Discover Successful Learning Patterns of Non-Traditional Students, Including Those With Dyslexia - Part 1

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Educational success partly depends on determining a childs learning pattern as soon as possible, i.e. (for parents) before a child enters school and (for educators) before beginning any lessons. The purposes of this book are to *Provide insight into learning patterns by explaining how to understand, evaluate and teach nontraditional students, including dyslexics. *Prevent negative mislabeling of our youngest preschool and older children, *Inform parents and teachers on how they themselves can screen and teach within a childs learning strength, without detriment to fellow students or to the school or class curriculum, *Ensure educational success for all students in a classroom. Learning Patterns are simply defined as visual, auditory and tactile-kinesthetic preferences with right or left hemisphere dominance and all combinations of these abilities. For this set of books, Learning Pattern is defined as a method of learning determined by a combination of genetic heredity factors, brain dominance and sensory strengths. Learning Patterns have little to do with personal choice as they are laid down quite early in each brain. It is important to recognize and understand the natural tendencies and differences in our sensory responses to incoming information as they affect learning. These differences may cause conflict with effective learning from traditional instructional methods. However, once a students natural sensory and dominance patterns are recognized and understood, multisensory teaching methods enable easier and faster learning for many children who otherwise might be labeled educationally challenged. The following email is from R.W.Keller, EdD,School of Education, Stanford University Ive spent the last two evenings reading through the text of your three volumes: and Jane has read through some of them as well. We cannot find words to express how truly amazed we are at the thorough and explicit way you have set forth the substance of what no one, until now, has expressed by way of insight into what needs to be known about this intricate and perplexing subject. Most teachers and other educators simply have only vague perceptions of how to deal with the problems you have so expertly examined; the result being that many intelligent children have been written off as incapable of achieving the success for which they clearly have the potential. this is a most remarkable contribution to the field of education. The author, Lois E. Rockefeller, has obtained her M.A. in education from Stanford University, holds a B.S. from Wittenberg University as well as having been licensed as a registered physical therapist in N.Y. & CA. and holds several teaching, counseling and Resource Specialist credentials in CA. She has worked for more than thirty years in California with children of all ages; mainly with classes for the educationally and emotionally challenged, dyslexic and orthopedically handicapped, but also with children from preschool through college not been labeled by a school system. The majority of these students had normal intelligence. Publishing of this material has been delayed due to the authors severe deterioration of both cervical & lumbar spine requiring many surgeries between 2001 and 2008 followed by rehabilitation and chronic pain. It is her greatest joy to offer this information to enlighten all who live with Dyslexia or learning difficulties. Ms. Rockefellers gratitude and acknowledgement go to John Lebel and Christian Mendelsohn for helping to get this book to you over the internet free of charge.
Discover Successful Learning Patterns by Lois E. Rockefeller This book responds to two questions from teachers who read my earlier magazine article. They asked, How can we effectively screen students for dyslexia in the classroom? and How can we help them as a classroom teacher? Parents are also addressed as are any who are interested in understanding and helping children with learning difficulties. Part One, The Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning, explains and supports this teachers discoveries concerning childrens learning patterns and the meaningful prekindergarten screening developed in line with these patterns. It discusses how the developmental model defines a disability, while the sensory dominant model defines a learning pattern. Laterality and brain dominance and their relationship to the learning patterns of many people with learning difficulties are explained. A review of the brains importance to learning patterns is given as is the importance of visual perception abilities and learning. The present educational system relies on developmental screening, which compares a childs accomplishments to those of other children of his age. This screening ignores how a person takes in information through his senses, brain and body. Through years of experience, I developed screening which checks on ones sensory and dominance capabilities. The developmental screening gives results as normal, advanced or slow. Only more time or retention is provided as possible help for being slow. With the sensory dominant screening, an understanding of how a student is learning is offered with suggestions as to how to alleviate learning problems by teaching to strengths. Part Two, Sensory Dominant Screening describes compensatory behavior in students and the A, B, Cs of sensory dominant screening and scoring as well as the several areas of this screening. Each item to be screened, such as hand dominance, is named with the objective given. Instructions are then clearly defined. Scoring is given as 2 for serious problems with the objective, 1 as minor problems and 0 as no problems. For each objective a description for each scoring is given. For each area screened, such as dominance, a total score of 0, 1, 2 is recorded. The back of the book contains the Learning Profile Response Form plus pages needed for particular visual screening items such as Visual Memory and Albinis Capital E Chart. Part Three, Sensory Dominant Instruction describes methods and specific ideas on how to provide instruction that includes non-visual learners. It is divided into the following areas for education: WIG for Warm Inclusive Group in the WARM classroom, SIR for Sensing, Imaging and Relaxation and the Auditory, Visual, Tactile-kinesthetic and other Senses, SMAT for sensory motor activities with a mat, MELT for memory and learning techniques including mind maps and mathematics with dice and AAA for Arts, Acting and Activities.
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Discover Successful Learning Patterns

After careful reading to gain a true sense of how your approach differs from that so widely employed I am tremendously impressed with your insight into the intricacies of dyslexia, a most important and perplexing educational problem. So much of what I have seen is merely perceptual. This is the first examination that to me is truly prescriptive. It would indeed be a social crime if the substance of this material were to be denied to those who have responsibility for working with children. I would like to see a copy of this treatise on the desk of every elementary school teacher. (School of Education, Stanford University Ralph W. Keller, EdD, Assistant Dean) I feel very privileged indeed to have been given the opportunity to read your book. In a word, it is nothing short of brilliant. The entire book is fascinating, but in my opinion, the best of the book is that you gave the first real description and explanation of dyslexia in all of its many forms that I have ever seen. In addition, you spent a great deal of time explaining how to determine each childs learning pattern, urging that each child be individually examined and evaluated. And finally, you explained how and why dyslexia occurs and manifests itself from an anatomical and physiological standpoint. I learned a great deal. Publish! This book is too important to be ignored. (Robin E. Beare, Attorney at Law has dyslexia) This is a break-through book on dyslexia. Most importantly, it addresses the parents of dyslexic children as well as teachers, students, administrators and all those interested in improving the educational system in this area of dire need. (Richard Price, Ph.D., Psychologist and author dyslexic) This book is for parents and teachers seeking alternatives for helping intelligent, but learning-challenged children succeed. The author shares her profound insights into the role that natural variations in the dominance patterns of our visual and auditory senses have in the success or failure of learning especially reading. (These natural variations occur in highly intelligent children and are not rare.) Reinforced by many years of special-education classroom experiences, she translates these insights into practical techniques for achieving positive learning results for all childrenincluding those who struggle in traditional learning environments that better serve students born with the more typical dominance characteristics found in the general population. (Laurene Campbell, retired kindergarten and 1st grade school teacher, parent and grandparent) Discover Successful Learning Patterns helped explain to me why learning is not a one-way fits all process and, thereby in the same classroom, why some succeed and others fail to achieve their inherent potential. (Frank Campbell, retired earth scientist and concerned parentgrandparent) Thank you very much for sending us your book on Learning Patterns and Dyslexia. It is an excellent treatise on the subject. It does need to be published and shared with others. (Everyday Learning Corp., Thomas B. Wise, Vice President) Easy to read, hard to put down. (K.E. Rockefeller, Hospitality Industry, multi-talented with dyslexia undiagnosed in school.)

Part 1. Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning
Copyright 1996, 2000 by Lois E. Rockefeller, B.S., R.P.T., M.A., R.Sp.
No part of this manuscript may be reproduced, transcribed or transmitted by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopy or recording or stored in any information storage or retrieval system without the expressed consent in writing from the author or publisher. Those screening pages noted as Reproducible Pages may be duplicated by the classroom teacher or a parent for immediate use in the classroom or in one family in a number not to exceed twenty five (25) of any one page. Reproduction for an entire school or other systems larger than the limited classroom of twenty-five (25), or for more than one family of up to, but not exceeding five (5) children, is strictly prohibited. No part of this book may be used commercially. Names have been changed where it may be necessary to protect the identity of individuals. The author disavows any claim, legal or otherwise, or any responsibility whatsoever for the outcome of using the material as set forth in this manuscript. This book was written to be helpful and informative and is not designed as a research document. References are mentioned where they occur in the text. Definitions of terms that may be unfamiliar are given where they first appear in the text. The aim has been to keep the text easy to understand for those whose background is in other subjects even though interest in the text subject is present. The subject of Learning Patterns touches every human being.
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Discover Successful Learning Patterns Acknowledgments 19922000 Any large project benefits from the input of many even though it may mainly be the work of one person. Therefore special thanks are in order to those who gave freely of their time and energy towards the effort to bring these books to those who will benefit from them. I am especially grateful for the support, encouragement, ideas and practical help of my three adult progeny: Merilee, Nancy and Ken Rockefeller and of my dearest cousin, Marshall Stuart Caswell and his wife, Eleanor. Thanks beyond measure to Stanford Universitys Dr. Ralph Keller and wife, Jane, who for many years have supported the publication of this project. Their son, James W. Keller, a busy college vice chancellor, parent and more has been invaluable as graphics engineer and creative aide. Special thanks to Frank Campbell and wife, Laurene, who brought me a first, then second and now a third newer computer, providing much instruction and a great deal more than I can detail here to bring this project to fruition. Special thanks to Tim Madden, wife Joan, and to Christy and Billy for the first computer and their devotion of time and energy during the initial struggle to format the book. Bruce Cates, computer dean of Pacific Grove Adult School, made insert pages, graphs and the first complete printout of the book in 1996. Thanks to Susan, Bruces secretary, for being so gracious and to Jason Spencer and Jack Herbig for their help in computer problem solving. Thanks to Dede, my Reader Assistant at the Talking Book Library in Sacramento, CA for finding and sending books on the brain to aid my research for this book. Love and thanks to Carmen Courtney and to her son, Jim and to all my students and their families. Grateful appreciation to the following: My lifelong pen pal in France, Francoise Paraire, sent book cover ideas and texts on Dyslexie. Artist, Vincent Amicosante, helped with early cover design. Ellen Lyon provided computer adaptable cover designs, et cetera. Heather Johnson-Spiegel drew, just for this book, the hands signing letters and numbers. Richard Price, Ph.D., gave his special insight as one who grew up with severe dyslexia, well aware of its stigma. Thanks to Teaching Today editor, Betty Ann Codere who said that readers wanted to know much more than was set forth in my original article. For their guidance and input, thanks to optometrists: Richard Koleszar, Charles Pearson and E. Borsting. Also to teachers: Ruth Barnett, Ruth Peace, Sarah Gordon, Sylvia Ortiz, Jennifer Wirth and Carol Catalano. And to principals: Dr. Peter Crasa, Dr. Harvey Takigawa and Virginia Ziomek for their roles in permitting me to screen children and interview teachers. Thanks to attorney Robin Beare for her encouragement. Thanks for the prayers for strengthening and for personal help from my extended family, St. Marys By the Sea, Pacific Grove, CA, especially for Father Dwight Edwards, Rosi, Helen Reames, Ripple Huth, Martha Witcher, Ann Wilson Doelman and Anne Bailey. My gratitude to my medical doctors who have kept me functional during this extended period: Kathleen Smalky, Michael Mahig, Michael Herhusky, Christopher C. Carver and others. Heartfelt thanks to all of those who helped bring this book set to its destination. Lois E. Rockefeller
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Table of Contents Part 1. The Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning Chapter 1. Dyslexia: Learning Pattern or Learning Disability?..............................................1 Chapter 2. Who and What Define Dyslexia?............................................................................13 Chapter 3. Laterality: A New, Overarching Perspective on Dyslexia...................................26 Chapter 4. Don't Throw Seeds to the Lions............................................................................39
........................................................................................................................................................44 Chapter 5. Getting Past Inertia in Developmental Theory.....................................................46 DEVELOPMENT TEST FOR PRE-K..............................................................................47 Chapter 6. The Inadequacy of the Present Special Education System..................................64 Chapter 7. Experiencing Dyslexia and Labels........................................................................71 It must be made clear from the beginning that most dyslexic people are fantastic. They often offer balance in education and to the usual ways of thinking and doing......................71 Chapter 8. Clara's Classes Checking For Dominance and Risk in the Classroom...............79 Chapter 9. Quick Review of Anatomy and Neuroanatomy....................................................87 Chapter 10. The Right and Left Hemispheres and Crossed Dominance...............................97 Chapter 11. The Relationship Between Brain Dominance and Interpretation...................103 .....................................................................................................................................................114 Chapter 12. The Brain and Learning: How Does the Brain Learn?...................................115 ......................................................................................................................................................120
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Chapter 13. Vision, Visual Perception and The F's of Vision...............................................120 Chapter 14. The Questions Parents Ask When School Problems Occur.............................131

Part 1. The Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning
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If when you went to school Where textbooks are the rule And you didn't delight in All that reading and writing, This book could hold the clue To what's the matter with you. So you ought to check it out And learn what it's about. Then you wont have apoplexia When you learn you have dyslexia. Lois E. Rockefeller
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Chapter 1. Dyslexia: Learning Pattern or Learning Disability? These are 2 comprehensive questions and my purpose is to provide accessible reliable answers to both questions. This book is written with dyslexic readers in mind. There is more than the usual white space, plus headlines and various visual markers that a normal reader might find excessive, but they are helpful to most non-visual learners. The parents dilemma You must address the parents. They dont understand the problem, or what to do about it. This message was from adults who personally experienced the painful process of growing up with learning distress and from todays parents who are raising dyslexic children. Although my son had reading difficulties, I had no idea of his diagnosis of dyslexia until I began writing this book. When he quit high school, I thought it was teenage rebellion and problem peers. My sons good behavior and struggle to do well in school blinded his teachers and me to a possible learning disability. In a 1999 letter to Ann Landers, distressed parents explained that although their adorable, 8 year old son had early reading difficulties, neither parent believed that their son had learning disabilities. After sending him to a special school, his parents reported that their once gentle, loving son now hates school and has become angry, abusive and belligerent. Understanding that a child may have a learning disability is as confusing today as it was when my son was in school. The required disabilities terminology causes adults to think of retardation or a serious problem in an otherwise perfect
Dyslexia and learning disabilities comprise the fastest growing segment of the student population of the developed world in this generation. Diagnoses of dyslexia have more than tripled since 1980 bringing up a growing and lucrative 20 to 40 billion-dollar industry, playing on ignorance and fear concerning learning disabilities. Dyslexia remains a quandary with many so-called experts arguing over a reasonable definition and inclusion factor. It is a subject of much interest to many people. Teachers ask help with dyslexic students Before writing this book, my article Another Look at Dyslexia, was published in the Canadian magazine Teaching Today. A couple of months later, the editor, Betty Ann Codere, sent me two letters. Her first letter said that my article was informative and increased my readers curiosity. These readers wanted to know "how teachers can effectively screen their students for dyslexia", including "details of dyslexia screening tools that could be used by teachers in the classroom?" I wondered if In the classroom, was a reasonable request. Those readers wanted to bypass the educational system's screening and do the screening themselves. Also, did those readers think there was a 5-minute test, which would provide all the answers needed? Not quite, but the dominance test is the door opener. The second letter said that the readers asked me "After we learn from the testing that students are dyslexic, how can we help them as a classroom teacher?"
child. This situation causes denial and misreading of symptoms. Dyslexia was not referred to before mid 1980s. Educational research seldom on premises This book is written from my point of view as the teacher who worked over many years, on a daily basis with children having difficulties with the educational system. The screening that I developed over these years for understanding educational problems and their remediation differed significantly from the present screening and remediation systems devised and used by educational psychologists. For example, some psychologists set up two experimental classrooms with 5 or 6 boys in each, or a total of eleven boys, ages 7 1/2 to 10 years. These boys of normal intelligence could not cope in the regular classroom. Two specialist teachers for these mock classrooms were hired. The psychologists observed that in this new classroom setup, the boys would run away. The psychologists wrote, Now that these boys were in small groups, the previous patterns of work avoidance, sleep and daydreaming could no longer be maintained. Defensive systems of the children shifted to an action level, with a high degree of symbolic motor behavior they ran! Having learned something from observing this relationship of heightened motor activity to learning in these children, (and not wishing to engage in the chase again!), we are trying to understand the implications of the running, in such a way that the same motoric outlets can be provided for our children, without the dangers inherent in running through parking lots and down busy streets." This excerpt is from "Clinical Research on Learning Inhibitions in Boys" by Luleen S. Anderson, Ph.D. Field work What these psychologists, and others since, are doing in their laboratories or
experimental classrooms, though sometimes helpful, can not duplicate the experiences of the actual classroom teacher. Researchers in the realm of education do not perform like those in paleontology or anthropology where first hand evidence is seen, studied as it is found, and then theorized upon. In education, researchers are seldom in the field in charge of actual classrooms, working with their subjects, the students, on a continuous basis. Instead, most education research work is done through set-up situations and by studying published articles. Special attention vs. group attention When a school psychologist is observing a student, the psychologist usually instructs the teacher as to how she is to work to improve that childs behavior. What classroom teacher hasn't rolled her eyes back in her head while the school psychologist gives her instructions on how she must continuously monitor the behavior of a particular "problem" student for any positive behavior, which she must immediately reward, the M and M's psychology. What happens with the rest of the 20 or 30 students and to the lesson plans while this disproportionate amount of attention is given to one student? The actual classroom Having arrived at my new teaching assignment for a class of "Educationally and Emotionally Handicapped" children, I learned that my aide had spent her previous two years with that class, daily chasing boys who ran away from class through the streets of that neighborhood. My knowledge was zero concerning this being "a high degree of symbolic, motoric behavior". My options for managing this problem did not include leaving my class to others while I observed and analyzed behavior. Continuing to allow my aide to spend her work hours chasing boys through the streets, hopelessly entreating them to return to class with her, was not effective. Of my limited options,
one was to return class management to the adults and then make some changes that would make the classroom a more interesting environment for these boys. While working on this, my aim was to learn as much as possible about these twelve, pubescent boys. Having to wait 6 or 8 weeks for requisitioned chairs and desks, we sat on the floor in a circle to build trust and to eventually form a WIG, a Warm Inclusive Group. The group was taught the Gestalt rules of communication, and soon communicating was fun for all of us. Before long we were a cohesive group. The most severe punishment then was to be told to leave the group for a time-out and sit outside the door. These same unruly boys began to ask me, "When are we going to read and write?" "Oh you want to learn to read and write? Great, we can do that", I said. From that moment on it was difficult for my aide and me to keep up with these students academically. Through trust building, they had made a complete turn-around. They have to think you care before they care what you think. Getting to know you vs. observation Knowledge of the psychologist's research on boys who run away from class would not have helped us. Problem solving creativity and earlier group facilitation training were our best guides. The teacher or parent is placed in the cage with the young lions and must make, on the spot, appropriate decisions if she is to survive. The instructor's goal of imparting an education to these young ones requires that the instructor be interested and attentive to that goal. This makes necessary, ongoing communication and mutual trust between students and instructor. School psychologists, or other educational researchers, can observe the caged lions and trainer from a safe distance, outside the cage. Survival, ongoing communication with the students, or imparting knowledge to them is NOT a
requirement of researchers. These psychologists are often set up as the experts in educational matters, but they seldom gain expertise from regular classroom experience. The teacher does. Educational tests fail to disclose answers One day, in early June, before school closed for that year, Cindy, the kindergarten teacher in the room next to mine, approached this Resource Specialist for an evaluation of three boys she had recommended for retention. These boys seem to be bright, she said, but they are so immature and they havent mastered their alphabet as required for first grade. Would you check them out with your screening, if we get permission from the principal? Cindy already had all three boys evaluated by the school psychologist to check IQs. He confirmed for her and the parents, the boys high ability levels and poor scholastic performances. He and the principal agreed with Cindy that the boys should repeat kindergarten to allow more time for their developmental maturation. Cindy had already informed the boys parents of her recommendations for having the boys repeat kindergarten. So what was her purpose in asking for more screening at that point? Perhaps she wanted to better understand why such bright boys were so immature. Her experience told her that the screening I had developed over years of working with similar students might come up with why these boys hadnt learned as expected. This screening did discover the main reason for all three boys difficulties and is discussed in the chapter on developmental evaluations.
Unnecessary retentions After using my sensory dominant screening with these boys, my mind was impressed with the need for all parents and teachers to perform this easy screening, preferably before their children start school. Then they would learn their childrens learning patterns and instructional needs so as to prevent unnecessary retentions and referrals to Resource Specialist Programs, not to mention negative labels starting with immaturity. In the early grades, normal intelligence combined with poor scholastic performance does not necessarily indicate immaturity or even learning disability. Find the learning patterns No matter who you or your children may be, knowing and understanding sensory dominant learning patterns improves the instructional environment for all. Such knowledge can prevent learning difficulties or even disabilities. Youll feel more confident knowing which instructional strategies complement your own and your childrens learning patterns and which may be more difficult and require real effort. With this knowledge children will not be ridiculed and lose self-esteem because they stumble over alphabets or reading passages. Teachers, including parents, will find educating all youngsters an easier, more delightful task. Lifes first years decide learning patterns The first 3 to 5 years of life are the trend setting years for later learning. Learning patterns develop early in every brain and some aspects are probably inherited. Every child's brain is created, through age 5 or 6 at least, to want and to need to learn. Timely, appropriate stimulation is key to future intelligence. The child's brain is very literally brimming over with the energy and neurons, nerve cells, needed for expansive learning during the child's first 4 or 5 years.
Her brain could be compared, a little, to a fruit tree with an over abundance of fruit buds. The gardener knows just how many and which buds to prune so that growth is guided along particular, stronger branches and the tree provides the most and best fruit possible. The child must likewise be lovingly guided through early development so that needed neurons in her brain make faithful connections to each other to form neural networks or routing maps in her brain. These networks form the basis for memory and future learning in each brain, just as the strong tree branches form the elements for future tree growth. Chances missed for effective neuronal connections in early childhood may not be retrieved. A natural pruning takes place in the young brain. The excess neurons, those without connections, soon die off. These sensory development periods are called critical windows. For instance, if speech is not heard clearly during the first two years of life, the child may never produce correct speech. Also, those connections in the brain that are made at an earlier time become more entrenched and fairly difficult to change beyond 5 to 7 years of age. These early connections become a person's dominant learning pattern. The brain continues to grow throughout life, but early stimulation remains important, What is sensory dominance? Sensory dominance is the relationship between ones senses and ones brain dominance. Further chapters discuss the brain and dominance. For now, a minimal definition follows. The brain has right and left hemispheres and central connecting components. In the central components, most neurons and the abilities they represent, cross from right to left and vice versa, but only one side of the brain is dominant for a particular action. E.g., the
right hand is controlled in the left hemisphere, the left hand in the right. Dominance usually relates to the dominant hemisphere in the brain, but can also relate to the dominant side of ones body, such as right or left handedness. Sensory relates to the major senses, which are part of our nervous system, seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling movement or sensing pain, etc. The term sensorimotor relates to the senses in combination with the motor or movement system. Riding a bicycle could be termed a visual-motor or sensorimotor activity, one which requires seeing, feeling and moving combined. My long term studies with learning disabled children expose a different branch of the evolutionary tree of education from the traditional left brain, sequential, analytical branch. This sensory-dominant branch has been available, but ignored, because it does take a direction different from that traditional developmental approach to instruction and testing. Sensory abilities often taken for granted More important, sensory abilities, having to do with our major senses, especially vision, have been taken for granted. If a child makes her way through a doorway, no one thinks she might have vision problems. A major part of a sighted individuals learning pattern is vision. As soon as anyone enters school, he/she is seated at a desk where he/she is expected to work with paper and pencil. The instructor takes for granted the students ability to see clearly at desk level and then at board distance in front of the room and back again repeatedly. The major part of the visual component of anyones learning pattern is the ability to coordinate both eyes to clearly see a single object. More and more children are having difficulty with this task. In the case for dyslexia and, or learning disabilities, visual convergence and coordination are usually more important
than visual acuity or clarity. This translates to-a child with fuzzy vision is better off than one who sees two of everything. Sensory dominance influences learning Aside from negligible visual screening in schools or homes, a persons laterality or dominance, which hand and eye are used and therefore, which hemisphere of the brain is in control, has not seemed important to those doing the screening for school. But laterality and dominance have proved very important with the many students I have screened for learning disabilities or dyslexia Lateral dominance is key to which side of the brain, the right or left hemisphere, is dominant or demanding control of actions and thinking. In a straight right dominant person, the left hemisphere is controlling movement and sensory interpretation. In the crossed dominant person there is usually a struggle between hemispheres for control. Language in 95% to 98% of humans is in the left hemisphere. Left eye visual control, common to many dyslexics, is in the right hemisphere. Intelligence up, grades down All candidates for the program for the learning disabled or dyslexic are first tested by the teacher who finds the grade level skills below average. Then the school psychologist checks these children with low scholastic performances to see that they do have average or better intelligence. So why are these children not learning? Most often the problem is blamed on the child. He isnt trying. Hes inattentive and immature or shes ADD. He doesnt study enough. Sensory Dominant Screening needed here It is simple to get sensible answers when the measuring test is the correct one for the circumstance. For example, we use a thermometer, not a clock, to check a temperature or to see if one has a fever. But, if children have minor hearing or vision
problems that are not as apparent as deafness or blindness, IQ and grade level tests will NOT discover these problems. But IQ and skill tests are performed, not sensory tests. Adults assume that school assignments and tests are okay because most children have few problems with the curriculum. So it must be the childs inappropriate, stubborn and immature behavior. Wait a minute! The sensible tests in these cases usually have much more to do with sensory abilities such as vision, hearing, touch or balance and also with which brain hemisphere is dominant. Who is checking for these abilities and when? Figures for 141 learning disabled (LD) students evidence screening with meaning Here are some figures for 141 students who were placed in classes for the Learning Disabled between 1970 and 1988. These 141 students represent a student body of about 7,050 as the districts involved used a 2% (2 out of 100) eligibility allowance for the Learning Disability Program. These results have not changed since 2000. For the majority of these students, the following areas were checked: Dominance and laterality, *visual ability, coordination and memory, *auditory ability, memory and sound discrimination, *motor and visual motor ability, (handwriting, etc.). In most cases repetition of grade levels was noted, which would mean that scholastic skills were FAR below average. Laterality and Dominance Laterality refers to the use of one side of the body in preference to the other, as in right handed or left footed. Dominance refers to whichever side of body or brain is in control, the dominant side. The straight dominant person is always right sided or left sided, e.g. writes with right hand and kicks with right foot. The
ambidextrous or either footed person is crossed dominant, meaning control in the brain changes from one side to the other, depending on the activity. Near and Far Vision For vision screening, both near and far vision should be checked. Near vision refers to the visual work area within arms reach, as in writing distance. Far or distance vision is usually 20 or more feet, or 6 meters away, the distance for vision charts. For vision dominance the right eye may be used for near and far vision, or the left eye is used for near and far vision. If the eye dominance is in line with hand and foot dominance, the person is straight dominant, if not, he is crossed dominant. Some people use different eyes for near (microscope) and far (telescope) vision. Most of these students wind up in programs for the learning disabled. The chapter on The Fs of Vision gives further explanation. Retentions High, Program releases Low Of these 141 learning disabled students, 96 are boys, 45 are girls. Of these, a minimum of 124, 88 boys and 36 girls had repeated at least one grade besides being placed in the LD or learning disabled program. That's a total of 124 of 141 or 88% definitely identified as having been retained, but more likely, 100% of these students had been retained; a few were retained twice. Retentions are directly related to poor scholastic performance. Students are retained, made to repeat a grade, when they have not produced the expected scholastic performance at the end of that grade. Reading, spelling, writing, written language, analytical problem solving as in arithmetic and sequential organizational skills are usually expected to be mastered in the first three years of school. Most retentions are made within these same first 3 years.
By the time the IQ tests are given to students selected for LD placement and, or retention, these students self esteem and their desire to succeed in scholastic areas would most likely be diminished. Along with their teachers, they would have Retention or Low Scholastic Achievement in Early Grades
141 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
retained at least one grade level, but few students once entered into the LD program were ever graduated or released from the special education system. This translates into continued low self-esteem, low educational expectations and boredom.
Behavior/Social Emotional Maturity
140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
100
Students
Students
25
16
No
Minor Problems
Serious
No
Minor Problems
Serious
compared themselves to peers and found themselves wanting. That they must try harder resounds in the ears of these intelligent children, though trying harder to repeat in the same way what they have failed to accomplish, seldom brings scholastic success. It more often leads to frustration and school related behavior problems. Most students recommended for the learning disabled program have been
Cognitive Ability
Cognitive Ability
140 Students 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 No Problems 3 1 Minor Problems 0 2 Serious Problems 138
Serious vision problems #1 symptom Of the boys, 88 of 96, 92%, and of the girls, 40 of 45, 89%, a total of 91% had serious visual problems and the remaining 9% had less serious or minor visual problems. Although 100% of these children had vision problems, very few wore corrective lenses and corrective lenses would not have helped many of them. Their eyes were fine. The eyes take in and change light images to electrical signals, but vision takes place in the brain. You can have great eyesight, but serious vision problems. Such vision problems are usually related to coordination of the images from both eyes in the brain. Visual coordination problems can be caused by an imbalance in the pull of the muscles that turn the eyes, causing over or under convergence.
Visual Skills
140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 13 128
is left dominant. The remaining 32 of 35 dominance screened girls are crossed dominant. For the group as a whole, of those with known dominance, 89% were crossed dominant. Dominance
140
Students
No
Minor Problems
Serious
120
Students
100 80 60 40 20 0 1 10
86 44
Sometimes this muscle coordination problem is so slight as to be overlooked, except by the brain. These coordination problems appear to become more significant with near vision work compared to distance or far vision work. Auditory Skills
140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0
Left
Right
Crossed Unknown
Dominance
Students
88
28
25
A high percentage in the general population would be 34% crossed dominant. Nearly all crossed dominance, besides being aligned with ambidexterity, is caused by the dominant use of the eye opposite one's laterality. This translates as, you are right handed, but look through the telescope with your left eye and vice versa. Near Vs. Distance vision dominance Not all crossed dominant students in this group have complete visual dominance scores. Of 54 crossed dominant boys, 46 have visual scores; of the 32 crossed dominant girls, 20 have visual scores. Thirty-seven, 37 of 46 or about 80% of crossed dominant boys, and 16 of 20 or 80% of crossed dominant girls are right dominant or ambidextrous, BUT they use their left eye for near vision. Nine of the 46 boys or about 20% and 4 of the 20 girls or 20% are left sided or ambidextrous and use their right eye for near vision. This right eye group had more problems overall.
No
Minor Problems
Serious
On the other hand, auditory and language problems were serious in only 18% of the total, minor in 20% of both boys and girls and no problem for at least 62% of boys and girls. Dominance and vision are key The interesting news is how these percentages align with dominance. Of the 96 boys, 34 were not screened for dominance and therefore have unknown dominance. Of the 62 boys screened for dominance, 8 are right dominant and 54 are crossed dominant. Of the girls, 10 are unknown dominance, 2 are right and 1 (one)
Visual Dominance
140 120
Students
100 80 60 40 20 0
66 53
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Visual-X R/L eye L/R eye Dominance
Of this visually crossed dominant group of 66 students, 14 (5 girls and 9 boys) or 21% use different eyes for near and far vision. Most dyslexics right brain thinkers? Nearly all left eye dominant people are predominantly right hemisphere thinkers. Dyslexia appears to be associated with vision and a probable right hemisphere learning pattern rather than being a language dysfunction. Since in this tallied group, serious vision problems are common in the children with unknown dominance, it is a high probability that most of those students were also visually crossed dominant. Most literature reports that the majority of learning disabled students are straight left dominant. It is evident here that such is not the case. It is hoped that these figures and percentages will stir curiosity toward further investigation. Right brain people in left brain world For 3,000 to 5,000 years, schools of knowledge have been the dominion of a small segment of the male population who were skilled in language and mathematics and who had time to pursue these skills. It is only in the last half of the 20th century that women and men with different viewpoints have been able to invade the private domain of universities and seminaries.
Major keys to that near vision world of knowledge have been reading and writing books, writing grant proposals and performing rule bound experiments. People are learning every day in ways that have nothing to do with reading, yet those who believe that reading is the crucial basis of ALL learning will not be convinced otherwise. Max Planck, inventor of the quantum theory in physics, said, A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. So, it might be with Sensory Dominant Screening and Instruction and getting away from the decision somewhere along the line that dyslexia and learning disabilities are primarily language problems. Eventually, sensory and dominance screening and instruction could lead to major changes in the educational system, changes that would save a great deal of tax and private money and most importantly, much self esteem and personal pride. When you think of a child who feels himself a school failure and who carries that feeling into adulthood, the pride takes on real significance. Successful crossed dominance Most people are familiar with the name and fame of the Swedish photographer, Lennart Nilsson. His most famous photo essay of the unborn baby in the womb caused the first and only complete sellout of that 1965 issue of Life magazine. A 1997 TV program, which shows how Nilsson accomplishes his fantastic photos for science and medicine and for the rest of us, also shows that Nilsson is a left eye dominant and right-handed person. This video makes many remarks about Nilsson's artistic talent and his exceptional vision. He is expert in a field that is perfect for his R/L (right hand/left
10
eye) crossed dominance. Most likely, Nilsson has better than 20/20 visual acuity in his left eye compared to his right eye. This is not uncommon in this type of crossed dominance. Also noted on videotape was the visual coordination problem of famous author, lecturer and Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Dr. Howard Gardiner. His book, Frames of Mind concerning his theories of the seven intelligences of humankind, is well known throughout the scholastic world. Famous photographer, Annie Leibowitz, looks though her camera with her left eye while keeping her right hand free for directing her subjects. Many, many very intelligent, talented people succeed in life despite visual crossed dominance and probable, earlier scholastic problems. Scraping bottom Regular classroom instructional methods dismiss and label too many children as learning disabled, immature and worse. The reasons for the labels are many; the explanations minimal. The reasons usually include, but are not limited to, not working to potential, hyperactive, inattentive and so forth. What is working for most school children that is not working for the dismissed children? This resource specialist teacher being the bottom of the barrel for these children (there was no place else for them to go) wanted to know how to reach them. Why werent these children learning in the regular classroom? What was not working for them, and what would work? Lots of parents and teachers ask these same questions. Brain damage not a factor It is not reasonable to suspect that the majority of learning disabled and, or dyslexic children are brain damaged or even somehow not normal. With experience, educators and medical doctors are usually able to spot those few children who are brain
damaged. Most LD children are not in that category. Some time ago, while at the copiers with a dyslexia title in hand, a pretty young woman asked me about my subject, dyslexia. When it did not appear that she was crossed dominant, the educational diagnosis of minimal brain damage, MBD, came to mind and, unfortunately, to speech. Those words spoken, our conversation immediately ended with a well-deserved, angry stare at me. In my hand was her personal business card stating creatively that she wore Many Hats. To be sure it was a right brain business in the construction industry, but there was no way this young lady was brain damaged, minimal or otherwise. The same holds true of many nontraditional learners who have been successful despite the traditional educational system. The good student mold This sensory-dominant branch of education may explain how much knowledge is acquired by all of us, especially those who have difficulties with the traditional visual system, the dyslexics and, or learning disabled and the plain, slow readers, for whatever reasons. How and when learning disabilities are first perceived in the educational system should hold clues to what is perceived as a learning disability. What expectations do adults, especially educators, have for childrens learning abilities? Is there only one mold for the good student, that of the good reader, speller, et cetera? Many exstudents have come away with exactly that perception. And what mold do parents of bright, happy youngsters have? Do all parents expect perfection when their newborn is delivered? The parents don't want to hear that anything is different about their child., is a familiar quote or, He'll grow out of it. When a child is perceived as having a
11
problem, relating this negative news to the parents is discomforting even for doctors. The child must fit some preconceived mold. Do we set ourselves up to see differences as negatives and so to grieve? Also, in the educational system at home and elsewhere, is the unrealistic expectation that every child who appears normal will have perfect vision, hearing and motor development. If a child can see, adequate vision is taken for granted and lateral dominance has always seemed unimportant. Appearances are often deceiving, which makes early sensory dominant screening very important not to see problems, but to discover successful learning patterns. Inclusive management of differences Placing students with different learning patterns or abilities in any classroom with a single instructional method is, by its nature, EXCLUSIVE for at least one third of those students. The educational system, public or private, needs to learn to manage student differences without exclusion and negative labeling. People do tend to see differences as negatives. People and schools tend to be deficit oriented rather than ability oriented. There's an old song, which says, Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative, Latch on to the Affirmative and don't mix with Mister In-Between. How can we replace our negatives with positives? Does it matter HOW individuals learned something if they are conversant or otherwise knowledgeable and intelligently contribute to the subject? Learning is more than reading A real challenge is trying to convince some educators and the politicians who have taken up the call to have everybody reading by 3rd grade, that learning is more than reading. We must try to instill and promote knowledge that blind, deaf and persons otherwise considered disabled are quite
capable of learning. Then perhaps we can promote the understanding that not everyone learns best visually or by reading. There ARE techniques to avoid most learning disability situations. Perhaps the only REAL learning disabilities, (not including the very small percentage of brain damaged and, or retarded children), equate to different memory maps or connections in the brain other than the usual left brain, analytical, sequential connections. The learning patterns of children with crossed dominance will surely be different, but NOT less intelligent than the learning patterns of straight dominant people. To know this, we must leave "rat labs" and move into child labs, (pre-school and classrooms), with completion of a more thorough or slightly different pre-school screening than has been the rule. Then what? Enlarge, enrich the view of which behaviors stimulate learning and include those methods that stimulate all minds in EVERY classroom. Reading is NOT the only way to learn and LD or dyslexic children can and do read. Reading may not be their specialty, strength, or favorite subject, but that makes them no less able to learn than other children. Multisensory vs. intimidation Multisensory instruction, which includes books on tape, is certainly preferable to intimidation and limited educational techniques. The use of tape recorders in ALL classrooms and most homes is not a learning cop-out. Listening for comprehension requires high exertion and undaunted concentration. Many children learn better through their ears than through their eyes, especially when it comes to subjects requiring a high degree of visual coordination. Other children learn better through movement, which can include drawing and writing as well as acting out a story. Why are these methods regarded as wrong or as cop-outs? We cant all be
12
near distance, visual learners. All learning patterns need to be identified, accepted, used and praised with the same enthusiasm now reserved for reading books. Acquisition of knowledge is the goal, not the method used. Closing the gaps The REAL COP-OUT is spending inordinate energy and money on pushing children out of regular classes and into retentions and special education. It is time to look at how to screen and instruct children more successfully in the classroom and home. Teachers and parents hope to learn how to do this. Teachers and parents also need to learn how NOT to take sensory and sensory-motor abilities for granted. Parents who hope for good results in school have to start working with their children during the first three years of life. But how are young parents to know what is needed during those first years if educators arent providing this education before the parents-to-be have babies? Since the traditional educational system has not provided early studies on family life, young children and learning, it may be time to consider closing THAT GAP. New and different approaches needed Those adults who make up school boards could learn to accept learning as much more than repetitive drills in a minimal number of basic subjects. As various learning patterns become apparent, less emphasis would be placed on standardized, visually difficult instructions and tests. Instead, we would learn to test knowledge in ways that do not put auditory, non-visual and right-brain students at a disadvantage. Different learning patterns require different methods of instruction, NOT lower standards or less instruction. There are present professors still insisting that managing sensory needs of students would automatically require lowering educational standards. Shear
nonsense. Are lower instructional standards required for all blind or deaf persons? NO. It is the multiplicity of learning and thinking patterns that provide a more complete and more creative view of our world. This multiplicity improves life in innumerable ways.
Chapter 2. Who and What Define Dyslexia? What is dyslexia or a learning disability? How do the "experts" define dyslexia? Educators, parents, doctors, psychologists have very different views when it comes to defining and understanding dyslexia, attention deficit disorder or most learning disabilities. And how does someone who perceives herself as dyslexic define dyslexia? How does anyone know what to do about a subject so poorly defined? The Six Blind Men and The Elephant, a fable retold here, illustrates that there are many versions of what constitutes truth and confusion exists for understanding anything. Long ago, when rich rajas ruled the provinces of India, six blind men lived together in a dusty village not far from the Raja's magnificent palace. Although these men could not see with their eyes they learned all they needed to know through their ears and through their hands. And, oh, how they loved to talk and try to outdo each other with their great knowledge. These six blind men heard that the handsome, young Raja had a new elephant which had been trained for the Raja's royal service. Everyone in the dusty village was talking about the magnificent animal. The excitement was contagious. The blind men had heard about elephants, but they had never met nor "seen" an elephant and they were very curious. They wanted to find out what an elephant was like so they could become even more learned with something new to talk about. The six blind men made contact with one of the Raja's servants. They begged the servant to ask the Raja for his permission to allow these poor, blind men to visit the Raja's elephant so they could learn and understand what an elephant was like. The young Raja granted their request. And as you can imagine, the six blind men were most delighted and excited. No less than the palace guard arrived to escort the men from their dusty village to the Raja's magnificent palace to "see" the elephant. Once there, these small, curious blind men spread out, encircling the great elephant. They each reached out with their hands to touch and "see" the elephant. The first man felt the elephant's side. He observed, "The elephant is hard, flat and wide like a wall." The second man held the elephant's trunk. "This animal is long, flexible and round like a great snake", he said. The third man felt the elephant's long, smooth and sharp tusk. "Wow!" he said, "The elephant is like a great spear." The fourth man found and held the elephant's leg. His observation was, "This
animal is firm, rough and round, like a tree. The fifth man felt the elephant's ear. "Ah", he said, "This animal is like a fan, big and flat and it flaps. The sixth man found the elephant's tail. "No", he said, "The elephant is more like a rope rather long, round and thin." As the six blind men were being led from the elephant's enclosure they began to argue about their new understandings of what an elephant was like. From the various places where they stood, each man had a very different perspective and a different
Part I The Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning
14
understanding of an elephant. Each argued with the others for his viewpoint. None could agree nor understand how the others had such radically different and wrong conclusions from their own. The Raja heard them arguing and had to laugh. He told them, "You are all right and you are all wrong". To know the elephant you must move around and explore all parts of the animal. Then you must put all the parts together to know the whole picture of the elephant. He patiently explained how each of the various perspectives was only part of the whole animal. All the parts put together give you a better idea of the actual elephant. You won't learn much about a person either, by touching only his foot, he said; and they all laughed. Then the Raja told them they had missed another important view of the elephant; what an elephant can do. The behavior of an animal, or of a person, can only be learned through spending time with either one. "One of the best things about my elephant", said the Raja, "is that it is good to ride on." Then he helped the men up onto the elephant's back and gave them all a ride home to their village. (Eventually the author learned that The Blind Men and the Elephant was originally a poem by John Godfrey Saxe.
John Saxe's descriptions of the elephant are now included with this recreated story.) No modern Raja with answers Many of us have a desire to understand "Dyslexia" and learning disabilities or differences in general. Like the blind men who would understand an elephant, we hear many viewpoints from various perspectives. There is little agreement on the definition of dyslexia and other learning differences. Like the blind men after their visit to "see" the elephant, much confusion remains about what dyslexia is or is not. We may all be in touch with different aspects of the "elephant", with no modern "Raja" to explain the whole picture or behavior. From experience with animals, the blind men probably had some idea of a kind of animal in mind when they ventured out to learn more about the elephant. What model are people using to understand dyslexia or learning patterns? Education in 20th Century America Dyslexia as an educational or mental classification was unknown before the 20th century and the term "dyslexia" did not come into popular use until the 1980's. Most people believe dyslexia to be some sort of learning disability, but is it that? Since most learning disabilities or dyslexia are first noted in the classroom, it could be helpful to understand how our American educational system has been set up to function since 1890 or 1900. Such knowledge could provide insight into how certain learning expectations became the norm and how those who didn't fit these expectations were looked upon as not the norm, abnormal, or even disabled. Much of modern learning is based on classical writings that survived the disastrous fire in 47 BC that destroyed the great library at Alexandria, Egypt, a library begun in 301 BC. One of these much quoted, classic scholars was Aristotle (384322 BC). In 365 BC, Aristotle was a young Greek
scholar, scientist and writer. He described education as a hands-on process of look at the evidence and figure out the connections. He studied animals in their environment and wrote many important observations that hold to this day. But one observation points out a limitation in the behavioral observation method. On seeing the chicken's body run around after it was decapitated, Aristotle came to the conclusion that the central control of all animals can not be in the head, but must be in the heart. Many hundreds of years later, brain science returned control of the body to the brain. Behavioral observation requires more than a cursory look before making sound conclusions. Psychologists take over education Although learning from experience was still in high esteem as the best educational method, psychologists in the USA took over the realm of education early in the 20th century. Then, psychologists, a fairly new breed, compared to teachers, were fascinated with an Austrian doctor, Sigmund Freud, and his ideas of the mind as a threelayered system of the unconscious conscious, and superconscious or the id, ego and superego. Also in 1904, the Russian scientist, Pavlov, stirred great interest in learning when he taught his dogs to salivate for food at the sound of a bell, even when no food appeared. The idea that someone could elicit behavior with a specific stimulus, the conditioned reflex, took hold in the USA. Behaviorism By 1920, there was an intense turn to behaviorism in psychology and education. Behaviorism is the belief that learning can be defined as the modification of behavior in response to a stimulus. Psychologists in the USA decided to ignore the study of the human mind as too complicated. In the 1920's, American professor, John Watson, at Johns Hopkins University, wrote Psychology From the Standpoint of a
Behaviorist. His gospel was that the only thing that could be studied was behavior. Observe behavior closely enough and you can learn everything about the mind. These men were among the scientists who believed: the right and left hemispheres of the brain were mirror images of each other the larger brain of the male as compared with that of the female denoted the males higher intelligence only men (humans) used tools and only humans are able to reason vocabulary and the use of the written word were or are the most reliable clues to a person's intelligence children should be taught through Pavlov's stimulus-response methods. All of these ideas have been proven untrue, but are still clung to by some. Gestalt reasoning overshadowed Opposite the behaviorist views there were a few Gestalt or cognitive psychologists in the 1920's era who said that learning was much more than predictable behavior to a stimulus, but they weren't in the USA. Wolfgang Kohler, a German scientist and author, studied ape behavior in Africa during WWI, and wrote The Mentality of Apes. His work showed that men are not the only animals capable of reasoning and learning requires more than response to a stimulus. Neither the Germans, nor their views of animal reasoning were much welcomed by the Victorian thinking in post WWI Europe or America. It is interesting to note that even in 1997, two male psychologists were arguing on television about the same question, the possibility of animal reasoning vs. instinct. The crux of the argument is: If animals can reason then perhaps animal and human learning have something in common in spite of great differences. Many believe that animals act solely from instinct, not related to making rational choices.
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The gorilla story June 1997: A 3 or 4 year old, boy had fallen into the gorilla enclosure in a prominent zoo. A female gorilla was caught on video, carefully lifting and cradling the unconscious boy with her right forelimb so she could see his head in front of her. She carried the boy in that arm, using her other three limbs to navigate in the most direct path to the only exit of the enclosure where the boy might be retrieved by the human zoo keeper. She sat there cradling and rocking the limp, blond boy with his face toward hers. Before long, she gently put him down at the exit, moved away, and watched for human intervention. The videos did not show the humans retrieving the boy. The 1997 televised argument of the two men: Was the gorilla exhibiting conscious reasoning ability or merely instinct? One psychologist said the gorilla was acting in a conscientious, sensible manner. The other said the gorilla showed no signs of reasoning, only instinct. It is clear to this viewer that the gorilla was careful and calm in her handling of the boy, including shooing off curious onlookers of the gorilla species. She did not drag him as she might have dragged a dead thing. Her actions appeared to be planned and deliberate. So it continues. B.F.Skinner and reading machines Anyway, the reasoning Gestaltists were overshadowed in the USA by men like behaviorist, B.F. Skinner at Harvard University, whose influence is felt strongly in US education today. Skinner insisted on defining learning ONLY in relation to behavior that could be observed. He felt that a teacher could shape a student or teach a behavior directly using reinforcements, like M&M's, and by taking the student from the simple to the complex, a step at a time. He is famous for his learning machines, which produced sentences, which
the students would complete. He also started the revolution in Programmed Texts, which are intended to allow students to work at their own pace. His sentences and texts confirmed education as reading and reading as education. Active involvement in one's education, as revealed by Aristotle's chicken heart experiments, the value of learning through observations, was forgotten. Developmental theories abound Early in the 20th century, with family members at great distances from each other across the wide expanse of the United States, and with few nearby family doctors, many parents read and wrote to the new magazines for answers to their concerns about their childrens development. The editors turned to the doctors for answers and by the 1940s, doctors and psychologists had begun describing and analyzing the growth and behavior patterns of children. Some studies were accomplished by direct observation, but many more were done through questionnaires in magazines and elsewhere. These studies received notoriety with the publication and popularity, in the 1950s, of Dr. Benjamin Spocks books on childcare and development. Although Dr. Spock and others made slight changes in their advice to parents throughout the following decades to accommodate lifestyle changes, few changes have been made to the theory that all children develop in very similar ways and on slightly varied, but definite timetables. The developmental categories decided upon by most educators were, physical, mental, emotional and social. Another influential psychologist of the 1950s was Dr. Eric Erikson, who wrote about the stages of personal development from birth to old age. Most professors of education were influenced by the psychologists theories.
Psychologists continue to dominate American education With this limited background of what makes education tick in America, here is an up-to-date sampling of varied, expert viewpoints and conclusions on Dyslexia and, or learning disabilities. It is valuable to keep in mind that few if any of these experts have spent time in classrooms working with groups of children whom they label as having dyslexia or other learning disabilities. Dyslexia Expert # 1 Medical Doctor, 1920's. Conclusion: Language disorder of genetic, neurological origin. Around 1920, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, a medical doctor examined a young patient, who, although he appeared to be intelligent, had difficulty in reading, spelling, and in organizing and expressing his thoughts in language. Following the doctor's interview with the family and his examination of this boy, this doctor described the child's symptoms coining the word "dyslexia" to report on his findings. (Note that all symptoms are related to left hemisphere language, sequence, and perhaps to vision timing.) That doctor's most significant diagnostic conclusion concerning this boy and others with similar symptoms was that the boy had an inherited, neurologic, language disorder uncomplicated by other factors. Dyslexia Experts # 2 Todays school psychologists, teachers and professors of education. These specialists are grouped because they are often coming from the same developmental psychology perspective. The child has the problem immaturity For decades, teacher instruction has been based on developmental theory, the idea that children develop naturally at a certain pace and the behavior tells you what
is right or wrong. By kindergarten the developmental screening framework provides for two main categories of students, the mature or immature. Occasionally advanced is considered as a category. It is the teacher's responsibility to separate the mature rabbits from the immature turtles and eventually, to refer for special education screening those children who appear to have serious difficulties with the curriculum as it is presented. The teacher usually makes the first suggestion that a child doesnt fit the norm. The first identification of dyslexia, or learning disability, is often paired with a child's first grade school experience. It is usually here that a child is expected to master the complicated visual, sequential, motor skills needed for reading and writing, although kindergarten may be taking over in that role. Teachers who are familiar with early childhood behavior easily spot those children who strike them as "less mature" than most children, perhaps not yet ready to take on these formidable scholastic tasks. Childs probleminconsistent on tests In order to qualify for any schools Learning Disability Program, the referred child who can not master the necessary scholastic skills must be given an intelligence test by a school psychologist to fulfill the requirement of normal or higher intelligence. Otherwise that child could be referred to programs for the mentally retarded. If the correlation of mental age to chronological age is given a number around 100, plus or minus 25, the IQ is considered average for that age. Between scores of 90 to 110 are clustered the IQ scores of 46% of students. The IQ, Intelligence Quotient, derives a mental age by comparing behaviors, such as pattern matching and vocabulary use, to expectations for that behavior at a particular age. For example, if the child is shown drawings of a dog, cat, or elephant and asked to name them, she will usually be able
18
to do so at age 5 in the USA. If shown pictures of an armadillo or iguana, she might
19
IQ results of child placed in LD program Shows low verbal and higher performance scores
Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning
not know these at age 5 unless she

Borderline Defective
Distribution of IQ Scores
lived near Mexico. Cultural bias and vocabulary are difficult to escape in IQ tests. When the child is across the board, in most subjects, retarded, this shows up on the IQ test as a fairly straight line in the lower scores. When the two-part (performance and language) test line shows peaks and valleys, the psychologist reports that the child has some areas of average intelligence. Dyslexia for the school psychologist is seen as higher scores on the performance section of the test and lower scores on the verbal section, a peaks and valleys test line. Psychologists believe that the poorer performance on the verbal IQ indicates that dyslexia is a language disorder. Speech and language testing are usually included in the childs battery of tests. A child labeled, disabled To the school psychologist then, dyslexia is a language, including reading, learning problem for someone with average or better intelligence in some areas. One school principal defined dyslexia in 1997 as a language processing problem which hinders acquisition of information from printed material. He also said, Dyslexia is
20 a subjective problem to which people try to apply objective diagnoses, definitions and solutions. Dyslexia is analogous to a permanent disability like being educationally mentally retarded, or having a paralysis type of sports injury for which there are no cures. We have a decent knowledge of what causes mental retardation, and paralysis, but what causes dyslexia? MBD, minimal brain dysfunction, or damage is often suggested as a possible cause for learning disabilities, for ADD, attention deficit disorder, or ADHD, ADD with hyperactivity, but theres NO EVIDENCE for brain damage, other than observation by someone looking for a disability and assuming brain damage. The usual elementary school approach to remediation of a child's learning difficulties provides for tutoring and repetition of a school year. Once the traditional educational system has exposed a child's "learning disability", the parents and child are told that in order for this student to succeed in school, the student must work harder and longer on those subject areas that are particularly difficult for this student, reading, writing, or whatever. Boxed in thinking Students identified as Learning Disabled are seldom instructed with specific methods that could make learning any easier for them. No professional educator has seriously considered those "immature" students might not be "immature" and might just need different methods of instruction in the classroom. Students with learning disabilities may be given expensive one on one tutoring using multisensory methods outside of the regular classroom. The idea that using
Very Superior
Mentally Defective
Average
High Average
Low Average
Superior
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multisensory instruction on a regular basis within every classroom has yet to be grasped by the "experts" who control teacher training. By the time people have become university professors of education, responsible for teacher training, there IS only one type of education, the left brain, highly verbal, sequential, analytical education. In that world, intelligence is measured by one's mastery of the written language. Such mastery is boasted by the use of uncommon vocabulary and complicated phrases in published articles. Tax money only for disabilities Learning Disabilities is the legal terminology for dyslexia used by the department of education so that the state or federal government will supply tax money for the expensive special education classes. One has to be labeled "disabled" to receive tax benefits. Many experts still use the term minimal brain dysfunction to describe students said to be learning handicapped. Since such terminology has negative connotations, the term dyslexia (less connected to negative connotations) has come into popular use. Experts #3 Present-day, medical doctors. Conclusion: Dyslexia is a language disorder that may be caused by other than genetic factors. Disease or brain injury can cause dyslexia and these possibilities give rise to many more symptoms. Today, most doctors and psychologists agree with the 1920 definition that dyslexia is a language disorder, but not all agree that it is inherited. The 1920 definition of dyslexia is now called "Classic Dyslexia". Many modern definitions of dyslexia include other causes, many more symptoms and other conclusions. To determine if one has dyslexia, a speech and language evaluation is required, but for some reason the idea of linking vision to
dyslexia was discarded long ago by the professional community. Nearly all modern, medical professionals prescribe drugs like Ritalin, a stimulant, for most problems related to learning difficulties. There is little or no monitoring of these drugs effectiveness in schools today. Expert # 4 Dr. Samuel Orton, neurologist, 1928. Conclusion: Reversals and speech difficulties common to most or all dyslexics arise from "inconsistent hemispheric dominance". Dr. Orton thought that the brain's two hemispheres were mirror images of each other and in people with dyslexia the two hemispheres contest each other for control. Although modern investigation has disproved that theory, stuttering has been shown to be related to contests for hemispheric dominance and control. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of Orton Dyslexic Schools throughout the USA and elsewhere that consider language to be at the heart of dyslexia. The following quotes from 1997 advertisements for enrollment in this private school for dyslexic students emphasize the idea that dyslexia is a language problem. "This school provides a complete multisensory education for children with dyslexia and language processing problems." "Children do not outgrow language learning disabilities..." "Early identification of language disabilities can make it possible for children to experience success in school." Continued emphasis on vision as a learning strength Orton schools use flash cards, writing tasks and written tests in all levels of remediation. The use of these methods indicates an emphasis on vision as a learning strength. If vision is a learning strength and all schools are visually oriented, then why are these students having learning problems?
Orton schools also provide much hands-on instruction for their classes of 6 to 10 students. When interviewed, one teacher said they provide the hands on activities to increase student interest, not because students need it. The tuition for enrollment in this school was $13,600.00/yr in 1997. Assessment screening costs were $3000.00 or more per student, a cost often assigned to public schools and taxpayers, while the private school keeps the $3000.00. Locally, prospective students are now referred outside the Orton school for the WISC, an intelligence test, which is the only test given. No sensory or dominance tests here. Expert #5 Harvard University researchers, 197090's. Conclusion: Dyslexia is caused by "faulty wiring", disarrayed cells in the language centers, and other abnormalities of the brain. In the 1970's, a bright young man who was unable to read or write was killed in an auto accident. A surgeon who had befriended the dyslexic, young man before his death asked for and received permission to examine the dead man's brain under a microscope. The surgeon and researchers discovered that whereas the cells in the upper cortical layers of a normal human brain are laid out in even rows, this brain's layers in some areas were all askew. The disorganized cells were not caused by the accident. Something must have disturbed the brain's development before birth. From the examination of this one brain in the 1970's, these researchers concluded that dyslexia is caused by a disarray of the brain's cortical cells and layers. Such a diagnosis would suggest that learning as we understand it would not be possible for dyslexics. Most people diagnosed with dyslexia do learn to read. Could that unfortunate young man have had an uncommon type of dyslexia? Further studies of brains of deceased dyslexics are still minimal in number and do not confirm the disarray theory for dyslexics in general.
22 Harvards Dr. Galaburda has been trying to prove this link or other brain abnormalities with dyslexia. A "Scientific American" August 1995 update from Harvard University regarding this neuroscientist reports that Dr. G. has himself drawn fire for a report published in August 1994 ... that dyslexics suffer from abnormally small neurons in a region of the thalamus that processes auditory signals. Critics point out that Dr. Gs article was based on autopsies of only nine brains; they also challenge evidence he presents that his subjects were dyslexics. For instance, Dr. G. classified one brain as dyslexic based on a single reported spelling test given to the subject by a tutor. Expert # 6 Most 1990's professionals including education specialists Conclusion: Dyslexia is a Perceptual problem. Most education and medical professionals believe that dyslexics have perceptual problems meaning that their brains are not correctly interpreting the information received from their senses. These professionals believe that individuals with learning disabilities have brain abnormalities that render them unable to receive and record incoming information without distortion. The breakdown between signals sent to the brain from the senses and the alleged malfunction of their interpretation is not understood. Neurologists believe that there could be small lesions (areas of damage) in the brain which cause dyslexia. One can only speculate as to how and when these alleged lesions got there. Because of their beliefs, scientists are looking for brain abnormalities and will probably cling to that idea. The December 2, 1997 San Jose Mercury News published an article titled, Dyslexia linked to faulty vision. Study departs from prevailing theory. Dr. David Heeger, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University and
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two graduate students performed comparison studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging on the living brains of 5 students who scored below the tenth percentile in reading and 5 students of normal reading ability. They found less activity in the visual areas of the brains of dyslexic students, as compared to those of faster readers. Another authority on dyslexia, Dr. Drake Duane, was reported, in a September 1991 New York Times, to have said, A new finding about dyslexia suggests that the disorder may not be a malfunction in the way people understand language, but rather a brain abnormality that involves the sense of vision, and perhaps also hearing and touch. The article goes on to say, A team of prominent brain researchers reported in 1991 that studies of five living dyslexic people, as well as autopsies of five dyslexic brains, suggested that the condition might be a failure of the visual systems circuit to keep proper timing. Perhaps these are the same brains that were examined at Harvard? With figures for people with learning disabilities ranging higher than 10% of the population, 5 or 10 brains are too few to draw any conclusions. Expert # 7 Helen Irlen, School Counselor. Conclusion: White light, including white pages cause distortion of script for certain light sensitive dyslexics. This sensitivity causes print to appear to move and change shape on the page, causing dyslexia. Irlen calls this problem "Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome". As usual, the complicated terminology suggests that only experts should screen for white light sensitivity. Ms. Irlen concludes that a dyslexic's reading problems may be due to their super sensitivity to particular colors and or bright light. She believes that each person has an optimal color which when provided as transparent colored overlays or
in lenses clears up the student's difficulties with reading and writing on white pages or under fluorescent lights. Most of the other "Experts" deny Ms. Irlen's conclusions. One high school student interviewed in 1994 told me that Irlen colors cleared up his reading difficulties, which improved his life 100%. He now wears Irlen blue contact lenses daily. His appearance, attitude and life are happier. In the July 1997 Readers Digest is the story, The Seeing Glass by Jacqueline Gorman. Both the author and her brother found that an iced tea colored glass helped them see more clearly. An optometrist told that author, that part of the yellow spectrum had been in research and development for 15 years, and now was used by many people to enhance visual acuity. Expert # 8 U.S. Government Specialists. Conclusion: In order to qualify for special education financial aid a person must have some degree of from 1 to 35 or more symptoms listed for dyslexia, attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities in general. For some medical problems there are definitive tests that confirm or deny a possible diagnosis. A throat culture ordered by your doctor can confirm if your severe sore throat is a streptococcal infection for which specific medication can be expected to provide relief. Fuzzy diagnoses, circular reasoning Dyslexia and learning disabilities in general are like many diseases where causes and cures are in the FUZZY league. No two people appear to have the exact same symptoms, or the same degree of severity of symptoms. There is no specific test to confirm or deny a diagnosis of learning disability or dyslexia in the community of experts. For government processing of requests for financial aid for learning
disabilities, the medical and psychological experts rely on lists of symptoms to determine the legal diagnosis of any learning disability. Many of these experts derive their lists, not from scientific study, but from reports and limited interviews provided by parents, teachers and students. These lists for specifically named learning disabilities consist of itemized characteristics that have been associated with a learning disability in previously diagnosed individuals. This is like saying, I have trouble reading. Dyslexic people have trouble reading. Therefore, I have dyslexia. The number of symptoms required for a diagnosis can range from one or two to all of those listed. The degree of difficulty with any symptom listed for a learning disability diagnosis is also anyones guess. SOME of the more common symptoms on diagnostic lists are DIFFICULTIES WITH: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. reading, comprehending and using language, writing, spelling, times tables and other directional, linear, sequential information, 6. memory, 7. inattentiveness, and 8. organizing one's thoughts or personal environment. Besides huge variation in the number and severity of each person's symptoms, how quickly a more intelligent dyslexic student devises clever compensational methods, in order to appear normal, should be considered. Girls, especially, are overlooked in this way. In conclusion There are many "experts" with many views on what dyslexia is or isnt. There are also numerous, vague suggestions on how to fix or manage learning disabilities. In this
24 sense the experts are like the blind men and the elephant. Perhaps they are all right and all wrong. When there is no clear, comprehensive diagnosis of a problem there can be no specific, valid treatment either. These definitions do not even touch on conclusions related to newer sophisticated technology, including a search for the dyslexia gene. In the 1990s decade of the brain, research money or grants to study dyslexia and learning disabilities have gone to those with doctoral degrees in labs, who agree they are looking for clues for brain malfunctioning. Their experiences and studies are not garnered in the classrooms where most dyslexic students can be found, but rather in neuroscience labs doing experiments on rat or monkey brains while reading the published papers of their professors. These scientific experts write erudite papers on their research which when published are usually considered to be the expert guide for educators in the field of dyslexia. These newer technologies keep the usual distance between the scientists and their human subjects while producing a stream of new causes for, or theories about dyslexia. The real experts The majority of the work done and time spent with young children, including those with dyslexia, or nontraditional learning patterns, continues to be done by women. Yet, those who spend most of their time with these children are not numbered among the "experts". These real experts have much to teach usas much as the research neuroscientists do.
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Chapter 3. Laterality: A New, Overarching Perspective on Dyslexia
The result of years of thorough record keeping of screening and instruction for both learning disabled and regular students demonstrates a significant correlation between test results and learning strengths and weaknesses. Neither brain damage or language problems appear to be at the heart of the dyslexia problem. Perhaps, for most people, dyslexia isnt really a disability. In those years beyond my introduction to the realm of special education, what I learned about how we learn has great import for teachers and for others who are interested in instruction. 85% of learning is visual Humans have always relied more on the vision sense, but the other senses also play important roles in learning. Recent neuroscience finds that 70% of our brains relate to vision or our visual sense. Optometrists tell us that 80% to 85% of human learning is visual. In many schools, approximately 80% of that 85% is concentrated, near vision work at desk and monitor level. The change for most humans, from distance vision to near vision work requirements, has been wrought in a short time period, during the last century. The loss of farms, ranches and other outdoor work has played a part. The skills of listening and paying attention to each other are less common now that we have the constant chatter and noise of items like television, computer screens, and radio in our environments. The couch potato syndrome means that Americans are much less in touch with their bodys signals from joint, muscle, nerve sensations as well as being out of touch with being in touch,
skin to skin. In general, learning is relegated to one of three modes: visual, auditory or tactile-kinesthetic. Most people use all of their senses for learning new information, but humans tend to be predominantly visual learners. Is dyslexia language or laterality? How is the decision made as to whether dyslexia is a problem of language or laterality, or of hearing or vision? There were few guidelines when I was pressed into a new career of working with Educationally and Emotionally Handicapped or E.H students. Today these are the Learning Disabled and dyslexic students. Whatever they are called, these were the students whose intelligence scores prohibited their placement in classes for the Educationally Mentally Retarded. At the same time, these students were as much as 2 or more years behind their peers in scholastic subjects and usually they were totally unmanageable for classroom teachers. Several spinal injuries received while practicing as a registered physical therapist left me unable to continue my medical career, in that profession. As sole support for three children and myself, not working was not an option for me. After retraining through the states rehabilitation training program, I was ready to take on my new profession as a health education specialist in the junior college. But the job that was available to me then was this need for a special education teacher in elementary school. Special education training My first two years in the special education program were spent with 5 to 9 year olds in the program for orthopedically
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handicapped or OH children. These were children with every conceivable level of physical, mental, emotional and social ability and disability. Throughout these years of training myself to be proficient at my new work in special education, I sought help wherever it could be found. School district, educational consultants were especially helpful. Through them I was introduced to skill level tests and was impressed while watching an experienced teacher instruct her young students in phonics based, programmed reading. My credential studies continued with night and summer vacation courses. Over the next 12 years, seven California teaching and counseling credentials, including my Life Specialist in Learning Handicapped and my Resource Specialist Certificate were earned and registered at state and county offices of education. Revision of student evaluations While searching beyond subject grade levels for answers to my students' learning problems, I eventually arrived at an evaluation system with important differences from the conventional, grade level system. My student screening became an evaluation desired by teachers, but often berated or ignored by school psychologists and some administrators. It was different. Most school administrators were grateful for any positive strides being made in educating these problem students. But, the administrator and psychologist from one school district were so antagonistic to my changes from performing only skill testing, that managing a limited version of my sensory dominant evaluation had to be done secretly. It was the only evaluation that provided the information needed to know HOW to help Learning Disabled children learn.
My job is to chase the kids who run away My next job-related move was on to Marysville, CA, to another special education program. There, my work began with E.H., the program for Educationally and Emotionally Handicapped, boys, and later girls. One teacher and one aide were assigned to manage 12 students whose ages ranged from 6 to 12 years. Most of the students were pubescent, hyperactive boys who had come to hate school. That knowledge would come later. Actually, I had no idea about what I was getting into. Later, I learned that the turnover rate for preceding teachers of E.H. students was very high. Few stayed for more than one year, if they lasted that long. But, somehow, with my background in psychology, these students became an interesting challenge. My aide, Ana, was an easy-going young woman in her twenties who had worked with a number of previous "one year's enuf" teachers of this group of Educationally and Emotionally Handicapped students. When asked what her job had been with previous teachers, I was astounded when she told me that she had spent most of her time playfully entreating those boys who ran away from class daily to return with her. Is that in the job description? And what did the teachers do? Skill tests and empty charts The big question for me in Marysville, following the requisition of basic classroom furniture and everything else, was, "Where do we go from here?" Student charts were a sham. They contained little or no useful information. It was important for me to find some workable diagnoses for each student so that a "treatment" of the students problems that would lead to scholastic and emotional growth, could begin. Following limited trust building with the students, I did a conventional, baseline
pretest profile for each child, using available academic skill tests recommended by the educational consultant. Some of those tests were Frostig's Visual Perception, Dolch Sight-word Spelling, Durrell's Reading Skills, and scores from previous all-school tests, such as the CTBS (The California Test of Basic Skills). Baseline scores at preschool level The baseline pretests showed me that most of my students' reading, writing, arithmetic, motor and other skills were at a preschool or a very early grade level. They were off the charts on the low end. What this kind of skill testing did not show was how one tackles the instruction of pubescent boys, who don't know much academically, and who seemingly, couldn't care less. Also, how did one deal with and manage their outrageous behavior on a daily basis? DiagnosisPrescription My medical training demands that I get the best diagnosis available to me before beginning the prescriptive treatment or education. For example, what are the problems related to these boys lack of learning? Most school personnel are so immersed in grade level processing that they seldom seek or even think about diagnoses related to sensory deficits and the personal difficulties of the learners. Classroom testing is related to a subject, after the teacher has presented the material, usually by teachers lecture or by students reading from a textbook. No thought to information processing Testing has had nothing to do with a student's learning pattern, how a student is or is not processing information. No thought is given for how one hears or sees unless a student's sensory deficit is serious enough for special class placement for legally blind or deaf students. If the student did not do well on the test, then it is the lazy or immature student who was at fault. If the
28 student falls far enough behind in class, then the student is often put on a lengthy waiting list to be tested by the school psychologist to see if the child is mentally capable of learning. The psychologist is often over scheduled, and aside from his skills tests, has no other contact with most students. Test standardization by psychologists School psychologists and administrators in general deny the use of simple sensory testing. They claim that if testing can not be standardized, it is useless and unreliable. The psychologists can not agree that asking a child to follow your fingertip with her eyes, to see how the eyes follow or track, can be done competently by someone other than a medical doctor. My disagreement with that assessment of sensory-dominant testing does not negate the common sense rules of standardized testing. Standardization implies uniformity of procedure: timing, instructions, et cetera, so that the test scores are reliable. Reliability refers to consistency of the scores upon retesting. E.g.: If every tester follows the same procedure, then retesting would give the same results. Validity implies that a test measures what it was meant to measure. For reasons of validity, psychologists want to keep IQ test information secret so that pre-knowledge of questions will not falsify test results. Results affected by many things Actually, any screening or testing is about as reliable as the persons involved in any given situation. One day, a psychologist sat at one end of a table in my small, special education room to test a six-year old student. The psychologist tried the usual approach, "We're going to play some games." The student, who had just been pulled out of a classroom activity without warning said, "I don't want to play those games." The psychologist said, "Well, we're going to do them because this is when you're on my
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schedule." The child cried. The psychologist began his intelligence testing on the child. How much trust, reliability and validity is in this situation? Test reliability and validity can be dependent on the emotional state of the person being tested. A young girl came to me one morning to be tested with the Stanford-Binet IQ test, for GATE, the Gifted And Talented Program. It is usually a good idea with any test, to be sure that students are relaxed before testing them. This girl was upset about something. Given permission, she told me that her pet cat had been run over by a car that very morning. We decided that we could do the test another time because her present mental and emotional distraction would make test results unreliable. IQs do change Time constraints make such exceptions to scheduling nigh impossible for very busy psychologists. Some school psychologists readily admit that their intelligence screening may be unreliable. One nine year old boy was placed in my classroom for the Learning Handicapped, with an IQ (intelligence quotient) of 67, which is below the admissible IQ for the Learning Handicapped Program. The school psychologist told me that he believed this boy was more intelligent than his score would suggest because this boy, at that time, was severely, emotionally disturbed. Screening showed me that this boy was also crossed dominant and of course way behind in scholastic skills. That was January of 1973. In May 1973, and the time for re-evaluation of special education students, this boy's I.Q. had climbed past the 100 mark. Even the school psychologist was amazed. He wrote a letter commending me on my diligent work with this boy. It wouldnt be sensible to take too much credit here as I would not want to be blamed if this boy had not wanted to and had not made the
effort to improve. Progress was and is a joint effort. Writing, arithmetic and reading = WAR The impetus for this boy to change his behavior for the better probably came from the work involved in the "M" of WARM for my WARM classroom meetings. The "M" stood for meetings and much more. You will often hear that the initial letters of the main educational curriculum spell WAR. The "W" is for writing, the "A" for Arithmetic, and the "R" is for reading. Without the "M", the letters, WAR, often spell war in the classroom in more ways than one. The meetings, which allowed students to air their feelings in a controlled manner, permitted a change from the warlike atmosphere of a classroom into a much warmer climate. See Part 3, WIG. Breakthrough with graphs Looking for a way to help the parents of my students see and understand the growth or changes in their child's school performance between August/September and the following June, the idea of bar graphs came to mind. Hand colored, bar graphs were made for each student. The vertical axis, bottom to top line, represented each six months of age. It was necessary to start with preschool ages of four to four and one-half years at the bottom of this axis because of the students' initial low scores. This vertical axis moved up to eighth grade level at the top, age 12, the actual age of several students. Listed along the horizontal axis, left to right, were the various sub-tests of those skill tests administered earlier in the year, tests like Durrell's Reading and Frostig's Visual Perception. For each six month's of growth, a quarter inch box was colored in red for the pre-testing, then green was added for the post-testing. Later, slanted lines or patterns were added to the colors so that black and white photocopies could be made.
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Chapter 3. Laterality : A New, Overarching Perspective on Dyslexia
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It is not a language problem A special insight became evident. These kids' learning difficulties were not with language, but with visual perception and their difficulties were somehow related to crossed dominance. NEARLY ALL of my STUDENTS HAD SERIOUS DIFFICULTIES WITH PURELY VISUAL TASKS, ALTHOUGH NONE OF THEM WORE CORRECTIVE LENSES. Silent reading speed and comprehension of silent reading and other visual perception skills, such as outlining a star among several stars without becoming confused, and other visual motor skills, like handwriting, were especially difficult for these students. These same students began to excel in auditory tasks, such as remembering what they had heard and comprehending what they slowly read aloud. In other words, 99% of my students were auditory learners. Spoken language was their strength, not their weakness. Parent-teacher communication With the advent of my colored bar graphs and explanations for their meaning at parent-teacher conferences, the parents became my most enthusiastic supporters. Most had heard nothing but bad news in prior years. If they were unsure of their child's scholastic growth before, now they could see the upward growth with the graphs and regressions back down the graphs, after summer vacations. Laterality testing Another valuable insight for me was that the majority of my students were crossed dominant. My introduction to "Laterality", the dominance of one side of the body over the other, started in 1968. During a weekend seminar, Robert E. Valett, Ed.D. introduced us to his new test called, "A Psycho-educational Inventory of Basic Learning Abilities". Dr. Valetts test was divided into six areas: Gross Motor
Development, Sensory Motor Integration, Perceptual Motor Skills, Language Development, Conceptual Skills, and Social Skills. In the Sensory Motor Integration section of this Inventory, Dr. Valett introduced Laterality: hand, eye and foot dominance. Oral directions to the student were something like: "Hand me that pencil. Look out the window with this cardboard telescope." The evaluator noted which hand, eye, or foot was used in these acts. The rating scale from 0 to 100, also designated very weak to very strong, for all 159 individual task areas, was unwieldy as well as subjective. Even with an aide, a complete evaluation required from several days to weeks for each student. Although his whole evaluation was impractical for classroom use, information concerning laterality in education was added to my student evaluations. The relevance of laterality to learning or how one dealt with laterality and learning was not revealed at this seminar, nor at any other. But checking students' laterality now took its place on my graph pages, along with grade level subtests in reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics, etc. When summer courses at The Yuba County Reading Learning Center in CA were on my agenda, we checked for laterality, including a test for ambidexterity. And once more, there was no clue as to why we were doing this, or what it would mean after the testing was done. The majority of my Learning Handicapped students continued to have crossed dominant laterality. Different vision in each eye With training from optometrists, much later in my career, I became aware that some children used different eyes depending on whether the task required the eyes to focus near or far. Actually, many of us have different visual acuity, unequal
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vision, in our eyes, although our best vision is usually on our dominant side. Near vision is that vision needed for tasks accomplished within arm's length. The near vision eye proved to be most important for reading and other close work skills required at school. How does perception affect learning? This set of facts about laterality and vision, garnered through my direct work with students in classrooms, brought into question the prevailing definition of dyslexia as a language problem. The other big question, "How do crossed dominance and visual perception problems affect how one learns?" Could this combination of crossed dominance and visual perception problems cause one type of dyslexia? Since most of my students shared these two symptoms, could they cause the majority of dyslexia? The most common type of crossed dominance throughout my screening was caused by the use of the dominant eye opposite one's natural laterality, their right or left sided preference. In other words, many were right sided, but had left eye dominance. Some were left sided and right eye dominant. What exactly is a visual learner? To continue, it is necessary to define for this book at least, what is meant by visual learner and non-visual learner. In recent years, this term has been bandied about to the tune of opposite meanings. To the optometrist who tells us that 85% of learning is visual, he infers that we take in most of what we know through our eyes, by using our vision. We see and remember what we saw. If we don't remember what we saw, which is to have adequate visual memory, we wouldn't be visual learners. Visual learning also involves understanding what we saw, or visual perception, connecting what was seen to
something we remember. To be a good visual learner would thus imply that we had adequate visual ability through our eyes and their connections within our brains. A visual learner would probably not have difficulty learning to read and write, or do two-dimensional visual work at desk and board distances. A visual learner is one who is capable of and prefers learning by means of what he sees through activation of the visual cortex. and its connections in the brain. This student takes in, processes and remembers what he sees in preference to what he hears or feels. She silently reads a text as her sole preparation for a test and can recall what she saw on the pages to pass the exam. She will usually be quieter in class than the auditory student, so that she can escape into reading her book. At times, some people can "see" the pages containing the answers needed for a test, or whatever, for more than a day afterward. This is called a photographic memory. Most of us do not have a photographic memory at our disposal, but most of us can look at a word, design or phone number and write or repeat it when that visual stimulus is removed. For nonvisual learners, such an ability may be limited or almost absent. But there are ways to help these students improve visual and or total memory. Visual imagery aptitude On the other side, the term visual learner, is regularly used by other writers and educators to refer to a person who has good visual imagery ability. These imagery thinkers may be dreadful at reading and writing and other visual and sequential subjects. Imagery doesn't have to be visual although it usually is. One could be blind and have excellent imagery abilities. E.g.: This is a slightly shortened quote of a teacher describing a student she has labeled a visual learner.
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"He struggled to pass Spanish and spelling, but he had a strong interest in activities with a visual bent. His teacher realized that he was a visual learner and would excel in areas where he could apply his visual skills." This teacher directed the student toward imagery and art. The preceding visual imagery definition is in opposition to the optometrist's and this books use of the term, visual learner. The student described by his teacher had good visualization or imagery skills, a right brain, spatial attribute. If he had good visual memory, he would more likely have succeeded in spelling and Spanish vocabulary, primarily left brain attributes. Sequential skills such as spelling and vocabulary, or language in general, are located in the left hemisphere of 95% of humans. A strong visual imagery bent is more related to visual crossed dominance with a left eye dominant, right brain view of the world. Building sensory learning abilities When students have serious difficulty with two-dimensional, visual symbols, words on paper, for example, or with sequencing as in spelling, they will usually depend more on their auditory abilities and their spatial-imagery skills for learning. They can build their motorkinesthetic abilities, such as tracing and handwriting, with hands-on training. They may be able to build up their visualsequential skills, but their learning strength may never lie in this area. Desk work more common now Today's world requires greater numbers of us to manage more near vision tasks than was the case for our grandparents, or even for our parents. When one could live and work on a small farm, a way of life disappearing in our modern technological world, one might get by with amblyopia, myopia (nearsightedness), or hyperopia (farsightedness).
Children can not define their problem When visual perception problems cause young children discomfort, these children unconsciously try to avoid visual tasks altogether. The consequences of this avoidance show up as behavior problems in school. Until children's visual perception problems are thoroughly evaluated, children naturally believe that everyone sees the way they do. If the teacher says that something is wrong, the child feels responsible, but helpless and frustrated. They are too young to know what's wrong or even that the problem for nonvisual learners may be that the instructional system is asking the impossible of them. All they know is that they can't do what you're asking them to do and so they don't want to do that. The resistance of these non-visual learners may come across to adults as stubbornness and "immaturity". One-to-one tutoring, an auditory method Most teachers and school administrators mistakenly believe that students having difficulty with reading tasks need a one-to-one instructional approach. What are these students getting in a one-toone learning situation that they are not getting in the classroom, besides attention? They are getting a lot more auditory and perhaps, manipulative, tactilekinesthetic input. The teacher, aide or parent who is working with one or two children is talking to them, is carrying on a conversation with them about the subject. Also this instructor is probably showing the "how to" with a manipulative approach. This extra auditory input with the visual, and the extra kinesthetic input with the visual, provides a more concentrated multisensory learning environment which is helpful. Auditory students The information picked up by the hearing of our non-visual learners, it would seem, is more easily interpreted and
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understood by their brains than is visual instruction, such as workbooks and texts. The language ability of these same children supports the fact that they are not lacking in ability to think, to understand, or to solve problems. Most of these auditory students are consistently expert in talking. They are often considered loud because this is their main way of getting attention in school. Sometimes they talk incessantly, as a way of informing their own brains and memories. The auditory learner does better at remembering what he hears. The auditory area of the brain is in the temporal lobes on the sides of the brain, whereas the visual area is in the occipital lobes at the back of the brain. These brain areas respond differently. An auditory student may be looking away from the instructor as if he/she was paying no attention to the lecture or lesson, but when the teacher calls on him/her to catch him/her off guard, that student can recite the instructors words verbatim. This is short-term auditory memory at work. Kinesthetic students Kinesthetic learners enhance their memories by feeling things, such as: fuzzy letters, rhythmic movements or body positions. Sometimes it is just a body connection or "feel" for a particular communication, but the body's muscles, joint and skin sensors make their own contribution to knowledge. Motorkinesthetic responses are located in different areas of the brain from the visual or auditory areas although all are interconnected at the midbrain and through association pathways in each hemisphere. Dancing is very kinesthetic and was something this author enjoyed doing since childhood. As a young adult, performing in an army special services show, some male Caribbean dancers challenged me by demonstrating the speedy, intricate footwork of their dances. We were all amazed when without a thought, my feet imitated their
moves to perfection. It would have been impossible to analyze in words or pictures what my body knew how to do. That was kinesthetic learning. Gymnasts or skaters know by a muscle-joint sensation when they are perfectly balanced. United States, eighttime gold medal diver, Greg Louganis, practiced one dive 500 times, making fine adjustments in his mind and body until he knew that his body was responding perfectly. The rocking student There was one little bilingual girl in my class who used a rocking motion to enhance her recall of a story. The speech and language therapist said that this girl had language problems in both her native Spanish and in English. Movement of the head or body as a whole stimulates the otoliths, those tiny ear stones in the sacs of the inner ear, which tell us which way we're moving. See Chapter 12 for more on the inner ear. According to scientists, these crystals are also important in improving visual memory. Many people turn their heads, a kind of quick spin on the neck to move the otoliths within the head. This helps their visual memory. Neurophysiologists like the Nobel Winner, Santiago Cajal, have studied the effects of the semicircular canals and Vestibular System, of the inner ear, on learning. He suggests exercises like log rolling, swinging and crawling to increase development of this system. Although not an expert on Cajals work, the natural rocking response of a little girl made it possible for her to retell a story which she could not do while sitting still. Any mental effort on her part seemed to require her to move, yet she was not hyperactive. Use of learning paths best suited to needs When one has a sensory deficit, early educational intervention using the sensory learning paths best suited to the needs of
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each person, is a deciding factor toward making complex learning possible. Most crossed dominant students are less adept at learning visually and more adept at learning through auditory and kinesthetic paths. All of us, except the blind and deaf, use a combination of visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning, but we usually prefer one mode to the other. Not all crossed dominant individuals have apparent learning difficulties, but a much greater percentage of crossed dominant individuals as compared to straight dominant individuals do have learning difficulties or dyslexia. The majority of students identified as having learning problems are the crossed dominant students. See Chap. 8, Claras Classes. Self-check questions for teachers One of the surest ways to lose the attention of at least one third of the students, in the average classroom, is to say, "Sit quietly and read or work on your papers." Teachers could become more aware of their own teaching and reinforcement methods. Some self-check questions: 1. Are you rewarding only those students most adept in visual-verbal skills? 2. Could you do more to enhance the contributions of intelligent students who are slower readers or poor spellers? 3. Are you aware of right brain thinkers? 4. Do you consider their thoughts and contributions as valuable and show that through varied instructional methods? 5. Do you encourage oral repetitions? 6. Are you providing kinesthetic reinforcement with the sign alphabet for spelling? 7. Do you use audio tape recorders on a daily basis for your auditory students? Teachers must reach all students It is incorrect and immoral to label crossed dominant children as learning disabled. They may have different learning strengths from those who have monopolized
education as a left brain, verbal enterprise, but they are not disabled. Constant and consistent multisensory education is important not only to make education relevant to all types of learners, but also to encourage use of right brain learning by left brain students. Multisensory methods benefit all students. Most important, multisensory, investigative, hands-on and non-visual approaches in teaching would help auditory, kinesthetic and right hemisphere learners to be successful with fellow students within their own classroom. Each teacher needs to learn how to use multisensory and right brain instruction as well as the visual-verbal left brain instruction for every lesson, even if it means working with two groups in the classroom. It does not make sense to revert to pre1980's understandings of education and the brain. Until then most educated people had right brain atrophy or never knew that they had a right brain. Humans and Knowledge We count time and knowledge from the earliest written documents. This equates knowledge with the manipulation of relatively small printed symbols. We owe a great debt to those who wrote and to those who write today about their knowledge. It is important that every person, capable of doing so, learn to read, write and manage academic skills. We often forget that the majority of humans who lived before our century managed their lives very well with minimal knowledge of written symbols. Those illiterate forebears of ours, the storytellers, were not less intelligent than their contemporary storywriters. Scribes were and always will be valued. Different societies of human beings have placed greater or lesser emphasis on abilities other than the near-vision ability to read and write.
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Intellectual ancestry Contributions of intellect other than the visual manipulation of tiny symbols have always included various abilities. Among these are dance, song and music, storytelling, acting and games, wood carving, sculpture and painting, pottery making, weaving and sewing, architecture, designing workable living environments and cities, farming and gardening, exploring ideas and worlds, ship building, general building and carpentry, developing and making machinery and creating in general, including our world of culinary delights. Of equal importance have been the skills needed for developing social and personal relationships and communications, bridging gaps between different cultures, learning to love others, warts and all. Illiterate peoples have developed communities and governments for mutual support and enrichment. Literate scientists are rushing to learn about jungle medicines and healing techniques from illiterate people in illiterate societies before our so-called developed societies totally destroy the jungles of our planet by our unceasing demands. We will continue to struggle to find a balance between our human population growth and our manipulation or management of the limited resources of our planet. All these skills and so much more were available to humans before the invention of the printing press or the microchip, before computers and the information super highway. All of the above and much more still constitute some of the most enriching and rewarding behavior of human beings. Learning Patterns Without diminishing the value of what one needs to know or manage in the developed world during the first five or ten years of physical and mental development, research indicates that it is as or more
important to understand how a child best relates to the learning environment. The how is concerned with each persons particular learning pattern, whether it be visual, auditory, tactile-kinesthetic or the usual combination of all three modes of learning. The mode of learning also depends on which cerebral hemisphere dominates in the processes of intake, storage, and re-call of information. These activities constitute learning in the brain of each individual. Intelligence has been defined as one's capacity to learn, but different people have different learning strengths, different capacities for various types of learning, e.g. Stevie Wonder is highly intelligent and creative even though his vision sense did not develop normally. Since for the majority of sighted people, vision plays the dominant role in how they relate to the world, they often take for granted the viability of this sense. Adults expect very young children to perform tasks that require perfect visual coordination and 20/20 visual acuity while totally overlooking the requirement for early development and screening of children's visual and coordination abilities. Identifying students at risk The parents and classroom teachers of these young children must screen children early for their children's sensory dominant learning patterns. Learning patterns are always related to brain dominance, the senses and sensory motor coordination. The present developmental screening with traditional left hemisphere and visual demands on students are often unnecessarily frustrating to both students and to educators. Using this learning pattern system of diagnosis and prescription will encourage an understanding and recognition of more than one learning pattern as normal. No one loses out.
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Learning for everyone is improved because the five senses and dual brain hemispheres are common to all humans. It is hoped that educators will stretch their imaginations so that they will once again encompass, acknowledge and more equally reward intelligence that ranges beyond how much and how fast a person can read. This stretch could change something very basic in our educational system. Something so simple The causes of dyslexia or learning disabilities in general can be as varied as the people so labeled. Even though there are shared characteristics, as with all human comparisons, no two people with dyslexia or learning problems are exactly alike. The causes of dyslexia or reading problems can range from genetics, to minimal brain damage, to something seemingly as simple and as overlooked as LATERALITY, or dominance. This knowledge regarding crossed dominance and vision problems for the majority of learning disabled or dyslexic children gives parents, teachers and others interested in dyslexia and learning problems something they can easily use for identifying and helping at-risk or dyslexic youngsters.
A sensible base for successful instruction Anyone can learn to discern the learning profile of each child and then align instructional methods with that profile. 1. You don't have to be a specialist to screen your children at home or in school with the tests included in Part 2. 2. You don't have to spend more money for testing than you can afford just to see if and where a learning difference exists. Awareness of the differences might lessen educational or school problems. 3. The knowledge attained with sensory dominant screening helps to build a trust relationship with those involved in the child's education and development. 4. You will need some screening tools which are easy for you to use and which go beyond the two dimensions of paper and pencil. Use Part 2, Screening. 5. The best person to do pre- and postscreening is (are) the adult(s) who will be directly responsible for the intellectual and emotional growth of these students. That's you. 6. With a little practice, sensory and dominance screening will become easy for you to accomplish. The valuable information attained will be reliable and valid and will form the sensible base upon which you can plan your successful instruction.
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Chapter 4. Don't Throw Seeds to the Lions
Teachers, parents, educators in general, can and will do a much better job of instructing children in classrooms or at home, when they first find out how the child is processing information expected to be learned. This is easy to do when you know what to look for. The simple tools required are now available. As human beings we are one species much more alike than we are different, but for the sake of analogy, just imagine for a moment that we are like different species in a zoo. As different species we have different ways of understanding and learning new material. Dogs sniff, cats watch, birds listen. And people, well? Actually, the human species is probably more adaptable than other animal, bird or reptile species. We live in extremes of climate, from desert dwellers in Arabia to frozen earth dwellers in Siberia. What we eat, how we live, how we socialize or specialize, how we communicate covers a wide spectrum. Even in appearance we can seem quite different. There is a photograph of the famous race horse jockey, Willie Shoemaker, all of five feet tall standing next to a famous basketball player, Wilt Chamberlain, standing more than eight feet tall. Beyond this, the jockey's job trained him to flex his body into a smaller, tighter position. The basketball player's job is performed in extension, stretching his body out to appear even longer than he is. They dont throw seeds to lions In the zoo they don't throw seeds to the lions. The lions are given a diet of fresh, red meat. The sea lions are given fresh fish
to eat. Exotic jungle birds are fed fresh fruit and elephants get hay. Scientists have spent thousands of hours and dollars in order to learn exactly what to feed various species, and how to keep them content in enclosures. We have learned through these scientists how each species behaves in its own habitat so that we will recognize when certain behavior in captivity signals that something is wrong. We have also learned much about each species abilities, such as the salt water fishing abilities of cormorants, or the sea creatures dependence on sound and vibration to survive in the deep. We probably know more about how animals learn than we do about how children learn. The human being relies on all of his senses working in concert, but the average human usually relies most heavily on his vision sense to get by in his environment. Human sensory and learning variations The human is more adaptable in the security of a human community, with the loss of one or more senses, than are other species. In other words, blind or deaf humans can survive comfortably in most societies, whereas a blinded lion can not survive. On the other side of this equation, wild animals with minor physical or sensory deficits may manage better in the wild than a human child can manage in school with similar minor deficits. "So what does all this have to do with children in school?", you ask. It has to do with children who bring a different perspective to the learning process than what is expected in our schools. There is more variation in the human's use of the senses for
Part I Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning
learning and survival than is readily apparent. As soon as a four year old is in preschool with his peers, he can immediately tell whether or not he fits in with the teachers expectations, also whether or not he matches his peers performances. Parent expectations prior to school arent so specific as to demand a particular way for a child to perform, but when children are grouped together, adults compare. Unitizing starts early Teachers and parents look for ways to keep a group of children performing as a unit. That, they think will make it easier for them to control the energetic assembly. This unitizing always starts the process of comparison. Not only are the adults judging their charges, the children are also comparing themselves, trying to be in line with adult commands. Some adult comparing may bring children into line, but for many children, comparing one to another leads to losses in self-initiative and self-esteem. This happens when the adults who set up the group assignments decide that the children who do not immediately comply are not trying. Then comes that dreaded statement, You could do better if you tried. This insinuates that the children are not giving their best effort and causes children to give up earlier than if they had been encouraged. Beyond that, adults lower expectations of children who dont meet their group requirements. They are not all the same Human children have many differences that have little to do with resisting teacher demands. These children may appear to see well enough to get by in their first five years. Vision is not easy to measure in a baby and seldom receives adequate attention before school. Some children may, in fact, be relying more on their auditory systems, their hearing, than on their near point vision to get by and to take
40 in information. Their different perspective may also have much to do with how their senses are wired inside their brains. A crossed dominant person digests information and thinks differently than a straight left- or right-sided person. Were not talking of one percent of the population, or of brain damaged children. Were referring to approximately 34% of the population who are crossed dominant and another 10% to 15% who have visual difficulties, not including blindness. A change in educational diet may help Its important to recognize young children's frustration or regression as a signal that we adults may need a different approach for these children, especially in a school group. Instead of taking the quick way out and labeling these children immature, give them a complete sensory dominant screening that will determine whether vision or other sensory motor problems are at the root of their frustration with school or the subject. A change in educational diet might be all these children need. We need also to recognize the grouping of children (in a class or whatever) for what it is, an adult's attempt to unitize and manage an assembly of quite different individuals. Expectations for a group of children to perform as identical robots spells trouble. Discover differences Set out goals to discover just what each child brings to the learning process. Let us not continue in the same old rut of throwing seeds to lions, or red meat to sparrows. Instead, provide a variety in the educational diet so that there will always be something to keep each one alive and interested. A little more time and effort spent at the beginning of the schooling of our children can prevent or alleviate numerous difficulties later on. When an educator notices that a child is not keeping up with her peers, or
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that she exhibits serious task avoidance, which may be accompanied by frustrated outbursts, this is not a time for the educator to also become frustrated. Prodding the child doesnt help. The child or student is probably exhibiting defenses against unrealistic learning demands for her. The class, the teacher, the family and especially the student are probably suffering needlessly due to a lack of proper diagnosis for the problem. The idea of senseless diagnoses and useless remedies recalls a comic strip. Thanks, Doc A man is at the doctor's office complaining, Doc, Ive got this sharp pain in my back. The doctor, at his desk, is writing a prescription for pain relief for this patient. The man takes the prescription and says, "Thanks, Doc". In the last frame of the strip, the man has turned to exit the doctor's office. We see an arrow sticking out of his upper back. It is clear that the doctor has not performed even a cursory examination of the patient to discover the source of the mans pain, which makes the prescription ridiculous. Yet some of the best educators, including parents, fail to consider the importance of the relationship between diagnosis and remedy. What's worse is that the majority of "specialists" who do some sort of traditional screening process for dyslexic students, or students in general, ignore the most definitive sensory-dominant problems presented by the majority of these individuals. No magic formula or pill The present paper and pencil tasks are the torment and the outstanding symptom of the school child's difficulty. Educators, parents included, say to me, " Forget all this mumbo-jumbo and clinical talk about diagnosis. We know we have dyslexics in our classrooms, or in our families. We just want to know what to do with them. Just give us the Magic Formula
to make them perform like the other children." Unlike most visual children Since no two people even agree on the same definition of dyslexia, how could there be an agreement on what to do for them? There is no magic formula, at least not until we have clearly diagnosed each child's mode of learning. Once clearly diagnosed, these dyslexic or learning disabled students will need a different approach or diet from that offered in limited, traditional classrooms or systems. They perform in their own ways, unlike most visual students. This does not infer, as some doctors of education have stated, that the educational standards must be lowered to accommodate non-visual learners. Until now, no one has known how to specifically screen for particular learning patterns. A common diagnosis gleaned from more than 30 years experience in working with students with nontraditional learning patterns is that of visual crossed dominance and we can screen for this. The more I discovered about the various learning abilities and patterns that the children presented, the easier it was to fit specific lessons to certain children. Eventually, it became evident to me that many of these "dyslexic" children could manage quite well in a regular classroom where the teacher was aware of these children's abilities, and taught to reach them just as one plans to reach and teach all visually oriented children. Inertia is starving these children This is no exaggeration. Remedies without reasons may be easily lain aside by educators. Educators may not have a clear understanding concerning which type of instruction is needed by individuals with learning styles different from the usual left brain, visual-verbal style. Then the educators do not regularly use these specific instructional methods needed by those
students who are right-brain, auditory, and, or kinesthetic. Those involved in charting the educational curricula for schools nearly always lay aside anything outside traditional methods. This is like throwing seeds to lions, only now we are starving many children by denying them a suitable educational diet. When you check to see, as I did, how few teachers supply audio tape recordings of lessons, or even tape recorders for their auditory students, you will realize that this is NO exaggeration. Different diets are crucial to success Certain teaching methods and learning reinforcements are often crucial to specific, intelligent students who do not seem to be able to keep up with the majority who can manage near vision deskwork. Because crossed dominant vision interrupts the brains timing between vision and language integration, quick association between verbal or written instruction and performance at near vision, desk level is often difficult for crossed dominant and other atypical students. They may be much faster than are the visual students with strictly auditory interpretations without the close visual work. Intelligence is not the factor. Until the connection is made between the arrow in the patient's back and the patient's complaint of back pain, no real relief can be expected. Until the specific cause of the student's problem is clarified, educators will forget or never understand the specific need for particular remedies. Millions, perhaps zillions of words have been written on how to teach and help school children. Like recipes, some you like, some you don't. Some you'll use, some you won't. But, certain types of lessons may be absolutely necessary for certain children, especially those students with visual crossed dominant dyslexia. And since visual and crossed dominant dyslexia affects language, we are
42 probably including the majority of dyslexic students. Criteria for evaluation of students The results of lessons, as for any prescription, depend a great deal on how specifically the prescriptive plan reduces or alleviates the problems that any individual has with the traditional presentation of classroom instruction. Certain criteria must be evaluated. First would be the instructor's awareness of the student's basic knowledge already in place in any specific cognitive area, possibly grade levels in subjects. An area of knowledge has to be built up like a pyramid. The use of strong, connecting imagery, which the learner can incorporate into that base he already has, is helpful for most students. For instance, if the students have not yet learned multiplication, one would not expect them to comprehend factors. But if you show the students two dice with patterns of five dots on top of each, which they do recognize, you can build on the fact that they see two fives, or two five patterns of dots. These facts can then be used to explain multiplication and factors. Second, is the instructors need to learn the state of the students sensory equipment. If the students' eyes do not coordinate to see a clear image at normal reading and writing distance, one would not expect them to excel at, or enjoy, paper and pencil tasks at desk level. The instructor must first find those levels of basic abilities, including near vision and dominance abilities, for each student in order to ensure individual success. One can not take for granted a common base of sensory and learning style sameness while aiming for achievement within any group. Doing so will cause frustration and demeaning attitudes that could retard a child's growth and motivation.
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Find cause for educational gaps If steps in the understanding of a subject have been missed, it is important to find appropriate, interesting and success producing methods for filling in the gaps. Sensory dominant screening can eliminate questions concerning causes of educational gaps. Some educational gaps, perhaps in a particular subject, may be caused by the childs having missed school while that subject was being taught. Other educational gaps are due to inappropriate instructional methods for particular children. Educational subject gaps caused by moving and missing out on specific instruction may be filled in by specific tutoring when those gaps are identified. Special help for auditory kinesthetic students can be provided with special lessons and/or special study groups, such as an auditory-kinesthetic learner group, within the larger class. It is a mistake to look upon this auditory-kinesthetic group as inferior to the visual-verbal group. Since all of our senses are helpful for our learning, one sense can not rightly claim superiority to another. Effective instruction needs effective instructors
When considering how to close learning gaps, providing for children tutoring their peers is sometimes an esteem building solution for the children. Whatever it takes, without pulling these children out of their classroom, will make for a happier classroom or family study session. This is probably not so difficult as imagined. In the following chapters, information is offered that is helpful for this purpose. It is like a new subject in the educator's curriculum. Educators, includes parents as their children's first and most important early teachers. The value of what is proposed lies in the hope that if the screening and educational methods are properly learned and used, they can make teaching groups of children easier and definitely, more effective. More knowledge about how different children are learning is available and needs to be used. This will definitely be a blessing for the children involved because they will learn more, not be seen as failures, and not be expected to accomplish impossible tasks. Their education, selfconfidence, their self-esteem and their security can be salvaged.
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amwait
Chapter 5. Getting Past Inertia in Developmental Theory watch was slowly pulled away from each How are adults dealing with children ear. Experience with that watch had who have difficulties with schoolwork? Do informed me that the average child heard the the adults have answers that clearly help ticking from three to six inches away from these children and their teachers? Or are we each ear. This is good enough to inform the all stumbling around in the dark? evaluator that the child hears soft sounds near her ears. This was not the case for A weird little girl? Danielle. She said she could not hear the For eight years in one school, the watch ticking. kindergarten teacher, Cindy, and I worked Multiple ear infections next door to each other. She would call me On reporting my findings to the to observe students in her classroom whose teacher who relayed them to Danielle's performance was puzzling. One child I mother, Cindy and I were astounded to have observed was a small, five year old girl with the mother tell us that her daughter had had dark brown curls and pretty, but unsmiling many ear infections and still had old tubes brown eyes. The teacher described this girl, floating in her ears. This meant that Danielle, as "weird" and seeming to be Danielle had been seen by medical doctors living in her own private world. This girl before her entrance into kindergarten. This would wander confusedly around the child was hearing, at best, as if she were classroom not paying any attention to the under water, yet no doctor had revealed, nor teacher's instructions to the group. impressed upon, nor even suggested to the One must remember that this girl had parents that this child might have hearing been through the required, pre-kindergarten and later, learning problems. If the hearing screening process, the developmental loss had extended back through Danielles screening process. After wading through first three years, her language development meetings and the paperwork of could be stymied. recommendations for screening for the Neurophysiologists say that many Learning Handicapped Program, including early ear infections can also cause problems having been tested by the school with visual memory and balance. The psychologist, Danielle was eventually mother had no idea that these tubes in her referred to this Resource Specialist, for my daughter's ears needed checking or that her part in the evaluation of her school daughter was hearing impaired. problems. Blind spots in the school screening The old Ticking watch Within the first half-hour that had been allotted for screening this timid, little kindergartner, I discovered that she couldn't hear very well. There was no machine with which to test her hearing. Telling Danielle to look straight ahead, I held a small, ticking watch (1980s, pre-quartz type watch) next to each of her ears, asking her to tell me what she heard. Danielle was instructed to tell me when she no longer heard the ticking as the My simple evaluation only points to possible roadblocks to learning, which must often be followed up by visits to doctors, who themselves are often unaware of the importance of sensory development and especially of the role of laterality, or dominance for learning. Also, those most attuned to the education of young children in our schools seem to be so concerned about each child's "maturity" and his/her ability to follow the school's planned curriculum that little to no attention is given to sensory
deficits. Principals and teachers are seldom concerned about each child's learning pattern, his/her auditory, visual and tactilekinesthetic skills. One outstanding defect in the developmental screening system is evident here. How is it, with all the previous
screening completed, no one told this child's mother that her child might have a serious problem that could affect her child's ability to learn and to fit more comfortably into the kindergarten environment?
Development Test for Pre-K
Kindergarten failures? As reported in Chapter one, when Cindy asked me to retest three kindergarten boys she had recommended for retention, I thought, Here again, after a whole school year had gone by, three little boys were being called failures. Each set of parents had been told of their child's "immaturity"
and most had sadly accepted the fact that repeating kindergarten was their best hope for scholastic progress. Screening for causes of failure Since the June evaluations and IEP (Individual Educational Program) meetings for my students in the Resource Specialist Program were over, the principal allowed us to go outside paperwork regulations and gave me permission to evaluate these boys in my sensory-dominant way. The permission of the parents was also required and received. The areas covered in my testing were: 1. auditory skills, 2. lateral dominance, 3. visual skills, 4. neuromuscular skills, including tactile-kinesthetic skills and 5. information about their cognitive and emotional development. That means the children were first checked to be sure they could hear and understand my instructions or questions. Such as, What language is used at home? How well did they express themselves or understand English. Then their laterality was checked to see whether they were right or left sided or crossed dominant. Vision skills were checked including, how well their eyes followed an object at near point and whether they could move their eyes repeatedly from near to distance objects without fatigue. Muscle coordination, strength, balance and rhythm would be checked. Were they using tactile-kinesthetic reinforcement to help their visual or auditory memories? Tactile-kinesthetic knowledge is gained from feeling, touching or movement. Knowledge concerning intelligence capabilities, behavior patterns and general health would round out this evaluation. My eyes hurt The first thing that struck me about these three boys was that not one of them was a visual learner and they were all crossed dominant. All three were right sided
and used their left eyes for near vision. All three complained that their eyes tired or hurt when they were asked to do close visual tasks such as paper and pencil tasks like workbook pages. Requiring them to complete such pages would probably have caused them to behave in an immature manner. Pre-kindergarten evaluations include paper and pencil tasks at desk level, but not one, that I've seen, includes the in-depth visual screening needed before children enter preschool or kindergarten. They include language screening, but not necessarily a hearing test before school starts. There is a simple vision focus test called the string knot test, which is described in detail in a later chapter. This string knot test showed that Brian's eyes converged two inches from the tip of his nose, meaning they over converged almost to the point of his being cross-eyed. This was not evident by looking at his face. The average paper-pencil task for a 6 year old is 12 to 15 inches, or 30 to 38 cm., distance from the eyes to the paper. Brian and the other little boys could not focus their eyes at desk level distance. At least two of these boys had 20/200 vision in one eye, indicating that they all needed vision exams and they probably needed corrective lenses. No school nurse, no vision screening No visual testing of any kind was offered at this school until the end of first grade. Children in this school district could struggle and stumble through a minimum of two years of elementary school, kindergarten and first grade, before something as basic as nearsightedness was diagnosed. Visual coordination, how well the two eyes work together, was, and usually is NEVER CHECKED. In the school setting where children are trying to keep up with their peers, imagine what affect such undiagnosed visual problems have on a young child's self esteem and personality.
Critical window for vision ignored At that time, but no longer, there was a vision therapist in our area who was recommended to Brian's parents. Vision therapists are fairly expensive. An exam and several weeks of visual training with a vision therapist could cost about $1500.00 in California in 1994. When the vision specialist confirmed that Brian would need vision therapy, the parents asked the doctor to check their older daughter. She was in worse shape than Brian. So the parents sent their daughter for this therapy, but said they could not afford to send both children. Due to age, the older childs vision was less amenable to therapy than was Brians. Unfortunately, Brian, and probably those other boys, received no help with their vision or other problems at that time. A serious problem with the parents decision concerns the time-limited access to vision development in the brain. This critical window usually closes by age 7. After that, visual tracts in the brain are complete and compensatory methods of instruction are required. Schools are unwilling to make changes Since the parent teacher conferences for these boys had been completed and retention had been proposed, two of the three boys repeated kindergarten. The other boy repeated second grade. Nothing was done afterwards in that school district to correct the problem of having no vision screening until the END of first grade. That screening did not include screening for visual convergence problems. The first grade teacher later insisted that retaining all three boys had solved their problems. Does anyone have to wonder if these boys could have had a more successful, more positive school experience if they had received correct sensory dominant screening and concomitant support for their weaknesses BEFORE they started school?
Of what use was the school district's prekindergarten screening? Inexcusable waste in every way Both the pre-kindergarten screening and the retentions are a terrible waste of public tax money. It is inexcusable to mark young children as failures and label them as immature because they have vision or hearing problems or brain dominance differences. All they may need are different screening and different instructional methods than are usually offered by left brain, visual-verbal teachers and school psychologists. Medical doctors who examine children need to become aware of which sensory problems exist and the learning problems that follow. Then doctors need to make timely and sensible recommendations to parents and to schools. Research experts laughter or tears? What is being taught in schools of higher learning concerning the goals of student evaluation? How are some experts diagnosing dyslexia today? Harvard Medical School has some ideas on diagnosing dyslexia, which might be taken with a dose of laughter or tears. This eye opening and mind numbing research on testing for dyslexia cautions what happens when those who make the rules are out of touch with those for whom they make them. The following references are from a 1988, New York Times article called, Simple Tests For Dyslexia. Malcolm W. Browne summarized a meeting in Boston, MA of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the subject of Dyslexia attended by the experts in the physiological bases of dyslexia. Dyslexic animals? Dr. Albert A. G. reported that autopsy dissections of the brains of dyslexics as well as those of animals afflicted with comparable diseases found
that neuron positions and interconnections were disarranged. What is not revealed is how small was the number of dyslexic brains (5 or 6)? AND if dyslexia is a disease of language and reading, which they claim for 2/3 of dyslexics, which animals have comparable diseases? Neolithic conclusions for dyslexia? Dr. Anna A. P. of Harvard Medical School claims that her test for diagnosing dyslexic children by their neolithic drawings of faces accidentally evolved from her 1. observations of the neolithic masks and facial representations of illiterate aborigines of stone age cultures in New
else made such circular, purely hypothetical conclusions? Annual art show of the kindergartners One of the benefits of my working with an open door policy, next to kindergarten for 8 years, was my opportunity to review with their teacher, the annual face and body drawings of the children. Some drawings, one or two each year, may have looked like mild brain damage, but not dyslexia. The majority of dyslexic children were artistically astute. This is confirmed by the teacher in the chapter titled Claras Classes and by a number of early drawings that remain in my files. Even those early drawings of strange or neolithic proportions seemed to produce normal children as the years wore on. Years of experience in many classrooms reveals no correlation between dyslexia and neolithic faces. A last test from the experts. A Dr. F.G. Martin, also from Harvard Medical School, claims that children with spatial dyslexia as opposed to verbal dyslexia are unable to tap a rhythmic pattern in response to verbal instructions. How does Dr. G. separate rhythmic as opposed to sequential tapping? Why give verbal instructions for tapping patterns? If dyslexia is defined as difficulty with words, how is Dr. Martin defining it spatially? Many children, whom this author has screened, have difficulty repeating a tapping sequence, whether instructions were verbal or heard as simple tapping rhythms that they were to repeat. The tapping of rhythms is one of those seemingly simple, but complicated sequential tasks that require adequate input from several brain areas, as well as practice. No sure answers, no sure definition We still do not know what it is that makes reading and writing so easy to learn for the majority of human beings and so difficult, or almost impossible for others?
LD Student Art Example
Guinea. 2. from her claim that 90% of those who draw neolithic faces have reading difficulties. 3. from her conclusion states that in a study of 344 alcoholics, 32% drew neolithic faces. So what do these observations have to do with children in classes for the learning disabled? Dr. A. P. now concludes that 3. the areas of hippocampal disease in the brains of alcoholics must also be involved where children draw neolithic faces since 1. neolithic faces are like the masks typical of illiterate peoples and 2. Dyslexic children are illiterate. Where would we be if the doctor hadnt visited New Guinea? Would you laugh if anyone
Although these neuroscientists are claiming brain damage as the cause for dyslexia, for someone in the field as long as I have been, that idea appears preposterous. The schools, having separated out those children with clear cases of serious visual, hearing and mental deficiencies, still have 15% to 30% of the school population who have serious difficulties with printed symbols, with reading and sometimes writing. What then are prime factors for successful manipulation of symbols used for language, reading and mathematics? Where else can we turn for clues for understanding the difficulties many people have with learning in our classrooms? An unmistakable advantage Starting out as a teacher in the area of "Learning Handicaps" or "Learning Disabilities" in 1968, my knowledge was limited regarding the educational definition of learning handicaps or of the psychologist's developmentally based screening process. That turned out to be a great advantage to me as I was on my own to find the problems and the solutions. With a background in medicine, anatomy, psychology and parenthood, as well as my natural curiosity and love of learning, excellent tools were available to begin my discovery. Labels of disabilities A number of professionals are looking for the dyslexia Self Portrait by Long-term LD Student gene or other brain abnormality factors in the dyslexia equation. In the 90's some educators were phasing into "Learning
Disadvantaged" and Traditional and Nontraditional Learners. But the word, "Dyslexia" is still popular. Just who is to be labeled, "Learning Disadvantaged", "Nontraditional Learner" or "ADD, Attention Deficit Disordered" is equally as vague as the "Dyslexic" label. The newer labels are even more confusing because many social, emotional or personal history situations could conceivably be added to a long list of what causes one to be nontraditional or learning disadvantaged, as well as dyslexic. Defining dyslexia anew At least dyslexic or dyslexia seems to be limited to one who has trouble with words, usually in the written form. Therefore, the term "Dyslexia" is used by this author to refer to the majority of students evaluated and worked with in school programs for the Learning Disabled. Dyslexia is derived from Greek where dys means difficulty, bad or having trouble with something, as in dysfunction, and lexia means a condition relating to words or vocabulary. So dyslexia could be simply defined as the condition of having difficulty with words. This definition covers a wide range of difficulties, including: reading, writing, thinking, etc., not to mention speaking and understanding language. People diagnosed with dyslexia tend to say "Thank you, at last I know there is a scientific name and cause for what's wrong with me. I'm not the only one with my kind of problems." On the other hand, if they are told they have brain damage, their reaction is not as positive. Most adults who claim they are dyslexic tell me that being dyslexic means that they had difficulty learning in school. Most were smart enough to manage their own creative ways of dealing with the world of words and symbols. A few had parents who were able to afford private tutors, or to enroll them in special schools for dyslexics,
usually at a cost far beyond the capabilities of the average family. When students in public schools were enough of a problem for the teacher, they were placed in special education programs for students with a wide range of learning problems. Before that, such students stayed home and worked in the fields or barns. The student, not the system, must fail One of the deleterious requirements for a student to be accepted into the Resource Specialist Program in public schools had been the need for the student to experience at least two years of failure in early scholastic subjects. This entailed the child's sense of defeat and loss of selfesteem. Many with these same negative experiences were simply labeled "immature" by their teachers and were made to repeat kindergarten or first or second grade with no changes in the curriculum or in the teacher's approach. No sensory screening was attempted beyond distance vision charts, if a school nurse was available. The developmental model of education The educational model determines a child's readiness for kindergarten in terms of maturity. This model lists skill areas of, gross motor (large muscle), fine motor (hand and eye coordination), language, self-help and social-emotional development. The developmental model for educational readiness is used by educators, school psychologists and physicians. Particular skills from the developmental maturity list are compared to the age level in which the average child is expected to accomplish these skills. Babies are expected to sit up around six months of age, to walk, around twelve months and so on. When the particular skill and age level correspond, the child is said to be developmentally mature. In the case of the 4.9 to 5.9 year old children ready to embark on a kindergarten experience, pretests label each child ready or
developmentally mature, immature or advanced. This developmental model and these ratings or labels regarding maturity do not provide insight into how children learn, or how to instruct children. This model tells only what a child can or can't do pertaining to a specific, limited list of activities. Schools still hold to one educational approach for all and the familiar "all together now, class." He wont grow out of it Parents and teachers are usually told by developmental specialists that they must wait, be patient, and in time their children will eventually mature to the desired achievement level. Many parents and
students who have received this advice now realize that developmental immaturity was not the problem with which they were dealing. Meantime, the brains critical windows close. The prevalent definition of dyslexia as a learning problem related to language is seldom examined or questioned. Many students learned to compensate for their learning difficulty, but the problem did not go away. Some doctors are also realizing that some problems will not go away and that the problems need early intervention. Something quite different available More recent brain research requires a change in how we screen and educate school children. That research combined with experiential information garnered as a teacher of learning disabled students does not deny the developmental model, but there is something quite different happening when children have problems with the present educational format. A new model presented here will more clearly aid in discovering which learning path each student is on. This new model provides needed insight into how to reach and teach each child and how to help some children avoid failure. Each person has his or her own learning pattern. These patterns are determined by how people are recording and storing raw data in their brains and by how they are retrieving interpreted information from their memory systems. The "how" is determined by which senses are preferred or dominant for learning and which hemispheric interpretation is dominant for any individual. These are traits determined by early neurological connections in the brain, aside from developmental timing. The idea of sensory learner is not new, but the understanding behind the screening is new.
New
brain research requires new thinking The split-brain research by medical doctors nullified forever the earlier conception that the two hemispheres of our brains are mirror images of each other. Neither is the brain a sieve-like container into which information is poured and repoured until hopefully, something is retained, a favorite educational idea. This research made it clear, not only that there are specialized, information storage areas in the brain, but also that each hemisphere has a particular way of interpreting that raw information which is brought to it. Basically, we all use our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin and muscles to receive conscious information. Beyond reception by our senses it is equally important to know which cerebral hemisphere is receiving and interpreting the nerve signals brought to it. Educators must learn about the brain A certain amount of understanding of the anatomy of the brain, and the nervous system extending from it must now be components of every educators knowledge. Most teachers have had little if any instruction or understanding as to how the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) works, or even what it looks like.
developmental model of education has not required brain knowledge. It has only required lists of skills that each child can be expected to master at a given age. Just check off activities on the list. Up to now, if the 5 year old had not mastered most required developmental milestones, then further maturity (time for development) was supposed to rectify such problems; otherwise the child was labeled retarded. No sensory checks were given The answers to developmental questions give no indication as to how a child is recording, storing, or retrieving information, which is at the crux of all education. Since all of us receive our early education through our senses, mainly our visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses, common sense would demand that these senses be given more than a cursory examination in all children. Mature/immature are totally inadequate Unfortunately, even the results of such limited evaluations as the Snellen Eye Chart for visual acuity and a hearing test to learn the perceived range of hearing in each ear are seldom available to the teacher at the time of a kindergartner's admission to the school system. The Snellen Chart is a chart of sequentially smaller alphabet letters, starting with the big, black, capital E on top. At best, it may disclose nearsightedness at a distance of twenty feet. It gives no indication of visual ability at near point, within arm's reach, nor of how well the eyes are working as a team. No more waiting until theres a problem Doctors and others have chronicled the natural development of babies for years. Doctors check to see that this physical development is on schedule. What most
The
doctors have not done is to screen each child's sensory equipment during that period of early, speedy development, before the child enters the school system. Only when a serious problem develops is sensory screening given the attention it deserves. Windows of opportunity for learning in specific areas can close very early in life. Brain cells that are not properly stimulated to make the right connections at the right time in development will die. The time limit for laying down main pathways in the brain is before three years of age. Undetected hearing problems in the first two years of life can cause lifelong difficulties with speech. Undetected visual problems, such as one eye seeing quite differently than the other, can cause blindness in one eye and, or problems in visual perception. Deprivation of any kind in the developing child causes brain abnormalities. No need for unhappy children If non-visual students, whose learning strength is not visual, can be identified before the start of their formal education, the teachers, parents and students could work together with instruction providing for maximum auditory and kinesthetic reinforcement. Specific visual therapy exercises could help coordination and training of eye muscles and development of vision tracts in the brain. There would be no need for non-visual students to develop aggravating unhappy defensive tactics, such as running around the room, acting out, yelling, refusing to cooperate and other diversionary behaviors, in order to avoid visual tasks, which are stressful and frustrating. Proper screening available, now The present developmental screening, which yields results in terms of mature or immature could be reorganized with a few additional test elements, to have results
stated in terms of learning patterns. In other words test categories could be: 1. dominance and laterality strengths 2. visual and visual-motor strengths 3. auditory strengths, including language 4. kinesthetic and tactile abilities 5. neuromuscular system strengths 6. cognitive strengths 7. general health 8. social and emotional maturity. In this way we could notice immediately if a child is crossed dominant and if there are concomitant visual skill and laterality problems. By reorganizing the screening, we would not be abandoning the developmental screening and we would have a clear graph of each student's learning pattern, the strengths and weaknesses. An instructor could understand and use these screening results on a daily basis to enrich the instructional format. Pre-K screening not useful When a group of ten or more kindergarten teachers were interviewed, concerning their use of the present, developmental, pre-kindergarten screening, all of them said they did not use it or even look at it once school started. A few said they might look at it to see if it confirmed their suspicions that a particular child was "immature" once that child had begun to have problems. Mostly the confusing lists of tasks with their age levels of competency or incompetency are filed away forever. An improved, useful screening Sensory dominant screening, based on sensory learning, will make clear to teachers whether their students are visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners, or some combination of all three. Then as the teacher is taught how to relate to these groups of learners with appropriate instruction good for everyone in the classroom, there should be less frustration and more success. This sensory-dominant
type of preschool screening is also relevant to the idea that intelligence is as closely connected to listening with understanding as it is to reading. Bring back school nurses One of the worst developments in the educational system of the 1980s, was the dismissal of most school nurses for what were called budgetary reasons. All registered nurses are thoroughly educated in the proper development of children. They are the only school employees who are fully qualified to recognize childhood and other diseases, including proper care and development of the teeth. School nurses are able to give physical and mental health examinations, as well as in depth auditory and visual screening. They can give childhood inoculations against disease. They are most valuable to the educational system. No child should begin school without the thorough examination of a qualified, registered nurse. The school nurse has also been helpful in recognizing children with contagious diseases and alerting adults, before a whole class or school was affected or infected. A nurse on school grounds was a blessing to parents, children and to their teachers. Their dismissal burdened unqualified personnel to deal with medical problems they know nothing about. School nurses are infinitely more qualified, to deal with students' medications, than the classroom teacher or school secretary. School nurses know anatomy Childrens dental or oral problems are seldom properly identified without a nurse. A child with tooth pain is not going to be able to concentrate on schoolwork. The nurse saves the schools money by being able to detect vision, hearing, dental, dominance and neuromuscular deficiencies before they become educational problems. If teachers and parents knew from the start of the children's educational experience that
vision, hearing, dominance and vestibular balance needed to be dealt with first, far fewer children would be referred for psychological testing and fewer would be relegated to immaturity. Realistic expectations The children will be the big winners when registered school nurses are returned to school grounds. As a society we will need to value our school nurses in the way we seem to value school psychologists. It takes a psychologist about one hour to perform the Stanford Binet, or Wepman Intelligence Scale, WISC, with one child. Then it takes at least another hour to write up the results or to dictate them to a secretary for typing. Then there's another hour in meeting with parent, teacher and principal to discuss the results of various lengthy tests. If we allow a minimum three hours, plus travel time, to the school psychologist to examine and report on one, individual student, we must not demand that a nurse examine ten or more students in that same amount of time. It is even more important to schedule students with the nurse so that she is able to carefully evaluate each child and to dictate her reports for parent and teacher conferences. It is a given that the professional education of school nurses, as well as that of teachers, will include more information about the relationship between visual perception problems and crossed dominance and resulting learning preferences. Then everyone can make sensible recommendations for what they believe would best help any child in school. Awareness of task avoidance clues Preschools usually list a child's preferred activities. We need to be aware if a young child appears to avoid specific, age appropriate learning tasks, such as throwing, catching or bouncing a ball, drawing with
crayons, running or jumping or listening to age appropriate stories, or joining in singing. When we become aware of specific task avoidance we must ask, "Is this task appropriate for her age? Is this child's sensory-motor system able to comfortably handle these tasks? If not, why not?" Are the internal abilities, which come to bear in these interactions, in good working order? Who is checking to find out? Preschool screening needs changes Preschool screening must be changed to first evaluate the working order of the sensory and sensory motor equipment before being concerned about cultural and developmental calendars. How well does this child see, hear, etc.? When educators know these things and pay attention to them, they will have a better idea of how the child is perceiving, or how interacting with her environment. Instruction needs to be tailored towards a child's strengths instead of putting pressure on weak areas. Perception is the way a particular person's brain interprets sensory stimuli. Does this child understand what you say? Does he understand the visual stimulus? For example, can she point to a dog or a picture of a dog and name it or otherwise show understanding of what she sees with her eyes? Does he remember equally well what he has seen or heard? How well does she manage balance and motor activities? We must not put the cart before the horse, as in asking a child to perform visual activities before checking his visual abilities, or ask her to perform motor coordination activities without first checking the development of the neuromuscular system. Adults have been expecting all children to fit one instructional pattern thinking this would make controlling a diverse group of youngsters easier for the teacher. The opposite is the case. Natures quality control needs checking When we consider how many babies are born each year, it is amazing that most
are born with everything in perfect condition including each of two eyes, two ears and all the rest of the equipment needed for exploration of the environment. That's real quality control. For various reasons, genetic or environmental, minimal deficiencies or differences in the brain or eyes do occur. If, as in earlier centuries, we never asked these people, the ones with visual or perception differences or problems, to visually fixate on tiny symbols so as to translate them into sounds and language, these people would appear perfectly normal. In the first five years of life, with proper stimuli, the child learns to differentiate and use selectively, the various parts of her body. She will learn to move her eyes separately from her head, or the fingers separately from the hand. He will understand that he has a right and left side and a midline at the waist that differentiates the upper body from the lower body. Toddlers learn that when they bend over and look through their legs with their heads
upside down the surroundings stay right side up. How about that? Understanding in a new light When these developmental milestones appear to have taken place normally and eye structure problems are ruled out, we can screen more specifically for how well the eyes are working together as a team to see a single object. When careful sensory and sensory motor development are left out of the preschool screening process, the results are often disastrous for the children involved. These are actual pages from present day kindergarten and early 1st grade math workbooks. The crowded patterns and tight linear rows are visually confusing.
Early page from 1994 first grade math workbook In the 1980's, after the new split brain research of the 1960's had trickled into the educational realm, the results of some of my earlier dominance testing was understood in a new light. New methods were Early page of kindergarten math workbook -1994
tried. Many artistic, non-sequentially oriented children with left eye dominance responded much better to information presented in a spatial, right-brain pattern than they had to a sequential list, or leftbrain pattern. For example, spelling words that these children could never remember when given as a vertical list, they could remember and spell correctly when those same words were presented in a clockwise pattern. Math lessons would be better understood using dice, clock patterns, contrast, color and less crowding. School system failed her son In a district in Colorado, an eight year old boy who was having difficulty with reading was assigned to an enclosed learning disability class. His placement was determined by the usual psychological tests. The teacher of this class had low expectation for academic improvement from his learning disabled students. Academics were not a priority for this teacher and his students. This boy's mother watched her son's abilities and self-esteem plummet in this class. During the second year she finally found a lawyer and a specialist to retest her son. The outcome was that her son was found to have difficulty focusing his eyes. As a ten year old he was returned to his regular class, but he is struggling to catch up with his peers because of the years wasted in a class with low expectations. His mother says, correctly, that the educational system caused her son to lose two years of his educational life as well as his selfconfidence. The school system failed her son and the lawsuits fail everybody. Adults expectations affect performance Some time ago, studies were conducted to see if teacher expectations influenced student performance. Teachers were told that pre-selected groups of students were either high IQ or low IQ. Actually these students were similar in their
IQs and in other ability areas. The studies concluded that teacher expectation made an enormous difference on student performance. Teachers expected and received much better work from students labeled high IQ than from students labeled low IQ. Conversely, lower expectations led to poor performance from those students. When teachers consider a student to be immature the expectations are certainly lower than
expectations for a student labeled mature or advanced. Our language holds the key to our expectations. No sexual impartiality Another recent study where researchers used camcorders in classrooms, with the teachers permission, showed that
female and male teachers called on and praised male students more frequently than they did female students. The results shocked teachers who before the experiment had judged themselves to be impartial to sexual differences, especially the female teachers. The study showed that female students eventually raised their hands fewer times resulting in a sense of inferiority in relation to male students. Some of this problem could be lessened when a teacher uses a checklist with students names to indicate who has and hasnt been called upon. Change will not come easily Theres always resistance to change of any kind. Many educators and psychologists prefer to ignore or to put down the findings on sensory-dominant strengths and weaknesses. They want to continue in the same developmentalretention rut they have been in for eons. Children are being sentenced as failures before they are given as much as the
inadequate Snellen Chart to check their vision. This condition in our schools is deplorable. Traditionalists still prefer to write IEPs (Individual Education Plans) strictly on grade levels rather than finding children's learning strengths and working within them. A grade level IEP might state that a child is working at a first grade level in a subject in September. Without finding out how best to approach this child's learning the resource specialist is often told to bring this child up two grade levels in this subject by May. Near point visual, paper/pencil, grade level tests are often the only tests used to identify and check progress. Until sensory and dominance testing is included in the screening process for all children at a pre-kindergarten level the adults are failing to provide adequate evaluations and instruction for many children. Too many risk factors are not identified with the present pre-K screening system.
amsad
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Chapter 6. The Inadequacy of the Present Special Education System The federal laws that were meant to bring special needs students out of a backwoods system that had ignored their needs has backfired. Regarding methods required by United States Public Law 94142, a sorry situation exists in the identification and support of handicapped or disabled children. This federal law was established in the autumn of 1975. Less than 20 years later it fell far short of expectations. Dreadful definitions, No enforcement A December 1993 U.S. News & World Report investigative report said that "America's special education system is cheating many and costing the rest of us billions. Special education labels are so ambiguous that classifications vary from state to state and even from school district to school district." There are few meaningful guidelines. "University of Minnesota researcher James Ysseldyke says that more than 80% of all schoolchildren could qualify as learning disabled according to one or more of the various definitions now used by states." Greed rules Funding formulas are ripping off taxpayers by rewarding school districts with more tax dollars for more students placed in special education programs. The states and districts do whatever it takes to receive more federal tax dollars. Children are inappropriately labeled and stigmatized as disabled so that schools can demand and get more tax money for their schools. Occasionally tax money designated for special education students is going toward non-special education items. Having personal knowledge of a budget for special education students I found it missing in another district. When teachers move in and out of special education jobs on a yearly basis, they may never become acquainted with their annual budget. School principals may use the Dont ask, dont tell. system for special education budgets. If not asked for, the principal uses this money for his/her other priorities. Bilingual programs have the same problems. In Oakland, CA, rather than place bilingual students together in one or two classes of similar grade level, the districts made every class bilingual by placing a few Chinese students in every classroom. More bilingual classrooms meant more tax money for the district. This scam was eventually discovered when the districts budget fell apart and because American parents wanted their children to be taught in English. Schools with high populations of Spanish speaking students continue to ignore laws asking for classes taught in English. Parents concerns for special classes Parents had real concerns thirty years ago regarding the education of children with learning problems. They put pressure on the U.S. Government to pass a law, which would prevent the public school system from segregating their children, labeled as learning or physically disabled, from their peers. Parents thought the separation was at the heart of the educational problem and a means of denying their children an education equal to that of their peers. Mainstreaming education was supposed to provide special help for problem students while at the same time providing them the same education taught to peers in regular classrooms. Thirty years ago many of these children were truly ignored and being denied the screening and support that they needed. When the states are left to take care of minority groups of any kind, it has been proven many times
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over, that such groups will not receive the help they need. Average people with the majority left-brain visual take on the world do not comprehend the problems others may have with that majority view. What is or is not appropriate? In some ways the parents were correct in their assumptions. Lack of federal involvement meant that the status quo would continue. Many people hold very low expectations for special education student abilities. U.S. Government involvement in an area of their serious ignorance has not solved the problems. Poorly written laws for a poorly understood subject led to a BIGGER PROBLEM. How can anyone enforce laws for problems, which are not clearly defined? Much of the ignorance regarding federal laws has to do with vague, fuzzy words like "appropriate". All children shall be guaranteed a "free, appropriate education". Just what is appropriate? Definitions of what a disability is or is not are vague. Now ADD and ADHD have been added to the list of undefinable disabilities that qualify for federal tax money. There are no definitive tests for these disabilities. The IQ tests and other state tests are useless for diagnosing the learning problems covered in the federal laws. Federal laws are seldom backed up by sufficient federal funds, which has caused hostility toward special education programs vying with other programs within school districts for the same state and local tax dollars. Federal laws are written, but enforcement of the laws is practically nonexistent. Lack of enforcement causes the special education bureaucracy to mushroom. Regardless of fraud and poor enforcement federal funds are practically never revoked Misleading information Federal regulators receive inaccurate and misleading information from states that fight for more special education tax dollars. According to the aforementioned Dec.1993
report in U.S. News, New York State submitted information to the U.S. Congress on graduation rates from special education classes. To receive more tax money this report included only 9,418 of New York's 324,677 special education students. No clear guidelines, anywhere Special education classes do not have clear guiding principles. Most school principals place low scoring children in special education classes so that these children will not lower standardized, state or federally mandated test scores. This way the school will receive a higher scholastic rating. More parents will be enticed to move near a highly rated school, which spells "MORE MONEY" for the school and continued poor scholastic performance for special education students. Improving tests for dyslexic students The main reason that many dyslexic children score lower on these standardized tests has to do, not with intelligence, but with the close visual work the tests require. These suggestions will overcome this difficulty. Larger, darker, wider-spaced print Off-white, non-glare paper Shorter rows of print Larger spaces between words, rows Bubbles for responses could be spaced in clockwise formation, as in a die pattern, instead of in a line. Not o o o o, but This method provides a large, visual pattern for easier visual identification. All standardized tests are visually stressful. Greater spacing between words and rows reduces visual stress for children who have visual convergence problems. More time for reading must be allotted for children with any kind of visual
imperfection dominance.
including
crossed
Parental greed decreases school funds That vague word "appropriate" is also behind the problem of affluent parents hiring lawyers to have their children placed in very expensive private schools at public expense and at the educational expense of other children. That one child often receives more funding than all the other special education children put together. The only requirement for such placement is for the attorneys to show that such placement is "appropriate". Each school now has a list of forty or more parent's rights, with specific time limits set for each step in the screening process. This is legal red tape and tax waste. Limits must be set for parents as well as for schools. Time and energy that would be devoted to educating children is wasted on power plays. IEP meetings overrated The parents of children who may need or who are enrolled in special classes meet twice yearly with school psychologists, teachers, resource specialists, speech and language therapists, and sometimes other medical specialists, all at tax payer expense. The parents can bring interpreters and a companion for personal support when facing this formidable team of specialists and "experts" at meetings for screening or Individual Education Plans, IEPs. Sometimes the students themselves are invited. The stated purpose of the meetings is to identify the child's scholastic skill levels by grade levels, or by amounts measurable on written tests. After much IQ and scholastic testing the team decides whether the child should or shouldnt be admitted to one or more special education programs. With admission and for yearly reviews, goals for overcoming the deficits in
64 skill levels are to be agreed upon by all team members. Each team member has to sign whatever is written on the IEP form as proof of his or her agreement. Coercion is common. So is an attitude of giving up and in to the dominant leader at the meetings. Let's get on to the next one and get this over with is a common attitude of school personnel at IEP meetings. Resource Specialists who dont accede are weeded out. The resource specialist will be held accountable for this grade level progress. Dates are set for later assessment of the child's progress when team members must return for a similar meeting by school years end. Based on expectation Vs. performance The feat of coordinating the overloaded schedules of these many professionals and of the parents, for each student referred for special needs, is difficult, at best. The legal time limits set for these meetings add pressure to a boiling pot. The parents who helped set up these rules acted as if their child was the only student to need this evaluation process. It is difficult to imagine that those who proposed this law had any idea of the large numbers of families who would be involved in the screening process. All the professionals involved must spend many work hours at the beginning and end of each school year preparing traditional developmental test and observation reports for each and every special education student. Strategies based upon texts Because of the time and effort demanded for pre-meeting activities, these meetings usually comprise the only times in a school year that these adults and students come together. Members of the group may consult with each other as to "appropriate" goals and strategies needed to supposedly advance these students in each stated goal. As many as ten goals per student may be
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listed on one IEP. Most goals are written in grade level terms, such as, in six months the student will advance in reading from grade level one to grade level two. Strategies, how to reach the goals, are usually related to texts or printed materials that will be used. The speech therapist, the resource specialist, the school psychologist, the regular teacher and the principal must follow the educational and school protocol of adhering to the inadequate, developmental approach to screening and instruction. Thats the approach that retains kindergartners for "immaturity" without so much as adequate vision screening. Sensory methods for screening or instruction are never mentioned. The enclosed classroom experience During the early years of my teaching profession, from 1968 through 1974, teachers like myself worked with learning handicapped students in an enclosed classroom. The school psychologist had determined by means of an intelligence test each student's IQ eligibility for this class. Before PL94-142 took effect and before IEP forms, further testing and goal setting was left to individual teachers. Regular meetings regarding the needs of special education students were held in the school districts in which I worked long before PL94-142. Less pressure, better communications We had more time and freedom for input on how to help each student. There were regular conversations with parents, school psychologist, school principal, educational consultants and sometimes with the schools medical doctor if the student was taking medication which affected school performance. My aide and I worked to bring cohesiveness to the group of 12 diverse students. Parents of my students were organized with group activities in which they and their children participated. Previous experience of these parents with the educational system had left them feeling
quite isolated from each other and from the schools in which they were enrolled. Prior to my organization of family activities, these parents had little connection, input or understanding into their children's needs or lives at school. They were interested in their childrens school progress, but they were distressed at hearing only bad news regarding their childs progress at school. Dichotomy of feelings Teachers and students of other classes in the school were generally ignorant concerning what went on in enclosed classrooms or in special education. Some teachers eventually noticed that most students within my classrooms made remarkable progress in every area of their lives. One teacher said, "If I had a child with special needs I would want him to be in your class." On the other side of this progress, some teachers expressed negative feelings toward my students and me. Their pettiness caused them to report any problem behavior of these previously uncontrolled students to the principal. Most teachers, principals and parents were delighted that someone was making any kind of progress with these difficult students. Such progress had not been expected or accomplished in most special education classes. One parent's letter clearly expresses the dichotomy of feelings concerning new approaches for old problems. It said, "Dear Mrs. Rockefeller, I haven't always agreed with some of your methods. I also have not supported you in your work at school as many of the parents have. I wish to tell you Randy is learning and beginning to understand himself. Thank you for caring and helping him. Thank you. Sandra" The classroom door facing the playground was open on sunny days. One of those days, a young girl leaned in our doorway and said to me, "I wish I could be
in your class. You have so much fun, but your kids are crazy." Where has she heard this nonsense? I'm sure it is this type of ignorance, among other things, that parents wanted the U.S. Congress to abolish with the passage of P.L. 94-142 in 1975. Mainstreaming jargon P.L.94-142 established the concept of mainstreaming for all handicapped students. The law was passed with no thought for preparation of regular classroom teachers on how to manage students with a wide variety of handicaps in the regular classroom. Mainstreaming was simply added to the growing number of school problems, which included, but was not limited to, decreased income for education and schools, increased class size and a greater diversity than ever of cultures and languages, especially in California. Mainstreaming was not exactly new, but with PL 94-142 it was the only way to go for children with any but the severest handicaps. Mainstreaming relies on a "pull out" program for children who need extra or special help in the traditional classroom. The speech therapist and the resource specialist are assigned to small rooms, usually old custodial closets or the like. These specialists, following IEP directives, schedule in small groups the school children needing their help. Those handicapped children are then supposed to remember when to leave their regular classrooms in order to arrive on time at speech or other tutoring. Ideas from above, no clues from below One idea behind mainstreaming was that those children needing special help would be accepted as equals by their peers and by teachers. The children, by dint of being in the same classroom as their peers, would receive the same education, while receiving tutoring in areas of weakness outside the classroom. This is an overloaded idea.
66 In my experience, the pull-out program was and is an impossible dream or scheme. The children needing special help, those already overwhelmed by the system, were given the additional burden, from ages six on, of having to remember and juggle very complex schedules. Serious lack of adult supervision Since several children from various classrooms were scheduled to go to special education classes, usually speech and the resource program, at different times each day, a serious problem of lack of adult supervision arose. The regular classroom teacher was too busy with his or her own activities to keep track of who was to be where, when. Many teachers paid little heed to special education youngsters. By school rules, the resource specialist was not supposed to leave some students unattended, while going after those who forgot to come, or were elsewhere. Younger students needed to be escorted to and from their regular classrooms while other students had already arrived in the resource specialists room. Several children realized that no one was paying much attention to their whereabouts, so they regularly took advantage of this unsupervised situation. On arriving on the pull-out scene from my previously enclosed classroom, a number of these needy kids were wandering around the school yard with no adult seeming to notice or take responsibility for them. Problems only exacerbated when these same children tried to congregate and seek attention in my mini-room. Incomplete education the rule My introduction to mainstreaming and the pull-out program came in the fall of 1974 where it was being attempted before PL 94-142 became law in 1975. On receiving my list of students whom I was expected to remediate in groups of four to six students each, the speech therapist and I met to coordinate our scheduling.
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Regardless of our efforts to coordinate schedules with these students' regular teachers, some children would miss a particular subject in their classrooms on a regular basis. Some children missed math, some reading, some spelling and so on. The parents and the children in my school, put their feet down on the idea of these children missing recess, music or art. There was always going to be an incomplete educational program with the pull-out method. Other opinions available A retired speech therapist, in her 70s, told me that she never took kids from anything important in the classroom. That could mean that the teachers conducted several, daily unimportant activities, or that this therapist had very few students and was permitted to take them from recess, or that the teachers would not agree with her. This lady might also be in denial about the realities of the time. She also told me that she had no trouble teaching 60 or more, young students per class and could see no reason for smaller classes. Not even for first or second graders?, I queried, incredulously. Not even. She said, with her nose up. Confusion and frustration inevitable My experience was that these children, who most needed personal recognition and consistency in their learning programs, were receiving neither. They were too young to handle the confusing scheduling. The confusion increased hyperactivity and decreased learning activity. They were sent to special education for 20 or 30 minute periods, which included travel time from and to class, and the time it took the specialist to get a group of students from several classes to settle down together to prepare to learn. No sooner had these children settled down with any particular lesson than they were minutes later required to turn off their concentration and move to another room
with another teacher and other students. These same disorganized students were expected to reorganize their thinking toward yet another subject, teacher and place. Considering that these were students having school problems to begin with, it is a marvel if they could learn anything at all. This situation frustrates everyone. Bad apple contract The maximum time that any student could spend outside the regular classroom, according to P.L. 94-142, was 1/2 of a school day or three hours. Thinking back to my experience with the enclosed classroom, I begged the principal to allow me to work with six to ten students together for a half day. It was my hope to remedy some of the problems caused by the lack of cohesiveness with these wandering, special education students, and to provide a more complete educational program for them. The bad apple in this contract was the principals demand that we concentrate only on the scholastic subjects: writing, arithmetic, reading and spelling. The pressure was on. This instruction was not to be interspersed with art and action. The students were to return to their regular classes for the fun subjects: recess, music, art and parties. Well you can imagine how popular this work class was in comparison to the regular classes. Even with allowance for class meetings, the strict division between the curriculum of the two classes left my group at the bottom of the popularity scale. At a point of scholastic success, a few students started a rebellion against the "work, work, work" atmosphere of this classroom. They decided that they wanted to go back to their regular classrooms where it was possible for them to "hide out" and play. They could hardly be blamed. Large, desk to ceiling windows, facing the small play yard between our classrooms,
gave full view of their regular classmates playing outside. The special education children were torn between several teachers, several rooms, their regular class friends and few alternating activities, not to mention the negative press of being in a class for dummies. Alternation of activities necessary When a teacher has a regular enclosed classroom for a full day, active and passive activities are alternated. This is always the best way to learn. Studying in short periods alternated with totally different activities seems to revitalize the brain. Permission was denied to provide sensory-motor or art activities for my LD students. The school psychologist told me that the "real teachers" would take care of physical education and art. So, despite my advanced education and seven credentials in education and counseling, I was not considered to be a "real teacher". In this school district, the resource specialist was a second class citizen along with the students labeled Learning Disabled or Handicapped. R.Sp.= teachers dumping ground Too many regular teachers seemed to regard these special needs students as nuisances. Some teachers regularly used the resource specialist program as a dumping ground for students with behavior problems that they themselves did not want to deal with. This R.Sp, resource specialist, became the relief stand-in for some teachers' problems and also an escape refuge for some children who were otherwise ignored. Special secret agent with magic tools Here again there was that dichotomy of feelings among teachers regarding the teacher who handled the problems that the regular teachers did not want to deal with. A young elementary teacher recently informed me that the resource specialist at her school was now teaching the regular teachers some of the special secret tools for handling children with disabilities or problems. It sounded like a magic show.
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The mess continues Some schools have been trying to bring the Resource Specialist into each classroom, in the unreal hope that this person could tutor all of the atypical students in each class without disturbing the regular class schedule. Some teachers take a rest period, turning the whole class over to the resource specialist. The resource specialist then hops from class to class with the wishful thinking that such limited instruction can cover all bases. Private school takeover In the past decade the number of specialized, private schools for dyslexics has mushroomed. Many private schools reject children with learning and, especially with emotional problems. Even private special education schools can and do reject students with serious emotional problems. Private schools practically never hire resource specialists. Most for-profit, private schools do not hire credentialed teachers whom they would have to pay as such. They may hire a token credentialed teacher to administrate low paid, unqualified teacher assistants. A credentialed teacher is also hired to administrate the private school, not to teach the students. These teachers are not trained as administrators. This is the Peter Principle at work, advance to the point of incompetence. Resource Specialists as scapegoats In many public schools, whether the resource specialist teacher worked with groups of children within or outside the regular classroom, the mainstreaming situation was beset with problems. The resource specialist was seen as intruding into the "real" teacher's space and plans. In spite of the fact that the resource specialist was required to have more classroom education and at least two credentials compared to a regular teacher, the resource specialist was usually placed in a position of subservience
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to the regular teacher. At parent teacher conferences, the resource specialist and the pull-out program were often used as the scapegoat for a student's lack of achievement. This maneuver takes the regular teacher off the hook for most scholastic improvement. Enclosed classrooms for all It is my experienced opinion that the mainstreaming approach for helping dyslexic students is less successful for these students than is a well trained, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, creative teacher in an enclosed classroom. This teacher could be the regular teacher or the resource specialist. It doesn't matter which, as long as he or she is knowledgeable in how to reach and teach each child. Young children whose handicaps are physical, or who can work when given correct sensory dominant instruction, need to be in a regular, enclosed classroom. Becoming tuned into the weaknesses of pull-out programs at IEP meetings, many parents of dyslexic or special needs children were looking again for the enclosed classroom where their children would be
receiving a whole education and special help. When all teachers are instructed on how to include the non-visual, right brain, crossed dominant dyslexic children in any classroom, with appropriate screening and lessons, these children will not be seen as problem learners. They will automatically be included in regular classrooms with their peers. Encompass learning patterns It goes without saying that all teachers, in order to be relevant, need to be knowledgeable in and encompassing of their students' learning patterns in their every lesson. Lessons must include right and left brain approaches, as well as visual, auditory and tactile-kinesthetic instruction. Sensory and dominance screening in line with developmental screening and new teacher education is required. Sometimes the laws as written create more problems than they were meant to alleviate. And sometimes, willing administrators, teachers and parents can make positive changes in the way things are done, one class and one school at a time.
Chapter 7. Experiencing Dyslexia and Labels
It must be made clear from the beginning that most dyslexic people are fantastic. They often offer balance in education and to the usual ways of thinking and doing. The Dyslexic's Experience Suddenly during the 90's it was not just acceptable but actually chic for many
adults to state publicly that they are or were dyslexic. The author Gerald Jampolsky says, with no small pride, that he is dyslexic. The pride comes from knowing that he has overcome a big disadvantage to become a very, successful writer. Another writer, an engineer, claims in his book that dyslexia is a gift and that most people who have dyslexia are actually gifted. Many dyslexic
people become overachievers, determined to overcome obstacles rather than be seen as incapable by others. They especially want to prove to themselves that they are intelligent and capable. People are quick to respond that they are dyslexic, or at least they think they are. At this point in general conversation, the definition of dyslexia seems to mean that one had some significant problem learning in school. They may not have been placed in a special education class, but they themselves are aware of their personal struggle to learn in school. You must work harder When one of my most enthusiastic school aides returned from taking a battery of tests at our local college, she was beaming as she announced to me that she had been told that she was "dyslexic". What specifically were you told?, I asked. "Oh, I have trouble with spelling and with organizing my thoughts." she beamed. "We already knew that. What specifically were you told that would benefit you now that youre diagnosed as dyslexic? "Oh, I have to spend much more time on my studies than others do." she said. I felt some discouragement with that statement. Time without knowledge of how to use it wisely will seldom benefit any student. This aide had been working in my classroom for learning disabled, dyslexic students for more than a year. We had already discovered her ambidexterity and right brain learning preference, typical of many dyslexics. That was one of the reasons she loved learning how to help children with similar learning patterns. She had an unsatiable appetite for learning new ways of approaching the subjects of education. Her newly discovered enjoyment of learning and teaching with these methods even encouraged her to go on to college to become a teacher herself. But being told that she was "dyslexic" by the college was
for her, and for many others, like being touched with the good fairy's magic wand.
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No one wants to be labeled disabled Of course, no one brags that he was learning disabled. After having observed a six year old in a small class, I mentioned to the parents that their son might have a learning disability. One would think I had said, "Your son was born without a brain." The father, a writer who considered his whole family to be in the brilliant range of intelligence and giftedness, looked at me as if I were insane. I wondered if I had more tactfully said "dyslexic" instead of "learning disabled" if that same look of disbelief and denial would still have come my way. A year later, this father came up to apologize and to tell me that I had been right about his son having problems with the educational system. However years later, when this boy was in high school receiving "A's" in most of his classes, both parents denied the label of dyslexic. Frustrating attitudes continue They equated "dyslexic" with a lack of intelligence or something equally untouchable. One can hardly imagine how frustrating such attitudes are to very intelligent, right brain children and adults who struggle to learn in traditional left brain ways. At that earlier time, that boy's mother knew right away that the reason for the constant calls she had been receiving from the school regarding their son's loud, disrupting class behavior might have been found. She said she had dismissed most of those complaints from the school as having to do with their bright, intelligent son's boredom, but she unconsciously suspected something worse. The father said that his son's boisterous behavior was normal for boys. Their first two children were girls. Meeting the professionals The mother and I went together to the Orton school for dyslexics where the boy was given a costly paper and pencil test.
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The examiner told the boy what to do at each box on the page. That examiner, who had no educational credentials and probably no college degree either, told his mother that her son was fine. From that short, one on one test, this unqualified evaluator told the mother and myself that this boy was not dyslexic or otherwise learning handicapped. She went so far as to tell the mother that this boy would outgrow his immaturity and be just fine. This nonsense was what a parent would like to believe and takes this evaluator off the hook. If the problems in school became worse, it could not reflect on this evaluator, but on the boy. Avoidance behavior Knowing better, I offered sensory dominant screening for this boy, free of charge. Having been retired and out of the classroom for a few years by then, my composure quickly faded when it came to screening this boy in visual tasks. It was nigh impossible to keep him on task for items like, Follow the pencil tip with your eyes. He ignored or refused to follow directions or answer questions. He constantly changed the subject, asked questions about other things, or kept on talking in a loud voice and wandering about the room. Eventually, we learned that he had right-sided dominance or laterality and left eye dominance, which made him crossed dominant. Even though only 6 years old, his compensatory behavior had been practiced to perfection. In spite of my knowledge, the tendency to react to this boys aggravating, annoying behavior was almost instinctive. It had certainly caused my blood pressure to rise, as was also the case for his schoolteacher. When confronted with visually demanding tasks, his avoidance activities reduced his stress by keeping his ego in tact. He refused to try tasks where he thought he might fail. This same behavior frustrated teachers who felt that he must learn to do those visual tasks in the traditional manner.
Visual lag in non-dominant eye The sensory dominant screening revealed that this boy was having problems coordinating his eyes to do work required at desk level, the reason for his compensatory behavior. He also had motor deficits. His writing pressure was very heavy, indenting three pages. His muscles were generally weaker than normal and his balance was poor. A visit to an optometrist, who understood children's vision problems not related to acuity, was suggested. The report from this optometrist, who received my preevaluation, stated that this boy did indeed have a "visual lag in his right, nondominant eye." With this authentication, it was then possible to instruct the parents and teachers as to better methods for tapping into this boys auditory and tactile strengths and for building up his motor skills. His irritating compensatory behavior declined as his efforts met with success. Early detection gives learning edge With the early detection of the boy's vision problems and with suitable education, this boy did go on to become that straight A student whom the parents could no longer acknowledge as having a learning disability. An interview with his father, eight years later, revealed that this teen age boy makes considerable uses of acting with his peers, which provides kinesthetic and auditory reinforcement to enhance his comprehension and recall. Now, this young man is a real leader among peers. He even achieved the highest honor in Boy Scouts, becoming an Eagle Scout. We dont want to hear it In truth, the early discovery of one's differentness in kindergarten and the first grades of school are for most parents more like being hit with a baseball bat than being touched with a wand. Certainly the parents are perplexed by information that their brilliant child has learning problems. Yes,
we often take so much for granted. If a baby or toddler seems to see or hear or walk, we never suspect that minor sensory-dominant problems could be the cause down the road of learning problems in the visually oriented classroom. Acting out Most teachers or parents don't recognize sensory-dominant differences or problems right away. But when the children themselves become aware that they are having more difficulties with certain assignments than the other kids are, these children begin to incorporate very negative feelings about themselves and school. Then they act out, meaning they revert to a less mature or clownish behavior as a means of coping with their stress. To adults these children appear to be quite normal in most ways, except in the acting out behavior. It doesn't take too long in a group of peers for the teacher to decide that this particular child is "a problem child", mostly because of what appears to be inappropriate, immature behavior. Immaturity or self-comforting? The child senses right away that something is wrong and whether in preschool or kindergarten, the child assumes that he or she must be responsible for whatever is wrong. This innocent child will usually try to find ways to fit into the group or to ease his stress. This often results in his or her behaving in a less mature, but previously comfortable manner. Of course the adults are totally perplexed by the child's "immaturity" and inattentiveness. The frustrated teachers and others assume that the child is being willfully difficult. Then, too often, the adults lash out with harsh words that can cause lasting emotional injury. Emotional stress evident Quotes from intelligent adults who grew up with learning difficulties or "dyslexia". "I thought I was stupid. I knew I was not like other kids."
72 "The teacher didn't understand why I wasn't paying attention. I didn't understand myself either." "I was afraid of being found out and marked as stupid." "The other kids used to make fun of me. It hurt, but I tried to ignore them." "I froze when I was called upon to spell a word in front of the class. When the teacher asked me what letter the word began with, I blurted out anything. I had no idea of the letter she asked for." "I hid my inferiority feeling as well as I could, but I tell you it totally affected my every waking day. I was the walking failure kid. I had the secret life you learn to lead, the longing to be normal, the dream that I could change somehow like magic and be bright like the others in school. I felt like an idiot The hunger to learn became a driving force and the pain made me very empathetic to other people with seeming deficiencies, or problems. I hid my deficiencies, became a jokester of sorts, a storyteller, someone who tries to have everyone like him, a regular fellow. But, inside I knew I wasn't". "My childhood humiliations, those never forgotten memories of anguish, shame and humiliation, are always with me. I felt like an idiot." Loves to write, has spelling anxiety I love to write, but my spelling is dreadful and causes me great embarrassment. I hide the dictionary I carry with me so others wont see me looking up the correct spelling of words. I always think of that teacher who looked at my paper with misspelled words and said to me, How can you be so stupid? At work, Im always afraid the others will see me looking up words for reports and theyll judge me as stupid. Hurt and angry Such negative feelings are a dreadful emotional burden for any intelligent person.
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One of the more common results of such feelings of humiliation and hurt is anger. The loss of self-esteem is nearly always associated with anger, anger projected at others and anger turned in on one's self. Depression can also develop due to feelings of inadequacy. The majority of dyslexics are in need of psychological counseling before their teen years. Sometimes this anger leads a youngster to seek recognition in antisocial ways. Many young people in trouble with the law had serious difficulties in school. There is a greater proportion of dyslexics in prison than in the average population. A great relief Margaret McHugh started a support group for dyslexics in Monterey, California. It was reported in the local newspaper April 1991 that when, at the age of 37 she was diagnosed as a dyslexic. this news came as a great relief. At last, there was an answer to her problems with paperwork and memory problems, which had damaged her selfesteem. Even with the wide range of views from "authorities" regarding the definition of dyslexia, it is not amazing that someone feels great relief from the diagnosis of dyslexia. Giving a name to one's problem is certainly preferable to knowing one has a problem for which no one has a specific name, let alone an understanding. Youre not crazy As an example, although my strong athletic body gave me the appearance of excellent health, constant back, neck and arm pain propelled me to seek the help of doctors. Their eyes told them that I looked, and therefore must be, healthy. For twenty years they told me that I was fine or that my pain might have a psychological genesis. So, hoping psychotherapy would help, I went. It did not relieve my increasing neck and back pain. Only after a 1982 myelogram (dye injected into the spinal
canal) was the truth shown. By then I had severe degenerative disc disease throughout my spine and was destined to live with constant, severe pain. Like dyslexia, there is no easy or magic cure for this condition. Finally, the earlier misdiagnoses were corrected. Like dyslexics, reassurance that I was not crazy brought about mental and emotional relief. Like dyslexics, my problem had a reality basis, a name, a diagnosis, but it was still something difficult to live with. Now, with a clearer, more accurate diagnosis attempts to manage the problem more closely fit the diagnosis. Dyslexia Stress in educational world For dyslexia, as for back pain, the names of these problems do not make the problems easier to bear while there are no cures. There can be no doubting that in a society that depends on the use of sequential symbols for reading and language, the inability to make visual sense or comprehend these symbols causes much grief. One psychologist and father of a dyslexic child restates the fact that most dyslexic children need psychological help by the time they're twelve or thirteen years old, due to the stress of being dyslexic in our educational system. Not long ago, I interviewed a fifteen year old young man, who was born with turned eyes for which he had surgery before he was school age. In spite of the surgery, which helped some, Bobby experienced difficulties with close visual tasks in school. Irlen breakthrough for one student When Bobby was in third grade, he said that a special education teacher, who had learned of Irlen colored lenses or filters for visual problems, found that blue transparencies made a noticeable, positive difference in Bobby's reading ability. Bobby said that these colored filters allowed him to read for longer periods without the usual eye fatigue and tearing. He claims that they also cured his word and symbol reversal problems. Perhaps with the easing
of one problem he was better able to concentrate on reversals and other problems. It was suggested to Bobby that a number of adults who had difficulty with schoolwork when they were young feel some anger toward the educational system. When asked about his feelings associated with having been teased by other children for wearing blue glasses, Bobby insisted that he shrugged off any negative feelings about being teased. Teachers red marks He did admit that he used to be bothered by his teacher's red marks on his written papers before he had his blue lenses. Bobby off-handedly remarks that he doesn't feel different or that he doesn't let anything that anyone has to say bother him. "So, you are not having any difficulties with school?," I queried. "Are you getting straight "A's"?" "No. I'm not getting "A's". I'm getting "D's" in English. I do well in the classes I'm interested in. I don't do well in the classes that bore me. If the teacher says I'm not trying, I don't try." "Don't you sense some anger in that statement, a sort of I'll get even with you attitude?", I asked. Bobby shrugged. Anyway you look at it Bobby also said that he could use either eye equally well, but when I gave him a telescope to look through, although he was right handed, he said, "It feels awkward to put the telescope up to my right eye." Both strings on the string knot test flash in and out on him, signaling visual coordination problems. He usually uses his right hand and foot, but claims to use either hand or foot in many situations. Bobby is assuredly crossed dominant. Ambidexterity fits this category and these few tests reveal that Bobby would be experiencing more than average difficulties with visual schoolwork. Cool kids dont have problems Yet Bobby preferred to deny that he was having any difficulties that he couldn't control, simply by willing it so. His attitude
74 was, if he cared about English, he could get "A's" in that subject too. Bobby was at that age where he was building his identity image. It is not "cool" to have problems at this or any other age. But most of us know that NOT admitting our problems, denying them and the feelings surrounding them, can lead to even bigger problems. Support needed here Schools need support groups for children with learning problems. Bobby needs to find out that other people have similar problems, that he's not alone in this area. Bobby and those around him would benefit from openly recognizing their struggles. Then they can begin to find more ways to ease those struggles. More than one of the dyslexic adults said that if it hadn't been for one special teacher, who recognized their ability and their struggle to learn, taking them aside for special one to one tutoring, they don't know what would have become of them. Nearly devastated One such dyslexic person remembers seeing and reading the school psychologist's report, which told his parents that his educational capabilities might allow him, at best, to work as a gas station attendant. Although the report nearly devastated him at the time, this determined man went on to receive his doctorate degree and write and publish more than one professional book. He knows he needed to prove himself and prove those early dire predictions to be false. Janice The parents of one of my students brought back a similarly negative report from a three day residential, very expensive, professional evaluation of their daughter. The medical and psychological experts told the parents that their child would be completely dependent on them for life. These parents were also informed that they should not expect their daughter to learn to
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read or write. The parents were resigned to this fate for their daughter and for themselves. Having spent much more than three days with this eleven-year old, mildly cerebral palsied girl, the report seemed to me incredulous. She had good language ability, lots of spunk and quite a temper. She was the youngest of nine children and somewhat spoiled, but nothing that wasn't remedied in that department. To end the story where I had to leave it, this energetic girl was reading, writing, solving math problems and singing with great joy, "The Impossible Dream" on stage. It is also my strong feeling that Janice went on to accomplish much more with her life than those "experts" had predicted. Carmens son, Jim Not long ago, a woman not seen by me in many years ran up to me in the lobby of a medical building where she was working. She threw her arms around me and hugged me as I was mentally struggling to find her name in my moth eaten memory system. Finally, I had to ask. It was Carmen, the mother of a boy who had been in my class thirteen years earlier. Carmen then told me how her sons life had been changed, by his being in my class. "Before he was in your class, he was so shy and insecure. After being in your class, he became so outspoken and so confident. Now, she beamed, "He's graduating from college." Now we both beamed. Vision problem not recognized After his college graduation, Jim, Carmen's son, came to see me. He was now a handsome, 23-year old, delightful, young man with a wonderful air of self-confidence. He said that he was thinking of becoming a teacher himself. After looking over this manuscript, he asked, "How come no one told me until second grade that I had vision problems?" Good question!
A winner with dyslexia Jim helped me recall things we did in class so long ago, that I had forgotten. Since that visit, I received this letter of appreciation, the beginning and end of which are quoted here. "Dear Lois, It was great to finally get to see you again after all these years. I want to thank you for giving me the clock technique to plan and study with. This technique of planning and studying will be a great benefit for me, since I do not "think or do" as the average person does. . I think the book you are writing is essential to teachers and parents if they want to see their dyslexic children learn and strive in school and in life. I have graduated from high school. I have an A.A. degree and I have a B.A. and not in one of those institutions did I learn more on how to learn and deal with life, than I did with you, in third and fourth grades. What I learned from you has been the difference between failing and winning, and might I say I am a winner because of you. Thank you for everything. Love, Jim" What can I do to help my daughter? When I went to have my hair cut, the beautician Jamie and I were chatting when the subject of my book came up. Jamie said, "I was dyslexic." "How did you find that out?", I asked. She answered "I figured it out myself. I had a terrible time in school." "Which eye would you use to look into a microscope?" I asked. After imaging the situation, Jamies reply was, "My left eye". "Well, I see that you are right handed. Your crossed dominance is typical of most dyslexics.", I shared. Jamie continued with grave concern, "Now my ten year old daughter is just like me and I don't want her to go through what I did in school. What can I do to help her?" Jamie pleaded. I also have two babies, not in school yet." Being extremely limited in
time, I suggested she get her childrens vision checked. Jamie said she would get her own vision checked too a very good idea. "Perhaps eyeglasses might help your ten year old daughter and there are different teaching methods that could help too.", I offered. A different focus How could all of us not think of the many young parents like Jamie who have little direction on how to keep their children from suffering through school, as they did. Compared to the average left brain or straight dominant person, visually crossed dominant people do have a different focus on the world. In adulthood, many capable, determined dyslexic people may prefer to
76 get into professions where they are selfdirecting, more able to manage their lives without having to fit into a conventional, societal mode. Dyslexic people are more often right brain dominant in their thinking. They may be seen as especially creative people for having to devise ways of performing well in a left brain world. Some well-known adult dyslexics were or are: Winston Churchill, Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas A. Edison, Albert Einstein, Whoopi Goldberg, Cher and many others in the entertainment business. A major aim of this book is to provide inexpensive, easy to understand screening and remediation for dyslexia or for anyone with learning difficulties.
amten
Chapter 8. Clara's Classes Checking For Dominance and Risk in the Classroom
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In light of my studies in the area of right brain education and my success using total brain-mind methods with the crossed dominant students in my classes, it was natural to want to share this new found knowledge with other teachers and parents. To that end, workshops were presented for teachers, parents and administrators. Everyone experienced dominance determination for eye, hand, ear and foot. They also experienced the positive differences the total brain methods had on their own learning. A follow-up survey told me that most of the adults from these workshops were using some of those instructional methods in their classrooms or homes. Best intentions go awry It had been my intention to imprint the importance of checking students' eyehand dominance to assist parents and teachers in understanding whether students might have undetected visual or visual motor coordination problems. If so, these total brain education methods would be crucial to theirs and helpful to everyone else's education. Dominance screening did not compute The part about dominance testing related to learning needs seemed to fall on the teachers deaf ears. Even so, the dominance test results received from one teacher provided very interesting facts five years later. Clara was the one teacher who decided to check her students for dominance, but not for the reasons suggested. Clara wanted to see if it was true that a child's dominance is determined by age five or six, or if it changes. A 1982 Health Science article, Are Babies Born Right- or Left-Handed, concludes that there is a
right- or left-sided preference noticeable soon after birth. Ultrasound and other photographs taken of babies in the womb show babies exhibiting a preference for which thumb they suck. Line them up In March 1981, during recess, Clara lined up her 28 first graders. With her clip board in hand, on which the students' names and ages were listed in vertical columns to the left of her page, Clara was ready to begin checking her students' dominance. Across the top of the page Clara labeled two vertical columns for each of the following: "Kicks with", for foot dominance, "Writes with", for hand dominance, and "Spyglass", for eye dominance. The two columns under each heading were there to check whether her students' dominance would change between one year and the next. It did not. R, L, X As each student took his or her turn kicking and retrieving the ball, Clara placed an "R" for right foot, or an "L" for left foot in the first of her "kicks with" columns. 26 of these 28 children kicked with their right feet. Two were left footed. Lining the students up again, she asked each child to look through a toy telescope. For this activity, only 18 of the 28 used their right eyes to look through the spyglass. Ten, (10) of these 28 children used their left eyes to look through the spyglass. Later, in the classroom, while each student printed their names on first grade size, ruled paper, Clara walked around the room and marked "R" or "L" in the "writes with" column beside the appropriate name.
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Part 1 Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning
All but one of the right-footed children used their right hands for writing. The one who was right footed and left handed was crossed dominant and she was already in the Learning Disabled Program, with many serious learning difficulties. The one student who was left handed was completely left sided, or straight left dominant. Aside from the crossed dominant child just mentioned there was one child who was left sided with a dominant right eye. This covers the two left-footed children. There were 25 children in this class of 28 who were right handed or ambidextrous and right footed. If they were right handed and right footed they would be considered to have right-sided dominance, right? But, 9, nine of these right-sided children were using their dominant left eyes with the telescope. This fact would make these children crossed dominant. The summation of Clara's dominance checking of those 28 first graders: 1L, 1 was straight, left dominant, 16R, 16 were straight, right dominant 11X, 11 were crossed dominant, 5 boys, 6 girls. 10 of the crossed dominant group were right sided and left eyed, R/Leye. 1 boy was left sided and right eyed. Art and brain dominance On this list of 28 students, Clara had, without prodding, noted next to five names, that these 5 out of 28 students were especially artistic. The artistic ones were all in the crossed dominant, right-hand, lefteye, R/Leye, dominant group. Artistic ability usually correlates with a spatial, right brain approach to learning. A child with left eye dominance would be responding visually with the spatial, right brain dominance.
Artist and author, Betty Edwards in her book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" shows us that the right brain is indeed the better artist, compared to the left brain. An early exercise in her book instructs right-handed readers to copy a design with their left hand. The left hand (right brain) is usually the more accurate artist. Pratt Art Institute study A 1993 study at Pratt Art Institute in New York City, determined that there was a higher percentage of left handed students enrolled in their art programs than there are in the general population. Further study might show that a few of their right-handed students were left eye dominant, crossed dominant people. At any rate, there were more right hemisphere dominant students in art school than in the population at large. Art used for cognition Since another of Clara's crossed dominant children spent most of her school day out of the classroom in special education, Clara did not recall this girl's artistic ability. The girl was also right sided and left eye dominant. According to the grandmother, who was raising her, this child had brain damage related to the street drugs used by both of her teen-aged parents. This child had been unable to learn anything related to letters or numerals in the classroom. The only methods I found that appeared to gain this girl's interest were related to drawing and perhaps, rhythm and singing. Her drawings of animals and objects for recalling letter sounds in rhyme and tune were quite remarkable for her age. This artistic ability became the main sensory dominant developmental path on which we tried to reach for cognitive progress. Educations repeat, repeat mantra Again and again, the school's system for dealing with this shy girl's learning
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problems, beyond placing her in Speech and Learning Assistance Programs for the maximum allowable time, was to make her repeat kindergarten and also repeat first grade. That's four years instead of two. This child needed special help, but it is questionable as to whether two retentions with the same teachers and methods ever benefited this child. In fact, these repetitions forced this girl to be a total misfit socially as well as in every other way. Does dominance change? Because Clara wanted to see if the children's dominance changed from one year to the next, she not only re-screened the first class of 28 children a year later, but she also checked the dominance of her new class of 19 first graders. These 1982 first graders were an unusual group. Twelve, 12 of these 19 students were crossed dominant, twice as many as would be in the population at large. A minority of seven, 7 students were straight dominant. This 1982 class had fewer students in it than were in the previous, and at that time usual sized, first grade class because the teachers decided that these children were "immature" and needed more individual attention. The artistic girl mentioned earlier was now 9 years old and repeating first grade with 6 year olds. This unusual group of first graders In this group of 19 first graders, all of the crossed dominant children used their right hands and legs. In every case, the crossed dominance was due to their left eyes being their dominant eyes. One of these boys had been screened by me at the end of kindergarten, and was discovered then to have 20/200 vision in his right eye. The parents of this boy had refused retention in kindergarten, but when their son hadnt caught up by the end of second grade, they were nigh forced to have him repeat
second grade. It seems that making the parents give in to retention was proof to the teachers that they were right in wanting to retain him in the first place reasons that for had NOTHING TO DO WITH VISION. Aaagh! Lets hope that something was done along the way to improve his vision. Strongly held views on retention Clara had been told down the line that this boy had become a good student. Even though this boys mother was a regular, paid teachers aide who tutored her son at home, Clara felt confirmed in her belief that retention had been the main reason for this boys progress. How she or other teachers explained the lack of progress for the 9-year old in first grade would be interesting. Clara, along with many teachers and principals, remains a staunch supporter of the developmental and immaturity theories of education and therefore sees retention as the best remediation of a child's problems in school. Most educators, including psychologists, have behaved as if there were no other reasonable alternatives. If a student did not improve with retention, the reason or rationalization must be that the child is hopeless. The educational system is NEVER SUSPECT. Recent (late 1990s) studies on retention conclude that retention does not work. Different possible outcomes My records show that those students, who were placed in programs for the Learning Handicapped, were also retained. What different outcome might have been if these childrens vision deficits or laterality had been understood or corrected before they entered school? Perhaps if preschool screening had picked up the laterality and vision problems, a different instructional approach might have prevented early times of failure and struggle. Just perhaps.
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Dominance and a handicap designation In 1987 while reviewing years of records and screening of students who had been placed in my classes for the learning handicapped, the dominance screening of 1981 and 82 that Clara had turned over to me, was again in my hands. Originally reviewing my data on 141 learning handicapped students, my question was, How does the dominance of these LH students correlate with visual, auditory or other learning strengths and weaknesses for learning handicapped students? Now, the question was, How does the dominance of the students in Claras classes correlate to being placed in programs for the learning handicapped or being retained? The secretary of special education and I went over the names of those same 1981 and 1982 students whom Clara had screened for dominance. Which of those 1st grade students had been placed in the Learning Assistance Program by 1987, 5th grade? Tabulating comparisons The results of tabulating the straight and crossed dominant students in both classes are listed here. There were 28 plus 19 students on Claras lists making a total of 47 students in both classes. One of these was the girl who repeated kindergarten and first grade and two were young twins who repeated first grade. Counting the girl and the twins only once leaves a total of 44 students whose dominance was checked by Clara. The straight dominant Of these 44 students, 23 were boys, 21 were girls. The straight dominant students totaled 21, ten different boys, eleven different girls. Of these, 20 were straight right, R dominant, one (1) was straight left, L dominant. This left dominant
girl was the only student of the 44 who was placed in GATE, the gifted and talented program. A curious fact gleaned from the screening of a few other classes revealed that many GATE students were the straight left sided children. Perhaps they were using total brain learning as compared to mostly L brain learning of children and teachers with straight R dominance . Crossed up The crossed dominant students totaled 23 of the 44, 13 boys, and 10 girls. Of these 23 crossed dominant students, 22 were right sided and left eye dominant for distance vision. One was left sided and right eye dominant. Two girls screened in L.H. class used their R eye for distance vision, the L eye for near vision. These are included in the R/L, right side/left eye group. Of the 22 right sided, left eye dominant children there were 13 boys and 9 girls. Straight dominance in elementary school How did the straight dominant students from this group fare in the traditional, linear, left brain elementary school program? In the 1981 total group 82 of 47 minus 3 repeater students, 21 were straight dominant. There was one straight dominant, bilingual girl in speech and also in LH, the Learning Handicap Program. She had serious memory and sequential problems. The twin boys were the only other straight dominant students who were retained, but they were not placed in LH. The twins had November birthdays, a trigger to suggest immaturity to most teachers. At least two (2) crossed dominant girls and one (1) crossed dominant boy were retained and, or constantly tutored, but not placed in LH.
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Comparison of 44 Straight and Crossed Dominant 1st and 2nd Grade Students in 1981 82 with Follow-up in 1987 of Placement in Learning Handicap Program. 1995 L.E. Rockefeller Claras Classes (Key for Symbols on Next Page) Student Background of Clara's Classes
25 20 15 10 5 0 Total # of Students in Study Total S Total X Dominant in 44 Dominant in 44 Artistic S Dominant Artistic X Dominiant Retention S X 0 0 11 10 13 10 5 2 2 21 23 17
Girls Boys
Learning Handicap Placement of Straight & Crossed Dominant

10 8 6 4 2 0 Total LH 1982 Total LH 1987 S-LH X-LH S Vs X 1982 S-LH X-LH S Vs X 1987 S X Tutored & Retained No LH 3 1 1 0 3 1 1 0 0 6 9 9
5 3
Girls Boys
Causes of Crossed Dominance of Students in LH

14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
Total X Total R/ L eye
13 10 10
12 8 4 0 1
LH R/ L eye
Girls Boys
3 0 1 1 0 1
LH siblings of X Dominant in
0 0
LH siblings ofDominant S in
Total L/ R eye
LH L/ R eye
LH S Dom
--General Totals--
--LH Totals--
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S X L/R R/L LH Artist Sib or Sibling
Straight dominance totally left- or right-sided Crossed dominance can be L/R, R/L, or X (see below) Left-sided with Right-eye dominance Right-sided with Left-eye dominance Learning Handicap Placement Children were notably artistic Brother or Sister her complaints. The problems with schoolwork were therefore assigned to this girls behavior. Crossed dominance and sex differences That girl was no longer in that school district in 1987. The same three other girls who were in LH in 1981 were still in LH 82, in the fifth grade in 1987. By 1987, of the 10 crossed dominant girls in the original group of 21 girls, 5 of those 10 crossed dominant girls, or 50%, had been placed in LH, the program for the learning handicapped. Only one, bilingual straight dominant girl, had also been placed in the LH program from the original group of 44 students. There was only one crossed dominant boy in the LH program in 1982. That boy was no longer in this district in 1987. On the other hand, of the 13 crossed dominant boys of the original total of 23 boys, 8 new crossed dominant boys were placed in the LH program by 1987 or 5th grade. That made a total of 9 out of 13 of the crossed dominant boys, almost 70%, who had been placed in the LH program. There were no, 0, zero straight dominant boys in LH in 1st or 5th grade. Young ladies vs. rowdy boys A lower percentage of crossed dominant females as compared to crossed dominant males are placed in special education programs. This appears to be due to different behaviors exhibited and considered acceptable by boys and by girls
All those crossed dominant children placed in the LH Program were also retained, making a total of 17 of these 23 crossed dominant children who were retained and not faring well in the traditional linear, left brain dominant classroom. In L.H. in 1982 there were three crossed dominant girls and one straight dominant girl with multiple learning handicaps who required both speech and LH. The old-fashioned optometrist One of these three, 6-year old, crossed dominant girls complained of vision problems and headaches, probably related to poor visual convergence due to her right eye being dominant for distance while her left eye was dominant for near vision. At that point in my career, visual convergence was new to me, but I did request that an optometrist check this girls vision. The haughty optometrist stated that this girls eyes were fine and he blamed me for wasting the parents money for referring the girl for a vision examination. He told the parents that this girls problems were psychological. He further advised the parents that their daughter was lazy and just needed to study harder. One has to wonder if it was not the optometrist who had the psychological problems. He certainly was not typical of most optometrists. This girl is an example of the typical crossed dominant student with learning difficulties for which neither the developmental system, nor the average optometrist, could find an obvious cause for
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in the face of frustration. Acting out is not as acceptable from young ladies as it is from naturally, rowdy boys. Therefore, girls tend more to hide their problems or to express their artistic side, while boys tend to act out and exhibit their frustrations. First indications of educational risk Practically all of the crossed dominant students were crossed dominant because of vision. They used their same side for motor tasks, such as, writing and kicking, but they used the eye opposite that laterality for vision tasks. This is indicative of the need for further functional vision screening of these crossed dominant children. For the majority of young children, dominance screening may be the first indication of vision problems and learning problems to follow. Vision and visual perceptual problems usually lead to problems with schoolwork, where so much is paper, pencil, flash cards, chalkboard or the like. Dominance screening should be part of every childs earliest screening because it is quickly and easily performed, even with a large group of youngsters. Life imprisonment for ??? Regarding the need for LH placement in this group of 47 children, the figures speak only of the 1981, 1982 and 1987 school years. We can assume with some confidence that those who were in the LH program in 1981 and also in 1987 82 were probably in this program continuously, throughout those school years and beyond. We dont have complete figures for the numbers of those children who needed, or received special tutoring, but who were not placed in LH during those years. It is known that several of the crossed dominant children were required to repeat school years and two of the crossed dominant girls were noted as being tutored on a regular basis.
The reason given for the retentions, as usual, was immaturity. Sibling connections in LH Another interesting fact discovered in 1987 with the secretary of special education in that district, was that two crossed dominant girls and one crossed dominant boy, who had NOT been placed in LH, all had younger brothers who HAD been placed in LH by 1987. Also, one crossed dominant boy, who had NOT been placed in LH, had a sister in LH. We can probably assume that crossed dominance ran in these families and that the boys were more likely to be singled out for LH than were the sisters. NO siblings of straight dominant children were in LH. Further totals: crossed dominant boys in LH, 9 of 13 plus 3 brothers. Crossed dominant girls, 5 of 10 plus one sister. Determinant of educational destiny Of the 44 families in this study, at least 18 families out of 23 with crossed dominant children experienced placement of their children in Learning Handicapped Programs with Retention. Only one of the 21 straight dominant children, a child with multiple handicaps, was placed in LH. Of a group of 44 or 47, 1st and 2nd graders of normal intelligence, more than 78% of the X dominant versus less than 5% of S dominant children were demoted to lower educational expectations. Their different destinies were determined by their eye/hand use rather than by their intelligence and abilities. A simple dominance screening Although approximately one third of the general population is crossed dominant, about 80% to 90% of children in programs for the learning handicapped are crossed dominant. The majority of these crossed dominant individuals use the eye opposite their laterality for near vision work. This
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indicates that there are many more vision problems in students than are being recognized. Something as simple as checking which eye, hand and leg each individual uses can alert parents, teachers, nurses, doctors and others interested in a childs educational success to check further for vision problems. The use of the easy sensory dominant screening provided with this book set, when used, can change many lives for the better. If the problems detected (visual, auditory, neuromuscular, etc.) can not be corrected, then a multisensory educational approach can be emphasized in order to ensure educational success and inclusion. Simple dominance screening should include screening for the preferred nearvision eye as well as the distance-vision eye. This screening can also alert parents, teachers and students to those who are crossed dominant and therefore more likely to be at risk for school problems in the traditional, visually oriented classrooms.
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Chapter 9. Quick Review of Anatomy and Neuroanatomy
For biology neophytes, this simplified overview of the anatomy of the human organism provides a clearer understanding of anatomical words and images related to crossed dominance and learning as presented in this book. If this is old hat for you, skip this chapter. The very basics of anatomy/physiology To begin at the beginning, every living organism is made up of microscopic, basic structures called cells. Cells are the building blocks of everything in the body, like bricks are the basic blocks of a brick building. Unlike bricks, the cells of a living organism are alive or in the process of living or dying all the time. Each three dimensional cell is surrounded by a cell wall or membrane. Within each living cell membrane is a special fluid called cytoplasm and a central nucleus, which is the control center of the cell. The cell nucleus contains the DNA, the identifying protein passed down originally from the two parents of each individual. The nucleus gives each cell instructions or the blueprint for its survival and for its specialized job as part of the tissue made up of many similar cells. Varieties of cells and cell functions All cells have to work twenty four hours a day. Living, working cells come in a great variety of shapes, sizes and functions. The red blood cells main job or function is to pick up and deliver oxygen from the air in our lungs to the other cells in our body. All cells need oxygen in order to live and work. Each cell must maintain its
own health and repairs while taking care of its other specialized functions. Cells divide and replenish themselves on regular schedules built into their DNA. Brain cells were thought to be an exception to replacing themselves, but research of the late 1990s finds that brain cells also replenish themselves, but perhaps with some differences compared to the epithelial cells that line the mouth. Cells always work together as groups. Many muscle cells work together to form a muscle and to make a muscle contraction Semipermeability. The cell receives its form from its semirigid, semipermeable cell wall. Semipermeable means that specific molecules can squeeze in or out of the cell wall or membrane, or permeate this wall. Molecules are the smallest units of any substance that can exist freely and retain characteristic properties. Molecules of living organisms, like cells, are made up of atoms of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and many other chemical substances which the organism, thats you or me or any other being, takes into its systems. Tissues, organs and systems Cells are the building blocks of specialized tissues that make up our organs, like the heart and kidneys. Cells also make up glands, like the pituitary gland in the brain. Organs and glands make up our systems, like the cardiovascular system, which circulates or transports our blood throughout the total organism. The living organism needs fuel and oxygen to maintain
itself and do its work. Conduit systems are needed to carry this fuel and oxygen to all parts of the body. The circulatory system is our conduit. This closed circulatory system is made up of the heart organ, large arteries and veins and smaller and smaller blood vessels until we get to the capillaries, only one cell thick. The actual chemical exchanges that keep cells alive and working take place between cell membranes of various organs and cell membranes of the capillaries. Food digestion and use, or Gigo Just for fun, Gigo stands for garbage in-garbage out, whether were talking of the human organism or of a machine like a computer. For real, the food we take in through our mouths, the beginning of our digestive system, is first digested through several processes, including chewing. Then the liquified, digested food enters the circulatory system through our small intestine. This food is needed to refuel all cell processes. Supportive molecular chemicals needed by the cells of an organ move out of the blood through the semipermeable capillary walls and in through the organs semipermeable cell walls to replenish the organ cell's needs for nourishment and energy. At the same time, waste or unwanted chemicals and debris, including dead cells, move out of the organ's cells and into the capillaries of the circulatory system. The circulatory system carries these waste products to the kidneys, the large intestines, the skin and the lungs, where the waste products are excreted, or moved outside the body, or organism. Oxygen needed to burn digestive fuel The lungs and heart are very closely connected and together are called the cardiopulmonary system. This heart-lung system carries carbon dioxide as a waste product of cell activity to the lungs where it is breathed out of our bodies. The oxygen we breathe in
86 is picked up from the lungs by this same system of capillaries emanating from veins in the right side of the heart. The oxygen combines with red blood cells. The newly oxygenated blood is returned to the left side of the heart where it is pumped out through the aorta, our largest blood vessel, to be transported throughout our brain and body to refuel the cell processes. Brain requires 20% of new oxygen The heart and lungs are close to our brains so that a constantly renewed supply of enriched, oxygenated blood is speedily transported to our brains. Without this constant supply of oxygenated, enriched blood, the brain cells die within minutes and we can lose consciousness within 10 seconds. Although 2% of our body weight, the brain uses 20% of our oxygen intake. Framework for movement Our skeletal system, the bony frame of our bodies is made up of the skull, the spine, the shoulder girdle which supports our arms, the rib cage, and the pelvic girdle which supports our legs. These bony structures provide the framework for movement and protection of the organism. The long bones contain bone marrow, which produces new red blood cells. Built over and firmly attached to the bony framework is the neuromuscular system. The muscles and nerves use up large amounts of food and oxygen to make possible the various, complicated tasks that we are capable of performing. The integumentary system, our skin and its sensory receptors, covers our muscles and everything beneath. The skin is our main protective system against infection. The nervous system brings us to life Nothing would work, move or live without our amazing and very complex nervous system. This central nervous system is made up of our brain, protected in the cranium of the skull and of the spinal
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cord, an 18-inch extension of the brain, protected within the spinal column. The 12 pairs of cranial nerves within the skull and the 31 pairs of spinal nerves, which exit from both sides of the spinal cord, make up the peripheral nervous system. Many of our peripheral nerves run in place alongside companion blood vessels. The soft, 3 pound gel-like mass called the brain, about the size of a coconut or large grapefruit, is the most complex yet efficient master control system that any human has ever contemplated. Brain contains main sensory systems And humanity is a long way from truly understanding the unbelievable web of neuronal interconnections and nerve fibers and chemicals that make up the human brain. Besides directing our actions and thoughts through an interconnected system of chemicals, glandular secretions and electrochemical impulses, this brain contains the sensory systems of vision, hearing, smelling and tasting. The tactile-kinesthetic sensory system reports to the brain from nerve endings in the skin, muscles and joints. Hemispheres and central components Early in each mammal's development, the brain divides into paired, right and left cerebral hemispheres. Between the hemispheres and other paired parts of the human brain, lies the unpaired central component of the brain from which the hemispheres diverge. The central component contains the brain stem, parts of the midbrain and the corpus callosum. Beneath and behind each cerebral hemisphere sits the cerebellum, another sizable paired structure with a central lobe. This complex pair of cerebellar lobes controls posture, balance and voluntary movement and has some input into states of emotion and more.
Why two? We werent there, but At a seminar on the right and left hemispheres in education, an adult asked me why there were two cerebral hemispheres. Why not just one single brain? And why did the right hemisphere control the left side of the body and vice versa? Not having been there "when the foundations of the earth were laid or when the morning stars sang together", for what its worth, some thought was given to these questions. If we were to be two sided creatures we would need a control center for each side. Besides wrapping the two sides in one container, the skin or skull, what would prevent the two sides from splitting apart? Could the tough nerve fibers crossing over from one side to the other "knit" the two sides of the organism together? Many parts of our bodies, like the bones and muscles, develop, when young, according to the stress demands we place on these systems. For example, bigger and stronger muscles develop from demanding exercise of those muscles. The weight bearing bones increase in density and strength along lines of greatest stress. The pull of one side of our bodies away from the other side could be the demand that encouraged our nerves to reach and cross over to the opposite sides of the spinal cord in order to resist separation of the two sides. The crossover is something like the bricklayer building a wall. If he made two columns of bricks along side each other, the columns would soon split apart at the single seam. But the bricklayer centers the higher row of bricks over the seams of the previous layer, a kind of crossing over, which gives strength to the structure. Surface grooves of the cerebral cortex The convoluted surface of the cerebral cortex or gray matter contains the
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nerve cell bodies, which give it a pinkishgray color. The cerebral cortex varies in thickness, but is about inch, or 2 to 6 mm. thick. Depending on who is counting, this cortex contains about 75 billion neurons. The cortex has many deep grooves that twist and turn to provide increased surface area in a small space, otherwise our brain would be too large for our body. Although every part of the brain is almost simultaneously in communication with every other part, there are some major, deep grooves, or sulci, in the hemispheres, which partially divide the cortex into lobes. The lobes contain neurons that are specialized to receive and perform functions related to specific senses or activities. The
frontal lobes, behind the forehead, control the higher integrated brain functions, such as
making judgments and organizing information from other parts of the brain. The individual personality is developed in the frontal lobes. The temporal lobes, close to the ears, control auditory functions. The left temporal lobe in at least 95% to 99% of humans contains the main language centers. The occipital lobes at the back of the skull control vision. From ear to ear, across the top of the cerebral cortex in each hemisphere lies the strip of motor cortex which controls movement. Just behind the motor cortex is the sensory cortex, which controls skin sensations of heat, cold and pressure. These areas of the cortex are part of the parietal lobes which lie between the frontal and occipital lobes front to back and above the temporal lobes on the lower sides. There is also a strip of pre-motor cortex, which sets up planned movements before were conscious of moving.
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Connecting the hemispheres In the corpus callosum nerve fibers connect the right and left hemispheres. This connecting tissue is composed mainly of the axons, the outgoing fibers of neurons. Axons make up most of the brain below the cortex. Axons run to and from the rest of the body to serve long distance communications in the central nervous system. The axons make up the white matter as opposed to gray matter of neurons. The myelin sheaths of axons are white giving the corpus callosum and parts of the spinal cord their white color. Mac Leans Triune Brain Theory. According to Dr. Paul MacLeans popular triune brain theory, the brain, over millennia, developed from inside out to form one vertically integrated brain. Each brain developed over and outside the other, the most recent brain being the outer cerebral cortex. The deepest and earliest section of this triune brain, the brain stem, was named the reptilian brain. The reptilian brain was said to control basic, reptilian type instincts such as, territorialism, imitation, repetition and fixed patterning. Some time ago, having asked my daughter what she had been doing, the reply was, "Lizard lounging". "What?", I asked. "We've been lying outside, soaking up some rays, like lizards." Rays, of course, means
the warmth of the sun. I wondered, could this pleasurable activity, "lizard lounging" be a holdover from our ancestral, reptilian brains? MacLean told us that the old mammalian brain developed much later over and on top of the reptilian brain. The old mammalian brain, also called the Limbic System, governed sensation, emotion and reactions such as fight or flight. Much later again, the new mammalian brain is said to have developed over and on top of the two older brains. This neocortex, literally, new outer layer, was assumed to govern the baser instincts of the previous two brain sections. Some of the neocortexs functions are said to be creative thinking, planning, abstraction, communication, and integration of thought processes. MacLean proposed that nothing was discarded; the new just developed over the old and was now governing the old. That theory holds that the old patterns of behavior are still with us because those two old brains are still here, although much tempered by the new. That was the 1980's.
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The parallel, co-evolved brain theory In his 1993 book, neurologist, Richard E. Cytowic, M.D. plus other neuroscientists, inform those of us not involved in brain science, that MacLeans theory of a vertical hierarchy of three brains has not been correctly interpreted and needs revision toward a parallel development. Dr. Cytowic believes that the three sections of the brain in MacLeans theory actually developed together, or co-evolved, simultaneously. Humans have a limbic system far more sophisticated than those of animals., he says. Multiplex mapping According to Dr. Cytowic, the mind and neural networks are a holistic system of feedback systems on parallel levels, NOT vertical levels as previously supposed. Information in the brain is not strictly localized. The system is one of multiplex mapping; one input to many parallel outputs or associated areas. Vision, hearing, memory or emotion are not rigidly located in any one area of the brain, but are mapped according to the dominant process of that experience. Ten to thirty areas of the cortex
are co-involved in most sensory recognition processes with almost limitless variations. Cytowics more recent view of the central nervous system declares that the central structure of the brain, the old mammalian now the limbic system especially the hippocampus structure of the midbrain, IS the true conductor of our behavior, NOT the neocortex. This hippocampus, on the inner side of the temporal lobes, is extremely important in long term memory. Chemical neurotransmitters rule Since 1985, scientists have been able to tag neurotransmitters, the many brain chemicals that bathe the neurons and that control emotions. Now they can see the direction of the flow and the target of these various chemicals in the brain and beyond. They found neurotransmitters, not only in the central nervous system, but also throughout the body. The neural networks of the brain are enmeshed in the fluid neurotransmitters. Loosely quoted, Dr. Cytowic emphasizes, CONSCIOUSNESS IS AN EMOTIONAL STATE. We can not disembody the mind from the biological
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being. The neurotransmitters of the limbic system are basic to the mind. Most brain processes operate at a level below consciousness. Multisensory awareness is at an unconscious level in most people. We know more than we think we know. Emotions and reason According to Cytowic, we have known for some time that our body language is an emotional language of its own. We probably know more about others and viceversa than we have thought about. Emotions may play a greater role in how we act than does reason. When every incoming message passes through the hippocampus (central, inner part of each temporal lobe) to the outer cortex and back to the limbic system, it is the emotional limbic system that decides how we will act on that information. It decides what is important and what to do. Everything has a limbic central emotional core and emotion has a logic of its own. The hippocampus knows the neurological drives of the organism as an entity. It can relate back to every organ that feeds into it. This limbic system adds pleasure to consciousness and provides a multisensory evaluation of the world. The analytical intellect of the neocortex should inform the limbic system, but not override it. The gut feeling is a reality, which we must relearn how to attend. Crucial information for educators It should be noted that neuroanatomists still do not fully agree on which brain structures make up the Limbic System or midbrain. Some include the hippocampus while others dont. Even so, this new knowledge gives us a very different insight into how we see ourselves and others. It must certainly affect our mode of instruction and our interpersonal encounters. The idea of controlling emotions, like, Get control of yourself, takes on new dimensions.
Neurons, Networks and Hemispheres The cells in the brain consist of the 50 to 100 billion neurons or nerve cells and the supportive neuroglial cells, making up 1/2 of the volume of the neocortex, as well as the macrophages, cells which clear up dead cells and kill germs. During the prenatal development of the brain, the glial cells form transportation lines for developing neurons, so that these neurons arrive in time at their proper destinations.
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Autopsies of brains of children, who had been retarded due to heavy doses of radiation while in their mother's wombs, showed that the neurons of the cerebral cortex never reached their proper destinations. Those brains of children of alcoholic parents, showed that the neurons went beyond their destinations, which also caused mental retardation and other developmental problems. Cortical layers In normal brains, the neurons of the cortex are laid out in neat rows and layers about 6 neurons deep. In the brains of some dyslexics, those layers are in disarray. Amazingly, with all the millions of things that could go wrong during the period of rapid proliferation, and specialization of cells in the womb, the vast majority of babies develop normally in every way, five working digits on each hand and on each foot, et cetera. Insulation and message speed The glial (glue) cells are of several types. Besides forming the framework of support in which the nerve cells and fibers of the central nervous system are enmeshed, some of these glial cells form the insulation covering around axons called the myelin
sheath. Insulation permits electrical impulses to travel speedily through nerve fibers, as fast as 225 miles per hour, but usually 100 to 200 miles per hour. Glial cells expand possibilities Some brain studies express a direct relationship between the number of connecting glial cells and a person's intelligence. A doctor who was permitted to microscopically examine Albert Einstein's brain found the only difference from average brains to be a greater number of glial cells, not more neurons. The suggestion is that the increase in the number of glial cells would offer limitless connections among networks of neurons although that network is already intimidating in number of connections, about a billion, billion or 100 trillion. We must take some neuroscientists word on this. Ax-outs and Dend-rins The neurons, themselves, are of great variety, but have in common projections from the cell body called dendrites and axons. Usually, each neuron has one longer filament called the axon, which extends from one side of the neuron to send electrochemical signals in one direction, out of the cell to another neuron's dendrites.
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Most, but not all neurons, have a network of thousands of dendrites, tiny branched filaments, extending from all sides except the side of the axon. The average neuron is connected to 50,000 others and some are linked to five times that many. Many thousands of dendrites and synaptic contacts are also on the neurons body, but most are at the numerous dendrites. Synapses The point of transmission of signals from the axon of one neuron to the dendrites of another is called the synapse. Direction mnemonic=ax-outs to dend-rins. The nerve endings at the synapse, though only a millionth of an inch apart, do not touch. The messages from axons to dendrites are generated by neurotransmitters at the synapses. The electrical impulse moving through an axon causes a chemical reaction in the fluid around the end filaments. The chemical neurotransmitter causes an electrical impulse to be initiated in the connecting dendritic extensions. Some excite, some inhibit impulses Not all neurons work in the same way. Some are excitatory to stimulate other neurons, while others are inhibitory and restrain responses of receiving neurons. The more excitatory dendrites stimulated by other neurons axons, the more likely the message will continue through the axon and onto other dendrites. There is an all or nothing response in each neuron. Either the cumulative stimulus is strong enough to send the electric momentum through a neuron and out its axon, or nothing is sent. Neuronal networks Like all cells, no neuron works alone. The chemicals at synapses reach and stimulate surrounding neuronal dendrites bringing a network of neurons into action. Those neurons involved in any particular response become part of a neural network.
Continuous use of specific networks or pathways makes storage and recall easier, especially if the information involves a wide network over several specific areas of the brain. At this time, memory is believed to be stored in specific dendritic endings. Neurotransmitter Identification The chemicals between axons and dendrites are called neurotransmitters. These substances carry messages through the mind which affect our mood, pain, memory, our choices and other abilities or activities. Between 1975 and 1986 scientists had identified 50 neurotransmitters. In 1993 scientists had identified hundreds of different chemical neurotransmitters and they continue to identify more. Messages carried by neurons and neurotransmitters reach millions of neurons in the brain almost simultaneously, to bring about a desired reaction. Many scientists think that sleep may be necessary to replenish these neurotransmitters although the brain never sleeps. The chemical status of the brain changes from aminergic chemicals during wakefulness to cholinergic during sleep, but the brain is continuously active during life, as are the heart and lungs. Sensory and motor neurons There are two main classifications of neurons: sensory and motor. The sensory neurons carry signals from the sensory receptors, such as the retina at the back of each eye, or the touch receptors in the skin, into the central nervous system. The motor neurons carry signals out of the central nervous system to the effector organs, the muscles and glands. Some decisions from sensory input, like banging your thumb with a hammer, are made in the spinal cordthe pulling of the thumb away from the source of pain, before the brain registers being hit. The physical reaction
occurs before the brain understands what happened. The mind at work Usually, the brain receives sensory input, like visual information from the retinas, and the decision to act on that information in a specific way is developed in the brain. Take this example. You think of wanting to read. Your thought messages are sent throughout the cortex. A decision is made in the cortex, which then signals your motor cortex to send messages to your cerebellum, which sends messages regarding the location of your legs, arms, etc., back to the motor cortex, which signals certain muscles to take you to the newspaper or book and pick it up. These signals travel down the spinal cord and through nerves in the spine, arms and legs with feedback to the cortex. Most of
94 this activity is done subconsciously. We dont have to think about it. You open your paper or book and read. This involves your eyes, muscles and nerves working in a coordinated fashion, so that light messages travel through the eyes retinas to the visual cortex, where light patterns are recognized as words and sentences. These are connected to neuronal networks on subjects already stored in your cortex including the meaning of the words, etc., to which you are now able to add this new information. During all of this cortical work, your medulla, a main part of your brain stem, has been keeping track of your posture, your breathing, heart rate, and so on. And this is all done in split second timing totaling a few minutes for reading and mental connecting or integration.
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Chapter 10. The Right and Left Hemispheres and Crossed Dominance One might say that the essence of the central nervous system is to channel incoming sensory information, usually through a net of intermediate neurons and neurotransmitters, to set in motion the motor or effector systems of the body, the muscles and glands. All of this is usually done correctly and in a coordinated manner, without hesitancy. We seldom have to give thought to any of our brains incalculable actions. With the brain alone containing billions of neurons with innumerable connections to each other and to the effector systems of our bodies, besides the added complexity of neurotransmitters, this central nervous system involves properties beyond man's understanding or description. Seeing the brain at work In the 1990's Decade of the Brain, and in the previous decade, brain science made some of its greatest advances. This is largely due to sophisticated technology, like PET scans (positron emission tomography), CAT scans (computerized axial tomography), and MRI's (magnetic resonance imaging), and functional MRIs, to name a few new ways we are now able to "see" the living brain in action. Discovery of hemisphere workings Dr. Roger W. Sperry's and his colleagues' publications in the 1960's and 1970's, concerning split-brain research, have brought brain science and the science of learning into a new light with exciting new ramifications. They received the Nobel Prize for their work in 1981. Their discoveries of the different ways in which raw information is interpreted by the right and left hemispheres gave us new clues into the mystery of our brains and the parts played by each hemisphere. The axons in the corpus callosum are constantly keeping one hemisphere aware of the other. This fact is often unrecognized because the verbal rationalizations of the left hemisphere dominate the silent messages from the right hemisphere. Until recently, no one knew that the right hemisphere had a specific knowledge of its own. Specialists thought that the hemispheres were doing the same things and were perhaps mirror images of each other. Now we know that the different knowledge contained in each hemisphere provides increased mental ability for the brain and for the organism as a whole. Right controls left and vice versa It has been known for years that the right side of the body is controlled by the brains left hemisphere and vice versa. If a person has a stroke, which is a blockage and, or hemorrhage of capillaries in the brain and that person is paralyzed on his/her left side, we would know that the stroke has occurred in the right hemisphere of the brain. Similarly, specialists have known for some time that most people have their language centers in the left hemisphere. If a stroke patient loses her ability to talk, except perhaps for a few swear words, the stroke has impaired the language centers in the left hemisphere as well as the use of the right side of the body. A shocking experience Not long ago, while visiting a senior citizen center, I had a rather shocking experience related to strokes. While chatting over lunch with new acquaintances,
Part 1- Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning
one lady spoke of smacking the face of a stroke victim in her care because she thought the stroke victim was cursing on purpose. Was the stroke victim's paralysis on her right side?, I asked. The lady looked at me with puzzlement and answered, "Why, yes, her right side is paralyzed". It seemed best to explain to her that when the right side of the body is affected by a stroke, the person often loses control of speech, which is a left hemisphere activity. Only emotionally charged words, or very limited speech, relegated to the right side of our brains, would be left to us. This is mentioned so that a few more people might understand and refrain from punishing such a victim. The severed corpus callosum Dr. Sperry and others worked with patients who had their corpus callosum severed in order to prevent constant seizures, which spread from one hemisphere to the other. These patients were labeled as having split brains. The doctors investigations confirmed that without the interconnection of the two hemispheres through the corpus callosum, the right hand, quite literally, does not know what the left hand is doing. Dr. Sperrys experiments Dr. Sperry and associates placed an opaque screen in front of some split brain patients which allowed the patients hands to reach underneath to touch objects on the other side, but over which they could not see their hands. While the patient stared at a dot in the center of a viewing screen, placed in front of the patient, yet above and beyond the hand screen, Dr. Sperry would flash words or pictures to only one side of the viewing screen.
96 could not name the object, but the left hand (right brain) could identify by touch recognition the object among others that he could feel. If different words were flashed simultaneously to the left and right eyes and hemispheres, the person would name what was flashed to the verbal, left hemisphere while picking up with his left hand what was flashed to the right hemisphere. The patient was not aware of the conflict between what he named and what he held. When asked to explain these conflicts the person would make up nonsensical, left-hemisphere rationalizations as to why he said one thing, but held another. Even though the reasons did not make sense, the patient shrugged as if that didn't matter. In 1998, while testing a young mother who had recent split brain surgery after seizures caused her to fall into a hot oven and have other serious injuries, the scientists received a new surprise. Until then they supposed that all forms of language, speech, reading, writing, were located in one area of the left hemisphere. When words were flashed to this womans left visual field, her right hemisphere, she could not read or understand them, but she wrote them with her dominant left hand. There is much more research that shows how differently each hemisphere operates and there are many interesting books for lay people on the subject. Hemisphere specializations Even though all the evidence isn't in, and probably never will be in, on ALL the special properties of the right or the left hemisphere, there are some accepted generalizations about each hemisphere's specializations. The left hemisphere The left hemisphere, besides controlling the movement and sensation of the right side of the body, controls the right visual field (those things seen on the right
If the name of an object was flashed on the left (to the right brain) the person
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side). The left hemisphere processes information in ways that tend to be rational, analytical, sequential, time-oriented, linearlogical, active and intellectual. Characteristically, the right-sided person prefers neat rows, lines, visual order and language abilities, including reading and writing. The left hemisphere has a built in necessity to make up verbal rationalizations for all personal actions. The right hemisphere For those with straight left laterality (about 10% of the population) the right hemisphere is dominant. The right hemisphere controls movement and sensation of the left side of the body and left visual fields. The right hemisphere processes information in ways that tend to be more imaginative, synthesizing, simultaneous instead of sequential, timeless, nonlinear, spatial imaging, receptive, intuitive and nonverbal.
The right brain person has good mental imagery, recognizes faces and patterns and may be intuitive. He/she may be less involved with language. Most left-sided people still have left brain language centers. There are more artists among left-handed people. Artists tend to be nonverbal while working from their right hemisphere. Either and both hemispheres Some people are ambidextrous, meaning they can use either hand equally well for most tasks, although they prefer one hand for writing, which requires more fine tuning of that hemisphere. Or they may kick with or use either foot. Hand and foot laterality is more closely associated than is hand and eye dominance. About one in three people, according to psychology professor Dr. Goldenson, are right handed and left eyed, or left handed and right eyed, whereas, one in ten have straight left laterality. Ear dominance has been considered less important, although the temporal areas of each hemisphere, devoted to hearing, do have different specializations.
Left
Characteristically, the person with left laterality is right hemisphere dominant.
Dictionary of hemispheric specializations. An L after the word refers to Left hemisphere specialization, an R refers to right hemisphere specialization. Verbal - L. Uses language with grammatical sequencing of words, to describe, define and name things and events, as in talking, writing for right handed persons, and reading. Nonverbal - R. Is aware of happenings and surroundings, but with a minimal connection with language. The right temporal lobe is more attuned to environmental sounds and music than to language. Spatial - R. Mental imagery recognizes forms, shapes, designs, faces, patterns or pictures. Reading and writing require pattern recognition as well as word and sentence analysis. Rational - L. Reasons things out methodically. Draws conclusions by associating known facts in sequence. Intuitive - R. Perceives through insight without reference to reason. Conclusions are drawn from incomplete patterns, hunches, mental images, simultaneous ideas without sequence or time. Analytical - L. Figures things out methodically, step by step or by taking things apart, dissecting to understand whole. Synthesizing - R. Puts ideas or things together to form whole patterns in the mind. Recognizes learned songs and melodies even when speech is disabled. Time oriented or Temporal L. Keeps track of time; constant awareness of time and sequence. Timeless relationships - R. Images things in relation to other things and knows which sizes and patterns fit together through mental imagery, as if in space, disconnected from time. Aware of relationships that form a whole pattern from parts. Sequential - L. Lists one thing after another; first, second, etc.; usually in lines and rows, as in linear-sequential. Simultaneous - R. Images things all at once; as if happening at the same time with no reference to time or sequence. Logical or convergent - L. Draws conclusions based on reason; logical order of one thing followed by another leading IN to a conclusion. Gestalt or divergent R. Sees the overall patterns and structure leading out to divergent conclusions. Brings seemingly unallied ideas or parts together to form a whole picture brainstorming. Active and Intellectual L. Takes action or control through reasoning and language. Demands orderliness. Receptive and Intuitive R. Accepts and knows with instinctive comprehension without regard to order.
Chapter 10. The Right and Left Hemispheres and Crossed Dominance
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Handwriting position and language centers It is often said that the right brain comes up with imaginative ideas, while the left brain analyzes and validates those ideas it decides are worthwhile. In other words, it takes both hemispheres to do creative problem solving. More women than men tend to have some language in both hemispheres. Stutterers, more of whom are left handed or ambidextrous, have been shown to have language in both hemispheres. Researchers say that between 5 and 15 people out of 1,000 have right brain language centers, with 985 to 995 out of 1,000 people having left brain language centers. University of Pennsylvania psychologist, Dr. Jerre Levy devised a handwriting position test, which determined which hemisphere controls language in any individual. The hooked hand with the wrist bent and the fingers pointing down toward the self holds the clue. In the straight hand position the wrist and fingers point up, away from the self. If one writes with a straight right hand or a hooked left hand, he/she is left-brain dominant for language. One is right-brain dominant if writing is done with a straight left or hooked right hand. Recent U.S. left handed presidents presented both examples. George Bush wrote with a hooked left hand while William Clinton wrote with a straight left hand. More left eye dominance Most people are right eye dominant and are more responsive to their right visual field on their right sides. Thus the majority of humans interpret what they see in a left hemisphere way. Left eye dominance is at least twice as common as left handedness or left laterality, due to at least one-third of humanity being crossed dominant. The greater number of left eye dominant people is due to visual crossed dominance.
Brain plasticity Lateralization of the brain, though mainly genetic, develops with input and stimulation to the neuronal networks. The brain is said to have most of its plasticity, or ability to change learning placement in the hemispheres, through age five years. If a child sustains a severe head injury to one hemisphere, the other hemisphere will be able to take over most of the functions of that damaged or missing hemisphere. When a one or two year old child has had to have the left hemisphere surgically removed for life preservation, the right hemisphere developed a language center as well as other characteristics of the missing hemisphere. In later years, language lacked the advanced specialties of the left hemisphere and the right side of the body remained paralyzed, otherwise life was reported by doctors as pretty normal. After age five years, the brain becomes increasingly set in lateralization and is increasingly less plastic or able to remedy brain damage. A certain amount of plasticity remains throughout life, so that some recovery of brain function can be expected even after an older adult suffers a stroke. Dominance and processing The knowledge of which hemisphere is in control of specific functions, like vision or language, becomes more important when one is dealing with instruction and learning related to brain dominance. Whether one is crossed dominant or straight dominant does matter. Most individuals with crossed or straight left laterality or dominance have a right brain dominant way of processing information. They usually process received information in the right hemisphere before that information crosses to the left language oriented hemisphere. These individuals may expect some difficulties and stress from the majority, visual, sequential oriented learning institutions.
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Chapter 11. The Relationship Between Brain Dominance and Interpretation hemisphere, where the language centers of The most frequently shared approximately 95% of humanity also reside. characteristics of learning disabled or When straight dominance is the case, dyslexic persons were found to be crossed one cerebral hemisphere receives the dominance and non-visual learning patmessages from the dominant eye, ear, hand terns. This knowledge has been gained and other muscles. These dominant from more than thirty years of evaluating hemisphere messages are transmitted almost and teaching these students. This chapter simultaneously along nerve tracts or elaborates on how ones laterality of eye, association pathways between the sensory, hand and foot is affected by which side of language and planning centers in that one the brain receives the initial, raw hemisphere, which is the left hemisphere for information from sensory tracts the majority of people. With left hemisphere dominance, what one Psychologists and crossed dominance sees, one can immediately name, categorize Over many years, scientists and and otherwise verbally analyze. All the psychologists have noted that many dyslexic information needed is right there in one students have visual perception problems. hemisphere of the brain. The majority of They have also noted that many dyslexic axonal nerve fibers that make up association students have laterality problems and are nerve tracts between the lobes and crossed dominant. Crossed dominance has specialized centers in each hemisphere lay in long been associated with reading anterior posterior lines of communication. difficulties, learning disabilities and with That information that was seen, heard, stuttering. Most encyclopedic references to comprehended, in the left hemi-sphere, is crossed dominance say, see reading almost simultaneously signaled to and disability. perceived in the right, nonverbal hemiAn understanding of why learning sphere, but not the same information. disabilities and crossed dominance are closely associated or of how crossed dominance affects learning has been absent Anterior-Posterior Arrangement of Most from previous experts. Studies report that Pathways in the Brain Hemisphere this correlation exists between crossed dominance and learning difficulties, but not why it exists. The controlling hemisphere With crossed dominance and ambidexterity, control of important sensory and motor abilities does not come from one dominant cerebral hemisphere, as it does for the straight dominant learner. The dominant eye is in control of the initial interpretation of what is seen and also governs depth perception. The right visual field, what is Association Pathways in One Cerebral Hemisphere seen on one's right side, is in the left
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The two hemispheres carry on a continuous exchange of information through
the corpus callosum, the large band of nerve fibers, which connects the two hemispheres.
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This message exchange proceeds through the corpus callosum only after the raw data is first interpreted in the initial reception areas of either hemisphere. Raw information Raw information is the first sensory information that arrives in one hemisphere or the other. Incoming information travelling at high rates of speed follows the nerves electrochemical pathways in each hemisphere. Electrochemical changes are stimulated in the neurons at the receiving end point for that information. These end point and their associational nerve stimulations form the motor response to the initial incoming sensory information. The information is no longer raw when sent to the opposite hemisphere. The secondary or non-dominant hemisphere for particular information receives secondary information from the dominant hemisphere. The non-dominant hemisphere not only receives digested input but it must organize that information differently than does the initially receiving hemisphere. This is so because the hemispheres are organized differently and have different specializations for similar brain areas. The majority of individuals are straight right dominant; they use their right extremities and their right eye is dominant. Their left hemisphere, which contains the major language centers for the brain, controls or dominates the way these right sided people process raw information, including all language related to that information. Visual fields Vision activities involve approximately one third of the volume of our brains. This relatively large area for vision in each hemisphere helps explain the importance of vision for human learning. If vision is in tact we rely on it to a greater degree than we rely on our other senses.
The view on our left side is called the left visual field. The right half of each retina receives movement, light, and color sensations from the left side of the body. The light from your left bounces off objects on that side, transmitting light messages to the retinas in the right half of each eye. Special retinal cells change that light information to electrochemical signals. These signals travel as raw information to the right hemispheres visual area. There they are processed by receiving and association networks in a right hemisphere, nonverbal, spatial way before being available to the left hemisphere and its sequential language center across the corpus callosum. Visual field limitations The supposition is that each eye receives half of each visual field. When you close one eye and look straight ahead, say your left eye, and look with your right eye, the fact becomes otherwise. The nasal halves of each eye look out on their side, right eye to right side and left to left. Then these nasal halves cross in the brain at the optic chiasma behind the eyes, right to left hemisphere, left to right. Except when looking straight ahead for depth vision, the view from one eye is mostly the representation of the visual field on the same side as the eye. The nasal half of the right eye has a clear view of the right visual field, which is interpreted in the verbal left hemisphere and vice versa. Seeing past our noses Except for central vision, the outer halves of each eye do not have a clear view of the opposite visual field because of our eyes placement in our face, beside and behind our nose. We dont see the nose in front of our faces and forget that it blocks the view of the opposite side. So the outer half of my right eye does not have a clear view of my left visual field. Compared to
the unimpeded view of the nasal halves of our retinas, the view of the external halves of the retinas is limited by our noses to our narrower central depth vision. This three-dimensional central vision is required for handling depth coordination, e.g. pouring liquid from one container to another. Also the outer half of my left retina has the clearest view of the right side of my face. The outer halves of the retinas do not cross to opposite sides of the brain, but travel to the same side of the brain as that eye. The outer half of the right retina sends messages to the right hemispheres visual cortex and vice versa. Stroke neglect Many people who have strokes have what is called one-sided neglect. They no longer recognize the side that is paralyzed as their own because the stroke also damaged vision in the brain. Nurses are called to a bedside when the stroke victim thinks someone other than themselves is in their bed. They no longer recognize the leg they see, but can not feel, as their own. They have visual field blindness. An artist who had a right hemisphere stroke returned to painting, but could no longer recognize the left visual field. He now used only the right side of his canvas and painted only what was seen on his right side. He could not even recognize that the left half of the canvas was neglected and blank. The crux of the matter Therefore, if a person is left eye dominant, it is the nasal half of the left eye going to the right hemisphere, which has the widest view of this persons world. And this is the view of the left visual field. Except for central, 3 dimensional vision, the right eye has the best view of the right visual field, which probably allows right-handedness and right-eyedness to be more naturally coordinated in the left hemisphere with the language centers.
104 Photoelectrical impulses from the right visual field, the left halves of each eye, travel back to the visual cortex in the left hemisphere, where they interact or associate with neurons as raw information in the left hemisphere. These right visual field impulses receive a left hemispheric, verbal interpretation, before they signal the right hemisphere of what was seen through the corpus callosum. The left visual field of left eye dominant people receives an initial right hemisphere interpretation of what was seen, which is spatial (nonlinear), nonverbal, et cetera, before this information crosses the corpus callosum to the left hemisphere for verbal interpretation and analysis. There has to be a minimal time delay for hemispheric interpretation of information that will cross the corpus callosum as compared to the instantaneous interpretation possible within association tracts of one hemisphere. Vision Vs, language control The dominant eye maintains control of total visual interpretation including depth perception while the left hemisphere maintains control over language. Thus crossed dominance possibly causes a time lag in left brain, verbal interpretation of left visual field information crossing over the corpus callosum from the right hemisphere. When something has first been interpreted in a right brain way before contact with the left brain language centers, there may be a slight delay in naming what has been seen and perhaps some confusion in the left hemisphere as to what actually was seen. Eye-hand coordination difficulties This situation might also cause thinking and language hesitancies as well as difficulties in being able to categorize and store information in a linear, left brain less manner. Another difficulty for this type of crossed dominant person is the tendency for smoothly developed, eye-hand, eye-foot
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coordination as compared with the straight
dominant person. One crossed dominant boy, being ambidextrous and right footed with left eye dominance was terrific at hitting the baseball, but he had to have another boy run for him. He had difficulty coordinating his right dominant running legs with his left eye dominance. Visual lag in non-dominant eye A special functional optometrist to whom I referred a crossed dominant, six year old student with left eye dominance and right laterality did report a visual lag of the right non-dominant eye of this boy. This visual-verbal crossed dominance surely sets in motion a struggle for control between the hemispheres. Instead of stuttering, here it appears to be a struggle between vision and language. When one has right hemisphere, left-eye dominant vision, the verbal hemisphere, the hard-wired rationalizer, usually has its say, though not without a struggle. Studies show that in stuttering there is definite confusion as to which hemisphere is in control of language. In these cases, a lateral dominance for language has not been established.
Sight-speech gap article In the March 1982 issue of "Psychology Today" is an article by psychologist, Richard J. Davidson, titled, "The Sight-Speech Gap". Dr. Davidson and his colleagues reported on a study they did with 26 normal boys and 26 dyslexic boys. These psychologists took advantage of the fact that the speech center is usually not duplicated in the right brain, whereas other brain centers may be in both hemispheres. They used reading ability to separate the dyslexic from the normal boys. The blindfolded boys were given odd shaped objects, such as a spoon to feel with one hand. The boys were asked to match that object by feeling among four other shapes in four ways: using the same hand, right or left, for feeling and matching, or using opposite hands for these tasks, feel with one hand and match with the other. Nonverbal to verbal, come in please The normal boys had no difficulties with these tasks. The dyslexics made more errors and took longer when they felt with one hand and matched with the other. They performed most poorly when they felt with the left hand (right brain) and matched with the right hand (left brain). In this situation the boys would have to identify the object non-verbally using the right brain and transfer the felt information to the left hemispheres language center so that the left hemisphere could inform the right hand to pick up the identified object. Dyslexic boys not transferring too well The psychologists decided that the dyslexic boys difficulties with this task implied that dyslexics were not transferring information as easily and quickly from one hemisphere to the other, as the normal boys did. These psychologists did similar experiments with auditory and visual tasks. Different words were presented to each ear simultaneously with a second pair presented
one second later. The boys were asked to name any word in the second pair that was different from those heard in the first pair. Visual and understanding confusion Each word in a pair was flashed to the separated right and left visual fields of these boys, asking them to visually identify matching words. The article reported that the normal boys again had few problems matching auditorially or visually (heard or seen) presented pairs. The dyslexic boys did well also if matching words were presented to the same hemisphere, but the dyslexics, again, had trouble if the information had to cross to the opposite hemisphere. Crossover delay The doctors theorized that the time it takes information to get from the right hemisphere to the left hemisphere's speech center is delayed in crossing over. This time lag, they said, may partially cause dyslexia. Quote, "Apparently, the right hemisphere's message of what words have been seen continually arrives later than the message from the left hemisphere. This produces confusion that interferes with understanding." They thought that blocking late input from the right hemisphere with music would improve right field reading. Hard-wired differently These experimental psychologists' conclusions about time lags for information to get to the left hemisphere from the right coincide with my conclusions concerning crossed dominance and vision lags. Visual crossed dominance wasnt mentioned in this article, but is almost implied by the circumstances. If the non-dyslexic, right handed, left hemisphere dominant boys, found this task of feeling with the left hand and matching with the right easier than did the dyslexic boys, it could be that the spatial-verbal connections across the corpus callosum are specialized for that task in straight dominant people. It would appear
106 that crossed dominant brains are hardwired differently than straight dominant brains. MRIdifferences in dyslexics brains A 1991 newspaper article, "Study Discovers Basic Differences in Brains of Dyslexics" said that researchers in the Institute of Child Health and Human Development published their MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) study comparing brain structures of 21 people with dyslexia and 29 normal people. These researchers found that the area at the rear of the brain, known as the planum temporale, was smaller in the left hemisphere of dyslexics, but larger in the right hemisphere. In students with normal reading ability, the planum temporale is larger in the left hemisphere than it is in the right. The studies were concentrated on the planum temporale because the researchers claim that a few normal people who have been injured in that area of the left hemisphere can develop dyslexia. The researchers also said that the MRI revealed that the corpus callosum is much larger in dyslexics than in normal readers. Dyslexics are compared to able readers, visual learners. These researchers, working in laboratory surroundings and having no regular contact with dyslexics, think the differences in the brains that they saw might be caused by the brain's attempt to compensate for a deficiency in one hemisphere, by trying to make extra connections to the other hemisphere. However, they chose to conclude that these differences are probably caused by a developmental abnormality in late pregnancy when excess brain cells fail to die off so that the brain becomes "fine-tuned". After many years of evaluating dyslexic children I would suggest that the differences in sizes of the corpus callosum and rear, mostly visual, areas of the cerebral hemispheres, may indeed be due to compensation activities most likely related
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to crossed dominance and visual versus language control. Hemispheric communication How do the hemispheres communicate with each other? Before split brain experiments on humans in the 1960's, scientists had cut the corpus callosums of cats and decided that there was no loss of ability; the animals seemed normal. So surgeons decided it would be safe to cut the corpus callosums of humans who had severe epileptic seizures. Because the real purpose of the corpus callosum, the hundreds of thousands of axonal fibers crossing between the two hemispheres, was and still is, not fully understood, the split brain patients appeared at first to be quite normal. Further observation and investigation found that these split brain patients had two separate brains that used to work synchronously, and now were completely unaware of each other. The two hemispheres were often of conflicting dispositions. Now, only by watching with his eyes could the split brain person see if he was coordinating his actions. No more seizures, but new puzzles A 1998 split-brain patient reported as follows. My hands seldom agree with each other. One hand might open the refrigerator door the other would want to close it. Even an agreement can be confusing. Ive found myself carrying two forks, two glasses, whatever, one in each hand. Besides these problems from the surgery, her speech is halting and she gets cold easily. These are minor problems compared to falling into a hot oven, which was only one of the seizure caused difficulties. In another example of split brain behavior, the patient is seen (on video) in a chair putting a cigarette in her mouth with her right hand. Instead of reaching over to help light the cigarette with her left hand, as
Before knowledge of split brain results In 1940, before Dr. Sperrys work was published, Doctor Hebb, brain specialist, theorized that the hemispheres send imprints of cell assemblies across the corpus callosum to communicate with each other. If this were the case, what would cause the dyslexic boys in the 1982 experiments to have difficulty understanding or transmitting information from one hemisphere to the other? In the normal brain, the neurons of each hemisphere are doing separate things while maintaining mutual awareness. Dominant limits non-dominant The dominant brain area and hemisphere for any task takes charge and limits action from the other hemisphere. Otherwise, we would all be like the split brain person. With the split corpus callosum neither hemisphere loses its ability to think independently. In the normal brain unity of thought and action give the appearance of a single brain in action. Perhaps in a normal brain information crossing the corpus callosum signals neurons in the other hemisphere into awareness of simultaneous activity something like opening a window for cross communication. With both hemispheres tuned into the action, the hemisphere better suited to take control would do so. The information from both hemispheres is unconsciously synchronized in the brain to provide one informed response to any stimulus. Two brains in action
would have been done before her surgery, the left hand pulled the cigarette out of her mouth and smashed it on the table to her left side. The persons right side and left hemisphere, which was trying to smoke,
seemed oblivious of the left hands activities. Again, the hemispheres were acting independently of each other as if there were two individuals acting on the situation instead of one. Who is in charge, here? The split brain person and crossed dominant person may have something in common, in that in neither case, are the two hemispheres working synchronously. Unlike the person with a split callosum, the crossed dominant person manages to perform in an integrated manner, but seldom as smoothly as the straight dominant person does. With the visually crossed dominant person, raw information received initially in one hemisphere, travels through neural association tracts within that hemisphere, before crossing the corpus callosum. Vision is our dominant sensory informant. The crossed dominant person receiving dominant visual input in one hemisphere and having language and motor control in the other, clearly has the language dominant hemisphere in competition for control with the visually dominant hemisphere. Sandys method Field experience in the classroom and thoughtful observation of the actions of those we are hoping to help is part of the evaluation process. In my first class of orthopedically handicapped students was an eleven-year old, mildly cerebral palsied girl named, Sandy. Cerebral palsy is a condition of weakness and/or lack of coordination of muscles, usually caused by lack of oxygen to the brain, at or before birth. Most of these children have vision problems since the visual areas of the brain are in the back of the head, furthest from the oxygen and blood supply. Sandy, it was noticed, turned her head as far to the right as she could, with her left eye about four or five inches above the paper as she was trying to write with her right hand. It was evident that her myopic, left eye was the one she was trying to see
108 with while using her right hand for writing. Through imitation of this behavior, a vague comprehension might be gained of the physical awkwardness and difficulty of Sandy's task, but probably no understanding of how Sandy's brain was managing her learning tasks. It was only through Sandy's strong determination and effort that she learned to print and read that eleventh year of her life. Visual difficulties and school Difficulties with a traditional school setting are nearly always in store for those with crossed dominance. The most common type of crossed dominant person is one who is right sided, but uses his or her left eye for near and far vision. Sometimes its just the difference between near and far vision of the eyes that determines crossed dominance and learning or reading problems. Genetic vision problems Knowing that vision problems were a genetic probability for my family, my children's eyes were checked by an optometrist when my son, Ken, was three years old. The optometrist told me that Ken was near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other. That doctor said there was no need for corrective lenses, at that time. Neither the doctor nor I had any idea then as to how this difference in vision of the two eyes would affect learning for Ken, or for anyone else with this difference. Unlike his sisters, who learned to read with ease, for Ken reading became a stressful learning task. Ken was anxious to learn to read like his sisters did. We made an audiotape of Ken's two-year older sister patiently listening and encouraging her younger brother's early reading lessons. The anxiety level in Ken's six year old voice rose higher and higher, along with his stress level. He struggled with the visual coordination he did not have for that task. Ken was almost ten years old before we learned that he could not
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make a single image with his two eyes. At that time there was no awareness of the complexity of his visual and associated learning problems. Like Sandy, it was sheer determination that allowed him to read and write at limited speed. A very complex process at best Reading is a very complex process when one doesnt struggle with visual convergence problems. One must not only recognize the visual symbols and their associated sounds, they must then substitute the correct sounds for the visual symbols while blending those sounds in the correct sequence. And dont forget that there are many visual symbols that mean the same thing, e.g. A, a, A, a, A, a, etc. There are also many sounds for one visual symbol. Reading requires adequate visual and auditory memory, sequencing ability and the making or finding of memory tracts to establish recognition of the words in order to fathom the meaning of what one sees and hears. Beyond this, adults take for granted that all normal children learning to read can see each symbol without visual distortion. And it must be doubted if any adults in the educational system assume that some children may experience a time delay between what they see in the brains visual center and their brains connection to the language center to describe that visual experience. Visual stress overwhelming Unfortunately even if someone has little difficulty seeing objects clearly at a distance, that person may have serious difficulty when it comes to focusing both eyes for near vision tasks. If one has difficulty focusing both eyes to see one image clearly, instead of two images, one from each eye, the tension and stress created in that individual is overwhelming. With two images, double vision, there is a lack of visual convergence in the brain.
Like many crossed dominant children, Ken was never seen as learning disabled or dyslexic. His teachers remarked that he was a conscientious student. Like so many others with visual stress, when the reading quantity and speed became too demanding for him to keep up with his straight dominant peers, he dropped out of school. Eyewear didnt help Some children are born with unequal vision in their eyes and with the better near vision eye opposite handedness. An optometrist prescribed eyeglasses for Ken when he was six and experiencing difficulty in school. Of course, teachers insisted that his problem was immaturity. After all, he was a November child and a boy. Arent all such children immature? Ken wore the corrective lenses at age 6 for less than a year. The lenses caused more problems than they corrected. My hope was that his glasses would give him equal vision in both eyes. If that were not possible, then perhaps we could ensure that the eye on his dominant right side was his best eye for close up work. That optometrist and most others are unaware of the importance of near vision eye dominance for reading or other tasks pertaining to near point work. A professional explanation Richard Koleszar,OD, who has been helpful to me in several areas dealing with vision, recently gave some understanding to the reason for Ken not wearing his eyewear beyond age six. Dr. Koleszar says that being far sighted in one eye and near sighted in the other is a rare condition called antimetropia, which means opposite measure of the eyes. The optometrist tries to equalize the vision to 20/20 for each eye. The far-sighted eye needs a plus (+) lens which is thick in the center and thin on the edges and magnifies image size.
The near-sighted eye needs a minus (-) lens, which is thin in the center and thick on the edges and minifies image size. The brain has difficulty merging images of different sizes. It has more trouble with different sized images than with images of different clarity, but clarity is a problem too. With normal visual convergence, the brain receives two slightly different images, one from each eye, which it then merges into one focused, three-dimensional image. Too much variation between those two images causes merging problems in the brain. Undiagnosed vision problems Amblyopia is reduced visual acuity, not correctable by refractive means and not attributable to obvious structural or pathological anomalies. Anomalies are unusual anatomical differences and pathological refers to disease. Two of the most common causes of amblyopia are: 1. Misalignment of the eyes, when the eyes are not perfectly lined up to work as a team in the head or in the brain 2. Antimetropia, unequal refractive state for the two eyes. Amblyopia most often goes undiagnosed in children. It is not easy to casually detect a difference in vision between the eyes, especially before school age. Eye patching and crossed dominance When one eye has clearer vision than the other, the brain often tunes out images from the weaker eye. Optometrists have been patching the stronger eye to make the weaker eye work harder. But if one is rightsided with a stronger right eye for near vision tasks, patching the right eye to make the left eye do the near work can cause crossed dominance and increase problems in reading and writing. On the other hand, if the child is right sided with left eye dominance, patching the left eye for near work, if done before age three, and when visual acuity
110 differences are small, might alleviate crossed dominance and maybe help reading and writing. Reinforcement of the weaker, non-dominant eye in straight dominant children would need to be accomplished outside of reading tasks to avoid dyslexia and before age five while the brain is capable of change. Vision exams early in childhood Medical specialists usually recommend that all children have a thorough visual examination at three months and at three years of age. But if the examiner does not understand visual crossed dominance, the exam could be misleading. It was for my son and myself and for other parents whose children were referred for visual examinations. Know and explain what you know to others. Diagnosis and treatment for vision problems needs to be done in very early childhood. Although the vision tracts between the eyes and brain are laid down before birth and are developing connections after birth, that development is fairly complete by age three and virtually unchangeable after seven years of age. Eye exercises can strengthen eye muscles, but probably cant change vision tracts in the brain. Better than 20/20 vision It is necessary to have any child's vision, not just eyes, checked by a professional vision specialist, who is knowledgeable in crossed dominance and visual learning. These doctors are called functional or behavioral optometrists, as opposed to disease ophthalmologists, or eyewear optometrists. Several dyslexic crossed dominant students in my classes had better than "perfect" 20/20 vision. They had 20/15 or 20/10 visual acuity in the dominant eye and 20/20 in the non-dominant eye. If the stronger eye is on the non-dominant side, (Right hand/ Left eye) the discrepancy in visual clarity between the eyes seems to be more important to the brain than overall clarity.
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Optometrists and eye dominance A definite problem with many vision specialists is that, although most are aware that each of us has a dominant eye, they don't appear to place much importance in visual crossed dominance. Learning abilities and understanding are surely affected when the dominant eye for near vision is opposite the dominant hand. By age 50, with my regular contact lenses, I was no longer able to see clearly both at my desk and across the classroom. My optometrist, who specialized in contact lenses, suggested that I could wear a near vision lens in one eye and a distance vision lens in the other. Being right sided, he wanted to place the distance vision lens in my right eye. With this suggestion he told me that I might experience some difficulties with having unequal vision with these new lenses, but he would not tell me what to expect. Having myself become somewhat of a specialist in crossed dominance and the importance of the near vision eye I wanted my right eye to have my near vision lens. My non-dominant left eye would be my distance specialist. These lenses worked perfectly well for me with no odd sensations or difficulties. Some time later, while discussing this situation with a friend, she said she was also wearing one distance lens and one near vision lens. She also was right sided and went along with having the distance lens placed in her right eye, the near vision lens in her left eye. She recalled that she did have considerable difficulty getting used to these lenses. For some time she experienced nausea and reading concentration problems. She said, "I thought I was losing my memory. When it was explained to her that her contact lenses were causing her to be crossed dominant, she realized that this was true and planned on having her lenses switched.
Optometrists theory On asking my optometrist why he usually placed the distance lens in the dominant eye, he told me that the theory among optometrists was that the dominant eye could react more quickly in an emergency when driving a car. Since so such is involved, over and above the dominant eye, in how one reacts in a road emergency, more research would be required to prove that the optometrists view is more than theory. This theory is probably not worth the problems of visual crossed dominance for near work. Dominant near vision From screening hundreds of students in classes for the dyslexic or learning disabled, when possible, it is more important with schoolwork for the dominant near vision eye to be on one's dominant side. When not possible, we must all become aware of the learning problems associated with visual crossed dominance. The illustrations on the right side of this page present the simplified optics of normal and defective vision, (a) uncorrected and (b) corrected with refractive glasses. Light rays are shown entering the eye and being bent (refracted) by the crystalline lens of the eye as well as by refractive lens (e.g. prescription eye glasses) in the two corrected cases in order to reach the retina.
To provide normal vision, the light rays entering the eye are focused by the crystalline lens to fall exactly on the screen of the retina. In farsightedness, the point of focus of the light rays falls behind the retina. The rays must therefore be refracted so that their point of focus comes forward. This is done with convex prescription eyewear. In nearsightedness the light rays converge in front of the retina. The rays must therefore be refracted using a concave lens so that their point of focus moves backward to the retina.
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Chapter 12. The Brain and Learning: How Does the Brain Learn?
How does the brain process the information it receives? A newborns brain is not a tabula rasa or blank slate, but it does need new connections. The brain of the infant has a huge excess number of neurons at birth, so that it can begin to handle the great influx of information it will receive. The neurons start to die off before birth and continue to die off in large numbers every day we live, at the same time strengthening the tracts or pathways we use. Making tracks in the brain Imagine if you were set on earth with more steppingstones than you will ever need, but in order to get from one place to another you have to lay or mark these stepping stones in front of yourself to make paths. Once youve laid stones that get you where you want to go youll use that path many times over and even explore from other points along your path to form new networks of paths. Eventually, those stepping stones you dont use will be discarded. Youll still have thousands of interconnected pathways to take you anywhere you want to go with 100s of 1000s of new interconnections still possible. At that point, maybe you will have used half of your original supply of steppingstones. Also, like the young child, you would spend most of your energy in your earliest years figuring out which paths you will use regularly and which you wont. Once youve set up networks of paths you can add connections on any path, anywhere youve set your foot, but you would probably become more streamlined through the years. And of course, you can revisit old paths if youve kept them in good repair. You can see how you would get overwhelmed if you didnt get rid of extra
stones and unused paths. how the brain works.
Thats kind of
Too many messages spell disaster Our brains start out with 200 billion neurons and we work down to 100 billion or so as adults, with interconnections too numerous to count. We could become overwhelmed by incoming messages, but the reticular system in the brainstem, which tells us when to wake or sleep, also limits the messages that reach the cerebrum, to keep us in equilibrium. The young child has many more things in her awareness than an adult has. When you read her a story, she remembers not only words and meanings, but pictures, colors and mental images for words. It will take time for her brain to sort things out and to become more focused. Most of lifes learning in first 8 years EEGs, Electroencephalograms, are brain writings of electrical energy given off by busy neurons. They show this energy to be at its highest in very young children. The right brain has been shown to be more involved in new skills learning. It has been estimated that 1/2 of ones total lifes learning happens within one or two years of starting school, by about 8 years of age. Good nutrition, rest and other health needs, can not be overemphasized during these years. The brain reaches adult size in early teen years, but has many more connections to make throughout life. Where and how is memory stored? Are particular memories stored in one area or in many areas? A plausible explanation came from Dr. Donald Hebb of Nova Scotia in 1949. More recent research has proven many of Hebbs theories as fact. Hebb theorized that memories are developed
and stored in cell assemblies, such as: visual or auditory cell assemblies. Dr. Hebbs cell assemblies Each neuron is part of the vast network of neurons supported by the glial cell network. Thousands of dendritic receiving processes on many neurons must be simultaneously stimulated by very many axonal fibers before a motor or other response is initiated. When one cell assembly is stimulated, it in turn stimulates another cell assembly so that memories actually occur over the whole brain. Multisensory memories most vivid Storage of specific memories occurs wherever the processing of raw data occurs. Raw data is often processed in a combination of ways simultaneously. The most vivid memories are multisensory and have high emotional significance, as well as strong sensory significance. Such vivid memories involve the simultaneous firing of neurons related to most or all of the senses. Multisensory memories may be recalled by any number of different suggestions. The memory of a special dinner, a certain Thanksgiving celebration, could stimulate our recall of: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch sensations and the emotions accompanying that day. A certain aroma, a conversation, a mental image or any number of later stimuli could evoke that memory. Selective attention and forgetting When the human brain is its maximum size and completely developed, brain growth and memory continues as new dendritic connections between neurons. These connections increase the amount of information we can bring to bear, to understand relationships between ideas, or to tackle new sensory-motor challenges. More streamlining of pathways leads to faster associations and reactions to information.
114 The brain can not store and retrieve everything that it receives. Selective forgetting is as important as is remembering. Learning is truly a matter of selective attention. Each of us learns to set priorities on what is important for us to remember. Learning, remembering and forgetting are all important. Incorporation of early memories Dr. Hebb explains that the reason most people can't remember events earlier than approximately five years is not because all those memories are lost. Rather those memories are incorporated as the building blocks of the cell assemblies. New experiences become all new memories or the stepping stones become the path. We must have a base on which to build our knowledge of any subject. You wont remember Arabic calligraphy if youve never seen it before and arent attempting to learn or connect it to a similar pattern of lines and spaces already in your brain. The new information makes associations with earlier associations, which are like feedback loops to other areas developed along particular neuronal pathways. The process of streamlining for memories is at work. Streamlining occurs when some brain pathways are strengthened by repetitious use while others are deleted for lack of use. Research with kittens Recent brain research tells us that the cell assemblies for the senses are in place at birth and before the child learns to speak. The pathways of use have to be developed. Researchers raised some kittens in an environment where they never saw vertical lines, only horizontal lines. Past the critical period for the kittens visual perceptual development, they were placed in a normal environment where they bumped into chair legs and anything else vertical, since they had no reference in their brains for vertical lines.
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Early perceptual learning The childs early experimentation with, and thinking about, sensory and sensory-motor activities, otherwise called early perceptual learning, is essential to the ability to think about things that are not present. With this early development, perceptual pathways are being incorporated with specific lateralization into each hemisphere. According to Dr. Hebb, speech development proves that perceptual development occurred at the right time because the child can speak about things seen, heard and felt. If the child had not incorporated needed networks, visual and other, the child could not speak of those actions of seeing, hearing and feeling. When development is normal, the child can soon talk of things recalled that are not in view. E.g.: "Where's mommy?", when mommy is out of sight or hearing. Limited Windows of Learning With growing children there are periods of greater learning potential interspersed with relative rest periods for consolidation of learning. As long as the cell assemblies are excited by new information the ability to learn and memorize remains active over a lifetime. Most rapid brain growth, first 5 years Within the child's first five years, the period of most rapid brain growth after birth occurs on an organized internal schedule. In those first five developmental years, if the neurons that form cell assemblies are not properly stimulated and nourished, normal neurological development can be blocked. Brain cells need constant supplies of fresh oxygen and proper nutrients in order to function. They also need proper stimulation and rest. The orphaned children of Romania who were adopted by Americans in the 1980s and 90s have been examples of improper brain and physical development
brought on by constant neglect of developmental needs during their first years after birth. These orphans were barely kept alive, chained to cribs or beds with no concern for their individuality. No matter how much their adoptive parents do, they can not help their new children overcome learning deficits created by lost opportunities. Windows in brain circuitry close on schedule with or without proper stimulation. The Romanian orphans lacked proper stimulation during critical periods of development. Language windows No matter what the circumstance, the brain has developmental windows for learning specific perceptual and language skills, which close forever within a few short years of life. A child's language may not develop as expected, if that child does not hear language properly in his or her first two years of life. Persistent ear infections or a language deficient environment could cause language delay. Studies of a few people whose hearing or language environment was impaired when they were two years of age and whose hearing was repaired after puberty were unable to learn comprehensible speech with correct sentence structure at a later time. Vision windows Less noticeable in those early years is the vision and visual perception development problem. It wasn't until I was five years old and entering school that the school nurse examined my eyes and told my parents that I needed eyeglasses for myopia, nearsightedness. This is a common situation even today. In fact, it is even more problematic today since there are no school nurses in too many school districts. The window for most visual development, binocularity for instance, closes around 3
years of age. More advanced visual motor development closes around age seven. Brain blocks images. More difficult to expose are children whose eyes, for various reasons, do not synchronize one, clear, three-dimensional image in the visual cortex. When the child sees two images, one from each eye, instead of one fused image, her mind-brain may begin to block the less predictable image. The blocked image often results in poor development of vision in one eye. Since the young child can not tell us of this difficulty, it is for us adults to become more aware and observant that this problem can exist and that it can cause developmental lags and learning problems. When a baby reaches for a toy, this baby is learning to focus his eyes for near vision tasks. Near vision is within his arm's reach. He is also learning to judge where and how far to reach. If the two eyes are not working together, converging one object in the brain, two objects instead of a single object are seen. The child will guide his/her hand to the clearer of the two objects and the brain may try to ignore the less reliable image. The eye with clearer vision becomes the dominant eye for near vision regardless of innate laterality. If a toddler uses the eye opposite her handedness, this is a clue to take her to be examined by a behavioral or functional optometrist, immediately. Depth perception will not develop as it should when the eyes do not focus as a team or when a child's field of vision is severely limited by nearsightedness. Good eye-hand coordination, such as that needed for throwing and catching accurately, will also suffer in myopic or amblyopic children. Delayed motor development, including crawling and walking, could also be attributed to poor vision. A child may appear to be clumsy and bump into things simply because of vision problems.
116 If the child is farsighted, he or she will not develop good eye-hand coordination for close-up work, such as putting puzzle pieces together, or drawing with big crayons. We are all in "Frustration City" when we try to insist that visually deficient children do tasks that are difficult for them without first providing a needed vision examination. The American Optometric Association says that both eyes should focus equally between six and eight months of age. Some vision specialists are becoming more adept at discovering and correcting vision problems in infants and toddlers. This is important because the neuronal pathways for vision are developing from the moment of birth onward and are pretty much developed by school age. Balance and ear infections Equilibrium, keeping one's balance, is another area that may be developmentally affected in infancy by numerous inner ear infections. If a child falls over regularly when learning to sit upright at about six or seven months, one should consider the possibility of damage to the Vestibular Apparatus in the inner ear from ear infections or injuries. Crystals, hairs, sacs and canals in ear And you thought it was just wax in the ear. The inner ear, within the skull and brain, is connected to the throat by way of the Eustachian or auditory tube. The inner ear contains two organs necessary to our development. One is the cochlea, an organ of hearing, shaped like a snail shell, which leads into the brain through the acoustic nerve for hearing. The other organ called the Vestibular Apparatus is connected to the brain through the vestibular nerve. It is important for balance and movement. It has three, tiny, semicircular canals in three dimensions and two tiny sacs, which contain tiny calcium carbonate crystals and sensory
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Holding the infant vertically for a few minutes after she falls asleep while feeding could help alleviate this problem. Giving warm, clear water at bedtime instead of milk can also help reduce throat infections. Hearing problems and tests for babies Dr. C. Everett Koop states in his recent memoirs, that one in one thousand babies, are hearing impaired and that most are undiagnosed. Hearing loss in infants is easier for medical personnel to detect now with new, easy to use instruments in most hospitals. Just be sure they are used. Undiagnosed deafness is often confused with mental retardation. Most schools have speech and language therapists who can evaluate a child's hearing at a later time if needed. If you are not sure of a child's hearing ability you can follow the simple instructions in the screening section of this book, then take your child for a complete, professional hearing test. Human body designed for movement Another big problem regarding our children's development, is that too many children are not experiencing necessary physical movement through regular, normal physical play. Active play helps children develop their physical strength, coordination, balance, rhythm, mental agility and imaging and the ability to plan combinations of moves such as batting a ball or skipping rope. The human body is designed for movement. Movement is absolutely necessary for proper visual-motor development as well as for sensory-motor
hairs. These microscopic ear crystals and hairs move in unison to tell us of our head's movements with respect to gravity. The sacs inform us of our linear velocity, how fast were moving forward or backward, while the semicircular canals inform us of rotational acceleration. Breeding ground for infections In the very young, the eustachian tube is a very short distance between the inner ear and throat. Throat infections in infants can be caused by bacterial growth in the milk that remains in the infant's throat after feeding and falling asleep. The warm, dark throat containing milk, is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria and infection. Repeated throat infections move up the eustachian (auditory) tube into the inner ear. Besides causing much pain, these inflammatory infections can damage the crystals and hairs of the inner ear. The Vestibular Apparatus can no longer perform as it should when filled with infectious pus because the crystals and hairs inside the three semi-circular canals and sacs have become glue-like and do not move freely to tell the child the position of his or her head. This lack of information to the brain causes the child to lose balance easily.
integration of information from all the senses to all muscles. If we were meant to sit like plants we wouldn't need the many moveable joints, nerves and muscles with which we were born. Screens are screening out movement When we become aware, again, of the rough and tumble play natural to every developing mammal species, we must take account of the unnatural state of having very young children sitting still in front of television or computer screens, for inordinate periods of time. This use of screens to immobilize children is hardly an improvement over the neglectful care of the Romanian orphans. To be healthy these children should be participating in much longer periods of active play and much less screen viewing. Movement develops brain It is movement that brings about the normal development of cell assemblies. Science has shown many times over that an enriched environment, which includes much movement, contact with others, and a wide variety of stimulating experiences, produces healthier and more intelligent children than does a diminished environment. Can you imagine kittens, puppies or bear cubs growing up normally without the play activity that is so natural to them? We would call it cruelty to animals if kittens and puppies were hypnotized into spending so many daylight hours sitting still to watch
118 television? We must ask ourselves what so much sitting or lying in front of television or computer screens is doing to the normal developmental and learning processes of our young children. Educators are proposing that this sedentary life style, especially in young children, is the cause of many learning and behavioral problems in school. One educator suggests that brains are undergoing problematic changes in line with this lifestyle. What is this lack of physical activity doing to society as a whole? The number of overweight children in the USA has more than doubled since 1965. Adult onset diabetes in children and asthma are just two health problems on the increase in direct proportion to lack of normal exercise. Inactivity is the major culprit and the habit of snacking while sitting doesnt help either. If a suggestion could be made for every classroom and home, it would be to have an accordion folding mat to be used for wrestling, tumbling and other fun activities for everybody and, or a trampoline. Physical activities should replace watching television or similar seated activities on a daily basis. Populations who ignore the functional needs and purposes for which humans are best suited, active as well as thoughtful lives, with interconnectedness and being very literally in touch with each other, do so at great risk to humanity and the biosphere on which we all live.
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Chapter 13. Vision, Visual Perception and The F's of Vision Breathe deeply Imagine yourself as a relaxed yet alert youngster lying on your back in a grassy meadow on a comfortably warm day. You feel the support of the cool earth beneath your back. Your head and neck are cupped in your interlaced fingers with knees bent, bare feet planted in the soft, green grass, your breathing is quiet and deep as you watch the panorama of fluffy, white clouds moving and changing shapes in the bright blue sky above. Lazily you reach out to pluck a stem of grass from your bed, inserting it into your mouth. You casually chew on the stem, sensing its smooth round texture and bland taste. Your consciousness turns to the lilting songs of birds and other pleasant sounds of nature. You are enjoying the sensation on your skin of the sun's warmth interspersed with gentle, cooler breezes, while becoming more aware of the fragrant scent in the air of the grass, the flowers and the trees in this peaceful place. All of your senses are totally awake and yet totally relaxed as you breathe deeply of this gentle atmosphere. After a while, you remember the book you were going to read. Taking a breath, you stretch your back and limbs and roll over onto your stomach raising your upper body onto your elbows and forearms. You pull the book in front of your face and open it. Your back and shoulders are now arched upwards, your head bent slightly forward so that you are able to concentrate on the small details on the pages of your book. Focusing our eyes, close-up Thousands of tiny changes have just taken place in your mind and body, in your brain and eyes as you moved into this new mode. Concentration on something only an upper arm's length from the eyes requires many small muscles in and around the eyes and many different neural networks in the brain to activate this change of visual attention from distance to near. No longer relaxed Even if you love to read, you are no longer in a state of total relaxation. Focusing on this book is work. The eyes must work together as a team to send a single, visual message to the brain, which the brain attempts to interpret sensibly. Interpreting the visual message is called visual perception. While many children have no difficulty interpreting the small, printed symbols on pages, other children, even though they can see those clouds as clearly as those reading children, find this near vision task stressful, if not impossible. Make-up of our visual system A little knowledge about our visual system may help us understand vision and visual perception. Then perhaps we will comprehend how best to help children develop their visual abilities comfortably. It may help to study your eyes with a partner or even with a pet cat or dog. Eye muscles The eyes, like our brains and bodies, are remarkable and complicated in their workings. Our eyes developed over millions of years as specialized organs that react to sunlight and in connection with our brain allow us to "see". The front of the skull has two bony eye sockets cushioned with fat. These protect the eyes and provide attachments for the six voluntary muscles, which are also attached to the tough outer covering, the sclera, of each eyeball. With these six external eye muscles we can move
our eyes in many directions even around in circles like the hands of an analog clock. It is believed that an imbalance in pull of one or more of these six muscles, which can cause the crossed eye condition known as strabismus, has more to do with a visual problem in the brain than with the muscle. Eye exercises improve some vision problems for many youngsters and adults. A seventh voluntary muscle allows us to close our eyelids at our will. The tiny muscles inside the eyeball, such as the lens muscles, work automatically. They are not voluntary. The eyelids also work automatically at times to protect the eye and to wash it. The lids wash over the eye about 25 times each minute. The eyelashes also protect the eyes. Eye anatomy The sclera, a tough white connective tissue covering of the eyeball, provides the shape, the muscle attachments and protection for the eye and its contents. At the front of the eye, the sclera becomes the clear, transparent, usually smooth surface of the eye called the cornea. This cornea bends the light rays entering the eye to begin focusing these rays through the lens and onto the retina. The retina is a membrane of specialized, light sensitive neurons and their blood vessels that lines 65% of the back of each eye. Enter the light Inside the front of each eye, behind the cornea, is a circular group of tiny muscles called the iris. The iris contains pigment, which depending on the amount gives the eye its color in shades of brown, green, hazel or blue. The iris leaves an opening to the rest of the inner eye. This small, round, black opening in the iris is called the pupil. The tiny muscles, which make up the iris, contract in dark places to allow more light to enter the eye. This makes the pupil appear larger in a darkened room than it
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appears in a well-lit room or outdoors on a sunny day. On an average bright day the pupil may be only about 1/8th of an inch, or 2 or 3 millimeters, in diameter. In the dark, the pupils may be 3/8ths of an inch, or about 7 or 8 mm., in diameter. Check your pupils with a mirror in high and low light. The iris never completely closes the pupilary opening, so in very bright light one would shield the eyes or squint and never look directly at the sun. Directly beneath the iris, suspended by tiny ligaments and muscles, is the clear lens of the eye. In the relaxed state of the tiny muscles that surround and hold the lens in place, the lens is a somewhat flattened, clear disc which allows the eye to focus light from more than 20 feet away onto the retina inside the back of the eye. Eyes of hunters and gatherers Our eyes developed over the ages mainly for distance vision. Near vision work was only occasionally needed by our ancestors. Our eyes are not accustomed to present and future demands for continuous near vision tasks. The results of these new demands on our visual systems is not clear, but more people than ever now require corrective lenses for reading. The macula, spot of central vision When the eye needs to focus on an object within arm's length or closer than 20 feet, the tiny muscles around the lens must contract to allow the lens to become thicker and more convex in shape. The more
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convex or rounded shape of the lens increases the bend or angle of the incoming light rays so that the light focuses clearly on the center of the retina. This lens muscle contraction to refocus the light through the lens is called accommodation. The sharper angle of the bent light rays allowed by accommodation focuses images on a tiny, central spot of the retina called the macula, which means spot in Latin. The size of the macula is only about one square millimeter or less than 1/8 of a square inch in area, but it provides the sharpest vision for a small area of our visual field, our central vision. Clear focus of light on the macula is essential for near vision work like reading, typing or sewing. In distance viewing the macula is essential for clearly spotting a distant target. Movement and peripheral vision As we look straight ahead we are aware of any movement at either side of our face and around the point of our concentration in a 170 degree radius. This awareness is performed by our peripheral vision. It is especially helpful when we are moving, driving or as a protection against unwanted intrusion. Look away and rest eyes Accommodation of the lens for focusing central vision declines with age. But for children as well as for adults, frequent rest periods are needed for those tiny lens muscles. It is a good practice to take short breaks from close work at least every 30 minutes. This should help prevent eyestrain. A good way to rest those lens and outside eye muscles is to allow the eyes to gaze off into the distance, more than 20 feet away, for a few minutes. Juice in your eye In front of the clear lens and behind the clear cornea is the anterior chamber of the eye filled with a watery fluid called
aqueous humor. One third of this fluid is composed of vitamin C. Behind the lens is the posterior chamber of the eye. This area of the eye is filled with a transparent, supportive, gel-like fluid called the vitreous humor. Drinking at least 2 quarts or liters of clear water daily helps keep the eyes healthy. Sweetened drinks should not replace water as sugar dries the eyes. Rods and cones The approximately 130 million nerve cells of the retina, which are specialized to change light impulses into electric nerve impulses, are spread out inside the back of the eye ball. These cells are called photoreceptors of which there are two kinds. The 120 million or so, thin, rod shaped photoreceptors react to light or dark while the seven million centrally located, cone shaped photoreceptors respond to colors. When the light strikes these photoreceptors, chemical changes occur, which are translated into electric impulses. These photoelectric impulses travel out the back of the eyes through the optic nerves on their way to vision receptors in the brain. The retina is richly supplied with nourishing, oxygenated blood to maintain the constant work of our eyes and brain. Optic chiasma The fibers of the retinal neurons, which become the optic nerves are actually part of the brain. After the large optic nerves exit on the nasal side at the back of each eye, these nerves converge or meet behind the eyes to form an X-shaped structure, called the optic chiasma. At this X the nasal half of each optic nerve crosses over to the opposite hemisphere to join the lateral, outside halves, of each optic nerve. This means that the retinas on the nasal side of the right eye and the lateral side of the left eye become one nerve tract going to the left hemisphere and vice versa.
Those combined nerve bundles, half from each eye, continue their exits from the optic chiasma as the optic tracts. The optic tracts synapse with other visual neurons at a central relay station in the midbrain of each hemisphere. The nerve impulses are sent back to the occipital lobes at the rear portions of the right and left hemispheres where their information is interpreted in many ways. Vision receptors in the brain The first visual area of the brain distinguishes motion and depth. These tasks are most necessary to survival in a changing environment. Our hunter ancestors needed good motion and depth perception, but anyone who has had to deal with today's traffic is also dependent on these abilities for survival. Not what was seen, but Where is it? How far away is it? Is it moving closer or farther away? These are the survival questions. When you feel safe then you focus on what is it and what colors am I seeing? These interpretations are made in a second visual area at the rear of our brains where form and color are distinguished. Reverse order! Over and up! One third of our brain processes vision and visual associations, connecting with every other area of the brain. These interconnections give us our ability to make rapid decisions related to what we see. Not only does the brain interpret movement, depth, color and form, but it performs other miraculous tasks. Because of the lens' convex shape, objects are projected onto the retinas upside down and reversed as to left and right. Somehow our brains are able to perceive that raw data and give us the view right side up and in the correct right-left direction. Visual perception Now that you are more familiar with the form and function of our eyes we must differentiate the visual function from visual
122 perception. During many years working in the educational system the word "perception" was constantly heard yet in spite of requests for a definition, none was given. Perception is a process, like thinking or understanding, which is not easily defined or tested. How would you find out if another person understands or "sees" an object or a concept in the way you prescribe? Perceiving is the brain's interpretation of incoming information. The process of visual perception allows us to find particular meaning in what we see so that we can make comparisons of what we see with what we remember. Since no two memories are identical, no two people have identical perceptions. Culture and mood affect eyewitness The meanings human beings give to what they see can depend more on enculturation than anything else. The more diverse the cultures of human beings, the more diverse will be the perceptions of individuals from various cultures. That which is perceived as acceptable by one culture may be unacceptable in another culture. Perception of incoming information in the brain is always influenced by the chemical neurotransmitters in the emotional limbic system of the brain. All incoming impulses are relayed through the underlying limbic system on their way to other interpretive parts of the brain. Our perception is regulated by our emotional state. A person will respond differently to new information (learning the alphabet for instance) depending on whether he or she is feeling anxious and threatened, or relaxed and safe, during a period of instruction. Also, our interpretations of the same data will differ depending on which hemisphere first receives the raw data. The right hemisphere interpretation is different from the interpretation given by the left hemisphere.
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Practice and persistence Sensory-motor perception, riding a bicycle, driving an automobile, walking, running, dancing, relies on the coordination of our senses with our motor equipment, our skeletal and neuromuscular systems. In order to develop sensory-motor perception, we must have operable internal equipment, such as nerves and muscles and operable external equipment, such as a bicycle or auto in good condition. Then we need to know how to maneuver or interact with the equipment, the rules of engagement. This usually requires familiarity and practice between the person and the equipment and personal persistence. Concerning practice and persistence, it is enjoyable to listen to a young male canary learning to sing his song when 3 to 4 months old. His song is not inborn. He must hear it as a hatchling. First we hear little warble sounds, no sustained notes. But every day he practices anew, over and over, as the notes become longer. Within 5 or 6 months of his precious life he sings an amazingly beautiful song of long, sustained notes and melody, sure to win over any female canarys affection. Relax to learn Our changing perceptions of our world develop in our brains through experience provided by interaction of our sensory equipment, our neurotransmitters (emotions), our internal motor equipment and our neural pathways or associations. The internal equipment in sensory perception involves the senses, the eyes, ears, skin, muscles, nose, mouth, and their billions of neurons and connections in the brain. Learning how to become smooth operators of our sensory motor equipment can be frustrating. Determination to overcome initial frustration is best fostered in a comfortable, relaxing environment. We
learn best when we are relaxed and when goal expectations are sensible. The encouragement and praise of teachers and friends usually has a positive effect on the learning process. And of course, the reverse is also true. The desired outcome of the interaction between our equipment, our senses, and our goals must first be understood and planned by the operator before being acted upon. At first we learn by trial and error and later by understanding gained through experience. With enough practice and experience much learning becomes automatic, a part of who we are. We no longer have to think of which foot goes where and the like. For example, we understand that the bicycle is an object to be ridden. A sensible goal would be to work with a bicycle of correct size for the student. When the decision is made by the student to attempt to ride the bicycle, he/she must concentrate on each interaction between the bicycle and his/her senses, including messages from our muscles. After much trial and error, students may become accomplished bicycle riders and no longer need think of each step taken in order to accomplish this task. Actions between self and equipment have become automatic, a part of unconscious memory. Babies soon learn that if they drop something, gravity will pull it toward the ground. After a while they take that for granted and no longer need to experiment with that concept. That concept is now part of their perception, their memory and their comprehension and they move on to new conquests. Motivation The action of perception must fulfill a need or want in the operator so that motivation, toward acquiring the skill, is present. A normal, young child is "programmed" to learn about and interact
with his or her environment. No one has to show her how to reach, sit, stand, or walk, even though practice is essential to development. She is internally motivated and genetically programmed to learn and develop along natural pathways. Children whose bodily systems are in tact, and whose environment is secure, relaxed and interesting, will take to learning like a bird takes to flying. Visually oriented teachers This is a visually oriented world, in which we live and learn. Straight dominant people tend to be highly visual learners compared to crossed dominant people. Straight dominant people are approximately a 2/3 majority of any population. But the percentage of teachers who are visual learners may be as high as 90%. Most teachers were successful in visually oriented classrooms because they are visual learners. They now continue to teach visually oriented classrooms. Like people with stroke neglect, most instructors are unaware of auditory and other types of learners. Visual learners are not smarter than auditory-kinesthetic learners, it just appears to be so in our visually oriented classrooms and visually oriented world. "Why can't you SEE what I'm trying to tell you?" "I can just SEE it all now." "Oh, I SEE what you mean." These are just a few expressions most of us use every day, which define seeing as understanding. Seeing is not the only path Understanding is a necessary correlation to learning and intelligence, but SEEING is not the only way or path to comprehension. Some people have more highly attuned auditory and or tactilekinesthetic perceptual development than visual development. One perfect example of a high degree of intelligence gained and related by means other than seeing or hearing is Helen Keller.
124 Before Helen was two years old, a serious infection and fever deprived her of sight and hearing. With patient, persistent, tactile-kinesthetic instruction from her understanding teacher, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller became an avid student and fought for the adoption of the Braille reading system for all blind persons. She also wrote books and lectured widely. Blind people have given much to our world. Where would other blind people be without the contributions of Louis Braille? American Sign Language and Signing Exact English developed by our deaf community are seen regularly on television and in our daily lives. Language, thinking, intelligence and memory are part of every human's life and probably of every animal's life too. Visual learners do not necessarily have better eyesight than auditorykinesthetic learners do. In fact many crossed dominant students in the learning handicapped program had better than average visual acuity, but in common they were not visual learners. Visual acuity for distance vision Visual acuity relates to clarity or sharpness of vision. A person with 20/20 vision in either eye sees clearly at 20 feet what the average person sees clearly at 20 feet. Twenty feet is the standard by which visual acuity is measured because the eyes do not need to accommodate the thickness of the lenses of our eyes beyond 20 feet. Countries that use metric measurement use a distance of 6/6, six meters compared to six meters. One meter is 3.28 feet. Six times 3.28 feet is 19.68 feet, pretty close to 20 feet. A vision chart score of 20/15 in one eye means that what the average person sees clearly at 15 feet, this person can see clearly at 20 feet, or five feet further away from the object than the average person. 20/200 vision in one eye says that what the average person can see from 200 feet away, this person must be as close as 20 feet in order to
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see that same thing clearly. In other words, he or she has to be ten times closer to the object to see it clearly and is therefore nearsighted. The top numeral of the ratio is you or the person being screened while the bottom or second numeral is the distance for the average viewer. Since most of us work within three feet or 1 meter of our eyes these 20 foot distance charts of visual acuity are hardly an adequate vision examination. Study of vision screening in schools A 1992 article about preschool vision testing gave this report. Dr. Wasserman, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Vermont, found that of 8,500 preschoolers nearly one third (2.,833) did not receive an adequate vision exam before entering kindergarten and another 20% (1,700) had no vision screening at all. This is a total of 4,533 of 8,500 students, more than half who were not given a proper vision screening before entering school according to Dr. Wassermans definition. Unfortunately, nothing is said about what vision screening Dr. Wasserman believes is adequate. Parents and teachers must be sure that children are tested not only for acuity, but also for binocularity to detect amblyopia (lazy eye) and for visual crossed dominance. Nearly all of the students labeled as learning disabled in my classes had vision problems unrelated to visual acuity. Perplexed by vision problems When crossed dominant students with excellent acuity, but with serious visual learning disorders, were sent to optometrists for vision screening, the average optometrist checked only for visual acuity. They reported to parents and teachers that there was nothing wrong with those students' vision. Now both the doctor and the parent were upset with my request for the child's vision examination. Something was
definitely wrong with these students vision, but what? Since then I have learned much more about vision and what are called, "The F's of Vision". Optometry is a relatively new profession and vision therapy, vision improvement through exercise and nutrition is very recent. In 1981 The American Vision Institute reported that there were only 3000 vision therapists in the USA. This specialty is called Behavioral or Functional Optometry in contrast to Disease based Ophthalmology. The functional optometry field is catching on and growing. The Fs of Vision Meantime, these Vision Therapists, or Developmental Vision Therapists, who check the important "F's of Vision" and provide new ways to improve vision, are limited in number. Crossed dominant students usually have difficulty with the "F's of Vision, the ability to: Focus, Fuse, Follow, Fixate and discriminate Form and Figure-ground, plus a few other visual perception problems. 1. To focus is the ability to change the power of the lenses in our eyes with the use of our eye muscles so that we can see clearly, near or far. Focusing is also called accommodation. Focusing ability could be loosely compared to the use of binoculars to bring a distant object into focus or clear vision. Also, we use the lenses of a microscope to bring something very tiny into focus so that our limited visual world is expanded beyond its own limitations. The moveable lenses of such instruments or the change in thickness of our eye's lens causes an object to focus directly onto our retinas for clarity of vision. If the image is focused in front of or behind the retinas, the image will be blurred and out of focus. A lag or slowness in
focusing of one eye can cause blurry vision or visual perception confusion. Near-vision screening device needed If the eyes aren't working or focusing as a unified team, visual comprehension problems can result. The Snellen Letter Chart or Albini's Capital E Chart gives an indication of focusing ability at 20 feet from the subject. Since most school work is 12 to 15 inches from the student's eyes a near vision screening device is needed in schools in order to judge how well a person focuses at close range with each and both eyes. Consider that most children today are in classrooms from age three through age 18, or 15 of the first 18 developmental years of their lives. From preschool through high school they are presented with near point visual tasks with little if any consideration as to their near point visual perception abilities. 2. To fuse the eyes, is the ability to converge both eyes on the same object so that only one object is seen. In order to read this on any page the view received by each eye must fuse in our brains so that we see individual letters and words, leading to comprehension. A student who has difficulty with convergence will see double or blurred objects and have difficulty with three-dimensional viewing (binocularity). This is common when one eye has better acuity or clarity of vision than the other. The eyes are meant to work together as a unified team so that our two cerebral hemispheres can interpret one clear, threedimensional message. The center of focus of both eyes is about 2 1/2 inches (6.2cm) apart. We actually see two separate pictures, which our brains fuse into one picture. 3. To follow or track, sometimes called visual pursuit, is the ability to follow smoothly with the eyes, the movement of an object, or to move the eyes smoothly from
126 left to right and back. If the movement of the eyes is jerky, or the eyes jump or skip, reading and reading comprehension become very difficult, if not impossible. Many people's eyes tend to jump upward when tracking side to side. A bookmark slid over the top, rather than beneath, what is being read, can help alleviate this problem. Or if your eyes move below the line you are reading, slide the plain bookmark under each line being read. Some people make page slides with rectangular boxes in them, which allows only one or two words on the page to be seen. Since vision is a learned skill, learning to control the movement of the eyes is often a matter of early practice, which includes controlling bodily movement as well as eye movement. When normal people read the eyes actually do make little hops from word to word, but this eye movement is controlled. Moving the head instead of the eyes is an indication of vision problems. 4. To fixate is the ability to change focus from near to far and back again easily, and many times without the eyes tiring or tearing. This ability is especially important in school where the student must watch the chalkboard or other display and then find his or her place again on the desk or in the book. If a person has difficulty with changing focus rapidly and many times over, an examination by an eye specialist knowledgeable and helpful in more than prescribing eyeglasses is needed. Eyeglasses may be in order for this person, but eye exercises may be more helpful. 5. Form Discrimination is the ability to see and discriminate between variant lines and forms or shapes in a consistently correct fashion. Reading, writing and mathematics depend on visual recognition of twodimensional lines and shapes, which may have only slight differences between them. For instance, some children can not see the
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difference between o and 0, or between curved and straight lines as in U and V. Visual form discrimination is a learned ability, which takes practice even with large objects such as finding a particular toy among other toys of similar description. In the movie E.T., E.T. hid among the stuffed toys in the childs closet. Someone had to be familiar with E.T.s appearance to see him there. The very small lines and forms used in reading and writing require a great deal more visual concentration and discrimination knowledge. Shape and figure recognition must be patiently learned. A person brought up to read letters will need to start from scratch to learn Japanese characters and vice versa. If a child or person is having visual stress problems from a variety of causes, he or she may have serious difficulty with this small detailed visual discrimination. He or she may be diagnosed as dyslexic. In such cases, a complete visual examination is in order. 6. Figure-ground is the ability to easily recognize objects or lines in a background of other objects or lines. Students who have difficulty with figureground, have problems with paper and pencil tasks, with reading and with any task where the figure and background might blur or become confused. For some children, the white spaces on a printed page jump out at them, making it difficult to see the black letters, numerals or figures. Many young children become confused in a maze of lines or figures, not being able to discern where one figure ends and the next begins. Camouflage is an example of purposeful figure-ground confusion. In the example of E.T. in the toy closet, besides needing to know the appearance of what is sought, the figure discrimination against the background also makes a difference. It would be easier to find E.T. among the toys if he did not blend in with the other toys in terms of size,
color, form, similar characteristics or background effects. ________End of Fs Definitions____ Watering eyes equals stress If a person's eyes water or tire in any visual activities, such as those just mentioned, that person needs to be referred to a vision therapist, or at least to an optometrist who understands more than 20/20 vision as being necessary for a student's success. These visual skills, the Fs of Vision, strongly impact a student's visual perception and are just a few of the abilities students need to be screened for before they are asked to function in our visually oriented schools and world. Dont wait and see Dr. Allan Bruckheim, writes "The Family Doctor" for newspapers. In response to one parent's query about taking a waitand-see approach to a baby's turned eyes, Dr. Bruckheim responds, "If the baby's eyes turn in, out, up or down, it is vital to see an eye specialist for diagnosis. If you take a wait-and-see outlook, the baby might miss a crucial part of visual development. Recent findings show that good early vision is essential to normal visual development and once this visual development is missed, it cannot be regained." Lazy eye syndrome The turned eye condition, strabismus, causes double vision which in turn causes a child to, unconsciously, turn off the messages to the brain from one eye causing amblyopia, or "lazy eye". Surgery for turned eyes may be a partial answer, at best. Some doctors say the problems associated with strabismus are imprinted in the brain and relearning correct vision is not easy. Very slight turning in or out of one or both eyes needs to be noticed and checked by a conscientious optometrist or
ophthalmologist. The earlier the slightest vision deficiencies are detected, the easier it will be to assure good vision in each eye and the ability of the eyes to work as a team, which makes binocular or depth vision possible. The brain as a whole is most amenable to change before age five years, so time is of the essence in helping children attain their best possible vision. It is important to understand that just checking visual acuity or other visual aptitudes without a follow-up program for better visual development is a waste of time and money. Speech, but no vision therapists It is interesting to note that while 85% of our learning is visual, most regular schools employ speech and language therapists, but few, if any, employ vision therapists. A few special education teachers and vision therapists, in far too few school districts, are beginning to work together to screen children in the "F's of Vision". This preliminary vision screening needs to be included in every child's pre-kindergarten screening. It especially needs to be done for crossed dominant students and for all of those referred for special help. Many more children than are suspected become frustrated in school because they have undiagnosed vision problems. It is as important for a teacher to be aware of students with vision difficulties as it would be to be aware of having in class students who were blind or deaf. They all need special methods of instruction, which is hard to find in the average classroom.
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Chapter 13. Vision, Visual Perception and The F's of Vision
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Chapter 14. The Questions Parents Ask When School Problems Occur Caring teachers and parents have been doing their best to help children, but the educational systems, public and private, have deeply rooted problems, which inhibit success for some children. Our children are not robots or clones to be programmed in the same ways to do the same things. Our children are truly individuals, who though sharing many similarities, do not all learn best in the present educational system. Loving engenders our responsibility What can parents and teachers and others interested in education do? When people love something, like a garden or a dog, they learn as much as they can so that the object or subject of their love will benefit from their love. Answers to some of the questions you may have on how to tend to your children's education, as you would tend to your golf or your rose garden, may be found in this set of books. Tune in Parents of children who have already been labeled: dyslexic, attention deficit disordered, learning handicapped and, of course, immature have often felt bewildered, frustrated and, or angry when confronted by such labels. Common attitudes are We dont want to hear it. Our child is very bright. Hes just fine. What are you talking about? Parents need to tune in to, but not necessarily swallow undigested, any diagnosis or recommendation. Theres a funny, but serious comic strip from Lynn Johnston's, "For Better Or Worse". The background is the bulletin board in the first grade classroom. The sign says "Welcome Parents". The pictures on the bulletin board show all sorts of brids and dirbs and even upside down birds. The confused parents are looking, pleadingly, at the teacher. They ask, "But what exactly does nonlinear thinker mean?" As with most of us, this relatively new vocabulary dealing with the functions of the two brain hemispheres, is quite a challenge. Following are some answers to questions from parents who have been confronted by such labels. Question 1. Is my child's problem due to something I did? Could be, but probably not. If you used good health sense throughout your pregnancy, meaning that: 1. you followed medical advice from the first trimester on, 2. neither parent took drugs that might harm a developing sperm, egg or fetus, 3. the pregnant mother did not fall down stairs or experience a jarring auto or other such accident, the learning difficulty that is now perceived in your youngster is probably not related to anything you did prior to the childs birth. At this point, the past is no longer the issue. That was then and can not be relived. This is now. There probably are things you can do from now on that will support your child's education, things you need to be aware of from each child's birth forward. The period of greatest brain growth and development occurs during the nine months in the womb, plus the first five years of life. Various ways to encourage early development and growth are discussed in these books. Question 2. Is dyslexia inherited? If I have other children, will they have these same problems? Ambidexterity, right or left handedness and vision differences may be inherited and these may influence how a
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child learns. The endless variations of dyslexia raise doubts about any particular gene causing more than a fraction of the learning difficulties that fall within the allinclusive term, "dyslexia". The usual crossed dominant person, who has made up the majority of children in my learning handicapped classes and in most such classes, may have inherited this tendency. My sons visual crossed dominance is discussed. He struggled with reading, was near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other. Since no one in his father's or his mother's family had perfect vision, the vision problem was probably inherited. This definitely caused him learning problems, but his sisters did not inherit these problems. Question 3. Why is my child having difficulties at school? This book attempts to answer this question for many. Most school and medical personnel don't know the why, nor the wherefore, of learning disabilities. Billy was born with turned eyes for which he had surgery before entering the school system. Ken was diagnosed with different vision in each eye at age three. Colin had his dominant eye patched for amblyopia by school age. Neither parents nor doctors knew the kinds of learning problems our children would face in school due to these vision difficulties. Yet, each of these children did have serious learning problems. So it will be a rare individual in the present school or medical system, who will understand the correlation between vision or crossed dominance and learning difficulties. Withdrawn children On the other side of the activity spectrum, if your child seems withdrawn and not positively engaged in the learning process, go and observe what is happening when hes in the group. Do not blithely accept that hes bored, even if your child has an IQ of 190. If your child reports boredom in the first two years of school or if
the teacher tells you that your previously mature child is now immature, go and observe your child in school. Not why, but when, under what circumstances does his behavior become a problem? Parents need to make time to go and observe their youngsters in the classroom. When do they become inattentive, or silly, or frustrated and irritable? What turns them off and which subjects or methods receive their attention? What happens when your child is given desk level tasks to do, such as writing? What does he prefer to do with his free time at school and at home? Does she curl up with a book trying to sound out the letters, or does she avoid close visual tasks? Does he learn reading easily, or does he have serious difficulty connecting sounds with symbols? When attempting to read, does his behavior exhibit emotional stress? Make an audio tape and listen later. Does she rub her eyes or show other signs of visual stress? These are spelled out in the chapter on visual screening? Are you acquainting yourself with the development of your children's learning and homework habits? Do your children eat healthy foods and get enough sleep? Do they play actively and cooperatively with others, or are they passively sitting in front of screens? Is their behavior combative with others? Have you talked with them about whatever may be troubling them? Has there been a recent divorce or other emotional upheaval in your family that you and your children may need to work through? Has your child become moody or "different" since he or she started school, or his new class? Sometimes children act quite differently at school than they do at home.
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Go and unobtrusively observe while your child is in the classroom. Notice whether your child is actively and positively engaged with the teacher and with other students. Take minute by minute notes of your childs activities. The object of this observation is to thoroughly observe your child in the group, not to make personal demands on the adult in charge of this group. Question 4. What is Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD or ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder? These are terms of the 1990's. Notice the negatives in words like, deficit, disorder and disability. Looking for clues as to what would bring about such negative behavior changes within one generation might lead to better understanding and answers. Some of the increased hyperactivity that has been brought to my attention in the 1990s may be fed by increased attention from stressed adults. Is your child so hyperactive in the classroom that he or she appears to be unable to keep his or her concentration with any task for a reasonable length of time? In other words is the hyperactivity affecting the ability to learn? Attention Deficit Disorder is presently diagnosed as a disability separate from Learning Disabled, or dyslexic. The three main components of this diagnosis are: 1. Extreme Distractibility 2. Many Sudden Outbursts 3. Constant Hyperactivity Doctors now say that ADD and ADHD are neurological problems, which may be helped with suitable, prescriptive, stimulant medication like Ritalin. The stimulant seems to cause hyperactive children to calm down in class so as to focus their attention better. This drug can also make these children so drowsy that they drop their heads on their desks and learn even less.
When we were using this or similar medications with hyperactive children in the 1970's, we had a medical doctor on the school team for these children. It is very important that the teacher be able to observe and report to parents and doctors, how the child is responding in class, to any medications their students are taking. An overcrowded classroom, with too many variables, and no team doctors, makes this necessary observation impossible. Also many parents have refused to place their children on medication for hyperactivity, ADD and similar problems. Coffee helps kids In the October 8, 1973 Newsweek, there was an article, which I sent home to parents of my hyperactive students. How Coffee Helps Kids told of how a psychologist who took histories of hyperkinetic children, was surprised to learn that an unusually high percentage of the youngsters drank coffee. Many of these children told Dr. Schnackenberg that the coffee had a calming effect on them and helped them in school. The doctor carried out an experiment in which he asked the teachers to rate the childrens behavior while the children were using either coffee or drugs. The teachers were not told which children used either stimulant. The scores for those children using coffee were better, and the children on coffee showed none of the side effects common to Ritalin. The doctor determined that 200 to 300 milligrams daily, the amount in 2 cups of drip or vacuum brewed coffee was best for hyperkinetic children. The children drank one cup of coffee at breakfast and one with lunch. Following is a letter in which a parent of a student responded to that article. "Dear Ms. Rockefeller, Thank you for sending me the "Newsweek" article. My husband and I
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never agreed with the idea of drugs to treat hyperkinetic children. I'm sure many people can tell of the pros and cons of drug treatment. Dr. Schnackenberg's thoughts on coffee are worth trying. Starting tomorrow, Randy will have two cups of coffee a day." Let me add here that Randy was a large, eleven year old boy at that time and Randy's parents took the time and interest to monitor their son's reaction to the coffee. Randy's parents had already recognized much improvement in their son's learning before this coffee experiment. Since theres no follow-up in this case, it is not known whether coffee helped or not. When classes for LD children were established in the 1960s and 70s, most of these children were hyperactive. When they began to experience success in their school and emotional life, hyperactivity decreased, markedly. It is certainly not my suggestion that "hyperactive" children all be given some sort of stimulant drug, such as caffeine in coffee. I would be wary of any suggestion for coffee consumption for any child under six or seven years of age. Caffeine is addicting and has withdrawal symptoms such as headaches. It must be noted that the number of Ritalin prescriptions for children quadrupled between 1986 and 1997 and Ritalin has serious side effects. Ask medical doctors, Monitor carefully There is no specific diagnostic test and no specific cure for ADD. It is now seen as a medical problem and if you suspect that you or your child has ADD, you should consult with a medical doctor, probably a neurologist, who is familiar with its diagnosis and treatment. The medical use of any drug, including caffeine, must be carefully monitored by the doctor-teacher-parent team. You can not put a child on such drugs and forget it.
It would be most important that coffee, or other caffeine beverages, such as colas or tea, not supplant milk and calcium intake necessary for healthy bones and teeth. Parents should be sure that all of their children are taking in the nutrients necessary for normal growth and energy, especially at breakfast time. A nutritious diet is one of the best insurances for mental and physical health. Question 5. What can parents do to help correct or compensate for their children's problems? Start at the point of success Support your children's efforts by finding out what they do know about the subject. Then move from that point of success in the direction you are both aiming for. Clarify goals for your children. Find out what type of learner each one is by doing your own screening with the help of this set of books. Keep the process light hearted. If you can interest teachers and vice versa, parents and teachers can work together to screen all the children, before self esteem erodes. Acceptance and creativity Once you understand how your child or children are taking in new learning, foster that route. If a group of youngsters are strong auditory learners follow the suggestions in Part 3, The Learning Process. Get away from the strictly visual, left brain approach to learning. Go for the right brain approach to learning. Imagine that you wanted to sell your product to a group of people, who had difficulty reading the language, would you give them printed flyers? Not likely. You would create other methods of communication, perhaps interjecting printed words now and then, increasing their number in line with acceptance and comfort. Become knowledgeable, then be creative.
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Keep pyramid base strong Whatever the problem, build progress in accordance with your child's ability to cope. If he can pay attention for only 30 seconds, start there. Keep a little chart of progress, perhaps in his notebook, which leads to some small, desired reward. Always repeat the previous days lessons before adding new concepts. In other words, keep the base of the pyramid strong as you build on it. Starting with success, see if he can repeat two unrelated sounds or words, then three and four. Repeat a sentence correctly. Repeat one or two numbers. Try them backwards. Catch a ball from one foot away then gradually move further away. Start where success is not only possible, but unavoidable, absolutely sure. Build on that success as you become aware of his or her learning strengths and weaknesses. Question 6. How long will my child have learning problems? How long your child suffers adverse effects from being labeled "dyslexic" or numerous other labels, depends on several factors. PRIMARY is diagnosing the specific areas of learning strengths and weaknesses using sensory dominant screening as presented in Part 2, The Screening Process. SECOND is to support your child's learning strengths, making sure that he or she experiences more successes than failures in his or her efforts. THIRD is to work with your child to build up areas of weakness or find avenues of acceptable compensation. FOURTH is to encourage your educational system and our government to make a priority of the successful education of all children in every classroom. Changes are needed on how to inclusively instruct the subjects of WAR: Writing, Arithmetic, and Reading.
Teachers and other school personnel must be willing to understand that for educational success, a person's dominance and visual coordination are perhaps as, or more important, than his or her apparent developmental age and stage. In line with this understanding, intelligence can no longer be correlated with reading speed. Comprehension, not speed is the goal. Demand that your tax dollars improve primary education rather than prisons. Remind everyone of that maxim: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Question 7. What can parents reasonably expect teachers and schools to do to help children with dyslexia? Can parents expect teachers to follow through on each child's specific needs? This question came with the added, How can we make the teacher make our son wear his glasses as well as give him special paper, et cetera? This sounds like power play language. None of us, in truth, can make anyone do anything, except by using force. People need to ask themselves what is going on in their own heads, when they feel the need to control another person, especially another adult. Parents and teachers must work on listening to each other and on discussing together, how they can best implement specific changes for a particular student. Expectations can get us into some heated territory. It is not a good idea to march into the classroom and tell teachers how to teach, anymore than you would tell your stockbroker, attorney or doctor how to do their jobs. We must exert caution in the expectation department, parent or teacher. Instead, with great respect for each other, we can try to educate each other and learn to work together, taking into consideration the
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stresses each must contend with on a daily basis. Remember that the teacher and other school personnel are human beings and among other human traits, they are usually above average in intelligence. Respect due professionals Maintain a respectful attitude with teachers as you would with other professionals, e.g. doctor, attorney. Keep an upbeat attitude rather than nitpick teaching and teachers. Education seems to be an easy scapegoat for politicians. This helps no one. Unobtrusively observe your childs behavior in class and then figure out ways that you and your child can help each other accomplish a set task, without involving the teacher. You may recognize that elementary teachers have not decided to teach so that they would get rich. Most teachers start out believing that they will enjoy teaching youngsters. They put a great deal of enthusiasm, energy, time and money to that end. They had, at very least, to graduate from a 4 year college or university to be eligible to perform their jobs. Parents can expect to be able to make appointments to observe their children in their classrooms. They can also make appointments with teachers and expect to be heard as well as to listen. Parents need to write down a few of those things that most concern them and bring these to the discussion. Check each item on the list and make sure you have satisfactory answers or directions for those items before the discussion closes or make another appointment. There may be disagreements, but disrespect is unnecessary. Instead, be ready to research for more information on anything in question. When parents and
teachers get together, they can brainstorm for ideas that will remove problems and make children's education a priority. A little story of distrust and demands A few years ago, a cerebral palsied six-year old boy was placed in my educational care. My earlier experience as a registered physical therapist tuned me in to the muscular weakness of his arms and hands, as well as his visual perceptual problems. Some muscle testing informed me that his whole muscular system had not known activity. It seemed as if his previous six years had been spent sitting passively in his wheelchair. I was soon to discover that I was correct. When this mother came to school, she informed me that I was wasting her sons time by having him perform exercises to strengthen and coordinate his hands and body. She had decided that her only way to manage her sons education in public school was to demand what she thought was best for her child. She wanted no discussion. There were no options, only her objectives. She demanded that her son be taught to type. This was before light touch keyboards. Because of her attitude she had missed an opportunity to learn from a therapist. She had seen that her son could not write, yet it did not occur to her that the manual strength and coordination needed for writing and for typing are related. Her demands for typing lessons, before building up his strength and coordination were akin to telling someone who had been bedridden for years to take up his bed and walk. Best opportunity missed Of further interest was that this mother did catering work at home, making desserts, baking with dough. Her son sat and watched as she worked. They chatted and the boy had good auditory, speech and language skills. A child with such serious physical problems should have been in
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regular, daily exercise programs to build up his strength and coordination as soon as his condition was evident, but that had not been done. Had the mother understood this, she had at her disposal a perfect situation for developing her son's hand strength and tactile dexterity. This parent could have encouraged her son to work with her using some of her dough. The squeezing, kneading, rolling, pinching and so forth would have been exactly what he needed to build hand strength and coordination. Instead, he was sitting still, doing nothing with his hands or with the rest of his body for his first six years. This mother had her son removed from my care and placed with a teacher who would immediately teach him to type. One can only imagine the pain and frustration caused her son through her distrust of others. Teachers may not have all the correct answers for a child's problems. On the other hand, you might find many educators who do know something helpful. Avoid a power play. Know that we all have something worthwhile to share if we listen to and learn from each other. If this is not fruitful, then plan your other options. Question 8. How can parents work with the teacher or school to improve the learning environment? It is important to remember that we can not change anothers behavior, only our own. But when we behave differently, others respond to us differently. Positive suggestions to parents Check the simple things. Make sure your children have eaten breakfast before they leave for school. Make sure the television is off, setting aside homework time. Check to see that homework is being done correctly and that it is completed.
Make sure enough sleep is on everyones agenda. Dont send sick children to school, or to be with groups of healthy children. Have backup plans for sick days. Dont send medicines to school, unless you make arrangements for a nurse or other competent adult to handle their administration. Dont ask teachers to do personal favors for you. Children need their parents' quality time and attention. Make your children your priority, no matter how harried you think you are. Set aside time to help them develop their potential so they feel secure and cared for in the family. Teachers (like parents) need support, appreciation and cooperation from others, not more demands, more students, more problems and more regulations. Teachers, like any other professional workers, are to be held accountable for their work; in this case, good instruction and class management. Like other professionals, doctors, captains, superintendents, they can hardly perform well when shackled, used as scapegoats or overburdened. No benefit in stressing others Hoping to relieve their own stress, parents have sometimes placed unfair burdens on schools and especially on teachers. I have recently watched two creative, mentally gifted, mentally strong, young women become severely stressed and burned out in their first year of teaching. After years of preparation, following a dream and wish to help students, the first teacher, quit teaching after one year in the classroom. The second teacher is still struggling and crying through her first year, wondering if teaching is what she really wants to do, after all.
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Avoid sleep deprivation. Help for parents. Single working parent homes and homes where both parents work often find themselves shortchanging their children's education. Family, neighborhood or school discussions on how such families can schedule time and energy for their children's benefit are priority topics for television and other media. A short, twenty minute rest or nap taken immediately on returning home from work does wonders for restoring a persons energy and priorities. Children soon realize the importance of this rest period for themselves as well as for the parents. They will play quietly in the house or with the babysitter. Question 9. What enforcements are at the parents' disposal? Since Public Law 94-142 was passed by the United States Congress to ensure that children with disabilities receive appropriate educational opportunities within the mainstream of public education, many cases have been brought to court and won by parents. More recently, PL 101-476, The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, of 1990 has provided an even wider net for educational support and protection for all students eligible for special education. There are also parent advocacy groups in every state. Your local library has information on these. Be aware that the legal route is very time consuming and expensive. If you choose this route, place your child beforehand in a class where learning success is realized without diminished intelligence expectations. The law passed in 1990 mandates that schools test young children for dyslexia and train teachers to meet their needs. How is this law to be implemented when few, if any, "specialists" agree on a definition for dyslexia or ADD? Which or where are the
proper tests for these conditions? What is the proven teacher training? Where is the funding to come from? Will more children be referred for such testing than resources can cover? Will a few lawsuits eat up the funding? We are some distance from easy answers on these questions. Some teachers to this day do not even believe that there is such a thing as dyslexia. One retired teacher told me that she doesn't believe that dyslexia exists in any country outside the USA. She thinks it is something that Americans have devised perhaps to manage some hypochondriacal need. She also said that she hasn't seen the student who hasn't learned to read if they received enough praise. That kind of attitude can be devastating for the student struggling with serious, unidentified, visual or other educational handicaps? Summation 1. Make sure that you take time off work to observe your children's classrooms as often as possible. Arrive ready to listen and to question. Check these questions. Does your child have friends in class? Which ones? Does she feel like she fits in? Is she withdrawing, or is he acting up to get attention? Does the teacher attempt to distribute her attention fairly? Are the children receiving acknowledgement, praise and, or encouragement for what they are expected to do? 2. If possible, become involved in learning how to help the teacher and students in the classroom. 3. Screen your child for dominance and the other areas explained in this book. Become aware of your child's learning pattern, her sensory strengths and weaknesses. Follow through in areas
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where your child could benefit from seeing a specialist: ophthalmologist, psychologist, Irlen color filters specialist, etc. 4. At an opportune time and in an effort to support the teacher and your children in class ask to discuss the teacher's goals, texts, testing methods and the variety of instruction presented in your children's classrooms. 5. At home, review with your children their lessons from school. Be sure the children are being challenged, but not overwhelmed. Successful trials need to outnumber unsuccessful trials.
6. Impress on children your valuing of their education and appreciation of their scholastic accomplishments. Show respect for their teachers. 7. Sit down with teachers to work out an assessment of your child's learning strengths and weaknesses in addition to developmental and grade levels. Then write down how each of you can ensure that your children's school and classrooms are the best place for your children to learn what they need to know.
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amgrad
Chapter 2. Who and What Defines Dyslexia?
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Selected Bibliography Discover Successful Learning Patterns Lois E. Rockefeller copyright 1996 and 2000 Cassette Books from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Public Broadcasting Service Videotapes and Other Learning Materials are included with books in print. American Academy of Ophthalmology Pamphlets. 1984. 1. "Amblyopia - Is it affecting your child's sight?" 2. "Low Vision - Help Can Make a Difference." and others. American Foundation for the Blind. 1991. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words for Blind and Visually Impaired Persons Too! An Introduction to Audio description." American Foundation for the Blind American Optometric Association Pamphlets. 19801987. 1. "Answers to your questions about eye coordination." 2. "A Teacher's Guide to Vision Problems." 3. "Reading Takes Seeing" and others. American Vision Institute. 1981 Vision Improvement Program - A New Approach To Better Eyesight. International Biophysics Corporation. No longer at address named in Watsonville, CA. No forwarding address known. Anshel, Jeffrey. 1990. Healthy Eyes, Better Vision: Everyday Eye Care For the Whole Family. The Body Press, a division of Price Stern Sloan, Inc., 360 North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048. Belgau, Frank A. and Basden, Beverly V. 1971. A Perceptual Motor and Visual Perception Handbook of Developmental Activities For Schools, Clinics, Parents and Pre-School Programs. 1971 address was: Perception Development Research Associates, P.O. Box 827, Port Angeles, Washington 98362. Blakemore, Colin. 1977. Mechanics of the Mind. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York. Blakeslee, Thomas R. 1980. The Right Brain - A New Understanding of the Unconscious Mind and Its Creative Powers. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday. Boodman, Sandra. "School Nurse Emergency - Are Kids at Risk?" Redbook. Feb.1995. Brutten, Milton and Richardson, Sylvia, 1973. Something's Wrong With My Child. Harcourt, Brace, Janovich, Inc., 757 Third Av., N.Y., N.Y. 10017. Burke, James. "The Day the Universe Changed." (The Gutenberg Printing Press) 1993 PBS series narrated by James Burke. Buzan, Tony. 1974. Use Both Sides of Your Brain. New York: E.P.Dutton (1976). CA State Federation, Council for Exceptional Children. 1982. "Project Balance -:Encouraging Hemispheric Integration Through a Balanced Curriculum." 32nd Annual Conference, Monterey, CA. Nov. 23, 1982.
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Chaconis, George. "Vision Therapy at Home." D.I.S. Center - Vision Therapy - San Diego School District, CA. 1982. Clarke, Louise. 1973. Can't Read, Can't Write, Can't Takl Too Good Either. Walker & Co., 720 5th Av., N.Y., N.Y. 10019. Cronin, Eileen M. 1994. "Helping Your Dyslexic Child". Prima Publishers Cytowic, Richard E. 1993. "Man Who Tasted Shapes". G. P. Putnam D'Amboise, Jacques. "I show a child what is possible." Parade Magazine- Aug. 6, 1989. Davidson, Richard J. "The Sight-Speech Gap". Psychology Today- March 1982. page 92. Davis, Ronald D. with Braun, Eldon M. 1994. The Gift of Dyslexia. Ability Workshop Press, Burlingame, CA. Edgar, D., Clara Lee and The Santa Cruz Special Education Information Management System (SEIMS). 1979. The Edgar Developmental Observation Checklist and Teacher Instructional Guide. Published by Santa Cruz Office of Education, Santa Cruz, CA. Edwards, Betty. 1979. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. J.P.Tarcher Inc., Los Angeles Eisenson, Jon. "Why can't I read?" Stanford - Fall 1987. Fagan, J. and Irma Lee Shepherd. 1970. Gestalt Therapy Now. Harper & Row, New York: Fox, Stuart Ira. 1987. Human Physiology. Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Iowa Gentry, J. Richard. 1987. Spel... Is a Four-Letter Word. Heinemann - A division of Reed Publishing (USA) Inc., 361 Hanover St., Portsmouth, NH 03801-3959 USA. Goldenson, Robert M., 1970. The Encyclopedia of Human Behavior - Psychology, Psychiatry, and Mental Health. Doubleday and Company, Inc., New York Gordon, Thomas. 1975. P.E.T.- Parent Effectiveness Training. :New American Library, New York Grandin, Temple. 1995. Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports From My Life With Autism. Doubleday Greenberg - Lake. "Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America". Report commissioned by AAUW. Jan. 1991 Haybach, M.S. "Tuning into ototoxicity." Nursing 1993 June 1993 Vol. 23, Number 6, pp. 34-42. Healy, Jane M. 1987. Your Childs Growing Mind: A Parents Guide to Learning From Birth to Adolescence. Doubleday, Garden City, New York. Healy, Jane M. 1990. Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Dont Think. Simon and Schuster, New York. Heminway, Tangretti et al. "Memory and Learning." "The Two Brains." and other videotapes in the 1984 and 1988 PBS Series on "The Brain", narrated by George Page. Hinrichs, Scott Miller, Brian Contreras, Kathy Bauer, et al. "The Young Gangs." The Monterey County Herald. Jan. 16, 1994.
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Hirsch, Carl. Member of American Optometric Association, Monterey County Office of Education Vision Workshop. June 1982. "Visual Tests, including String and Knot Test and Vision Therapy." Concord, CA. Hobson, J. Allan. 1994. The Chemistry of Conscious States: How the Brain Changes its Mind. Boston, Little, Brown. Hooper, Judith and others. 1987. The Three Pound Universe. Laurel/Dell, New York. Hutchison, Michael. 1986 - First Edition. Megabrain: New Tools and Techniques for Brain Growth and Mind Expansion. Beech Tree Books, New York. Irlen, Helen. 1991. Reading By The Colors: Overcoming Dyslexia and Other Reading Disabilities Through the Irlen Method. Avery Publishing Group Inc., Garden City Park, New York. Jampolsky, Gerald G. 1990. One Person Can Make a Difference: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things. Bantam Books Johnson, George. 1991. In the Palaces of Memory: How We Build the Worlds Inside Our Heads. Knopf, New York - distributed by Random House. Jossi, Josh. 1986. Back To The Source. Half-Dome Press, Monterey, CA. Poem - "High Above Palo Colorado Canyon". Koop, C. Everett. 1991. Koop: The Memoirs of America's Family Doctor. Random House Koplewicz, Harold S. 1996. Its Nobodys Fault: New Hope and Help for difficult Children and Their Parents. Times Books Lapp, Danielle C. "Nearly total recall." Stanford - Dec. 1992. Vol. 20/Number 4. Levinson, Harold N. 1984. Smart But Feeling Dumb. Warner Books. Levitsky, Abraham and Frederick S. Perls. 1970. The Rules and Games of Gestalt Therapy. Lodestar Press, P.O. Box 31003, San Francisco, CA 94131. Lorayne, Harry and Jerry Lucas. 1974. The Memory Book. New York,:Ballantine Books, 10th printing, Sept. 1981. Lowen, Alexander. Lectures given at the Hotel Biltmore, New York City, Fall of 1965. "Breathing, Movement and Feeling." Institute For Bioenergetic Analysis, 71 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Masten, Ric. 1990. Ric Masten Speaking. Papier-Mache Press, Watsonville, CA. Song - "Let It Be a Dance". Mathers, Douglas. 1992. Brain. Troll Assoc., Mahwah, N.J. McKean, Kevin. "Memory" Discover. Nov. 1983. Vol.4, Number 11. pp. 1828. Miles, Betty. 1995. Hey! I'm Reading! - A how to read book for beginners. Borzoi book published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. Morris' Human Anatomy. Edited by J. Parsons Schaeffer. Eleventh Edition, 1953. The Blakiston Co., N.Y. Muchielli, Roger et Muchielli-Bourcier, Arlette. 1984. La Dyslexie - La Maladie du Siecle. Les Editions ESF, 17 Rue Viete, 75017, Paris, France.
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Mueller, Conrad G., Mae Rudolph and the Editors of Life. 1966. Light and Vision. New York:Time Incorporated. Nash, Lyman. "Hands - Man's Most Useful Tools". Today's Health- Feb. 1968. Nauta, Walle J.H. and Michael Fiertag. 1979. "The Brain". Scientific American: September 1979, Vol. 241, # 3. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman and Co. Optometric Extension Program Foundation Pamphlets. 1. "Is your child ready for school? Preschool Vision." 2. "Educator's Checklist - observable clues to classroom vision problems." Pepper, O.H.Perry. 1949. Medical Etymology. W.B.Saunders Company, Philadelphia. Pettijohn, Terry F. 1987. Psychology - A Concise Introduction. The Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc. Connecticut. Phelan, Thomas W. 1993. All About Attention Deficit Disorder. Child Management, Inc., 800 Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137. Pinker, Steven. 1994. The Language Instinct W. Morrow and Company Teyler, Timothy J. 19541972. "Altered States of Awareness". Scientific American, W.H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, CA. Restak, Richard. 1979. The Brain: The Last Frontier. Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y. Restak, Richard. 1991. "The Brain Has a Mind of Its Own". Harmony Books San Diego School District Workshop - Vision Therapy. November 1982. Visual Screening including Brock's String Test and Vision Therapy for Home and Classroom. Schank, Roger C. 1990. Tell Me A Story: A New Look at Real and Artificial Memory. Scribner Smith, Lendon H. 1976. Improving Your Child's Behavior Chemistry. Wallaby - Pocket Books, New York, first printing 1980. Stone, L. Joseph and Church, Joseph. 1973 - Third Edition. Childhood and Adolescence - A Psychology of the Growing Person. Random House Inc., New York, Toronto. Storr, Anthony. 1992. Music and the Mind. Ballantine Publishers. Thompson, Richard. 1988, Second printing 1990. Draw-And-Tell. Annick Press Ltd. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Distribution for Canada and the USA: Firefly Books Ltd., Ontario. U.S.News Investigative Report. "Separate and Unequal; Examining Special Education." U.S.News and World Report, Dec. 13, 1993. West, Thomas G. 1991. In the Minds Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People With Learning Difficulties, Computer Images and the Ironies of Creativity. Prometheus Books, N.Y. Zimbardo, Philip G. 1979. Essentials of Psychology and Life. Scott Foresman and Co., CA. Key Words Sensory Dominant Screening, Sensory Dominant Instruction, Learning Patterns, dyslexia, right brain, brain dominance, diagnostic prescriptive, elementary school, educational alternatives, teachers, parents, classroom, learning, teaching,
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techniques, senses, activities, Stanford University, Mneumonic, right brain/left brain, cutting edge testing, dominance pattern characteristics, physiological dyslexia

Discover Successful Learning Patterns of Non-Traditional Students, Including Those With Dyslexia - Part 1

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Discover Successful Learning Patterns

Discover Successful Learning Patterns

Discover Successful Learning Patterns

Discover Successful Learning Patterns

Visual-X R/L eye L/R eye Dominance

Part I The Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Part I The Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Part I The Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

to do so at age 5 in the USA. If shown pictures of an armadillo or iguana, she might

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

not know these at age 5 unless she

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Chapter 3. Laterality: A New, Overarching Perspective on Dyslexia

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Chapter 3. Laterality : A New, Overarching Perspective on Dyslexia

Part 1. Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Chapter 3. Laterality : A New, Overarching Perspective on Dyslexia

Part 1. Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Chapter 3. Laterality : A New, Overarching Perspective on Dyslexia

Part 1. Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Chapter 3. Laterality : A New, Overarching Perspective on Dyslexia

Part 1. Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Part 1. Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Chapter 4. Don't Throw Seeds to the Lions

Part I Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Part I Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Part I Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Development Test for Pre-K

LD Student Art Example

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Chapter 7. Experiencing Dyslexia and Labels

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Part 1 Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Part 1 Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Handicap Placement of Straight & Crossed Dominant

Causes of Crossed Dominance of Students in LH

Part 1 Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

S X L/R R/L LH Artist Sib or Sibling

Part 1 Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Chapter 9. Quick Review of Anatomy and Neuroanatomy

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Part 1- Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Characteristically, the person with left laterality is right hemisphere dominant.

Part 1 Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

The two hemispheres carry on a continuous exchange of information through

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning

coordination as compared with the straight

Learning Patterns Part I - Sensory Dominant Foundation of Learning