Lisa's blog
At 5:00 PM today Lisa and Liz will be doing a blog talk radio show on IEP experiences. We've been gathering numerous experiences from parents, students, teachers and advocates and have quit a lot of information on the subject.
If you'd like to participate and call in for the show we'd love to hear from you
IEP (Individualized Education Program) on Blog Talk Radio
The listing of experiences can be found at this link
IEP (Individualized Education Program) Experiences
If you'd like to add your own experience please do so here
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein
I am always amazed when I find someone trying to fix poor academics with more academics. Think about it. If you have done something for seven hours each day that wasn't working, would you spend several more hours each afternoon and evening doing the same thing? Certainly not. You would think of a new strategy, a different method of trying to get the job done. Yet, every evening parents sit at kitchen tables trying to help their kids overcome learning differences by adding more academics to these students' plates. Schools do the same thing with summer school and after school intervention programs.
And the sad truth of it all is that this just isn't working. If it worked, the students would have mastered it at school. Too many kids are dying a slow death every day at school, attending after school and summer learning programs, and then going home to more of the same thing. So what is a parent to do?
Well, to start with, we need to address why the student isn't doing well academically. We need to look at the learning systems and find out where weaknesses are. Most of the students I work with are right brain dominant tactile learners. Because of this they are failing in the left brain dominant primarily auditory modern American classroom. Are these kids dumb? No. But they don't learn in the same way that the teachers are presenting the information.
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I initially was trained to do brain retraining with the use of muscle testing. I, too, found it to be confusing for both the student and myself. I also felt it was somewhat invasive, especially for teens. I do believe in muscle testing and I believe that it works.
Humans by nature are visual creatures. As a matter of fact, 75 to 90% of all that we learn comes to us through visual pathways.
Knowing this, it’s important to identify children who may have weakened visual processing skills and give them a method to overcome these weaknesses. First, understand that 20/20 vision has very little to do with this. Second, you should have a general understanding of the anatomy of the eye. And finally, you will need some basic exercises to help the student overcome any of these problems.
Brain Retraining is done through a series of physical exercises that selectively access a certain part of the brain by having the eyes look in a specified direction. The direction is related to a sensory stimulation point. Most of these exercises will cross the vertical midline of the body, which helps to integrate the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
I was introducing some information on retraining the brain, and I think it is beneficial to know a little bit of information about the brain.
The brain is separated into two hemispheres, the left and the right. The right hemisphere is the creative side of your brain. It is the side of the brain that is responsible for movement, colors, pictures,shapes, music, emotion, daydreaming,expression, synthesis, and problem solving. The left side of the brain is quite different. It is responsible for conscious control, words, phonics, reasoning, numbers, math, lists, categories,analysis, and linear thought. Right brain dominant children learn best from whole to part. Left brain dominant learn best from part to whole. Most of what the schools present and expect is processed on the left side of the brain.
It is obvious that we need both sides of the brain to work together in harmony for learning and a balanced life. For instance, to read, a person needs to constantly be accessing both the left and right hemispheres of the brain simultaneously. If a student is “stuck” in one side of the brain, then reading becomes difficult because the student isn’t able to access the other side of the brain.
In the middle of the brain is a bundle of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum. It is basically the network of circuitry that allows the left and right hemisphere to communicate with each other freely.
In people who have integration problems, the corpus callosum acts as a wall instead of an integration device.
If someone has dyslexia, visual information taken in bounces off of the wall and comes out differently, perhaps backward or upside down.
Retraining the brain transforms lives. The children I have used these techniques with have improved significantly, not only academically, but socially, emotionally, and behaviorally as well. When the brain becomes balanced and wired correctly then kids can learn and succeed as nature intended.
I have used this program with an autistic girl. She could speak but didn't communicate. She repeated the same phrase over and over again. She also had to line up everything and wipe things off before moving on to another activity. At 9 years of age she couldn't read or write, although she did know her alphabet sounds. She had rage issues as well. I had to be very physical with her at first and take her by the hand to perform the exercises. Fortunately she trusted me and would allow it. It has been a year and a half and she is communicating with peers and adults. She reads at a 2nd grade level and is approaching 3rd grade. Her rages have subsided, although she still is having some fear issues. She can write, although not yet at grade level. Her math skills are not at grade level yet, either. However, even if she makes no more progress than this, then she will be able to function in society.
I have wanted to try this program on more severe autistic children, but to be honest, I don't have the energy right now. I feel you would have to be physical and do the exercises for them at first. Also, these kids would have to trust you, and that would take time, which is something I don't have a lot of. A parent is the perfect person to do this program with a child because the trust issues are there.
This is a common question, believe it or not. Many kids are verbal, bright, and almost seem "gifted". Yet, when they go to school they are judged to be below grade level or their grades don't reflect their intelligence. Parents get so frustrated and urge their children to try harder when, in fact, the children are doing their best.
So, does this boy have a learning disability? Most likely he does, but without testing him it is hard to be sure. But, keep in mind that these are symptoms of his visual processing system being in distress. The written work is the key here. Most of the school day is spent writing and copying. If the visual processing system is not working correctly, then the student is unable to perform as well as he should.
Many parents are not aware that a simple set of exercises can strengthen the visual system. By patching the eye and tracking from left to right and then in different patterns, they eye muscles are strengthened. There are numerous other exercises that are fun and easy to do. It is simple to fix a visual processing problem. Yet, parents seem to think that buying another workbook with the same set of academic skills the student worked on all day will help him.
This doesn't go to the source of the problem. To correct any learning problem, you must go to the source, find out what is going wrong, and then correct it.
