In Chapter 20 there is an outline of the skills that underpin maths, writing and spelling. If your child is struggling with those parts of formal learning you might like to see if any of these skills have not yet developed.
Ask yourself:
Is my child struggling with number concepts such as reversibility and orders of magnitude? If this is the case, I recommend you return to the age-old game of Stones described in Chapter 20 and play it for about half an hour a day.
Is my child struggling with maths problems written vertically? If so, return to Appendix III and make sure that an active tonic labyrinthine reflex is excluded as the cause of the difficulty.
Does my child struggle with the visual-spatial maths tasks like rotating an image in his mind? Again, the problem here may well be connected to a lack of fully developed adult reflexes.
Is my child easily distracted and a bit ‘scatty’? I suggest that his body awareness, his sense of being housed deeply and strongly in his body, might be poor. This is called ‘position in space’. The game Angel in the Snow, which is described on page 320 in Appendix IV will be helpful.
Does my child struggle to recall maths facts? This is often a sign of a poor auditory memory. The exercises in appendices III and IV for auditory skills are recommended. Consider also that your child may have an active spinal galant reflex (see Appendix III to check for this and to find ideas to help).
The vexed question of reversals
So often people say, ‘Oh, reversing letters still, he must be dyslexic!’ When children are reversing letters and numbers in reading there can be a number of causes. To begin with, reversals are actually normal until age eight, particularly with boys.
For a child who reverses letters, numbers and small words in both reading and writing, you need to work more on his visual skills. Also, go back and spend some time on the most frequently reversed letters and numbers to make sure he can actually hear the differences. Make sure that he understands the differences between 13 and 30 by showing him each number made out of real objects: 13 buttons compared to 30 buttons. Reversals can also indicate that a child has an active asymmetrical tonic neck reflex, so go back and read Appendix III.
However, if a child is only reversing letters you can be sure that he has a problem with auditory skills and/or a problem with position in space. Angel in the Snow (see page 320) is an excellent game to build this sense. You might also like to ask him to shut his eyes while you massage different parts of his body and ask him to tell you what you are touching. And check how well your child understands the ‘position’ words such as ‘up’ and ‘down’, ‘diagonal’, ‘sideways’. Learning visual differences is all about talking about them.
Check too for problems with auditory discrimination. Can he hear those differences or not? If he cannot, it is time to bring in some of the tools that can improve children’s perception: mirrors, touching your face as you talk and feeling his own face as he produces sounds. A speech pathologist is the relevant professional to see here. When he can see and feel a difference he will find it easier to hear it too. Saying the sound over and over again, feeling the difference over and over again — it’s all about practice.
Ask yourself:
Does my child learn a word and then forget it quite quickly? If so, the problem is one of poor visual skills. The visual perceptual games that help with reading (see Appendix V) will also help here.
Does my child struggle to ‘spell aloud’ and do far better when asked to write the word? Does he seem to become particularly confused when asked to spell aloud using the letter names? If so, give up on the letter names straightaway. This is a sign of a lack of connection between the sound and the shape of letters, so get this solid first. Make sure your child can actually hear all the sounds, and then begin on the process of matching them to the letters. Letter names are optional for some time to come.40
Does my child have difficulty remembering and knowing when to apply spelling rules? As with recalling maths facts, this is a memory issue. Consider the spinal galant reflex as a potential culprit. You might also like to consider these games to improve his memory:
— ask your child to make something from a construction kit. Take a quick photo, then disassemble it and ask him to remake it from memory
— go around the house hiding a number of objects with your child next to you, then ask him to remember where each one is
— Kim’s game is the classic memory game. Collect a group of items (just a small number to begin with) and place them in a group. Ask your child to memorise them and then accurately tell you what has been removed. Once your child has become a gun at this level you can rotate objects rather than removing them, or change their position relative to each other
— play Memory with a deck of playing cards, where your child and you turn over the cards trying to find matching pairs
— memorise a poem or song with your child.
Spelling is difficult! Reread Chapter 20.
Ask yourself:
Does my child watch his pencil forming the letters? This is an indication that his proprioceptive sense is poor. In exploiting the proprioceptive sense to help your child learn letter shapes, the focus is on touch and movement rather than on vision. Ask him to write with his eyes closed. Take his hand and draw the letters gently on the sand or on the carpet (little fingertips are sensitive, so don’t push hard). Make sure that you insist on clearly defined ‘starting points’ for letters and numbers.
Does my child struggle with ‘getting everything written tidily’? Some children with untidy handwriting are those who fatigue quickly. They usually have ‘soft’, less expressive faces and generally lower muscle tone. If this is the case, you must suspect an active tonic labyrinthine reflex (Appendix III) and do the activities suggested. One useful activity for increasing muscle strength to support grasp is to ask children to paint above shoulder height. You can just use water and a decorator’s paint brush on a wall if you are short on paper and paint.
Does my child battle to hold onto the pencil and paper at the same time? Does my child twist his paper or his body so that the paper is rotated 90 degrees away from him? Does he avoid crossing the midline of his body when he is writing (see Chapter 29)? All of these are markers for an active asymmetric tonic neck reflex. You will need to remedy that and also teach him to cross the midline of his body (see page 322 in Appendix V).
Does my child forget how to write letter shapes all the time? This is often a marker for visual-perceptual issues and eye movement problems. Eye movement problems, of course, are strongly connected to primitive reflex retention. See Appendix III.
Does my child struggle to get his ideas down on the page? This is considered to be a sign of a poorly developed corpus callosum or ‘bridge’ between the left and right sides of the brain. Consider that an active asymmetrical tonic neck reflex could be ‘holding’ your child in one hemisphere at a time when a free-flowing exchange between the hemispheres is required.12 See Appendix III.