Ten O'Clock Scholar - The mind-body connection of reading

Did you know that all your senses can help you learn to read?

        We all have 5 senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Personally, I would call emotion a sixth sense because I often feel my emotions in my heart or chest area, as well as other parts of my body. Science calls it psycho-somatic, meaning that the mind affects the body (and vice versa). Some parents make the mistake of only focusing on one area of a child’s intelligence, either academic or sports. Children need exposure to many types of learning to be well-rounded. All areas affect the mind. Mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual healths are inter-related and we should encourage them in our children, for robust lives and futures.

        There is a mind-body connection that is important to understand. There are many examples of times when body movement optimizes mental ability. Since the goal of most parents is for their gifted children to be well-rounded people, the mind-body connection is important to consider.

        There is a proven connection between academics, infants and academics. Crawling affects language, reading, and math abilities. Children who crawled longer as babies often have an increased ability to learn during school years. In fact, children who are struggling in school show marked improvement when they do crawling exercises each day, even at ten years old or older. The eye-hand-leg coordination that is learned helps brain processing in all areas. It may be related to spatial relationships and timing patterns, which always improve math and reading. Young parents are often excited to have their babies walking early, but wise parents will encourage their infants to crawl longer.

        Playing an instrument such as piano improves mental functioning. Music definitely improves space and time understanding, which maximizes learning in all areas. Likewise, hearing classical music from Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart has been proven to increase intelligence in infants and children. There is something about the compositions from these four geniuses that increase the necessary neuron paths required for higher-level thinking. Wise parents incorporate music into their children’s lives, by both listening and playing instruments.

        Playing sports can sharpen logic and logistical intelligence. Grasping how several players coordinate together, and all the many possibilities of interaction and play, is an important part of problem-solving later in life.

        About age 5, it may be a good idea to start children in community t-ball, soccer, basketball or swimming. The recreation department at most city offices has information on all community sports. They also usually have a city pool that offers affordable swim lessons during the summer. Start children in sports early. The hand-eye-leg coordination required is akin to crawling in maximizing intelligence. Caution: do not neglect intellectual stimulation for physical prowess.

        Three of my sons loved the swim team. None of them became Olympic or professional material, but they learned valuable lessons and strengthened their bodies, which strengthened their minds, and learned the value of teamwork. The oldest went to the State Swim Competition. Smart children are often independent and stand alone in their intellectual abilities. They may begin to think that their way is the only way, or that because they are smart, they are always right. It is good for them to learn teamwork and compromise in a team sport. It is good for them to learn that others have good ideas, too.

        The steps to success are intention, attention, and then no tension. First, write down the goal that is intended to accomplish. Then give it attention and real effort for a sustained time. Finally, release the tension and do something else for a while. It is while doing something physical that the “Aha!” moments often come.

        Personally, I pace when I’m having a mind blank. Washing dishes, walking, exercising, creating something with your hands, or just doing something physical releases ideas from the mind at unexpected times. Sleep affects mental acuity, too. Some “Aha!” moments occur in the middle of the night, awakened from sleep, where the mind has had a chance to relax. Many geniuses relax with some sort of physical art like painting, sculpting, carpentry, or other creative activity unrelated to their area of expertise. Giving the conscious mind a break allows the subconscious to kick in ideas.

        Chiropractors such as Dr. Bradley Nelson (The Emotion Code) have shown that stress stored in the body relates to memories of traumatic moments. There is also a strong correlation between depression and physical ailments, where a negative mental attitude suppresses the immune system and allows illness in. The reverse is also true, that chronic illness can provoke depression. Keeping a positive mental attitude can keep the body healthier. By the same token, proper nutrition and exercise keep the mind and emotions healthier.

        Some parents make the mistake of only focusing on the gifted child’s academic intelligence, or vice-versa. All other areas affect the mind, too. Mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health are all inter-related and should be encouraged in gifted children for robust lives and futures.

        “Mom, there’s nothing to do!” Recognize that summer-time whine from your kids? Sometimes they need to put down the books, computer, and games and play outside. Children need the right side of their brains exercised as much as the left, so activities in the arts and humanities are refreshing and beneficial.

        Stimulate your child’s imagination and creative juices with family trips to local water parks, federal reserve banks, museums with activities, pioneer towns, skating, nature reserves and farmstead parks, puppetry institutes, children’s science institutes, cave exploring, library activities, fine arts centers, community theaters, zoos, petting zoos, bird refuges, festivals, renaissances, college-sponsored math competitions for kids, picnics, nature hikes, arts & crafts, amusement parks, camping, historical sites, old downtown shops, reunions, to name a few.

        Specialty museums, such as Native American museums and cultural centers, are a great way to expand your child’s social understanding. Local history is a splendid way to open your child’s mind to the past. Many historic buildings have tours and children’s activities. Check them out!

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Ten O'Clock Scholar - Is it a learning disability or just a learning style

a   Did you know that a learning style can be mistaken for a learning disability?

               John Holt’s book, Teach Your Own, first introduced me to the idea that dyslexia is misdiagnosed. The idea that children see letters as 3-dimensional objects came from him, as he proved that children are not seeing letters backward. Research from Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld and others has shown that sight-words are the culprit. When our educational system took true phonics out of the classroom, it was a step backward. Whole-language is the limiting hieroglyphic system, whereas phonics is the most progressive innovation of the centuries. It still is.

               Gifted children are not truly ADHD, just bored and full of ideas and energy. Dyslexia is neither visual nor genetic. It is induced. Tendencies are never set in stone and can be overcome by environment and free will. Late-bloomers are not “slow”, just flourishing at their own rate. In fact, they are often very bright.

               Help your son break the gender gap in reading so his gift can shine. Did you know that there is a worldwide gender gap in reading, especially with whole language or sight-reading methods? Science has shown that boys are very different from girls in fetal development, emotional response, brain differentiation, and such. The multi-focus teaching methods above favor girls in academic achievement. However, when the single-focus approach of systematic phonics is used, the sex differences are eliminated, with the boys even outperforming the girls sometimes.

               In my book, It's Not Rocket Surgery! Vol. 3, I discussed the Visual Attention Span (VAS) Theory. VAS is the number of letters that can be held in short-term memory and, as children mature, their VAS increases. The more letters a student can hold in his or her short-term memory, the better he or she will fare with whole language/balanced literacy methods (which involve a lot of memorization).

               As I shared in Vol. 5, out of the VAS clinical practice has come the results that since boys mature more slowly than girls, boys tend to have lower VAS scores and do worse at reading in whole language/balanced literacy classrooms. But in systematic phonics classrooms, where children are required to process sounds as opposed to memorizing letters, VAS is not a factor and there is no gender gap. The creators of VAS Theory use systematic phonics, succeeding in teaching 100% of their students to read, with data based on their study of more than 3000 children.

               So, knowing that children often fall behind with whole-language or sight-reading methods, a wise parent will make sure that her son (or daughter) has systematic, synthetic phonics taught as his method of reading! Since reading is the foundation of everything else, he will have a much better chance to be his brightest self. Geek is Chic! 

               On July 15, 2011, I was a guest on Vivienne McNeny’s internet radio show – The Sociable Homeschooler – http://toginet.com/shows/thesociablehomeschooler/articles/2070. Among our several topics of conversation, we discussed late bloomers. I have several family members who seemed to drift aimlessly as young adults, but who became successful later in life. Never give up!

               “It’s never too late to become the person you might have been” George Elliott

               Vivienne shared how one of her sons was a ball of energy who couldn’t settle down long enough to concentrate on his assignments. Did she put him on Ritalin? No, she wisely helped him by writing his stories as he dictated them to her, giving him oral spelling tests while he engaged in other activities, read books and textbooks with him, etc. To some her son may have had a learning disability, but he was just a late bloomer, who is fine now. He’s also very intelligent, which giftedness is often misdiagnosed as ADHD. Vivienne had the insight to help her son learn until he flourished at his own pace.

               Sometimes dealing with a child’s struggles can seem exhausting. The best way to beat mommy burn-out is to change the way we’re thinking about a situation. It also helps to find out that we’re not alone and others are coping with similar issues.

               The internet makes it easy to find social groups with similar interests and experiences. Sites like www.meetup.com have just about any kind of group you want to join. Google can find any subject. Support of friends goes a long way to helping us carry on with joy.

               I just love the poem, Don’t You Quit:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

               When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

               When the funds are low and the debts are high,

               And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

               When care is pressing you down a bit-

               Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

               As every one of us sometimes learns,

               And many a fellow turns about

               When he might have won, had he stuck it out.

               Don't give up though the pace seems slow -

               You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than

               It seems to a faint and faltering man;

               Often the struggler has given up

               When he might have captured the victor's cup;

               And he learned too late when the night came down,

               How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -

               The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,

               And you never can tell how close you are,

               It might be near when it seems afar;

               So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -

               It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Author Unknown              http://www.thedontquitpoem.com/thePoem.htm

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12 ways to give your child dyslexia

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Ten O'Clock Scholar - Learning styles of girls vs. boys

In general, do girls and boys have different learning styles? Find out here!

                It seems that the different learning styles reflect, in general, the learning differences between girls and boys. Of course there are always exceptions, but girls tend to be more audio-sequential (left-brain), while boys tend to be more visual-spatial (right-brain). No wonder boys typically do better with 3-dimensional video games and girls generally enjoy writing more! (For more in-depth discussion of learning styles, see my previous blogs.)

                This is counter-intuitive to the original left-brain/right-brain theory of men vs. women, but explains why many boys don’t catch up academically to girls until middle school age. I was always taught that men were more logical and left-brained, and women were more right-brained. Dr. Silverman’s research shows, not necessarily. Perhaps the idea that men are more “logical” stems from the truth that it is more common for females to network both brain hemispheres simultaneously, whereas males tend to use one side at a time. Often men don’t to understand the leaps that women make in connecting multiple data streams, therefore think they are illogical. Quite the opposite is true, actually.

                Plus, socially it is more acceptable for women to express emotions, so they do. The emotions can still be based on intuitive logic, but misunderstood by men, who have learned to suppress most emotions in public (except anger). Both sexes feel the whole range of emotions, but their intensity and manifestation may differ. And what is important to males and females may be different, whether genetic, social, or both. Thus they can misinterpret each other’s motivating factors. This does not mean one is more logical or emotional than the other. They complement each other.

                Personally, I seem to have parts of both learning-styles: I learn better by seeing than hearing, but I am more sequential than spatial. Call me, visual-sequential, with a little of everything else thrown in.

        There is an intriguing article by Sharon Begley, Gray Matters, Newsweek (March 27, 1995), at http://www.newsweek.com/1995/03/26/gray-matters.html. Quoting several sections:

                “Of course men and women are different. Boy, are they different. In every sphere of life, it seems, the sexes act, react or perform differently. Toys? A little girl daintily sets up her dolls, plastic cups and saucers, while her brother assembles his Legos into a gun -- and ambushes the tea party. Navigating? The female tourist turns her map every which way but right, trying to find the way back to that charming bistro, while her boyfriend charges ahead, remembering every tricky turn without fail. Relationships? With spooky intuition, women's acute senses pick up subtle tones of voice and facial expressions; men are insensitive clods who can't tell a sad face until it drenches them in tears. Cognition? Females excel at language, like finding just the right words to make their husbands feel like worms; males can't verbalize even one good excuse for stumbling home at 2 a.m.

                “Stereotypes? Maybe -- but as generalizations they have a large enough kernel of truth that scientists, like everyone else, suspect there's something going on here. As Simon LeVay, a Salk Institute neuroscientist put it recently, "There are differences in the mental lives of men and women.''

And from a scientific study:

                “With new technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), researchers catch brains in the very act of cogitating, feeling or remembering. Already this year researchers have reported that men and women use different clumps of neurons when they take a first step toward reading and when their brains are "idling.'' And, coming soon to a research journal near you, provocative studies will report that women engage more of their brains than men when they think sad thoughts -- but, possibly, less of their brains when they solve SAT math problems.

                “Twenty-two male and 22 female students were PET-scanned while they solved SAT math problems. By detecting areas of the brain using the most blood, PET pinpoints active regions.

                “Male students with high SAT scores showed intense activity in the temporal lobes (red spots at top and sides), compared with men with average scores. In men, it seems, ability is related to how hard the brain works.

                “Brain activity in the mathematically gifted women was less intense than in the high-SAT men, even though their scores were comparable. These women expended no more neural effort than the average-SAT women.

                Summarized from the PET Scan Photo:

·         The region of the cerebral cortex that helps control hearing, memory and a person's sense of self and time, is stronger in men.

·         Women have more neurons in a tiny region of the temporal lobe behind the eye, which understands language as well as melodies and speech tones. In cognitively normal men, this region has about 10 percent fewer neurons than it does in women.

·         The bundle of neurons that is the main bridge between the left brain and the right, carrying messages between them is larger in men. (A bigger brain area matters only if it has more neurons, the cells that carry communications, in it. This is not yet proven.)

·         In women, the back part of the callosum is bigger than in men. This may explain why women use both sides of their brain for language. A man's corpus callosum takes up less volume in his brain than a woman's does, suggesting the two hemispheres communicate less.

·         In men, the commissure is smaller than it is in women, even though men's brains are, on average, larger than women's. The larger commissure in women may be another reason their two cerebral hemispheres seem to work in partnership on tasks from language to emotional responses.

                “Women tend to have better language skills -- perhaps because the emotional right brain enriches their left-brain vocabulary. And women have better intuition -- perhaps because they are in touch with the left brain's rationality and the right's emotions simultaneously.

                “Women can't understand why men find it so hard to be sensitive to emotions. According to the PET scans, women's brains didn't have to work as hard to excel at judging emotion. Women's limbic system, the part of the brain that controls emotion, was less active than the limbic system of men doing worse. That is, the men's brains were working overtime to figure out the faces. But the extra effort didn't do them much good.

                “Men and women were asked whether the expressions on actors' faces were sad or happy and were monitored by PET scans as they decided”

                “Men did as well as women -- 90 percent right -- in identifying happy male and female faces. But they were worse at sensing sad women. Overall, women were better able to judge facial expressions of both sexes. The PET scan showed their brains required less energy than the men's to decide.

                “But if the first tantalizing findings are any clue, the research will show that our identities as men and women are creations of both nature and nurture. And that no matter what nature deals us, it is we -- our choices, our sense of identity, our experiences in life -- who make ourselves what we are.”

                Great article, right?! But some people may try to use such scientific data to prove one sex is superior over the other. The truth is, society needs both types of brains, male and female, to function well. Our need for men’s single-minded focus and for women’s networking abilities became obvious to me in a wonderful book, Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey, by Lillian Schlissel, Schocken Books (1992).

                In her book the author gives the historical account of the United States’ westward movement through the eyes of the women. Historians typically write from the men’s journals and perspectives, but Schlissel’s work showed a different side to seeking land in Oregon, following the California gold rush, or the Mormon exodus to the Salt Lake Valley, to name a few of the prospects that pulled pioneers westward. The viewpoint of pioneer women gave a much richer flavor to the decisions and approaches to leave everything behind.

                Men sought the bigger picture, gold, land, religious freedom, with a one-track mind, and made sure the wagons, animals, tools, rifles, etc., were ready to go. Women saw the difficulties in the details of how to keep children safe, keep yeast-starter for bread dough alive, how to cook, how to find water, pack enough food, essentially take care of everyone’s everything. They had no desire to leave their established, comfortable homes in the East to head into the unknown. They must have been terrified to imagine giving birth without a midwife in the middle of nowhere. What if their children fell under the horses’ hooves or wagon wheels? What if they got sick? Most pioneer women would never have gone west if their husbands hadn’t insisted. Yet they were the glue that held the journey together.

                As I read these true stories, I realized that progress takes both men and women; men to fearlessly forge ahead, and women to make sure everyone is safe, nurtured and cared for. That does not mean that they are pigeon-holed in those roles; there is a lot of overlap as men and women help each other. But in general, men’s brains, using one brain hemisphere – or the other – at a time, give them the ability focus on the end goal. 

               Women’s brains, using both hemispheres simultaneously, give them the ability to keep track of the details of everyday life and families. Men may be more aggressive to confront problems, while women may be more willing to compromise. Both ways of thinking balance each other. Neither is superior. We should celebrate everyone’s gifts and appreciate each contribution to the community and family as a whole. I am equally proud of my eight daughters and my seven sons. All are encouraged to pursue whatever interests, talents, and vocations they enjoy.

                Some quote studies saying that our genes make us who we are. But that’s only part of the truth. Environment and our own free-will both play a big part in whom we choose to become. Our consciousness is more than just the genes in our DNA. In fact, we can choose to overcome our genetic tendencies.

Dr. Stanton E. Samenow’s book, “Before It’s Too Late – Why some kids get into trouble and what parents can do about it,” reports many cases of mind-over-matter in juvenile delinquents and their siblings. Nature plays a part in our tendencies; nurture plays a large part in galvanizing them; but our choices of how we respond to events play an equal part in whether we solidify those tendencies or not. Of course, good nurturing can help guide our choices towards the positive.  http://www.amazon.com/Before-Its-Late-Stanton-Samenow/dp/0812916468 

                Health Day News reports that “it's not nurture or nature that determine a predisposition toward delinquent behavior in adolescents, it's the combination of the two,” say researchers from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Genetics and social factors are tied to male delinquency: family, friends, and school all impact the expression of certain molecular variants.

                The American Sociological Review points to three genetic polymorphisms that, when paired with social factors, can predict future serious and violent delinquency:

                "While genetics appear to influence delinquency, social influences such as family, friends and school seem to impact the expression of certain genetic variants," said study author – Professor Guang Guo of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "Positive social influences appear to reduce the delinquency-increasing effect of a genetic variant, whereas the effect of these genetic variants is amplified in the absence of social controls."

                "Our research confirms that genetic effects are not deterministic," Guo added. "Gene expression may depend heavily on the environment."

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2008/07/17/genetics-social-factors-tied-to-male-delinquency 

                As Begley said, “…no matter what nature deals us, it is we -- our choices, our sense of identity, our experiences in life -- who make ourselves what we are.”

                This is why dyslexia is not genetic but induced. Even if a child has hearing-processing difficulties or genetic tendencies for dyslexia (and related disorders), his exposures to parenting and/or teaching methods are the most significant factors. The physical problems and tendencies can be surmounted. Triggers for dyslexia (et al), such as noise pollution and sight-reading, can be avoided. Early reading the right way erases dyslexic tendencies.

Taken from my book, Vol. 8, It's Not Rocket Surgery! by Shannah B Godfrey

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