Teaching to Teach vs. Learning to Learn

To be brutally honest, I have a radical perspective on education. Conventional wisdom says that if we give teachers enough training and we have this super multi-modal education, then all the children will benefit. My experience is that there are a significant number of children with specific difficulties perceiving and processing information. Unless these difficulties are address (in the child), it will probably not matter what modality the teacher uses. Worse still, if the child goes through school dependent upon a specific teaching method, what happens when he enters the "real world" and does not have someone spoon-feeding him information in the correct format. NO! My position is that if the problem is in/with the CHILD, it is the CHILD that needs the attention and training--not the teacher. The child deserves to be taught how to use his natural abilities to his advantage. Many of my students have gone from D's to B's and A's. Several have gone from Special Ed track to Honor Roll in little more than a year with the right training. I see Dyselxics learning to read at over 1,000 words per minute. I see children with short-term memory issues memorizing all 50 states and their capitals, the amendents to the constitution. I, myself, memorized the first 2,026 digits of PI just for fun. There's not a teacher or teaching method on the planet that can reproduce those results. Increases of that magnitude can only happen when it is the STUDENT that is provided with new strategies for perceiving and processing information.

Reading is not about phonics

Great reference on reading: http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/professionals/dyslexia-school/reading-fluency re: "A fluent reader does not need to give their attention on decoding the words. Instead, he can concentrate on what the text means and develop his comprehension skills (e.g., making connections, asking questions, etc.)." I have been making this case for years, that fluency and comprehension are NOT a function of decoding. Decoding is NOT essential to the final reading product. It is, however a bridge to reading that works well for MOST (not all) children. re: "Strategies to improve reading fluency may include: - determining syllable boundaries in words, - improving reading rate by working on automaticity, - increasing sight word vocabulary, and - self-monitoring while reading." Again, the strategies to improve reading fluency do not (necessarily) include decoding or phonics. This information is so important if we're going to get past tired old ideas about what reading is and what it isn't.

ADHD and Therapy

In my experience, therapists are good with temporary behavior issues resulting from a bad experience or communication issues. But I've rarely seen therapy work with disorders such as ADHD, Bipolar or ODD. The problem for therapists is that they rely on some form of cognitive therapy. This means a) they need to achieve rapport with the client (with an ADHD reactive client, probably NOT GOING TO HAPPEN); and b) overcoming unconscious reactive behaviors with with cognitive therapy is almost impossible. When it is possible, it takes YEARS! Just ask any therapist how long they see their average client. It's typically measured in YEARS. My kids were on a fast track to oblivion even after a year of therapy and tutoring. I couldn't wait years hoping for something to happen. However, if the therapist can build unconscious rapport and get your child out of his fight-or-flight stress response and into a relaxed, parasympathetic response, if she can build rapport and reprogram his reactions to unexpected changes to the environment at the unconscious level, and if she can teach you how communicate with him in such a way as to avoid many of those breakdowns, that would be awesome. Those are the things that I had to learn, myself. Now I make those skills available to clients.

fquestion: Do your programs hone Auditory skills?

The short answer is, Yes, our long-term program DOES address the auditory skills, however, those skills may take months, or years or maybe never to fully develop. My philosophy is, Why hold up a child's entire education because they're lacking in one particular skill. We keep the child moving forward and learning with our "Visual Reading", "Visual" or "Active Listening", "visual Note-taking", and even "Visual Test-taking". Maybe that's why some educational professionals seem to have a hard time believing our results. They may think we're "fixing" the problem, be it dyslexia, ADHD, Autism or whatever. The truth is, we/I don't fix anything. It's like a cheat in a computer game. We just find a way around the problem. Many of my graduating students learn to process information so quickly, they are known for taking tests in 1/5th to 1/8th the amount of time allowed. Most finish their SAT's with time to spare. It's not magic--just the right technique for the right person. AND, (as an aside) every bit of research I have shows that ANYONE who has ever achieved an advanced degree relied primarily on their visual-spatial memory and visual-spatial cognitive abilities to succeed. Let's face it, if you were in medical school or law school and you were required to read 300-plus pages a week (about 150,000 words), would you rather read those pages auditorally at 180 words per minute, or visually at 600 words per minute. Auditorally, that's 14-15 hours of study per week. Visually, that's 4-5 hours of study. The truth is, for most students, processing information auditorally is a step backwards. It comes in handy for processing limited amounts of information, linearly, (and it comes in handy for poetry), but that's about it.

ADHD and Sleep

The first thing to remember is that for folks on the autistic spectrum (and visual-spatial thinkers in general) sleep is an annoyance at best and a miniature death sentence at worst) One issue may be that he is waking up at the transitions between sleep cycles (90 minutes each). For 'normal' folks this a merely a minute or two of semi-awakeness after which the person gently drifts off to sleep. For the ASD person, however, this brief awakeness sparks a flood of visual-spatial images to fill the emptiness of the moment which in turn sparks a flood of emotions. (nightmares or even night terrors are not totally uncommon). Something I've done for some folks, including myself, is to create CD's with binaural and monaural beats, overlayed with either white niose, nature sounds or relaxing music. When appropriate, I've also embedded subliminal messages to help with the sleep pattern or other behavior modification. Hope that helps...

ADHD and Bad Parenting

WHOA! Back the baby truck up. Let's be real clear. Having a child with ADHD, or Dyslexia or any Autistic Spectrum Disorder has NOTHING to do with being a good parent. I'd have to say the I am all for getting kids off meds IF it's the right thing to do. I don't use meds (at this time). My kids aren't on meds (at this time). Every intervention we use at the NLC--neuro-sensory exercises, brain-training, stress reduction, educational and life skills coaching are all designed to help ADHD and ASD folks improve their lives without meds. THAT said, I would NEVER, ever advise anyone to simply stop taking their meds without KNOWING that there was something else in place. We don't want to gamble with our kids lives. So here's something I've noticed over the years. Let's say a child is on meds, and he starts other therapies--diet, exercise, brain-training, stress reduction, omega-3's, whatever... (while he's still on his meds). If the other therapies are having a positive effect, the child will begin to show the symptoms characteristic of having too high a dose of his medication. That is the time to consider talking to your doctor about cutting the dosage of his medication. If that is successful and education and behavior continue to improve with the other therapies, it may at some point become time to consider talking to your doctor about getting off medication altogether. The point is, there's usually no need to go to extremes and start guessing. Generally speaking, there's no conflict between meds and most alternative therapies (i.e., diet, exercise, brain-training, etc.) As always, check with your doctor.