Mr. Myers: Scientific Learning was founded by four neuroscientists. The lead scientists were Paula Tallal at Rutgers University and Mike Merzenich at the University of California, San Francisco. Back in 1997, they came together with some exercises that they had created that rewired the brain for improved learning outcomes, particularly in language. Mike had a background in brain plasticity research, and Paula's background was in language. The company was founded in 1997, went public in 1999 and has grown each year in revenue since that time. The focus was taking these activities to learners throughout the world to try to improve reading and language acquisition initially. But the application of the neuroscience is broader than that. It actually has potential to improve learning in other areas that have not been fully developed.
TWST: Tell us about the software.
Mr. Myers: The benefit of the technology is that it's replicable. You can take the exercise and, once it's been tested and refined, it can be made available to students everywhere with the same level of accuracy. To give you a sense of how the software works, students access it in the lab at school or through a private provider, such as a speech and language pathologist, with software that they can take home and use. It is a series of activities that they will do for anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes a day, three to five days a week.
Tickers included in this excerpt: SCIL
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.