Founded at Yale, NeuroLingo™ creates a weak electric field in the brain’s reading circuits during practice. In multiple trials, children with dyslexia read unfamiliar words faster and more accurately.
Founded at Yale
Backed by SOSV / HAX
Competed in TechCrunchSome children work twice as hard as their classmates to read, and progress comes slowly. NeuroLingo is for those children, ages 6 and up, who are already doing the work: a tutor, a reading program at school, a structured program at home. It is not a replacement for any of that. It is worn during the practice they already do.
The range NeuroLingo is designed and studied for.
Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, Barton, Lindamood-Bell, your school’s program, or reading with you at the kitchen table.
During the reading practice already on the calendar.
How it works
The headband comes with packs of saline pads (similar to moist makeup remover pads). You’ll push those into the headband and slide it on like a pair of glasses.
The headband delivers a gentle, low-level current to the parts of the brain involved in reading. Most people describe a light tingle for the first few minutes while the nerves in the skin get used to the sensation.
It’s important your child does their normal literacy practice. The headband does not teach reading. The practice does. If your child is studying literacy for hours a day, pair the headband with the most difficult part of their practice.
Effects shown in the scientific literature consistently build over time with regular use. The studies below show regular usage of three times a week to have positive outcomes.
Non-invasive brain stimulation of this kind (tDCS) has been studied for more than twenty years, in adults and in children. Over the past decade, research groups in Europe and the United States have tested it in dyslexic children during reading practice. Multiple studies reported larger gains in reading than practice alone.
The foundational pediatric trials come from Dr. Floriana Costanzo’s group at Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome (Costanzo et al. 2016, 2019; Battisti et al. 2022), who paired reading training with a specific bilateral temporo-parietal montage: a gentle 1.0 mA current through two 5 × 5 cm saline pads (left anode at P7/TP7 to support under-active reading circuits, right cathode at P8/TP8 to quiet right-side compensation) for 20 minutes, three times a week. NeuroLingo is built around the exact montage, pad size, and 20-minute protocol of the Costanzo group, custom-sized to your child’s head so the pads land on those same sites automatically at home.
Studies on how the brain learns to read, and on what happens when stimulation is paired with reading practice.
A review of the pediatric imaging research. Children with dyslexia show differences in the structure and connectivity of the brain’s reading circuits, visible before reading instruction begins, and those circuits change with effective instruction.
In 18 children and adolescents with dyslexia (ages 10–17), eighteen sessions of tDCS paired with cognitive reading training reduced low-frequency word errors and non-word reading times compared with sham. Gains held at one-month follow-up.
In 26 children and adolescents with dyslexia (ages 10–17), eighteen sessions of tES paired with phoneme-grapheme reading training produced low-frequency word and non-word reading gains that persisted at six-month follow-up.
A 2025 scoping review of the tES-for-developmental-dyslexia clinical literature (11 studies, 225 participants total; 8 pediatric trials). Strongest, most consistent signal on non-word decoding.
In 17 children with dyslexia (ages 9–12), one 14-minute session of anodal tDCS over left superior temporal gyrus cut reading errors by 20%, sped up word reading by 13%, and increased word recall by 38% versus sham, alongside gains in auditory temporal processing and speech-in-noise perception.
A crossover trial in 24 children and adolescents with dyslexia (ages 8–14): five consecutive daily tDCS sessions produced non-word reading speed gains sustained at one-month follow-up, evidence a short, deployable protocol is enough.
In 12 children and adolescents with dyslexia (ages 8–17), five consecutive tDCS sessions increased correct responses for pseudowords and text. The one-group pre/post study reported average gains of 43.6% and 32.2%.
A randomized, sham-controlled trial in 20 university students with dyslexia (ages 18–26): ten daily sessions of rhythm-based reading training with concurrent tDCS. Both groups read text faster right after training. Four weeks later, only the active stimulation group was still significantly above its starting speed.
In 19 adults with dyslexia (ages 21–37), five sessions of active or sham tDCS over the left visual motion area across two weeks led to faster oral text reading one week after treatment (114 words per minute for active vs. 91 for sham, with no loss of accuracy). Rapid number naming also sped up with active stimulation only.
We’ll email you a plain-language summary of what 11 tDCS reading studies in 225 participants found, to read over or share with a spouse or tutor.
General Neuro was founded at Yale by Alec Sheffield, a computational neuroscientist (Ph.D., Yale) who trained in brain stimulation at Harvard’s Berenson-Allen Center, along with Luke Knoble and Zida Sung, computer and electrical engineers from Virginia Tech, who build the headband and stimulation circuitry. Luke’s brother, Dr. Joseph Knoble, a child psychiatrist and former Chief Fellow at the Yale Child Study Center, serves as our Chief Medical Advisor. We are a public benefit corporation, based in Boston and backed by Yale Tsai CITY and SOSV / HAX.
We have been building brain-stimulation headbands since 2024. Our first-generation headband initially launched on Kickstarter for adult second-language learning and is in use across 22 countries. For our current-generation headband, we redesigned it to be easy to use, with continuous impedance monitoring and a patent-pending electrode positioning system custom-sized to each wearer to replicate the exact bilateral temporo-parietal montage (P7/TP7 and P8/TP8) of the Costanzo group’s pediatric reading trials. This is the same headband we use in our registered language-learning (NCT07762118) and pediatric (NCT07762365) trials as we work to not only replicate the published studies, but improve on them.
Former Chief Fellow of Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. Clinical advisor for NeuroLingo.
Certified Orton-Gillingham Specialist since 2003, Reading Specialist, Special Education Teacher, and founder of Golden Advantage Education.
Children with dyslexia use NeuroLingo during Orton-Gillingham tutoring at Golden Advantage Education, led by founder Jennifer Golden, a Certified Orton-Gillingham Specialist since 2003.
Golden Advantage Education ↗
English-language learners at Virginia Tech use NeuroLingo during their language classes in a randomized controlled trial.
Language and Culture Institute ↗
Children ages 6 and up who find reading hard work and are already practicing: with a tutor, a reading program at school, or a structured program at home. It is not for children with a history of seizures, metal in the skull, an implanted electronic device, or broken skin where the pads sit. Talk to your child’s doctor before starting NeuroLingo.
Reading runs on a network on the left side of the brain. In children with dyslexia, those left-side regions are less active, and the right side steps in to compensate. NeuroLingo uses transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, in which a gentle 1.0 mA current passes through two 5 × 5 cm saline pads on the scalp using the exact bilateral montage of the Costanzo group (Costanzo et al. 2016, 2019; Battisti et al. 2022): the positive pad over the left temporo-parietal reading regions (P7/TP7) and the return pad over the right (P8/TP8). This makes the left reading regions a little more responsive and the right a little less. It also makes the brain better able to rewire while it is on, known as neuroplasticity. Paired with reading practice, that gives the practice more to build on. That is why the headband is worn only during practice.
Yes, in the sense that the headband is worn during reading practice and does not teach reading on its own. A tutor, a school program, at-home practice, or a structured program like Orton-Gillingham or Lindamood-Bell all count.
Three 20-minute sessions a week, during the decoding, reading, and phonological awareness practice your child already does.
NeuroLingo is designed for ages 6 and up, from early grade school through adulthood. We start at age 6 because first grade is when formal phonics and decoding instruction begins and when early reading support has the strongest impact (Lovett et al. 2017), with the youngest tDCS studies testing elementary-school children around ages 7 to 9 (Oliaee et al. 2022; Mirahadi et al. 2023, which paired tDCS with phonological awareness training). For children under 6, we recommend waiting. And it is never too late for older kids or teens: most of the 11 pediatric reading studies tested ages 8 to 17 (including Costanzo et al. 2016 and Battisti et al. 2022), and trials in college students and adults also showed faster reading after just five sessions (Heth & Lavidor 2015). We size each headband to the wearer’s head after ordering, so it fits elementary-schoolers, teens, and adults alike.
Independent university and hospital labs have already done the foundational work: 11 published studies (225 participants) have tested tDCS for dyslexia (Constantino et al. 2025), led by Dr. Floriana Costanzo’s group at Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome (Costanzo et al. 2016, 2019; Battisti et al. 2022; see also Rahimi et al. 2022). NeuroLingo replicates the exact bilateral temporo-parietal montage (left anode at P7/TP7, right cathode at P8/TP8), 5 × 5 cm (25 cm²) saline pad size, 1.0 mA dose, and 20-minute session length of the Costanzo group. Until now, running that protocol required a clinical research stimulator, rubber straps, and manual 10–20 scalp measurements in a lab. We built NeuroLingo so families can use that exact montage at home today, while our own research at General Neuro picks up where the hospital labs left off: testing how to best pair stimulation with structured reading instruction.
Stimulation at this level has been used in research and medicine for more than twenty years and in thousands of sessions with children, with no serious adverse events reported in systematic reviews (Bikson et al. 2016; Buchanan et al. 2021). Side effects are mild: the tingle, and sometimes redness under the pads that fades within minutes. The headband is set to the 1.0 mA current used in pediatric reading research, ramps up and down gently, pauses automatically if a pad loses contact, and shuts off after 20 minutes with a daily lockout.
NeuroLingo replicates the exact bilateral temporo-parietal montage of the Costanzo group (Costanzo et al. 2016, 2019; Battisti et al. 2022), with our patent-pending electrode positioning system. Two single-use 5 × 5 cm (25 cm²) saline sponge pads sit over the left (P7/TP7, anode) and right (P8/TP8, cathode) reading regions. Each session ramps up over 30 seconds to a regulated 1.0 mA direct current (0.04 mA/cm² current density), runs for 20 minutes, and ramps down over 30 seconds before shutting off automatically, with an on-device daily lockout restricting use to one session per day. Continuous closed-loop impedance monitoring checks pad-to-scalp contact throughout the session: if a pad lifts or begins to dry out, the headband automatically ramps current down to 0 mA, pauses the timer, and alerts you with a light and vibration cue until contact is restored. The headband uses a custom-sized nylon/PLA frame, closed-cell foam padding, medical-grade biocompatible silicone holders, and conductive carbon electrodes; it runs on an internal rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a hardware and firmware interlock that blocks stimulation whenever a USB charging cable is plugged in, uses FCC Part 15 pre-certified wireless modules, and is engineered to LOTES-2023 (Bikson et al. 2023) and IEC 60601-1 / 60601-2-10 medical electrical safety design standards to deliver the optimal stimulation at home and in our IRB-overseen trials.
A light tingle under the pads for the first few minutes, then most children stop noticing it.
Every headband is custom-sized to your child’s head measurement so the pads sit over the right spots every session without straps to adjust. After you reserve, we email you a one-minute step to measure at home before we build yours.
Yes. Every reservation and order is refundable in full until the day it ships, and after delivery you have a 90-day money-back guarantee to try it alongside your child’s reading practice and return it for a full refund if you’re not happy with it.
We build headbands in batches every two weeks. Reserve by Nov 10 for the next batch: your order window is Nov 24 to Dec 1, and it ships by Dec 15. Arrives before the holidays (US). If you miss your window, we’ll ask whether you’d like to move to the next batch or get your $25 back.
No, and no prescription is needed. NeuroLingo is sold as a reading-practice aid and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition.
Yes, and we would like them to be! Have them (or you) email us at info@generalneuro.com to tell us about the reading instruction they are doing: we are always happy to talk through with families the best way to get the most out of their sessions. We also want to hear what programs you’re working with! Tutors and teachers who serve low-income students can also apply for free headbands.
The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Send us an email at info@generalneuro.com if you’re interested but outside these locations. Local taxes and duties are shown at checkout.
Leave your email and we’ll send you our 11-study parent guide, and you can reply directly to us (Luke and Alec) if you would like to talk further!
A lot of the children who would get the most out of a headband are in tutoring programs and classrooms running on fumes. So we made it easy to sponsor one for a kid in need. Foundations, districts, employers, families with a soft spot for readers: all welcome. We’re a public benefit corporation, which means the mission is in our legal paperwork, not just our marketing.
One, ten, or a whole classroom.
Tutors and teachers working with children in need apply, tell us about their students, and we send the headbands their way.
Three times a week, in the tutoring they already get. Same headband as everyone else.
