A parent has asked if the workbook Reeding Readiness is suitable
for a language delayed child.

Hana's answer

Reading Readiness is a handy workbook to introduce your child to the phonic system, needed for language development and beginning reading. Often a child's language improves with beginning reading due to the letter/picture/sound and letter/sound/word/picture relationships.
Often the child's auditory perception (listening skill) is not fully developed. It helps to connect auditory perception and visual perception (letters, pictures) with the kinaesthetic/tactual perception (feeling the lips, tongue and mouth while saying the sound or word, naming the picture). This complex perceptual experience will gradually develop the speech and kick off the reading.

For reading we need both, auditory and visual skills. This book develops both skills simultaneously and helps with learning difficulties.
When working with your child, name the picture (read the word)and say the word clearly, encourage the child to watch your mouth (auditory/visual) and stress the beginning sounds (letters). Read more.

Hi Chris.

Fine motor problem stem from poor eye-hand coordination that often originates from poor ocular motor control.

Young children have often difficulties to move their eyes smoothly, the eye ball movement is jerky, therefore the children cannot coordinate the hand movements with the eye movements.

You are absolutely right, they need eye hand control exercises.

 

The book Introduction to Basic Pencil Skills guides the child to look at the starting point and the eye follows the hand towards to finishing point and up again and back again, left to right and back again, down to up etc. The activities in both Pencil Skills books provide the activities you need to achieve good eye-hand skills to start or improve pencil skills and writing.

Basic Number Concepts teach again to look and draw a line to a finishing spot and also to draw circles around numbers or pictures and at the same time teaches the poor writers the concept of 5.

The Writing Numbers activities teach writing numbers, therefore if the child can learn to write the 10 numbers well, it can easily proceed to writing letters.

We also have books on teaching to write and read short vowel words, always accompanied by pictures.

Best regards

Hana Jay

P. S.

Just a suggestion. Using puzzles to train visual motor skills have been proven very successful by many therapists and teachers. HJ

Jays-Education-can-help-your-child-to-achieve

Jays-Education-can-help-your-child-to-achieve

APRAXIA

There is little known about apraxia in the educational field. Apraxia is often listed as one of the cases of learning disabilities, however not explained or acted upon it.

Apraxia is acknowledged more in speech therapy as Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia, DVD as a “oral motor planning disorder”. The problem occurs when the brain tries to tell the muscles what to do, but the messages get scrambled, they are not ordered (not in sequence), they are mixed up.
Occupational therapists recognise apraxia as poor motor planning, poor coordination.

 

Apraxia (dyspraxia) is truly a hidden handicap that can lead to severe educational and social problems for the affected child. It can make the child a social outcast, provoke bullying and seriously damage the child’s self esteem.

 

Dyspraxia affects 5% to 10% of children, up to 2% severely. Some researchers put the number as high as 20%  
(Dr J. Stordy, M. J. Nicholl 2002).

 

There is now scientific evidence that the motor problems and poor planning of these children persists into adolescence. They demonstrate academic problems, low self esteem and poor social skills.

 

Awareness of this condition is still very limited. Too often apraxia (dyspraxia) is diagnosed as ADHD, mental impairment or Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

 

Apraxia (dyspraxia) is a disorder of praxis.

 

             PRAXIS     -  to know what to do and how to do it  - 

 

First we have an idea and then we have a plan how to implement the idea, and than we have to be able to carry it out (in planned steps).

 

For apraxic children the sequence of messages is broken,
lost or mixed up, jumbled. Their praxis is failing them.

 

            Early recognition means early intervention.   
            A lot of children are not identified early or not at all.  
            The doctors, the therapists, the educational
            system are not familiar with the symptoms of dyspraxia.

 

The biggest challenge for an apraxic child is starting school. Everything becomes too difficult, his clumsiness makes him stand out, and he will not be included in games, because he will “ruin everything”. He will be “bad” in ball games, in writing, in following instructions and in making friends.

 

The ongoing reprimands by peers and teachers are demoralizing. In order to avoid ridicule the child may resort to clownish or “I don’t care” behaviour. Life becomes difficult because so much revolves around motor-based activities.

 

The self esteem plummets, the child becomes hostile, aggressive and insecure. Remarks like, “I am a dumbo, there is something wrong with my brain, everyone hates me, I hate school”, are common.

 

The older the child is, the deeper the problems become, everything is frustrating. He/she can’t write well, he/she is not good at sport and not good at playing with children either.

 

This child needs help! Apraxic children can improve if they are correctly diagnosed and receive the appropriate therapy, remedial help and understanding from everybody involved in their progress.

 

Apraxic (dyspraxic) children can function normally, become well adjusted and cope with school and family life.

 

[Extract from APRAXIA Unrecognised Big Barrier to All Learning by Hana Jay]

 

I became very interested in children diagnosed with apraxia (dyspraxia) many years ago. The term apraxia has been known from the beginning of the last century, yet educationalists shy away from it. Apraxic children are still misdiagnosed. In every decade they (apraxic children) are placed in a different group. In my lifetime they were called mentally retarded, clumsy, uncoordinated, aphasic, dyslexic, hyperactive, ADD, ADHD, more modern term is Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Asperger Syndrome.

 

Apraxic children are very clever. After years of reading and working with them, I’m almost sure, that they are extremely bright. The sensory inputs into the brain are very fast, however as the brain gets bombarded with sensory inputs, it gets overstimulated (overloaded), and the balance of excitation and inhibition is hard to keep. The incoming information is well processed, classified, categorised and stored. I know that, because as I have had helped these children to overcome the original problems, the children were able to recall all that they have learned, processed and stored previously.

 

Each action that we perform could be likened to a long chain linking object to object. Every link of the chain has to be attached correctly. If one link is faulty the chain will be broken, the connection will be disrupted. If more links are faulty there will be no chain, only separate bits leading nowhere. 

 

Let’s imagine the feelings of an apraxic child. The brain is stimulated, perhaps overstimulated and the mechanism blocking out some stimuli is not functioning well or it cannot cope with too many stimuli bombarding the brain. If a brain is overstimulated it has a safety mechanism, the overstimulated brain shuts out all the stimuli, the needed with the not needed. This lasts only for a very short time but if it happens often and sporadically, the output is disrupted (like the broken links of the chain). The messages are not clear, they are not synchronised and ordered.

 

This dysfunction is characterised by clumsiness in motor activity tasks (writing), poor eye-hand coordination (writing), reduced quality of speech and extra ocular control (focusing problem).

 

Apraxic children have no linear (ordered) thinking.        
Their thinking is not based on now, before, after;  
therefore they cannot comprehend the meaning:      
“do this... and then this and after this do that” or
what comes before or what comes after.

They live in now.

 

They cannot plan, because they don’t understand the concept of sequential planning, they cannot transpose themselves into the future time.

 

Our expectations and explanations are for them very confusing. They don’t know how to start and what to do next. They don’t really know what we want and what we mean for them to do.

 

That is why apraxic children are not able to learn like the other kids, yet they are intelligent. They cannot do the work, because they do not know what they are expected to do. They do not know the steps to use to proceed with the task.

 

If we look at a page in a book it looks sort of organised but for an apraxic child it actually looks all muddled. We organise things in a linear fashion, they do not.

 

Apraxic children prefer nonfiction books. The facts are usually organised in a kind of sequential order. There are no tricks, no unexpected plots, no metaphors and no personifications (animals and things acting as humans).

 

An apraxic child never asks for help at school because he wouldn’t understand the linear explanation. Children tell me: “The teacher talks in gibberish.”

 

Their usual question is: “What do you want me to do?” You tell them, you explain, yet when you check a bit later, they have done nothing, explaining: “But you didn’t tell me really what you want me to do.” or they say: “Show me.” Yet they don’t look to follow the instruction, they look everywhere but to see what is being shown to them.

 

I have diagnosed, treated and taught many apraxic children successfully. If you are prepared to give it a go, I can lead you through the step by step program to improve your child’s ability to learn. Some more at http://www.jayseducation.com/APRAXIA_LearningIssues.php

A parent has asked if the workbook Reeding Readiness is suitable

A parent has asked if the workbook Reeding Readiness is suitable
for a language delayed child.

Hana's answer

Reading Readiness is a handy workbook to introduce your child to the phonic system, needed for language development and
beginning reading. Often a child's language improves with beginning reading due to the letter/picture/sound and letter/sound/word/picture relationships.
Often the child's auditory perception (listening skill) is not fully developed. It helps to connect auditory perception and visual perception (letters, pictures)
with the kinaesthetic/tactual perception (feeling the lips, tongue and mouth while saying the sound or word, naming the picture). This complex perceptual
experience will gradually develop the speech and kick off the reading.

For reading we need both, auditory and visual skills. This book develops both skills simultaneously.
When working with your child, name the picture (read the word)and say the word clearly, encourage the child to watch your mouth (auditory/visual) and stress the beginning sounds (letters).

Example:
pot - press your lips firmly together and say the p with a strong puff. P is a plosive (it explodes). Say the word in one breath pot, don't say p-ot, but pot. Then say, pot starts with p and repeat pot. Make sure the child copies you!
As the child connects the picture and the word with the matching picture and the initial sound (letter) the child holds the images in his memory. The images make a connection in the brain. Later when the child sees the picture, he recalls the words, the sound and vice versa, the word recalls the beginning sound and the picture. A strong connection between the sounds and the letters, the words and the pictures will initiate the onset of reading and improve speech and language.
There is another important developmental step that is fundamental to all learning!
It is the ability to look and see, listen and hear and plan (imagine) what to say or do.

Everything we do we do in steps.
• First we get to know what we have to do
• Then we think how we will do it... (we think in steps)
• Next we decide what we have to do first, second etc
• Then we execute the action step by step

Some children cannot think in steps. They have a go without thinking it through, they do the activity in random steps.
There are reasons for not being able to think and do things in order. Children, who experience developmental delay in
language and find learning difficult, have to learn to do things in steps. Reading Readiness workbook which you asked
for (as well as all of our other books) work with the child step by step, involving all perceptual channels to activate the
brain to learn to work in steps.

I suggest to use puzzles for activating the brain to learn to work in order, step by step. This is how it works:

• Look at the puzzle. Analyse the puzzle. What is in the picture? What is the focus point (colour, main picture, part of a picture, shape etc)?
• Decide where to start: at the corners, top or bottom edges or build up a picture...
• Look for the pieces needed to follow the plan.

The child has to think "What do I need?"and then look for the particular piece.
The strategies will teach the child to think, look and do instead of grab a piece and try
to fit it somewhere, put it down again and try another one without any planning.
All children with language delays have improved dramatically following these strategies.
If you have any questions, or are interested in a more specific guidance for your child, please,
ask for more specific directions. Send a direct email using jesp@ozemail.com.au.

P. S.
The above strategies are an extract from "101 Strategies to Overcome Learning Difficulties"
by Hana Jay

 

Lateralization and Hand Dominance and Hand Domination

The two hemisphares.
The human brain resembles two halves of a walnut. The two halves, connected at the centre, are known as the right and left hemisphere.
The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body (the right hand) and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body (the left hand).
The two hemispheres are essentially symmetrically alike, but they are asymmetrical in function.
Each hemisphere collects the same sensory information but in a different way to suit their specialised functions. Often one hemisphere takes over and
inhibits (suppresses) the other one, we talk about the dominance of the two hemispheres. We tend to process information using our dominant side.

The learning and thinking process is enhanced when both sides of the brain work together. This means that the subdominant hemisphere has to become stronger to balance the function of the dominant one.
The left side of the brain processes information in a linear sequential manner, it solves a problem piece by piece.
It lines up pieces of information and arranges them in a logical order to draw logical conclusions.
People with the left brain dominance live in reality. When reading they look for parts to piece them together to get
to a logical solution. They express themselves well in words.

The left brain processes symbols, letters, words, numbers, pays attention to spelling and punctuation.
It makes remembering and recalling words and spelling rules very easy.
The right brain uses intuition to solve a problem. People with a right hemisphere dominance start working from a whole problem then progress to process the parts.
They start from the answer and work backwards.
The thinking of the right dominant people is random, not organised. They will have problems learning to read using phonics. They prefer to see and understand
words in a context and get their meaning as the right brain is not sequential and planning is not a strong point. Written expression is harder without step to step reasoning.

The right brain tells us what feels right.
Using the right hemisphere we dream, create new ideas, we imagine, we communicate by using facial expression and gestures. We are able to draw pictures to help
to express our ideas and imaginations, we have intuition and creative thoughts.

Sensations from the right side of the body cross over to the left hemisphere.
The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. For complex functions
both hemispheres need to be involved and work together. Spatial perception,
language and speech, and cognitive thinking are the most complex functions
of the brain. They require a very good cooperation between both hemispheres,
however they cannot work together well without the work of brain stem. Most
sensory and motor messages cross in the brain stem on their way to the cerebral
hemispheres.

Before the different parts of the brain can specialize, they must work together
and communicate with each other. The child with sensory integration dysfunction
will tend to use either hand and will not specialize. This will prevent the two sides
of his body from working together.

 

VISION, LEARNING and the LUK SYSTEM

Sight is the ability to see.

Vision is the result of child’s ability to interpret and understand the information that comes to him through his eyes.

It is important that children described as smart in everything but school, can be helped early enough that they may become smart at school too.

OBSERVABLE VISUAL PERFORMANCES:

Eye movement skills:

This is the skill of speed and control of visual inspection and scanning of visual materials so that the child obtains the greatest amount of information with the least time and effort. If the eye movements are slow, clumsy and uncoordinated and if the eyes jump, jerk or loose their place on learning materials, the amount of information obtained by the child will be well reduced.


The improvements are notable if the child is given special action skills as well as visual and developmental experiences.

Eye teaming skills:

The human sight system is designed so that the paired eyes and muscles can team up that the two eyes perform like one. If the child does not gain the skill and unity of full eye teaming he will experience learning difficulties. The child will be clumsy and will have problems with writing and handling teaching material.

Eye hand coordination:

The ability and proficiency depends on the use, practice and integration of eyes and hands. On this skill depends the ability to make visual discrimination of size, shape and location of objects. This skill is essential for visual interpretation of words and numbers in workbooks.

The child's paperwork will show extreme lack of orientation on the page, he will have difficulties to stay within the lines. He will have problems with multiplication, division, fractions, measurement etc. His written work will lack structure and punctuation will be a challenge.

Visual form perception:

Its purpose is the immediate and accurate discrimination of visible likenesses and difference, a skill that is necessary for learning to spell, to recognise symbols such as - + x ÷ or like terms in algebra etc.

Figure ground perception:

Is the ability to focus and isolate a desired (important) image from the background. As the brain receives thousands of visual stimuli and sees many images at the same time, it has to be able to suppress some and give a “go” to some that are interesting, exciting or needed. Research and comprehension skills depend on this.


Poor focusing skills , eye teaming, eye hand coordination and figure ground are the main cause for poor attention skills, disruptive behaviour, and are the main cause of failing to achieve.

When you look at something you don’t just see with your eyes, you focus, discriminate identify and interpret information.

Children are more and more forced to deal with lengthy prolonged near visual tasks. Our vision was designed for more distant vision. The stress on visual system has produced many adverse symptoms and problems.

Vision is a complex combination of learned skills, including tracking, fixation, change of focus, binocular fusion and visualization. When all of these are well developed, children and adults can sustain attention, read and write without “careless” errors, give meaning to what they see and hear and rely less on movement to stay alert.

Visual therapy:

Enhances and develops visual skills that are poorly or inadequately developed.

If:

The child experiences headaches, some neck and upper back pain, blurred vision, is tired, itchy, or has watery eyes, the discomfort is likely related to the heavy vision load of working at near distance.

We, at Jays’ Education, are aware of the association between vision and learning. We recognise the importance of vision in the development of children.

We are aware that the vision problems that impede learning are usually not obvious to teachers and parents, and they go undetected in traditional vision screening. Visual dysfunctions are often interpreted as poor coordination, learning problems, AD(H)D, lately also as Autistic Spectrum Disorder, dyslexia etc.

Our workbooks are specifically designed to make reading, spelling and maths visually friendly. Pages are uncluttered, set out in easy to follow steps. The print is clear, the instructions are given in slow sequential steps. Each page deals with one fraction of an outcome. Each consecutive page takes the child right through the workbook so at the end of the workbook the desired outcome has been reached.

While teaching and reinforcing academic skills the program’s aim is to develop the child’s visual skills to a level that will no longer make learning so difficult. All our books deal with visual perceptual difficulties in the best way possible.

What makes the LUK system so great for the child’s development?

It is the set order in which the tasks have to be done.

1. All the tiles have to be assembled from 1 to 24 (Mini LUK 1 to 12) .

2. A page has to be selected, looked at, worked out what to do, worked out which
are the questions, which are the answers. Where are the LUK code numbers.

3. Take tile number 1, place it under or next (or above) question or problem or
picture or word, think, look for the answer, look for the code number, change the
focus from the sheet to the LUK box, find the code number. Take tile number 2,
place it under, next (above) question (problem), find the answer, look at the code
number, place the tile on that number in the LUK box. Work out all the answers
one by one in that manner.

4. When all the tiles are in the LUK box, close the lid. Turn the box over sideways
and open the box. A pattern is formed by the back of the tiles.


5. The child matches the pattern on the sheet with the pattern in the box.


Many stages of the perceptual development could be noted when working with LUK:


· Eye hand coordination, as the child handles the tiles, looks for the questions, places the tiles in the LUK box

· Focusing skills and eye teaming skill, the child has to focus and refocus and again refocus looking for tiles, for questions, answers, the tile code numbers, looking for that number in the box, placing the tiles on those numbers

· Figure ground perception, the answer (words, pictures etc.) have to stand out from the background, the little number stands out from the word, picture next to it.
When looking for a numerical answer, the child has to distinguish the code number from the answer number.

· Sequence of steps taken and then retracing the steps, take the tile, place it under the question, look for the answer, note the code number, find that number in the LUK box, place the tile on it and back to the beginning again

· Task completion, the task is completed when all the tiles are in and the pattern is displayed. The child develops continuity, planning (anticipates the pattern) endurance, resilience, satisfaction from a job well done

· Anticipation, the child anticipates a reward - a pattern that means: “Work well done.”


The LUK system is recommended for grade 1 with suitable workbooks and with workbooks all the way to year 8, higher grades use it for children with learning difficulties. Books are age appropriate for all ages. Children like the system (program), they think of it as a game, it gives them confidence and satisfaction from job well done. They can see their improvement.