Edublox is an educational approach that integrates cognitive training, explicit reading or mathematics instruction, and sound learning principles. By developing the cognitive skills that underpin learning while simultaneously applying those skills through structured academic instruction, Edublox helps learners build the strong foundation required for academic success, enabling them to become confident, independent, lifelong learners.

Edublox is not a quick fix. Rather, it is a structured educational intervention that combines cognitive training with carefully sequenced academic instruction. Over time, this integrated approach can significantly reduce—and often permanently alleviate—the symptoms associated with learning difficulties and reading failure.

Building a strong foundation for learning

Learning is like building a house. The first step is to lay a solid foundation. Without a solid foundation, cracks will soon appear in the walls, and without a foundation, the walls will eventually collapse.

The same principle applies to learning. Before a child can benefit fully from reading, writing, or mathematics instruction, the underlying cognitive and foundational skills must be sufficiently developed. If this foundation is weak, learning “cracks” will inevitably appear.

Simply put, Edublox is a system of cognitive exercises designed to build a solid foundation for learning.

Foundational skills should be distinguished from processes, strategies, and techniques. The difference can be illustrated by the game of basketball. Before a player can master strategies and techniques, they must first develop the foundational skills of passing, dribbling, defending, and shooting. Only then can those strategies be applied effectively.

Similarly, learners must first develop the foundational skills required for reading, spelling, writing, mathematics, and the successful learning of subject matter.

Edublox develops and automates many of the foundational cognitive skills that support learning, including:

• Attention and concentration
• Accurate perception
• Visual discrimination of colour, foreground-background, form, size, and position in space
• Visual analysis and synthesis of position in space
• Auditory discrimination of foreground-background, and position in time and space
• Auditory analysis and synthesis of position in time and space
• Decoding and integration of information
• Visual closure
• Imagination
• Visual, auditory, sequential, iconic, short-term, long-term, and working memory
• Reasoning and logical thinking

Edublox also provides application through explicit reading, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction in our language-based programmes, and through terminology development, mental arithmetic, procedural knowledge, and other mathematical concepts in our mathematics programmes.

age-based classes and the understanding of terminology, mental arithmetic, word sums, reading time, etc., in our maths-based classes.

Edublox is multisensory

Multisensory instruction is an approach to teaching that engages more than one sense at a time. Instead of relying on vision or hearing alone, learners see, hear, say, and do. Engaging multiple senses strengthens learning, improves memory, and helps learners form stronger and more lasting connections.

The remarkable ability of the brain to adapt and change, known as neuroplasticity, enables people to improve how they use their senses. For example, individuals who are blind often develop exceptional tactile and auditory skills. Learning to read Braille requires the tactile sense to become highly refined. This illustrates the brain’s ability to strengthen sensory processing through practice and experience.

By engaging multiple senses during learning, the learner’s ears support the eyes, the hands reinforce what is seen and heard, and each sense complements the others. Instead of relying on a single pathway, multisensory learning opens multiple pathways to understanding, memory, and long-term learning.

Based on sound learning principles

One of the fundamental principles of learning is that it does not take place on a single level but as a stratified process. New knowledge and skills are built on previously acquired knowledge and skills. This principle is recognised throughout education and is reflected in the way school systems are organised worldwide. A child does not begin at university; they start in Grade 1 and progress step by step through increasingly advanced levels of learning. Unless they have mastered enough of one level to provide a solid foundation for the next, meaningful progress becomes difficult.

A simple example is mathematics. A child must first learn to count before learning to add and subtract. Attempting to teach addition and subtraction before counting has been mastered would be frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful. Counting is therefore a foundational skill upon which later mathematical learning depends.

The same principle applies to reading. Before a child can become a successful reader, they must first develop the underlying cognitive skills and foundational reading skills that make reading possible. Once these foundations are firmly established, reading instruction becomes far more effective.

Research findings

For more than 40 years, Edublox has helped over 150,000 learners in approximately 40 countries learn to read, learn, and achieve through its home programmes and learning clinics.

Edublox began as a school readiness programme with only a few cognitive exercises in 1979. Then, purely as an experiment, the programme was used in 1980 with a child who had learning difficulties. The results were so encouraging that they sparked a lifelong quest to refine and expand the programme. Over the following decades, our team extensively researched learning, learning principles, brain development, neuroplasticity, and the cognitive skills that underpin successful learning.

Our work is supported not only by decades of practical experience but also by independent research. Three peer-reviewed studies published in 2024 demonstrated significant improvements in word recognition, literal comprehension, and spelling after only 21 hours (8 weeks) of Edublox instruction. Word recognition—the ability to recognise words accurately and effortlessly at a glance—is a fundamental reading skill and one of the strongest predictors of reading success.

Ultimately, however, school results define our success. Since 2010, we have invited both new and long-term Edublox families to participate in an annual survey to help us evaluate our programmes. In our latest survey, 94% of parents reported that their child’s academic performance had improved at school.

Beyond these recent peer-reviewed publications, more than 800 documented case studies and research projects support the effectiveness of the Edublox approach.

Research conducted in Singapore in 2014 involved 27 Grade 6 learners and a matched control group. The results, analysed by the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Pretoria, showed a statistically significant improvement in focused attention after only 18 hours of training over five days. The effect size was also large.

In another study, Dr Jaidan Mays from the University of Johannesburg found that learners who received intensive Edublox training over 22.5 hours (five days) improved by an average of 1.3 years in visual memory and 1.5 years in visual sequential memory.

In Ohio, Dr Lee DeLorge assessed 67 learners aged 5 to 18 with ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, and other learning difficulties. After completing an Edublox programme, 94% of the learners showed a significant improvement in processing speed, including:

• ADHD (35 learners): 52.45% average improvement (37.24% to 89.69%)
• Dyslexia (13 learners): 46.76% average improvement (41.31% to 88.07%)
• Dyscalculia (2 learners): 57.38% average improvement (39.76% to 97.14%)
• Other learning difficulties: 64.14% average improvement (30.40% to 94.54%)

Similar results were found in a collaborative study involving Edublox, the University of Pretoria, and a primary school in Pretoria. Grade 2 learners who completed 28 hours of Edublox cognitive training over three weeks improved significantly more in processing speed than learners who played computer games or continued with normal classroom activities.

A study conducted by Dr Wynand de Wet at the University of Pretoria found that deaf children improved their non-verbal IQ by an average of 11.625 points after only 27.5 hours of Edublox instruction. Similar gains were observed in our own trials with hearing children, who improved by an average of 5.6 points in verbal IQ and 12.5 points in non-verbal IQ after 40 hours of instruction.

Want to learn more?

Watch the short video below to discover how the Edublox approach helps learners build the cognitive and academic skills required for lasting success at school.

If you would like to discuss your child, student, or even yourself, please visit our Contact Us page. We’d love to answer your questions and help you explore the options available.

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