The Broken ChildrenWritten by Lisa Harp
Every day broken children come to my office to be fixed. They are beautiful and bright, but definitely broken. Academically, they are broken for sure, but almost always they are broken spiritually as well. I start mending them in slow process that we know it takes to make dyslexia, ADD, and learning disabilities go away. Sometimes that’s easy part. What is often left, even after reading, math, and spelling scores are raised, is a child who still suffers from a poor self-esteem and is spiritually broken. Yet, these are lucky ones because their parents have sought help and found it. A majority of others face world spiritually and academically broken. The negative effects of learning problems need to be addressed by all of us, as our educational system is still doing an extremely poor job of dealing with it. If a student is at risk at school, as millions are, then he is tested for placement in special education. If he qualifies, he is then placed in a special education program. This is a label he will carry throughout his life, even though he may be quite intelligent. The label is this: “I am dumb. I go to “special classes” because I am not smart enough to stay with normal kids.” If a student doesn’t qualify for special education, he is expected to carry a full class load of work and his grades usually reflect poorly. Often, he is retained. No wonder these children are broken. We are breaking our children daily and it’s rare child who gets adequate help. Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic training must take place to treat learning disabilities. The brain must become connected to body to work efficiently. Visual and auditory memory skills must be taught as well as spatial and perceptual skills. If “normal” way of teaching these children isn’t working, then an alternative method must be found and used.
| | Seven Steps to School SuccessWritten by Lisa Harp
Ok, so your kid's not doing well in school - maybe bringing home C'S, and some D's and F's. Yet, you know he's a bright kid! His vocabulary is astounding and when you talk about universe - stars, galaxie, comets, and general relationship between man and his world, his understanding is remarkable. All along you thought this kid was gifted. Yet, you can't read his writing. Capitals, periods? Unheard of. The content of his written work is phenomenal if you can muddle through it. Math? A struggle at best. Reading? A nightmare to listen to out loud, yet he seems to understand what he's reading. Of course, he hates to read. I know this child, because I had one. (He's now an honor roll student). I also work with similar children daily in my private practice. I know they are bright. I know they are creative. Yet schools don't seem to recognize brilliance within these children. So, what should a parent do? 1. Don't allow your child to be labeled. LD, ADD, dyslexia - these all give him an excuse not to live up to his full potential. The labels allow him to feel different, not as good as other kids, and believe me, he does not feel "special" when he goes to special education. Also, most schools just water down curriculum, lower expectations, don't actually treat problem at hand, just symptoms, and collect their money for a special education student. The actual processing issues at hand are not addressed. 2. Work on process, not symptoms. Schools and most learning centers treat and mask symptoms. They don't actually deal with processing issues at hand. There are numerous programs, activities, and exercises available to correct learning problems. The most common learning issues I deal with are eye muscle issues where muscles of eye turn in and a weakness in visual memory, which is where student is unable to keep a picture in his mind for very long. This usually explains why reading, spelling, and memorizing math facts are so difficult for this bright child. These are correctable learning issues. 3. Understand that some days school work is truly too difficult and that on other days it is easily accomplished. Just because he understood it yesterday doesn't mean he will remember it today, especially if his visual memory skills are weak. One exercise that helps a lot is to give student a paper and pencil. Draw a combination of about four figures, letters, shapes, or numbers, such as D#9>. Show it to student for about 5 to 10 seconds and then take it away. Now have student write combination on his piece of paper. Check to see if he copied shapes correctly and discuss. I give points for correct anwers and make a game of this.
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