Search This Blog

Saturday, October 24, 2015

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

http://thegodfreymethod.com

1 comment:

  1. Discovered that writing with a dark background helps me stay focused. Got curious and devoted time to searching for content creation tools with this kind of functionality. This one is my preference: http://bit.ly/2DWi1K9

    ReplyDelete