by Dr. Rebecka Spencer, with Cherish Children Ministries

 

Can you please just tell me which curriculum to use for my dyslexic learner?” 

I’ve tried multiple curricula and nothing seems to be working.” 

 

These are common questions we get here at Cherish Children Ministries from both homeschool moms and classroom teachers. The Orton-Gillingham approach (or simply OG) is the most famous and widely used curriculum for dyslexic learners, but it does not necessarily have to be a new purchase for your homeschool journey. Structured learning, sequential skill introduction, cumulative lessons built upon each other, explicit instruction, multisensory opportunities, and systematic phonics are key facets for the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading for our dyslexic kids. But you do not necessarily need to invest in an all-new curriculum. What you do need to do is learn the components of effective strategies and use what you have. 

 

The fact of the matter is this: most curricula have both phonics and sight word components included in them already, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel. What you might want to do, if your curriculum is not OG-based, is make sure that you are doing some multisensory sessions with your child. These are action-oriented, with auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic elements reinforcing each other for optimal learning. Teaching spelling simultaneously with reading is part of the OG approach. 

 

The basis of the OG approach revolves around the idea that kids learn and master language through three neurological pathways: visual processing, auditory processing, and tactile processing. The first two – visual and auditory processing – are used to read, while tactile processing is for handwriting and muscle movements. There are hundreds of curricula that encompass and embrace this approach. Keep in mind all curricula may not advertise that this is the method used. If these three pathways are incorporated in structured and meaningful ways, and systematic phonics and multisensory opportunities are also included, then the curriculum is based on the OG method. The OG approach is so well-known that some portions of the approach are found in many programs at all price ranges. 

 

The first thing is to get the left portion of the brain firing so it can recognize and learn some patterns and reading-type skills. I would like for you to imagine your brain and how it receives information. The first thing the brain does is take the image that it sees from both eyes, then upside down, then the brain flips it and turns it where you can see it. Imagine if there is a delay in the right or left brain here. 

 

Children will often struggle with pencil grip and tracing letters with early childhood games. When this occurs, it is quite possible the palmar primitive reflex is not integrated. It is simple to integrate. Just get a stress ball and have the child squeeze the ball with the forefinger and thumb, thumb and middle, then thumb and ring finger, and thumb and pinky. Do it again but start with the thumb and pinky. Doing this a few times each day will dramatically help learners who have dysgraphia. Also, the Writing 8 ABC’s Exercise will help with dysgraphia as well as dyslexia. We have put together a 4-part lesson plan that is sure to get your learner thriving. Check it out HERE.

 

Visual function is very important when we talk about dyslexic learners. Dyslexic kids struggle with the recognition of visual elements, shapes, and patterns. We do exercises with our children to help them with this weakness. When we assess children in this area, we ask our students to trace or rewrite a shape, such as a box, circle, star, or some type of polygon, only to find kids will draw something that looks a lot different from the shape set before them. Sometimes they will not even close the shape. For something that may seem so simple, one can see how this impacts their reading skills.

 

Fixation is another component that is important for parents and teachers to understand in our dyslexics. Fixation is simply the ability to maintain gaze on a single location. What happens in dyslexic kids is the fixation will be slightly off from the point the child is supposed to be looking at and they cannot fixate. 

 

Smooth pursuit, or slow tracking, is another skill that is complex for our dyslexic learners. When we check our children to understand the eye’s ability to track, we understand why it is so difficult for them to read smoothly. This is a higher function of the brain. Only highly intelligent mammals have the intelligence to do this. Some kids’ eyes skip, so they miss letters and words even while they are reading. 

 

Notice how the blue arrows indicate how the dyslexic reader may read this sentence compared to a non-dyslexic reader. One can see how this may make it very difficult for these children to read smoothly as their little eyes skip or jump letters. 

 

The brain takes in the images that the eye lands on, and the brain cannot do this properly if the eyes are skipping or jumping. Some kids struggle with this, so we want to strengthen this weakness with some easy exercises. You can try this at home right now with your little learner with this easy exercise.

 

Put a sticker on the end of a pencil or ruler, and have the child move eyes only right to left and left to right. They should be able to do this, but if they cannot, try this exercise. Put a fun sticker on the end of a pencil or pen and ask the child to watch it as you move across their visual field. Eyes turn right to left and then from left to right and do as long as it takes about 10 seconds in each direction. Your child should be able to hold their head still and move the eyes smoothly to follow. What you want to look for is if the child’s eyes can track back and forth while watching a slow-moving target. The skips may be so slight that it looks more like a tiny shake of the pupil as it follows the target.

 

It used to be thought that what you were born with was all you had. Sometimes, brain development is compared to putting as many things into the brain as possible, beginning at birth. Babies are born with about 100 billion brain cells. As the baby grows, brain cells, called neurons, grow larger and stronger, forming tentacle-like branches to connect and communicate with the other neurons and set the stage for how we will survive and thrive in life. Most people think that what we are born with is what we have for the rest of our lives. This is not the case: the brain is the only organ not fully formed at birth. Once the brain’s basic structure is present, the brain starts working as a vital, functioning organ long before it is completely formed. 

 

Brain growth begins about 40 days after conception when the cortex, which is the gray matter that looks like deep wrinkles or grooves, starts to form. The neocortex, as it is called in fetal development, is the seed for the genesis of neurons, which sprout and accumulate rapidly, sometimes at the rate of a quarter-million per minute. For the next 125 days, new neurons will continually explode into existence like fireworks from deep within the neocortex. But this will not occur randomly. Their migration to specific locations will be carefully orchestrated, to a large degree, by genetic code. Some of these neurons will be directed to building the brain itself, forming the six layers that make up the cerebral cortex. By the end of two months, the human cortex in a fetus will be intact and identifiable. Cell migration, however, will continue to flourish, and won’t stop until about the end of the fifth month.

 

Synaptic connections are the key that makes learning–what most people think of as brain development–possible. They are the key to physical growth, as well. At one time, scientists believed that mental and physical growth were mutually exclusive. But that is not the case at all. One cannot exist without the other. Every biologically important event – from recognizing a mother’s smile or a father’s voice to sitting, crawling, walking, and talking – is the result of new connections, producing electrical excitation between neurons within the synaptic loop. The Kodak-moment milestones that parents anxiously await are markers of synaptic development and signs of normal neuronal growth.

 

A group of Belgian researchers conducted a study that proved dyslexia involved a disconnect in the wiring in the brain rather than the past scientific belief that the condition was a result of distorted sound interpretation. It was found that phonetic representations were intact in

those with dyslexia. The findings indicated those with dyslexia had disconnectivity between the areas of the brain that are responsible for speech production. Several other studies back up these findings, and I will include them in the resources section of this lesson.

 

Some research has concluded that intensive reading instruction improved reading skills in younger children with dyslexia and caused the brain to physically rewire itself, creating new white matter within the brain itself. Brain imaging of children between the ages of eight and ten displayed the quality of white matter, which is the tissue that transports signals in-between areas of the brain processing centers, improved significantly after 100 hours of remediation.

 

Kids with dyslexia have what is called auditory processing deficits, especially in phonics. The letter sounds b and p are difficult to differentiate. When exercises for building speech and sound awareness are done, dyslexic children have improved reading and writing skills. This is WHY we focus on doing brain exercises in our “Struggle Learner to Thriving Achiever” program. Did you know that 682 children diagnosed with dyslexia and auditory processing disorder were involved in a study where they exercised the weak parts of their brain? The results were significant improvements in reading skills. Also, spelling errors decreased by 40 percent! When the researchers worked with dyslexic children doing eye exercises, the children made half as many mistakes after only three to six weeks of doing brain exercises. When we balance the brain, this is what we can expect to find! You can rewire your brain, too, if you are a parent who struggles with dyslexia. 

 

Always do what is best for YOUR child or students. You are with your children more than anyone, so listen to your instincts and go to a specialist if you determine further modifications or testing is needed. It is always a good idea to invite trained professionals onto the team for your child. You are your child’s best advocate.

SPEDHomeschool has dozens of articles to help you confidently homeschool your child with dyslexia. Our list of articles is here. Also, check out our trusted reading curriculum partners

 

 

 


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By Jan Bedell, Ph.D., Master NeuroDevelopmentalist, SPED Homeschool Board Member & Therapy Partner

 

April is Autism Awareness Month and we here at SPED Homeschool understand how autism can affect learning and the education process. SPED Homeschool Founder and CEO, Peggy Ployhar, started their family’s homeschooling journey after their son’s autism diagnosis 19 years ago. We hope that our resources will empower your homeschool and your student will reach his/her full potential.

 

An autism diagnosis has become alarmingly more prevalent, moving from 1 in 10,000 births 25-30 years ago to 1 in 66 in recent reports. This increase is not explained away by better testing or the “gene pool” theory. So many children today fall into this label because of the broad spectrum of symptoms that are currently included under the umbrella of autism. As neurodevelopmentalists (NDs), the thought process is that the symptoms causing behavioral triggers resulting in this label should be addressed directly and not simply labeled. The question is, where do you start? 

 

Every individual on the planet learns through their senses. The bulk of the information comes primarily from three of the five sensory avenues – auditory, visual, and tactile. In the case of a diagnosis of autism, these sensory messages can be too sensitive (hypersensitive), not sensitive enough (hyposensitive), or a scrambled message. All of the above cause misinterpretation of sensory input by the brain. Every child does the best they can to function with the information provided through these sensory input channels. If one or more channels are giving distorted information to the brain, it compounds the challenge of the daily demand to function in a typical manner.

 

The NeuroDevelopmental Approach uses brain plasticity (its ability to grow and change) to improve the functional ability of the child. We also acknowledge the huge part that the chemistry of the body plays in individual progress. There isn’t enough space to expand on the metabolic aspect of spectrum disorders, so we will focus here on the ND help that is available. Let’s look at the main areas of input to the brain for some examples.

 

Vision:

When peripheral vision is hypersensitive, it means the detail or central vision is not working well, and the peripheral is working too well. When this happens, it is easy for a child to “play” with their vision by moving objects, flapping arms, or moving fingers, just to name a few common repetitive actions that we refer to as sensory play or stimming. These actions produce endorphins that are the same chemicals that make you feel good when you run. Running to get this feeling is good and very different from continuously pumping this chemical into your system by engaging in sensory play. The more this destructive behavior happens, the further the child retreats from the world around them. NDs encourage a multi-pronged approach to this situation. 1. Discourage the sensory play and redirect as much as possible. 2. Work to improve the central detail vision through specific stimulation so the child’s payoff (endorphins) is no longer there and the behavior stops.

 

By addressing the root cause, these symptoms can diminish significantly and allow more typical functioning to emerge.”

 

Tactile/Touch:

Many children with an autism label have an aversion to light touch. Certain clothes bother them, hugs are rejected, washing hair, haircuts and showers can be a nightmare, and food sensitivities make it hard to get nutritional meals consumed. At the same time this hypersensitivity exists, children may also have trouble distinguishing deep touch or pain (hyposensitivity). They might have unexplained bruises or ear infections that are not acknowledged as a problem until the eardrum bursts. All of these examples reflect a brain that is not getting the right messages from the tactile sensory stimulation in the environment. The ND’s solution again is to provide enough tactile input to change the brain and thus the reaction to the outside stimulus.  

 

Auditory:

Many autistic children are so hypersensitive to sound that much of the auditory stimulation in their world is painful. To combat this pain, many children simply turn off their auditory systems. This results in two very negative outcomes. 1. Withdrawal from friends and family as well as struggles with negative behaviors in noisy environments. 2. Lack of use of the auditory channel creating deficits in auditory sequential processing, which is holding pieces of information in short-term memory. This results in the inability to follow directions, stay on task, comprehend what is said or read, understand cause and effect as well as posing a challenge to reading with a phonetics approach. This deficit causes behavioral and academic challenges. For example, if you have a 9-10 year old that is only processing like a 2-year-old, you may have behavior and even academic abilities more like a 2-year-old. 

 

To address the first issue of hypersensitivity, the auditory system needs stimulation to reduce sound sensitivity. For low processing (short-term memory), the children need to learn to stretch their ability over time to be more age-appropriate. This is done through specific 1-2 minute interactions that happen multiple times a day. The results have astounded parents as well as professionals working with these children. To find out more about this important aspect of the autism diagnosis, visit this link. You will find a free test kit to check your child’s short-term memory level for yourself, information about the importance of auditory processing for successfully navigating life, as well as how to enhance this extremely valuable, life-long skill. 

 

In conclusion, it is the author’s opinion that we must pay much more attention to the cause of those negative indicators. By addressing the root cause, these symptoms can diminish significantly and allow more typical functioning to emerge. The best place to do this is at home, so homeschooling a child with autism is highly recommended. When parents are equipped with the right kind of information to stimulate the child’s brain at the root cause, progress toward typical function can be achieved. This is in stark contrast to public schools that have rooms that overstimulate with random stimulus. When there is a room full of children with sensory issues and non-typical behavior, how can you expect your child to gain typical development or behavior? Home with the model of parents and siblings is a much better option. 

 

 

 

 

 


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By Jan Bedell, Ph.D., M ND, SPED Homeschool Partner and  Board Vice-Chair

This month, we have featured articles about Individual Education Plans, or IEPs, for homeschool students. But what if your child still struggles with achieving goals? Do you think your child is capable of meeting their goals but he or she may have a mental block for retaining information? Maybe your child can say all the letter sounds but struggles to put them together when reading. Or does your child still struggle with handwriting goals? An INP may be your missing link to success.

So, what is in INP, and what is the difference between an IEP and an INP? An INP is an Individualized NeuroDevelopmental Plan. NeuroDevelopment (ND) has to do with the brain’s development in three strategic areas of input (getting information accurately into the child’s brain) through the auditory, visual, and tactile channels. We all process information through our senses of hearing, sight, and touch. The brain’s three areas of development for output are language, fine motor, and mobility (ability to move body parts in space, including coordination). To respond to our environment, our brains help us speak, write, and move. Why is this important? The brain controls everything we do, and if the input isn’t right, the output will not be satisfactory. The IEP focuses only on output, or specific performed ability, as the goal. The INP focuses on stimulating the brain to make the goal more easily achievable.

Let me give you an example. If the educational goal is to increase handwriting skills, the traditional approach is to have the student practice writing with specific verbal instruction or a visual example. But, what if the tactile pathway from the brain to the fingers is immature? What if the fingers are not getting the correct feedback from the brain to make the letters well? Or, what if the central detail vision is not fully developed or the eye-tracking and convergence are off, and the visual images are distorted as they are writing? All the practice in the world is not going to overcome these areas of incorrect information from the brain to help the handwriting.

Instead of focusing on the child’s performance, the emphasis should be the root cause(s) of the deficit. Here is where an INP can be very helpful. Allow me to give you an example from my own experience homeschooling my daughter that was developmentally-delayed. On my homeschool IEP, I had the goal of her reading phonetically past CVC words. Of course, a step toward that goal, in my mind, was the mastery of all the phonograms that make up larger words. We used a phonics program with 70 cards representing the sound(s) of each phonogram. My daughter mastered all the cards, even the phonogram with six sounds! But, she was rarely able to hold the sounds together to read beyond three-letter CVC words. 

The brain controls everything we do, and if the input isn’t right, the output will not be satisfactory..”

After getting her INP from a NeuroDevelopmentalist, I understood the additional developmental issues that held her back from reading with phonics. The first issue was her low auditory processing ability. Her processing (short-term memory) was so slow that it prevented the retention of the sounds to make a word after the laborious pronouncing of each phonogram. The second issue that caused reading to be a struggle was my daughter’s central vision had not developed well and, because of this, she kept skipping lines, words, or parts of words. Her INP addressed these areas of neurodevelopmental need. Her plan included eye-tracking activities, specific activities for developing the central vision, and lots of practice for her auditory short-term memory. By adding this input, along with other short, brain-stimulating sessions, she was able to read longer words, which would have been the goal on an IEP but able to be achieved through an INP. 

If you are interested in finding out if an INP (Individualized NeuroDevelopmental Plan) is right for your situation, call for a free personalized consultation  with a NeuroDevelopmental Specialist. Or, to see if low auditory or visual processing is an issue for your child, go to www.BrainSprints.com and scroll down to “Tools” to get the free processing test kits.

 

 

 

 

 


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By Dianne Craft, MA, CNHP

Are you working with a bright, hard working child or teenager who has to work too hard to learn?  This is the child who does not respond to other curriculum or materials and teaching strategies that have worked so well with your other children. In fact, you may be on your fourth reading/phonics program, your third math program, and your fourth spelling program.  

If it is your first child or student who is struggling, you may now have a younger sibling or other students who are yelling out the words from the corner of the room. That’s when you decide, “Something isn’t right” with this child.  You wonder if this child has a processing problem, a learning disability, or Dyslexia.   You are puzzled because orally, he/she is so good in many things, and loves to listen to stories.  What is going on?

According to Dr. Mel Levine, MD, in his book, One Mind at a Time, all learning requires energy. He refers to it as “battery energy.”  I like this term.  It clearly describes what we see happening with the struggling learner. This child is using way too much battery energy to write or remember sight words or phonics for reading.  We see the battery drain happen before our eyes.  Our question is, why does this child have to work so hard at things that should not take so much energy to learn or remember?  

This energy drain is generally because this child has one or more of the Four Learning Gates blocked.  We think of these learning gates as information pathways.  Children who learn easily seem “smart” because they don’t have any major blocks in their information pathways.  Our struggling learner may have many blocks.  When we speak of a blocked learning gate, we mean that the processing skill has not transferred into the Automatic Brain Hemisphere. The child continues to need to concentrate on the processing task because of this lack of transfer.

 

Exploring the Four Learning Gates
As you look at the list of characteristics of a struggling learner, it is important to remember that many children have one characteristic, but aren’t struggling.  Conversely, a child does not need all of the characteristics to be struggling.  It is also common to find that a child has all four learning gates blocked.

 

1. Visual Processing Gate
The act of moving the eyes over a page from left to right is not a naturally developed trait.  For example, in Israel they read right to left, and in Japan they read in a column.  We teach this process when a child is first learning to read, by having him track with his finger across the page to train his eyes to move in this fashion.  After some practice, this should transfer to the child’s automatic hemisphere.  

 

How do we know if this process has not transferred and is taking too much energy?  

These are some of the characteristics this child will exhibit:
  • Reading reversals (on=no; was=saw…after age seven)
  • Skipping of little words, but can read longer word
  • Reading begins smooth, but soon becomes labored
  • Older children who can read, but tire easily…yawning shortly after beginning reading.

 

2. Writing Processing Gate
When the child’s visual/spatial skills, or the act of writing, haven’t transferred into the automatic hemisphere, he often looks like he’s “sloppy, lazy or unmotivated.”  His papers are poorly spaced, or he refuses to write much of anything for the parent or teacher. This is the most common learning gate that is blocked in gifted children.  It seems like they are “allergic to a pencil.”  Transferring his thoughts into writing, or just copying something, takes a huge amount of battery energy for this child.  

 

Characteristics of this gate being blocked include:
  • Frequent or occasional reversals in letters after age seven (even if only “once in awhile”)
  • Copying is laborious
  • Poor spacing in math papers
  • Great stories orally, but writes very little
  • Does mental math to avoid writing

 

3. Auditory Processing Gate
A common myth about Auditory Processing is,  “My child has an auditory processing problem because he can’t remember three directions at once.”  This is likely more of a focusing/attention issue.  For example, if we would ask him to ”Go into the kitchen and get a candy bar, a glass of chocolate milk, and a dish of ice cream for you,” the child would likely remember these directions.

 

A child, who is suffering with an Auditory Processing Problem, generally has trouble with reading.  

  

Common characteristics of this gate being blocked are:
  • Phonics sounds don’t stick; no matter how many games you have played.
  • Sight words are hard to memorize…even learning alphabet letter names can be hard
  • Sounds out same word over and over in a story
  • Can’t easily sequence sounds…like months of the year or skip counting
  • Is a “Word Guesser”
  • No phonetic pattern to spelling…doesn’t hear consonants.  “Thursday is Tuesday”

 

4. Focus/Attention Gate
This can be the most puzzling blocked learning gate to identify. A child may look like he has no memory, or a true learning disability, when what is really going on is that this child has to use too much battery energy to remain focused during the instruction, or completing the lesson.  The child may look like he is “paying attention” to your lesson by giving you good eye contact.  However, in his head, he is “two doors down playing with his friend, or in the dinosaur village.”   

 

Here are some characteristics of a child who has to use too much battery energy to remain focused:
  • Inconsistency in performance from one day to another
  • Needs to have someone sit with him to finish work
  • Forgets previously learned work much of the time…seems to have a “memory” problem
  • Can have impulsive behavior…easily getting upset when things go wrong.
  • Sensory Processing problems (little things bother him a lot, like tags on shirts, loud noises, transitions, foods, etc.)

 

Be assured, you do not need to be an “expert, or professional” to make learning easier for your child or student.  In the many articles I have on my website, I discuss each learning gate individually, and show you the corrections that I developed when I taught these wonderful children in my special education classes.  

 

You will see that it is not hard to do.  It just requires some tools, strategies and techniques that you may not be familiar with right now.  

 Bottom line:  Learning does not have to be so hard for your child.

 


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