Texas Home School Coalition» Sue Ellen Haning http://www.thsc.org Keeping Texas Families Free Wed, 30 Jul 2014 21:51:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.1 In My Opinion YOU CAN PREVENT AND CORRECT DYSLEXIA http://www.thsc.org/2012/08/in-my-opinion-you-can-prevent-and-correct-dyslexia/ http://www.thsc.org/2012/08/in-my-opinion-you-can-prevent-and-correct-dyslexia/#respond Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:14:30 +0000 http://thsc.org/?p=2504 Dyslexia is a fairly new word, (I could not find it in the 1971 Oxford English Dictionary), but it is one which we see and hear with increasing frequency, and it has become a buzz word in the educational community. Although each of the many books and articles written on the subject of dyslexia has a slightly different spin, the common ground most share is the death sentence to the student and his or her parents. I have even read, “Once dyslexic, always dyslexic.” Is this death sentence a reflection of the current societal thinking? In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a society where victims are everywhere.

Is the word “dyslexia” a scapegoat for the school system in which such labels originate and schools receive funds for students in special programs? How many sleepless nights have mothers and fathers spent blaming themselves or just lying awake trying to engineer a way to remove the unfortunate label while the powers that be (teachers, administrators, doctors) slam the gavel on the child’s file? When this gavel is slammed, does it condemn him or her to a life of special classes that go on and on year after year seeming to make little if any difference in the child’s ability to progress? As a parent, I would strongly resist any label that anyone wanted to put on my child.

My education degree is not in special education, but I have thirty-three years of experience teaching “dyslexics” in the classroom and in private tutoring. My students have ranged in age from five to thirty-five, and many have been labeled “dyslexic” for years. Their symptoms include problems in reading, spelling, and comprehension; and poor decoding skills (the inability to read phonetically). Many of these students have terrible handwriting and reversals; as well as auditory processing problems (the inability to store and retrieve information presented auditorially). Some of the challenges they face include visual processing problems, attention deficit disorders, hyperactive disorders; etc. There seems to be no end to the symptoms attached to the label. Most of these students have attended special classes specifically designed for them. While well-intentioned, these classes move the student along at a snail’s pace or not at all, and most use the same teaching techniques that did not work for the student in the first place. Self-esteem work is often a major part of these classes. Our society seems to value positive strokes above real learning, coddling ourselves above challenging ourselves, and it does not understand that self-esteem is a natural by-product of personal accomplishment.

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) defines dyslexia as a “specific learning disorder that is neurological in origin,” meaning that dyslexia is a nervous system malfunction. I disagree with the IDA that all diagnoses of dyslexia are neurological in origin; however, I do not doubt that 20-25% of the population has some degree of learning difference—not disorder. We are all unique in our learning styles. Some understand numbers better than words. Some have auditory strengths; some have visual strengths. Some are kinesthetic. Some have a mixture of two or more of the preceding.  The diagnosis of dyslexia relieves the system of responsibility, but it does not necessarily help the student who is having trouble learning.

To facilitate the educational system, all students are expected to operate within one learning style. Professionals in both the educational and medical fields encourage—indeed often demand—that a child take one or more of the popular drugs to help force him into the mold.Ritalin is just one drug prescribed to millions of America’s children, and its chemistry is so close to cocaine that it takes a chemist to tell the difference. I encourage you to read You Can Prevent or Correct Learning Disorders by Dr. Hilde Mosse. If you are not up for reading the entire book, please read the pages devoted to drug use in children.

More often than not, my experience with “dyslexics” has exposed environmental causesrather than neurological ones. Environmental causes are preventable and correctable. In order to learn well, children need daily, frequent, verbal interaction with adults—the complete sentence type of dialogue. The language and perception skills a child learns from personal, face-to-face, frequent, daily dialogue with an adult will go a long way in preventing learning problems by building good thinking skills. What keeps these good skills from forming?

Television, in my opinion, single-handedly causes more harm to children’s learning than diet, day care, and dairy products combined. This ingenious invention can connect us to the rest of the world and teach us much about the world and the people in it, but, in my opinion, the destructive aspects of TV outweigh the constructive ones. Television continually stimulates the viewer both auditorially and visually with short, choppy thoughts—which shorten attention spans. Children’s programs are the worst, as they constantly jump from one focus to another. Family shows are not any better with the constant interruption by commercials (which often focus on a pill to solve our ills). In many homes this TV monster is on much of the day and night even when no one is watching. Parents say, “Oh, our children don’t watch TV.” Further questions reveal that the children may not watch the TV, but it is on nevertheless, and what are the children doing while the parents are watching TV? They are engaged with and entertained by other electronic devices such as the computer, video games, books on tape, etc. The same attention and learning problems result from these toys. No amount of technology can replace the one-on-one, face-to-face, positive interaction with adults through dialogue and reading.

There are other environmental causes of learning problems and hyperactivity that I have directly addressed with my students and their parents: disorganization (household and personal), cluttered walls at home and school (visual stimuli), inconsistency in all aspects of life, too many outside activities, and pressure to hurry. Additionally, other negative factors include a noisy study environment, too little rest, MSG and other food additives, emotional turmoil, chaos, and tension at home and in the classroom. It is impossible for a child to concentrate for any period of time when he is overly excited or overly stimulated in any way. Most children are over-stimulated day and night. No wonder so many are hyperactive. “But we live in the 21st century,” you say, “This is part of life.” You must determine if it is more important for your child to fit into the culture or for him to have a good foundation for life.

The educational system inadvertently creates problems, too. Often the copy method is used in teaching children to form letters and numbers. The teacher stands at the board in front of the students and forms a letter or number with little or no instruction in how to accomplish this, and the student must try to mimic the forming of this letter or number on his paper. Casual teaching is popular, with the belief the child will get it in his own time. The correct formation of each letter and number must be taught, and then the student must practice it correctly. In English, we read and write from left to right and top to bottom. Beginning readers and writers must have consistent practice in forming their letters from left to right and top to bottom. The copy method often results in the student beginning the letter at the bottom and going to the top or starting the letter on the right side and going back to the left. Constant practice in forming the letters inaccurately teaches the brain to address the written word incorrectly, and dyslexia is born. Teaching rhyming words—bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, etc.—trains the child to look at the end (right side) of the word first and then look back to the beginning of the word (left side). We read from left to right—not from right to left. This may seem simple or inconsequential, but to a beginning reader and writer, it is very significant.Teaching systematically is imperative to preventing or correcting writing and reading disorders.

The popular use of workbooks that require one-word answers inhibits language development also. The child usually chooses from a list of four words to complete the sentence. The child may not even be able to read all the words in the sentence but can often make a correct choice. In workbook assignments, the student does not have to engage the entire language. The language appears in bits and pieces (what goes in the blank). Active practice in writing and speaking in complete sentences advances language skills.

Another hazard to linear reading is the comic book or cartoon. The inconsistent placement of words and the visual stimulation of the pictures encourage scanning and picture-gazing. Often children look for the pictures to tell the story and read only a word or two of a caption on pages where the pictures do not tell the story. Comic-book reading may not cause a problem in the experienced reader, but it hinders linear reading progress in the young or beginning reader and in the child who has a learning difference.

While the educational system creates some learning problems, others actually happen accidentally as the child grows. One correctable neurological problem is crossed hemispherical dominance. Hemispherical dominance is helpful in working with any learning. If a person is right-handed, his right ear and right eye should be dominant as well. If he is left-handed, his left ear and left eye should be dominant. If one side is dominant, he ishemispherically dominant. The dominant eye and dominant ear receive information and store it on the opposite side of the brain. If the right eye is dominant, but the left ear is dominant, then information is incorrectly filed and becomes hard to retrieve. This accounts for children being able to access previously learned facts one day but unable access the same facts on another day. For more information on this, log onto www.hope-future.org. This website will give you access to full information on hemispherical dominance and how it affects learning, and it will help in determining and reinforcing dominance.

My experience with dyslexics has taught me that consistent, multi-sensory, detailed instruction and practice is the approach that works. Whether the weakness is auditory, visual, or kinesthetic, the multisensory approach corrects the weakness and makes the strength stronger. I teach extensive phonics to my dyslexic students (no matter their symptoms) and have them practice daily. It is the consistency in correct practice that makes the difference. This method has been so successful that I can guarantee reading and writing success. Parents’ cooperation in removing or at least reducing the environmental hazards results in greater improvement. When this approach is faithfully followed, the outcome is always positive.

Some learning differences are more involved than others, but when the parents and students are dedicated to working consistently and correctly, the results are phenomenal, and thedyslexia goes away! The key is in the instruction, practice, attitude, and philosophy. The only question is, Are you willing to accept the challenge?

What Happened to Our Prodigy? http://www.thsc.org/2003/08/what-happened-to-our-prodigy-2/ http://www.thsc.org/2003/08/what-happened-to-our-prodigy-2/#respond Fri, 01 Aug 2003 14:52:05 +0000 http://thsc.org/?p=4400 If anyone has ever labeled your child as slow, dyslexic, behind, learning disabled, etc., did you question your child’s normalcy?  Often these labels do not appear until the school years begin, but what is normal anyway?  Is it the way you do things?  Webster says normal is “regular, standard, natural, of average intelligence, also sound in mind and body.”

Is it possible that none of us is normal?  How can one meet the mind and body requirement of this definition with four preschoolers?  Perhaps during the preschool years, all goes well with your little gift from God.  He seems to be learning and advancing quite normally or even “above average.” During these years, your child is probably allowed to explore and learn on his own.  Oh, how proud you are when he, at two, recites the ABCs and, at three, describes to Grandma in perfect detail the ladybug and her habits!

Your child can sit for hours as you read to him–all the while asking intelligent questions and remarking reasonably, logically, even brilliantly about the material being read.  He can even dictate back to you what you have read, so he must have outstanding listening skills.

Life with this child is delightful UNTIL you begin to teach him the “correct” way to hold a pencil, the tools of reading, or the addition facts.  Then you think, “What happened to our prodigy?  Can learning to read be so difficult?  Why cannot (or will not) he hold the pencil correctly?  What difference does it make anyway?  Why does he spell was as saw?  What have I done wrong these past five years?”

If not handled correctly, “differences” in learning can change your home schooling experience into a nightmare.  So what do you do when your teaching attempts go wrong? First, take a deep breath and drop to your knees.  In fact, it will be to your advantage to take this position each morning upon arising.  Second, listen.  God has the answers, and He is willing to share them with you.  All too often we are diligent in our prayers but get busy and forget to listen.  Third, listen to your child.  Some children can actually verbalize how they learn, and others can show you through their successes in learning.

This does not mean that your child dictates your school day, but if you are to have success in your studies with his “differences,” you have to listen, listen, listen; then be willing to adjust your instruction.  After all, he has learned so much on his own.  He knows how he learns because, along with the learning “difference” that God put in this child, came the “know-how” for him to learn.

Last but not least, remember we all learn much better when all our senses are engaged.  Our eyes, ears, mouths, noses, and hands are all wired to our brains.  We are all multisensory, and we as teachers need to take advantage of that fact.

For example, have the student say what he is writing, so his ears can hear what he has said; his arm and hand are engaged in writing, so simultaneously he says, hears, sees, and feels what he is writing.  Four of the five senses have been used.  Using the traditional approach, only sight and touch are used; he sees what his hand is writing.  By adding his voice, he has used twice as many avenues to his brain because he also hears what his mouth has formed.  Statistically we remember only 10% of what we hear.  Guess what?  Your mouth is not wired to his brain.  Surprised?  It is my opinion that the multisensory approach is fail-proof when used repeatedly on new or difficult material, and, of course, as mastery is achieved, the student will no longer need to say everything aloud.

For young ones, the writing does not have to be with pencil and paper.  Learning to form letters and numbers by writing them in sand, flour, even the air works, especially with this multisensory approach.  Sure, this might make a noisier room, but learning is exciting, and where there is excitement, there will be noise.

As a child begins to write on paper, however, it is very important that a child learn and practice the proper way to hold a pencil.  As he gets older and must write more, his hand will tire and cramp if he does not have the correct grip on the writing tool.  Any good handwriting program will give an example or describe the proper way to hold a pencil.

The computer is such a convenience, and I know children who spend their school days in front of it.  I feel sorry for them.  There is so much more to learning than looking at a screen for hours.  The writing hand and arm are not only connected to the brain but also to the heart, and in early composition training, the child’s creativity will be more easily tapped if he uses pencil and paper to draft and revise his work.  Editing and publishing can be on the computer if necessary.

Finally, reading and writing are the foundation of all learning.  In fact, being able to read and write well are life skills.  A child who can read well can teach himself, so take as long as necessary for him to learn and practice the basics—even at the expense of delaying science and history.  If you know God has called you to homeschool, if you are diligent and consistent in your efforts, and if you see steady progress (no matter how small), resist the pressure that outsiders’ criticisms can produce.

I have tutored many public and private school children over the past fifteen years.  They had never mastered the basics of reading and writing.  They struggled.  This struggling is very painful for both child and parent.  All these children could have mastered the basics if, in the beginning, they had been given more time, more one-on-one attention, or been taught in a “different” way; but instead they were labeled and passed on, and their struggles went with them.  Each child is different.  Take the time your child needs to learn to read and write English fluently.  In the end, both you and he will experience the achievement that mastering the basics assures.

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Back to School for Mom http://www.thsc.org/2002/08/back-to-school-for-mom/ http://www.thsc.org/2002/08/back-to-school-for-mom/#respond Mon, 26 Aug 2002 17:03:24 +0000 http://thsc.org/?p=2576 Ah, “back to school” rings excitement in some ears and trepidation in others. What is it for you? My first year of home schooling sent me “back to school” in spite of the fact that I had a degree in education with a teaching certificate saying I was qualified to teach kindergarten through eighth grade. It was through the mind of my five-year-old son Jake that I learned how teaching and learning are connected. The moment I attempted applying the university-taught methods of teaching reading and math to Jake, my real teacher training began.

At an early age, Jake expressed his ideas differently. He said, “Pass me by the salt” instead of “Pass me the salt” and “Let’s do the word cross puzzle” instead of crossword puzzle.  Often he would reverse one or two words in a sentence. Sometimes he referred to yesterday as today or tomorrow and visa versa. One always knew what he meant, but his unusual wording made the listener think. I thought maybe Jake was not hearing what we said as we carefully taught him our language, so when he was four, I took him to an ear, nose, and throat specialist who said his hearing was fine, but he probably needed speech therapy before entering school.

Jake often had his hand “in the cookie jar,” and he tested everyone to their limits, but he had a zest for life and a love of experiential learning that was enviable. To Jake everything was the most interesting. His parents were often frustrated, for he seldom carried out instructions. I thought he was not listening well, and he frequently got into trouble for it.  It was, however, his unique way of constructing sentences that bothered me most. What made him do this?

I decided to hold him back a year and enroll him in kindergarten when he was six. Having taught second grade years before, I knew many boys would have benefited had their parents waited another year to send them to school. God answers a mother’s prayers for her children, and I “knew” keeping him home a year was best.

One Thursday afternoon in April, shortly after Jake’s fifth birthday, I took him to the neighborhood school to see if we could get the speech therapy the doctor had suggested. This being a government school, the proper channels were taken, and the correct amount of paperwork was completed on Jake’s behalf. I was told Jake would receive a battery of tests that would include IQ, academic achievement, emotional maturity, and physical coordination.

“What about a speech test?” I queried.

Oh yes, but that would come later, I was told.

With naiveté, I reiterated that the doctor had just asked us to get speech therapy. Now I had shown my ignorance of the process. This is not a good thing to show the “government” officials. After giving my permission for the battery of tests, Jake was whisked off, and I was told to come back two hours later. I promptly returned, at the designated time, to be told that Jake needed to return Friday morning to finish his testing, and then we could talk about speech therapy. Now we were getting somewhere, I thought.

Friday morning we arrived with Jake bright-eyed and ready for more of these “fun” tests. Again I left, returning at noon. After a two-hour lunch, back I went for the final afternoon testing session. At the end of the day, I was informed that I would have to wait until Monday morning to have all the test results analyzed and charted. I obligingly returned Monday morning with great anticipation that I would learn of the doctor-recommended speech therapy for Jake. I was not prepared for the counselor’s reply.

In a patronizing voice, the counselor informed me that Jake had no speech problems and had scored “extremely” high on all the tests. She went on to say the only problem he had was that he stayed at home with me everyday. I was speechless.  She continued, “If Jake were allowed to be in a classroom of his peers, all his troubling speech patterns would disappear.” She added, “His problems come from being at home.”

THIS WOMAN SAID THE WRONG THING TO THIS MAMA. I am sure that fire shot from my eyes and smoke spewed from my ears. I rose, mustered all the composure I had, and thanked her for her time. I was exercising extraordinary self-control as I headed to the door, and just as I turned the knob to open it, she said, “Feel free to come any day and enroll Jake for kindergarten.” Quickly exiting, I grabbed my precious child and hugged him tightly all the way to the car and I thanked God for enabling me to escape without harming this government employee, the government property, or myself!

I learned a valuable lesson that day but did not get the answer to my question about speech therapy. Through the summer, I listened carefully to Jake’s speech patterns, knowing God would answer my prayer about what to do. One thing I knew was that Jake would spend his kindergarten year at home with me.

When his friends went off to school, I told Jake we were going to have school at home that year, and he could go to school the next year. Of course he was happy with this idea (What five-year-old wants to leave his mother?), and he promptly told me he wanted to learn to read, to tell time, and to count money. I was thrilled with his high expectations.

I started to gather my tools and map my strategy. After all, I had taught in public schools. I was experienced in planning reading and math lessons. During my planning period, I had the “urge” to take Jake to Texas Tech’s speech and hearing center for testing. I followed the urge, and, one Indian summer day in September, I entered the drab, gray-tiled building with Jake in tow. After three hours of testing, I was informed that indeed Jake had no speech problems but a language disorder called “auditory processing disorder” with time and spatial relationships his weaknesses. Maybe this was why he confused yesterday with tomorrow and said, “Pass me by the salt.”

Unlike the first government agent, this one spoke to me as an equal. She said her department could help Jake if I would bring him twice a week for an hour each time. By November, the neighbors had noticed a marked improvement in Jake’s communication. The tasks were tedious for Jake, but the instructors were determined.  Exercises helping him distinguish his relationship to other things were covered as well as space and time exercises.

In the meantime, tools in hand, confident, and feeling very blessed to have the opportunity to teach my own child to read, I sat Jake down for our first lesson. His eagerness and anticipation filled the air, and his eyes shone brightly. I proceeded with my instruction.

Soon I noticed the sparkle left his eye, his smile disappeared, and he slumped in his chair. I paused and asked my student where his zest had gone. He answered, “Mom, why do we have to do it that way?”

Now, I do not know about you, but I was raised that the teacher knows her business, and you do not question her. The Lord immediately opened my mind and, instead of expressing any number of negative emotions, I said, “What do you have in mind?”

What followed was the beginning of my teacher training. I listened to my five-year-old tell me how he wanted to learn to read, to tell time, and to count money. I had not been taught these methods at the university, but Jake knew how he needed to learn and was able to tell me. I noticed the sparkle return to his eye, his smile reappeared, and he rose from his chair with enthusiasm. I, too, smiled, for I realized how much more fun this would be.

That day God encouraged me to listen to my five-year-old. I did, and I learned. We continued the sessions at Texas Tech through his kindergarten year. The exercises were not easy for him, but the instructors gently pushed him, and his progress was clear.  I learned that at least 25% of the population has some degree of auditory processing difficulty, but the best was yet to come. The government agents at Texas Tech told me that home schooling Jake was the best thing for him because of the many auditory distractions in classrooms.

In spite of this advice and the fruitful year we had at home, I was still not convinced. Swayed, yes, but not convinced that I could meet all Jake’s educational needs. We had enjoyed his kindergarten year together and accomplished Jake’s goals, but what about socialization, chemistry, calculus?

By the end of the school year, Jake had advanced far beyond kindergarten level.  His communication skills had improved, and he was more confident in himself; therefore, I thought about enrolling him in first grade. I made arrangements to spend a full morning in a first grade class at the school he would be attending. I arranged childcare and drove to the school. Before getting out of the car, I prayed that God would give me a clear answer concerning my son’s education. I acknowledged that I needed more than a nudge and asked to be “hit over the head” with the answer.

Class began at 8:15 a.m. By 10:00 a.m., I had been sufficiently “smacked upside the head.” I stayed until noon and could not wait to get out of there. I ran to my car with a peace that passes understanding. I had asked, and I had received. I never looked back.

The home schooling years to come were phenomenal. I learned so much from studying with my children that I opened a tutoring service for students of all ages with learning differences. Jake had taught me more than one way to learn. To this day, I continue to listen to students who know how they need to learn. It makes sense that when God puts a “difference” in someone, HE advises that person of the difference.

I often wonder if home school parents without teaching degrees know these things. Maybe it was the institutionalized, government training that narrowed my thinking. I learned that first year not to worry about anything concerning school. I just prayed and waited for the answer and waited longer if I needed. God always gave the answer. I look at my diploma on the wall and wonder how I was deemed “qualified” to teach. I learned more from my five-year-old in one year about teaching and learning than four years in college had taught me.

Using the limitless resources this world has to offer as my curriculum, we all learned more than I could have imagined. I listened to my children’s interests, prayed, waited on the Lord, and used every resource that presented itself. We used library books, books on tape, old books, new books, department heads at the local university, people from all walks of life who crossed our paths just as we needed them, and a very few textbooks. I never bought a graded curriculum.

In all this, I have learned about prayer. It requires total faith and a keen ear on the “prayer’s” part. That young teacher of mine is now twenty and in his senior year of college with a 4.0 average.

I hope “back to school” rings excitement in your ears. What blessings our children are!

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