Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids » dyslexia

The Left and Right Side of the Brain

colleen — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:15:28 +0000

You may have heard me refer to the left and right sides of the brain when I’m talking about dyslexia and reading proficiency. Since the left side of the brain is where most language processing occurs, it impacts the ability to read, which is where kids with dyslexia run into problems. Because the two hemispheres of the brain play different parts in learning, it’s interesting to delve a bit deeper into how the understanding of brain function developed over the years.

The study of the different characteristics of the left and right sides of the brain was popularized in the 1960’s with the work of Dr. Roger Sperry, who won a Nobel Prize for his research in this area. Sperry studied split-brain patients who had a severed corpus callosum which meant that the two hemispheres of the brain weren’t able to communicate with each other. Split-brain surgery was done in patients who had severe epilepsy in order to control their seizures.

Before Sperry’s research, it was generally believed that the two sides of the brain were identical and performed the same functions. His discoveries led to what’s known as the lateralization of the brain, meaning that the two sides have different functions. The left side of the brain is recognized as having more control over language and logic, while more of the creative functions take place on the right side of the brain.

Brain lateralization became oversimplified at some point, which is why people will say that they’re either ‘left-brained’ (logical and controlled) or ‘right-brained’ (creative and intuitive). The fact of the matter is that the left and right sides of the brain work together and it’s not an all or nothing matter where one side has complete control of one function or another.

This is why my work with kid’s with learning disabilities is focused on strengthening the neural pathways so that the two hemispheres of the brain are working together to maximize cognitive functions. In this way, even children with dyslexia can become proficient readers and learners.

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Colleen Bain is the best-selling author of Overcomers Inc. She writes, trains and consults in advanced brain training for children and their parents, teachers and professionals. Professionals also look to Colleen for her expert coaching relative to starting and expanding a brain training business. To find out how Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids can help you – visit How Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids Can Help Your Child!

The Language Tune-Up Kit at Home

colleen — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:15:35 +0000

The Language Tune-Up Kit at Home is a great resource that I recommend for parents of kids with dyslexia. It was developed by Jim Worby, who had two children with dyslexia who were enrolled in a special school for kids with learning disorders. He wasn’t happy with the results the school was getting when it came to increasing the reading proficiency of his kids, so he began working on this program in collaboration with two teachers who had 25 years of experience with the Orton-Gillingham method.

I’ve addressed Orton-Gillingham in other material, but if you’re not familiar with it, I’ll just say that it’s the primary resource for teaching reading to kids with dyslexia. It’s been in use for over 75 years and is the foundation of almost all other methods for teaching reading to people with learning disabilities. Along with computer specialists, Worby enlisted the help of Orton-Gillingham experts to help develop Language Tune-up Kit at Home. What it accomplished for him was that his kids didn’t have to attend a special school for dyslexia anymore.

Not all children with learning disorders can achieve a level of proficiency so that they don’t have to go to a special school or work one-on-one with a tutor. My daughter Shannon, who has learning disabilities, goes to a school that uses the Orton-Gillingham approach, but if your child doesn’t need that kind of intensive one-on-one learning environment, then this program is great as a standalone.

You can also use it as a supplemental support for kids who are working with tutors and receiving services in school that are Orton-Gillingham based. It’s also great for home-schoolers who need additional support, as it will provide an opportunity for you to gauge how well they’re learning. For a child with dyslexia, increasing their reading performance gives a huge boost to their self-esteem and this program lets them see measurable results.

The program contains a placement test to gauge their current reading level, but my advice is to begin at the beginning because it never hurts to reinforce the material that they already know. They can just breeze through it if they know it really well, or they might find there are some things that need brushing up on.

This program is broken down into different sections. They go through the long vowels, short vowels, consonants, different types of syllables, and different vowel combinations, like the V-C-E’s, the V-C-C-V’s and all of those vowel-consonant-vowel combinations. It’s a very structured, systematic approach with lessons that take about 30-45 minutes a day. When your child is done with this program, they will have an added 4,400 new words to their vocabulary.

The part that I love about the program is that it’s done in a human voice. When your child is doing the program with their headphones on, it’s like the tutor is right there with them, talking to them, asking questions, teaching new things and reinforcing what they’ve just learned.

The program is really easy to use and it works with standard PC or a Mac if it has Windows. It also comes in English or Spanish.

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What is The Orton-Gillingham Method of Reading Instruction?

colleen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:15:14 +0000

If you have a child who’s having difficulty reading, you may have heard of Orton-Gillingham. It’s a method of reading instruction used to help children with learning disabilities. Basically, reading at the simplest level is about decoding sounds to make up words. What happens with kids with dyslexia is that the part of the brain that decodes words isn’t working properly, which makes reading difficult. Dr. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham developed the Orton-Gillingham method back in the 1930s. Orton was a pathologist and neuro-psychiatrist at Colombia University. He studied children with language processing impairments and along with his colleague at Colombia, Anna Gillingham, began to develop a method for teaching reading to people with learning disabilities. They knew that people with a reading impairment were at a huge disadvantage when it came to getting an education.

Orton-Dillingham was the first teaching method of its kind to address the issues of people with learning disabilities like dyslexia. The approach is multi-sensory, combining visual, auditory and kinesthetic practices to help children decode written materials. In using sight, sound and touch (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) reinforcement to teach reading in a systematic program, you’re providing multiple avenues for understanding and triggering memory.

Since its inception in the 1930s, many other instructional methods have been introduced that incorporate the Orton-Gillingham approach, including Wilson Reading, which is also a very good system.

What happens with dyslexia is that the left side of the brain, which is the side that processes language, isn’t making the proper connections. This has been backed up by MRI studies that show which parts of the brain are active during reading. This is why the multi-sensory methods work so well with kids with dyslexia, because the learning exercises activate both the left and right side of the brain. Using this approach, combined with my brain training system, is a great way to strengthen the neural pathways that are necessary to become a proficient reader.

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Phonological Awareness – The Foundation of Reading

colleen — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:15:30 +0000

You may have heard the term phonological awareness if you have a child who’s having trouble learning to read. It refers to the ability to understand the sound structure of words. Phonemes are the small units of sound that make up language. In order to communicate with words, you need to be able to differentiate the phonemes or units of speech. Phonological awareness also ties into reading proficiency.

When a child is learning to read, phonics is a method of matching letters with sounds. For instance, the letter B makes the ‘buh’ sound. What they’re doing is learning to decode and encode words. In technical terms, reading is decoding and spelling or writing is encoding.

While there’s still some disagreement about exactly how children learn to read, most research on the subject revolves around phonological awareness.

It also figures into people with dyslexia and why they have difficulty learning to read and spell. Dyslexia can impair the ability to differentiate between the small sounds that comprise language. Weak phonological awareness can be caused by a neurological wiring mishap or genetics, so that the child is unable to recognize these foundational codes in language. They will have a difficult time being able to connect sound to code and code to sound.

Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness and is the ability to understand that each of our words is made up of individual sounds. For instance, the word CAT is made up of the C-sound, the A-sound and the T-sound. At this stage of reading, you have to segment, analyze and blend the sounds together to make the word.

One of the things that can happen with dyslexia is that the sounds that make up words get reversed or scrambled. Take the word pancakes, which we recognize is made up of two words and two distinct sounds. For instance, my daughter has learning disabilities, and when she’s tired she might say something like, “Can I have cake pans for breakfast?” She’s scrambled the two words without realizing it. I’ll say, “You just said cake pans instead of pancakes” and she won’t have realized that she’s done it.

This kind of scrambling of words can be really distressing for kids with dyslexia, because they don’t even realize that it’s happening. The good news is that using my program of brain training in conjunction with proven methods to build phonological awareness, children can overcome many of the problems associated with learning disabilities.

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Diagnosing Dyslexia in Young Children

colleen — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:15:34 +0000

Dyslexia is a disorder that affects the reading and writing skills learned by a person. It’s considered a developmental issue, but it’s hard to diagnose because of the many different things that are affected by it. Dyslexia is a difficult disorder to diagnose in children which causes learning problems down the road. The reason for this challenge is the fact that you must be able to read and write before it’s diagnosed and that doesn’t happen until the school years.

There have been studies that show Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has helped people with dyslexia. The down side to the fMRI is it has not been studied in young children. This problem arises with children under the age of six due to lack of information. The lack of information makes it difficult to diagnose a child at an early age which in turn makes it difficult to help with treatment.

The diagnosis of dyslexia is different with each language. The reason is due to the rules that apply for each language. The English language has rules that identify the ways we translate letters to speech and this helps with the diagnosis of dyslexia or another type of disabilities. In some languages you may see the diagnosis comes with the speed of the person reading while others may have to do with the way a word is pronounced. Spelling is another factor in this diagnosis.

The way people see letters also makes the diagnosis some what easy to make. Studies show people with dyslexia may see their letters as objects. This is known as the Logographic Level. When a person can sound out words using phonics and for the most part get it correct it’s known as the Alphabetic Level and when a person knows the rules that go with speaking certain words, it’s known as the Orthographic Level.

A study was conducted using these levels and its findings helped with the diagnosis of dyslexia. Many groups were used so it was thought the right answered would present themselves. These studies had a lot of detail that was released, but one that was not released until now shows that more than 60% of the children that participated that had dyslexia in the immediate family had it themselves.

It’s possible the environment and the country you live in will have something to do with a child’s diagnosis of learning disabilities. If a parent doesn’t have the ability to attend school due to money or other factors, then it’s possible their children will have problems because they won’t have the ability to help them when it comes to learning. Education won’t be a top priority in that family and that can compromise the learning.

There are a number of learning disabilities that go undetected in children. It’s possible they are undetected due to the lack of knowledge when it comes to the disability in general while others could be undetected due to the age of the child. Dyslexia is one of those learning disabilities that go undetected due to the age of the child and the knowledge of people in that area.

The good news is that science is proving that learning disabilities can be overcome. Through intensive work using brain training at the foundation of the program, a child with Dyslexia, can learn to read, write and spell.

Contact me today for your free 30 minute consultation. We will discuss your concerns, answer questions and create a crystal clear vision for your child’s success.

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Traumatic Brain Injuries Lead to Reading Problems

colleen — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:15:03 +0000

Pathological reading has neuropsychological, neurobiological, and linguistic characteristics which are causing research to be completed. Models have been created using this information and are being used in conjunction with behavior when it comes to brain injuries and how reading is affected.

Positron emission tomography, also known as PET and functional magnetic resonance imaging, also known as fMRI are helping in the identification process. It is especially used when reading sentences and individual words in normal situations, in dyslexic people, stroke driven dyslexia, older adults that are healthy, dementia people, posterior split brain patients, and traumatic brain injury patients. Limited research has been conducted when it comes to reading disorders in those patients that require rehabilitation from an injury.

Shaywitz et al discovered a way to study a patient recovering from a reading disorder. In this study a comparison was conducted between adults that may or may not have had dyslexia as a child and normal adults. In these studies they reviewed information on the neural activation network between these two groups of patients.

Another study was conducted using a completely different group of patients. This time they used college students that had normal controls and the other group consisted of students that were dyslexic in their younger years. They discovered when there was a reduction in the left hemisphere the students with dyslexia as a child had the posterior inferior temporal cortex visible.

Reading can be a problem after a traumatic brain injury has occurred and studies are showing the part that’s affected the most is the reading comprehension. In this particular study they discovered the non-aphasic disturbances were present which caused the reading problem. Processing the words being read and retaining this information have been compromised. This study shows that more than 50% of adults with a traumatic brain injury have blurred or double vision and visual field deficits.

Following these studies a technique was created to help with these visual concerns. These techniques have shown to work well with patients that have had a stroke that cause reading issues.

fMRI in those patients with a traumatic brain injury has not been studied so it’s not clear when it comes to stability. However normal controls in research examining after a reproduction of fMRI has occurred is showing variability in activation patterns is occurring after some time has passed but specific stimuli characteristics and activation tasks must be present.

Traumatic brain injuries can cause a number of problems and can take years to correct. These studies show reading problems can and do occur after this type of injury no matter what caused it to happen. These studies also show dyslexia can be a problem when a traumatic brain injury occurs. When a complete understanding is in place techniques can be used to correct this problem while treatment for the injury is being conducted.

Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids is here to help! Check out my latest Reading Comprehension Program that can be completed online or in person!

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How Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids Can Help Your Child

colleen — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:23:04 +0000

I am often asked to explain what brain training means relative to helping your child be able to learn easier and more efficiently. I often find myself listing out the many benefits that your child can experience. For example, your child will be able to remember more with better imagery and recall the information faster, concepts whether imagery or auditory based will be understood, manipulated and ordered with much greater ease and organization.

Taking tests and studying will become much easier and less anxiety-driven as your child begins to transfer skills back into the classroom. Following your multi-step directions at home will be completed when asked without multiple requests to repeat the information. Your child will be able to follow along in class better and become a more active participant in the overall learning process.

Let’s not forget attending, focus and less fidgeting will be experienced. While this sounds wonderful, I do point out to parents that the joy and life-changing events do not stop there. As your child’s brain continues to dynamically change to the environment, cognitive skills and processing abilities will strengthen even more. Even though we all know that the magic pill, one-stop shopping, does not exist, brain training comes pretty close.

Why? Because, when you provide your child with a stronger foundation and capacity to learn, your child’s horizon has just expanded. Where your child may never had interest in reading before, books are now curiously interesting.

Usually, at this point in the conversation I would begin discussing the “How Can This Be Accomplished?” question. All of this wonderful changes in your child is possible because of the Theory of Neuroplasticity.

“Santiago Ramon y Cajal (a founder of modern neuroscience) expressed this theory in 1894, three years before Charles Sherrington coined the term synapse to describe the connections made between neurons. In the late 1940s the neuroplasticity model was advanced by Jerzy Konorski, who used the word plasticity to describe “permanent functional transformations,” and Donald Hebb, who ascribed testable physiologic characteristics to synaptic plasticity. However, experimental evidence that synapses are capable of long-lasting changes in synaptic strength did not come until the early 1970s, when Timothy Bliss and Terry Lomo described an increase in the synaptic strength of neurons in the mammalian hippocampus (a region of the brain critical for some forms of memory) following electrical stimulation. They termed this increase long-lasting potentiation, now referred to as long-term potentiation (LTP).” (novelguide.com, 2011)

The best part is that you can accomplish a stronger foundation and cognitive skills within 90 days in most cases. For example, I often recommend that while you are still getting “educated” on my site to start out with a home-based program that can be completed with a computer and internet connection.

BrainSkills and BrainWare Safari can begin the whole process of neuroplasticity and strengthening your child’s capacity to learn, remember and process by working the program 3x a week for 30 min. Then, if you even need more intensive brain training and help with transferring the new skills into everyday life and the classroom, you can work with me in-person.

P3 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

colleen — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:00:48 +0000

This week we discuss what to do if you do not know how to help your child with the subject matter causing stress. For example, with math, you may be a math wiz but your child's school is teaching math a totally different way than how you learned math. To add to this complexity, your child must show their work exactly how the teacher is teaching them.

This leaves quite a few challenges for parents, right? On one hand you are a math wiz and on the other hand, you cannot help your child due to the new math being taught in schools today.

So, here is what you can do. First watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8aW4YuFSiY&feature=related and chuckle a bit to understand it is not just you. Many parents are in the same situation. Their child is struggling but cannot be helped by a parent because the parent was not taught this method.

Next, if you are really that stuck with the new math, search youtube for your child's curriculum. The name on your child's textbook/workbook/journal will let you know what to search for on youtube. Then you can refine your search for specific concepts being taught with the new math approach.

Everyday Math Lattice Method – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29XL99qM6s
Everyday Math Division – partial quotient method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWstA8EZr2w

If after viewing the video, the math still seems way too foreign for you, let your child take a look at the video or corresponding videos. The videos may do the trick and help your child internalize the concept and process easier.

If you still have difficulty after looking at these options, I would look for a tutor that knows your child's curriculum or your child's teacher may be able to tutor before/after school.

Remember, your child could be having math difficulty because of weak cognitive skills!

Please do yourself and your child a favor and purchase the online assessment today. You will get immediate results on the screen and understand exactly why your child is struggling with homework and what options you can take to help your child overcome the weaknesses.

Even if you do not opt to overcome the weaknesses, you will be armed with many "AH HA" moments to better manage the daily homework sessions. Stay tuned for next week's continued article on homework meltdowns and strategies to overcome them.

P3 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

colleen — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:00:48 +0000

This leaves quite a few challenges for parents, right? On one hand you are a math wiz and on the other hand, you cannot help your child due to the new math being taught in schools today.

So, here is what you can do. First watch this http://youtu.be/Vetg7vWitTU and chuckle a bit to understand it is not just you. Many parents are in the same situation. Their child is struggling but cannot be helped by a parent because the parent was not taught this method.

Everyday Math Lattice Method – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29XL99qM6s
Everyday Math Division – partial quotient method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWstA8EZr2w

If you still have difficulty after looking at these options, I would look for a tutor that knows your child's curriculum or your child's teacher may be able to tutor before/after school.

Remember, your child could be having math difficulty because of weak cognitive skills!

P2 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

colleen — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:07:15 +0000

Last week I gave you some ideas for those families in crisis mode with dealing with homework meltdowns. The number one takeaway from last week is to be proactive, manage crisis situations and get your child's emotions down and under control.

Your child most likely will not be able to tell why they cannot do their homework and asking them, "Why can't you do this if you just learned it today in school?" will just make your child more anxious and feeling less than successful. If your child's emotions start to get out of control use the "I" statements.

As a parent, when you want to confront the situation (make it go away, right?) try working with a statement that acknowledges your child's feelings. Try using "I know doing homework that is difficult for you must not be fun. Take a 15 minute break and then we will try it again." That type of statement will bring your child's emotions down and avoid the homework meltdown. More importantly, it will let your child know that you support them.

You are saying and offering a break statement if the homework meltdown is about ready to explode and happen in real time because your child's emotions are at the tipping point. However, while your child is taking that 15 minute break, you as the parent are preparing for the homework session when your child returns.

Now you can begin to observe your child's learning preferences – styles that lead to successful learning. Doing so will lead to the phasing out of breaks because your approach to homework will not include meltdowns.

Remember, as a parent, your goal is to get your child to complete the homework. By helping your child "experience" that they can in fact do the work they are becoming more confident, stronger and as a family you are beginning to realize the power within yourselves to breakthrough (anything, really).

You will help your child experience success by completing homework using an approach that keeps their attention, for now. Remember, I am a brain trainer (a.k.a. Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapist) so I will do my best to have you help your child strengthen all cognitive skills so they can learn in a variety of ways.

Just recall how many times you "told" your child that it is okay, you can do it. Nothing proves how strong and powerful we are than when we "experience" this firsthand.

Your goal, with my help, is to discover which learning style is your child's preference for learning. Then, you will help your child "experience" just how capable of a learner they really are without much help from you.

When your child's learning style preference is discovered, then use of this style for homework along with strategies, is what your basic learning center asks thousands of dollars for from you to help your child. You can do the same thing with your children if you know how to do it.

The difference with working with me, in-person or online, is that I help "you" help your child strengthen all skills for learning and processing along with creating new pathways. Your child can learn with any style whether it be visual, auditory, etc. Your child will have the edge over other children, yes, but your child will experience a transformation.

This whole process, my passion for doing what I do, isn't about helping a child learn to learn. I do what I do because it is about helping each child and family that I work with realize that they can live their dream with a bit of hard work, support from family/friends, faith and hope.

When I take families through my process and the child comes through the other side, the child has transformed academically but more importantly an internal journey has happened. Your child will have had a breakthrough in their belief system.

That is the first step of any lifelong change. The child and family will always look back on their time with me and realize they did it, not me.

The child and family did this successful transformation. They will realize that from their heart, comes their belief and feelings which then drive their thoughts and actions in their life.

Here is something I want you to work on for those children that do not like (start to shut down and get frustrated) working with worksheets/workbooks. When your child takes out their worksheet or opens their workbook to a page for homework, let your child take a break while you "convert" this homework into their preferred learning style. Remember, this extra work goes away after brain training with me.

For children that prefer to get involved using a whiteboard, per se, this is your time to get a whiteboard for yourself and your child along with an eraser / markers. Your job is to first write out an equation from the worksheet and then request your child to complete the equation on the extra whiteboard.

You can also complete this using a computer, too. Visit http://www.imaginationcubed.com/ for a FREE online whiteboard you can use with your child via the internet.

If your child appears, through your observations, to have difficulty with recognizing operational signs, use a different colored marker for each part of your equation. Perhaps, Blue and Green for each of the addends (if addition) and red for the operational symbol "+".

The above example will work nicely for children who understand the concept being worked but may be in overwhelm and unable to work on a worksheet request. Additionally, this approach works when there are too many equations on the worksheet for your child to focus and gets overwhelmed easily.

Have fun with this and let your child be the teacher and you be the student! Let me know how this works out for you and your child!

Remember, you still have time to strengthen your child's cognitive skills. But first, find out which skills need to be strengthened. My summer sale with BrainWare Safari is still active for only a few more weeks!

Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids » dyslexia

The Left and Right Side of the Brain

Related Posts:

The Language Tune-Up Kit at Home

Related Posts:

What is The Orton-Gillingham Method of Reading Instruction?

Related Posts:

Phonological Awareness – The Foundation of Reading

Related Posts:

Diagnosing Dyslexia in Young Children

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Traumatic Brain Injuries Lead to Reading Problems

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How Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids Can Help Your Child

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P3 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

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P3 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

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P2 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

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