Abstract

The purpose of this project was to determine if using two strategies daily from Energy Psychology with the lowest performing readers in grades one in an elementary school setting in Salem Oregon increased their reading scores. The two strategies are Heart Center/Thymus and Collarbone Tapping with Cross Crawl Marching, The assessment tool was the nationally used, standardized Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literary Skills (DIBELS, 2007). \ On-going research on DIBELS from the 1980s has documented its reliability and validity, and sensitivity to student change. The curriculum, Read Well and DIBELS are the standard curriculum and testing for the elementary school for which we are reporting in this article. Reading specialist, Marlene Boltman MA who consulted with Mary Hammond MA LPC, a Diplomate in Energy Psychology, a Registered Play Therapy-Supervisor and a child development specialist, led the project. No adjustments were made for this project that deviate from the normal special reading curriculum. The materials and the time frames represent an average day in a reading specialists class. The readers who participated in the reading group that used the energetic strategies had significantly higher scores than the comparison group.