visual code representing spoken sounds. At the Media Learning Center, established by CNS in 1990 on the campus of Dominican College in San Rafael, California, she and her staff continue to train teachers in how to incorporate technology into their classroom teaching. Her next speaking engagement will be as a featured presenter for the Illinois Reading Council in March, 2000.

Click here for a video clip of Jeannine discussing how children apply RWT's™ lessons to real life.

(Requires download of QuickTime plug-in.)