HSLDA Launches Struggling Learners
Newsletter
Is this neat or what??!!!! Talk abt HSLDA covering everything. For those of you who dont know what HSLDA is it is a law/advocacy/homeschool organization who will go to bat fro homeschoolers everywhere-will defend them against school districts butting in when NOT wanting etc......
Anyway-here's the first newsletter:
Past experience has shown that the parent is the best teacher for a
child who is struggling with the learning process in any way. Our goal
is to help equip parents to identify their child's struggle and
teach their child successfully at home…and have fun doing it!
Future editions of this newsletter will be available only by
subscription through the HSLDA e-lert service. Sign up now! >>
<http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5504>
It is always puzzling to a parent when one of their children doesn't
learn to read or write as quickly as their siblings. Sometimes parents
find that giving the child more time to mature works well. Other times
the child struggles with the learning process in spite of being given
more time.
Maybe you are a parent who has recently taken your child out of the
school setting because he was not learning well, despite an Individual
Education Plan and special reading and writing classes. Your child is
likely suffering from a block in one or more of his "learning
gates." One of the main learning gates is the "writing learning
gate," and consequently is the most common to be blocked by a glitch
in learning.
Writing Gate Blocked—When Copying Doesn't Work
God designed our left brain hemisphere to concentrate on new tasks, such
as driving a car, or riding a bike. After concentrated practice, that
task is then transferred over the corpus callosum (the brain midline),
to the right brain, which is responsible for automaticity of processes.
If we imagine the left brain hemisphere as the "thinking
(concentrating) brain" and the right hemisphere as the "doing
(automatic) brain," we can see how this transfer allows us to
"think and do" at the same time. Then we can think and drive at
the same time, or think and ride our bike at the same time.
Generally, when we teach a child how to write, after six months of
practice that writing is expected to cross over from the
"concentrating brain" to the "automatic brain" so the
child can now "think and write" at the same time. For many
children, this transfer does not easily occur. Thus, they have to give
energy, or a level of concentration, to a task that other children do
not have to do. Dr. Mel Levine, in his book One Mind At A Time, calls
these blocks, "energy leaks."
This often solves the mystery of why many children learn their spelling
words easily by writing them in a workbook, or writing them five times
each, while other children can write words hundreds of times and still
not store the spelling word in their long-term memory. Now we realize
that these struggling children have to use their "batteries"
just for the writing process, so that the learning process cannot occur.
Thus, the method of copying to learn is totally ineffective for these
children. We need to help them open up their writing gates.
These children are very commonly thought of as "lazy, sloppy or
unmotivated." We, unknowingly, make them re-copy work that is
sloppy, not realizing that they have a bona fide writing block. The
majority of the time, when a child who loves to listen to mom read
stories, but says that he doesn't like or even "hates"
schoolwork, he is struggling with a blocked writing gate.
Characteristics
Let's look at some of the symptoms children who have blocked writing
gates present to us daily:
* Frequent or occasional reversals in letters or numbers (after age
7)
* Letters made from bottom to top (vertical reversals)
* Writing is very labor intensive
* Copying takes a long time
* Math problems solved mentally to avoid writing them down
* Writing appears sloppy and child is often considered lazy
* Oral recitation of stories is excellent, but writing is minimal
* Capital and small letters mixed in writing
* In math, lining up numbers in multiplication or division is
difficult
No child has all of these characteristics, but if your child has
several, you may consider this an area he or she is struggling in. If a
child has many of the characteristics, or is over age 9 and still writes
reversals, they may be labeled with dysgraphia. Many times these
children are considered "gifted with a glitch." They are
excellent in verbal expression, but way behind in written expression.
Writing paragraphs and longer papers are something that they take great
pains to avoid. They give one-word answers whenever possible.
Compensation
When a parent recognizes that their child has a blocked learning gate,
and is not just being sloppy or resistant to writing without a reason,
then steps can be taken to alleviate some of the writing burden on the
child, until the problem can be corrected.
* Reduce the amount of writing a child needs to do during the day. Do
more answers for chapter questions orally. Limit the amount of writing
in workbooks.
* Reduce or eliminate copying for 3-6 months. Save the child's
"battery energy" for writing paragraphs, or a paper once a week.
* Use another method of learning spelling words that does not include
writing multiple times. Resources include Sequential Spelling
<http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5497> or Right Brain Spelling
<http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5498> .
* Teach the child keyboarding for some writing projects (However,
most children who have dysgraphia, or a writing glitch, also find
keyboarding quite labor-intensive also.)
Correction
There are various methods that can be used to take the stress out of a
child's writing system, and make the whole writing process more
fluent. Here are a few:
* NILD has a private therapy program that incorporates "Rhythmic
Writing" <http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5499> to help reduce
the stress in the writing system.
* "The Source for Dyslexia and Dysgraphia," from
LinguiSystems <http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5500> contains ideas
on how to correct writing problems.
* The "Brain Integration Therapy Manual"
<http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5501> by Dianne Craft, contains a
daily "Writing Eight Exercise," that opens the child's
writing gate and eliminates reversals.
* "Handwriting Without Tears"
<http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5502> is a writing program that
works well after a child has a strong midline.
Conclusion
A child can have a learning glitch, or block in a learning gate, that
causes him to struggle everyday with schoolwork, without the
parents' knowledge. Using some simple checklists, the parent can
identify this problem and design the school day to be less frustrating.
More importantly, the parent can avail herself of all the wonderful
corrective techniques, so that the child does not need to struggle with
the burden of having to work so hard at writing, or with a dysgraphia.
God has wonderful answers for us. He leads us in so many ways, and we
are ever grateful!
For more information on the Four Learning Gates, and how they can be
affecting your child's daily learning, visit the HSLDA Struggling
Learners website <http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5503> . This site is
designed to help parents both identify and correct many of the everyday
learning challenges that children experience. Of particular interest is
the "Smart Kids Who Hate to Write"
<http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=5505> article on that website.
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