Curiosity Unbound and its reasons!

After being diagnosed with ADD in addition to a handsomely high IQ, my 9 year old is out there with a lot of challenges. He also struggles with an occasional stammer in his speech. However, having a headstrong mind of his own, he faces quite a lot of unjustified and undeserved trials from his peers as well as a few uninformed adults around him.

A headstrong mind with a high IQ has been a deadly combination for him. An increased understanding of things around him, and dealing with peers of average calibre has been an emotionally taxing experience so far. So to overcome these issues on a psychological, personal and academic level, we thought of blogging. 

He is very good with words colloquially, however, hates to pen them down on a paper. Also, he doesn't shy away from typing. Hence, I thought blogging would prove helpful! As a result, we created Curiosity Unbound (my 9 year old son's blog) to achieve multiple goals. 

At the moment, I am only making him write on a mix of narrative texts pertaining to work or incidents which he has experienced on himself. We will progress slowly towards more descriptive texts, reviews (books, movies, newspaper articles, etc.), and much more.

The blog has helped him in multiple ways, since it was created. I have mentioned a few positive impacts below:

Psychologically:

1. Boosts his self-esteem. 

2. Believes in himself.

3. Has been a stress buster. 

4. Feels socially accepted. 

Academically:

1.    His thought process is better organised. 

2.  His hold over spellings is getting stronger with each passing day. 

3.  Increased use of adjectives. 

4.  Better use of metaphors and similes in his language. 

5.  Applies his sense of humour at the correct time. 

6.   Is becoming confident in the use of language.

7.  Understanding of the different parts of texts has been on an increase.

8.  His use of punctuation is also getting better.

9. His Ms Word skills as are getting better by the day as he types all his articles in a document file and then we copy paste it on the blog.

10. His proof-reading abilities are also on an upward trend. 

Click here to go on his blog

Dyslexia Vs. Hyperlexia

Dyslexia Vs. Hyperlexia

By now most of us know what dyslexia is, thanks to movies and other awareness programs running in our immediate environment.

Let me give you a quick recap of a dyslexic!

Dyslexia is understood as a “neurological disorder”, which affects children and adults usually with reading. Dyslexia works on two different theories. One, “Phonological-Deficiency Theory” and two, “Magnocellular Theory”. (article by Ramus (2001) titled Dyslexia Talk of Two Theories)

The first theory, as we all would know that a dyslexic has problems decoding the written text. They have a problem recalling basic speech sounds (phonemes) that correspond to what they are visually seeing on paper. For example, they see the word bat but have a difficult time retrieving the sounds that the letters ‘b’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ make alone or in combination. Their brain finds it difficult to plot the letters to the sounds associated with each alphabet. This malfunction in neurological function deeply slows down a student from making the same growth in reading as their peers.

The second theory “Magnocellular Theory” on the flip side, argues there may also be subtle sensory defects in people with dyslexia as well. There is evidence that the brains of some people with dyslexia have “subtle neurological abnormalities” in both visual and auditory sensory areas. Magnocellular theorists believe that the phonological problems may be “caused by basic deficiency in hearing sounds, and that visual deficit might independently contribute to reading problems. (ref. Ramus 2001)

The article by Ramus (2001) continues by stating that the magnocellular theory is itself being challenged. There have been additional studies where “auditory processing [in people with dyslexia] has not been found to be impaired.” Those in the study who had both auditory problems and dyslexia were only around one-third of the subjects. While sensory deficiencies show up in people with dyslexia, the “prevalence and significance of such deficits remain uncertain” (Ramus, 2001).

Now, some light on what is HYPERLEXIA?

There has been a lot of work done on dyslexia. But, very little awareness has been around for hyperlexia.  If Dyslexia is a reading disability, hyperlexia is a comprehension disability!

What does that mean! Let’s try to understand it with the help of a scenario.

A child named Rahul, now aged 11 is a very intelligent child. At the age of 2 years, he can read big words like hippopotamus, at age 3, he is able to read full sentences. By age 5, he manages to read books above his age level. WOW! Great, isn’t it? Now, on the flip side to this, Rahul is very quiet, doesn’t mingle with people around him and comes across as a snobbish child. Slowly as the time progresses, the teachers tell the parents that Rahul  reads superfluously, but doesn't  understand the written word. His comprehension skills are very poor. Doesn't  find the right words to answer to what is asked! It seems like he knows a lot of things. But, we just can't get him to talk.

Rahul has hyperlexia. The more one learns about hyperlexia,  the more one realizes that his language acquisition was typical of children with hyperlexia,  as were his interests and strengths. He is very good at recognizing patterns; he's a visual learner. He likes routines. When he did start talking, he consistently mixed up pronouns. He still takes things very literally. Most children learn how to talk on their own, simply by being surrounded by spoken language. Then, after they've been talking for a while, someone very deliberately teaches them how to read. Children with hyperlexia  are just the opposite. They learn how to read simply by being surrounded by printed words. We don't really know how. Then, after they've been reading for a while, someone has to very deliberately work with them on how to communicate verbally.

Language and Learning Disorders

Important symptom is the language learning disorder seen in these children. Of those children who talk (some children with hyperlexia  are nonverbal), many show this language pattern:

• Early speech and language attempts are echolalic  (both immediate and delayed)
• Good auditory memory for rote learning, such as songs, the alphabet and numbers, as well as good visual memory
• Comprehension of single words (mainly nouns) is better than comprehension of sentences
• Learning language in chunks and transferring whole phrases into appropriate places (Gestalt processing)
• Obvious abnormalities in structure or content of speech, including stereotyped and repetitive speech, reversal of pronouns, and peculiar use of words or phrases
• Noticeable impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation, despite adequate speech.

Social and Interpersonal Development

Symptoms, some of which may be related to insufficiency in language comprehension, also are frequent in this faction of children. These are associated with social relatedness, pragmatic and behavioral issues, and may be associated with nonverbal learning disability:

• Non-compliant behaviors
• Ritualistic behaviors
• Self-stimulatory  behaviors (such as hand-flapping or fidgeting)
• Extreme need for sameness
• Difficulty with transitions
• Sensory sensitivities
• Tantrum behaviors
• General anxiety/specific unusual fears
• Difficulty in groups
• Difficulty in socializing with peers
• Sensitivity to loud machine noises
• Impaired ability to make peer friendships.

Differences between Developmental Dyslexia and Hyperlexia in a snapshot:

Dyslexia	Hyperlexia
Poor decoding	Superior decoding
Adequate listening comprehension	Poor listening comprehension
Reading Comprehension supersedes the decoding	Reading Comprehension inferior to decoding
spellings are below average	Spellings are above average
Average OR above average IQs	Below average to average IQs
Top-down processing	Bottom up processing and are data driven
They see the big picture, are concept driven	Use of Grapheme to Phoneme rules and word-specific tackling of pronunciation
Use of text-to-speech tools	Use of speech to text tools.
Clinical neurological symptoms usually are missing	Clinical Neurological symptoms are usually present.

Ref: Dyslexia and Hyperlexia: Diagnosis and Management of Developmental Reading ... By P. G. Aaron

These are few indications towards hyperlexics.  How do we help these children, we will see in the next article.

Further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlexia

http://www.yale.edu/eglab/pdf/ELGReprint.pdf

http://www.csld.org/HyperlexiaDefinition.htm

Note booking Files

Pythagorean Theorem note-booking  $1.5$

Learn Addition $1

Vocabulary Word Work $1 

Pythagorean Theorem Note - booking 

Vocabulary Word Work 

Learn Addition 

Notebooking pages for Children who find a regular classroom boring

1$ 

Tabular form for the children to record their observations

I have a son who finds his class very boring and extremely taxing . Not because he doesn't want to comply by the rules of a regular class structure, but because he doesn't like doing things the conventional way. He finds the rote work too boring and tends to act in a way which is not a norm by the normal standards of behaviour and code of conduct. So to help him stay on task and learn the concepts I keep coming up with ways to help him and maybe a few others who share a similar ethos as my DS. 

Those of you who need a copy of this can click here 

Fabricated Facts and Actualities about Giftedness

With the limited resources that the Traditional schools have and the inefficient training the our teachers go through have given way to a lot concoctions towards the gifted child's capacities and towards the true understanding of their needs. The general notion that prevails amid the teachers, parents and people in common is that these children can take care of themselves and are capable of learning on their own. This statement by far is just restricted to retaining its status as a NOTION by the researchers and scientists working on the brain.

With the little knowledge that I have acquired in this area, I would like to point out a few FABRICATED FACTS and the TRUTHS about these ingenious brains!

FF:

Gifted children have generic intellectual aptitude which make them gifted in all fields.

TRUTH:

Giftedness is conducive to a specific given domain of learning. A gifted child may not be gifted in all areas and also it is possible that the child is gifted in a specific area but is learning disabled in another.

FF:

Gifted are children who show extraordinary academic abilities.

TRUTH:

There is no logical advocacy for this myth. A child cannot be coined gifted merely on academic achievements. Even a child who does extremely well in music or dance or 3D imagination also is gifted in the given domains.

FF:

Being gifted = high IQs

TRUTH:

Little manifestation has been acquired regarding giftedness in music or arts in terms of IQ. Furthermore, IQ tests calibrates a biased range of competencies.

FF:

Co-operative learning in heterogeneous (diverse) groups provides academic benefits and can effectively substitute for specialised programs for scholastically skilled children.

TRUTH:

Recent studies have shown that gifted students benefit more if grouped with other gifted children, and that co-operative learning cannot substitute for specialised programs for these scholastically talented students.

FF:

Self-assertive parents who push their children to overachieve create gifted children
TRUTH:
Gifted children drive their parents crazy and are pushing them continually for extra stimulation, who are trying to accommodate their needs and nurture them.
FF:
The talented lot should keep pace with learning to read and write early.
TRUTH:
There is no correlation between reading and writing skills in these ingenious souls. Some children may learn to read extremely well but are pathetic at writing skills.
FF:
These gifted children grow up to becoming successful or become some eminent personality.
TRUTH:
Many a times these gifted children or prodigies go unnoticed in adulthood. Their talents go waste as they are not like one of the common lot. They have their own needs and not many parents or educators understand these specialised needs of the child.

Special Learners!!

Only the brave dare look
upon the gray -
Upon the things which
cannot be explained easily,
Upon the things which often
engender mistakes,
Upon the things whose cause
cannot be understood,
Upon the things we must
accept and live with.
And, therefore only the brave
dare look upon the difference
without flinching - Richard H. Hungerford

There are so many students around who are suffering at the hands of Traditional teachers who are not willing to change their ways of teaching and approaching the child's genius!! Having visited couple of schools and meeting so many young minds and coaching so many of them, I feel clustrophobic when I see so many children falling prey to the old & traditional systems of our country.
Our Indian Curriculums are readily and very proudly making INTELLIGENT COMPUTERS out of our generation..........instead of making the INTELLIGENT THINKING HEADS who make those artificiallly intelligent IDIOT BOXES!!
We dont need computers who work on a set of instructions, we need souls who can think and have an individual rationale and logic!!
Very proudly the schools have their books printed and write "complied by the staff and the management of XYZ school".........But if one has to analyse the books they are sooooooooooo haphazardly compiled that its obvious that the child will have problems with literacy.

PLEASE THE INDIAN SYSTEM OF TEACHING IS MARRING THE GROWTH OF OUR CHILDREN .......THE EDUCATION IS SUPERB BUT THE METHOD OF TEACHING IT IS BELOW ZERO LEVEL.........DO SOMETHNG ABOUT IT!!
Let all the children develop - be it special learners (problem or gifted) or the normal average student!! let them all excel not only in the books but also in their holistic development!!

Visual Spatial Learners at a threat......

         In a Sequential world our Visual-spatial Learners are always at a disadvantage. These VSLs are continually under a threat of being misdiagnosed as weak students or children with ADHD/ADD. In our increasingly material world, it’s becoming a trend amongst young educators/teachers to conveniently label children with such complex and serious terminologies. This kind of irresponsible behaviour not only disintegrates the potential of such Visual learners but also devastates the parents of such children.

This article is especially for the parents of such children who are right brain dominant and fundamentally are Visual-Spatial Learners.

        I have a son who is a Visual-Spatial Learner himself and would like to create awareness among parents whose children are also VSLs but unfortunately have been misdiagnosed of being ADD or ADHD. Due to the similitude of symptoms of an ADHD/ADD and a Visual-Spatial learner, it becomes all the more necessary for parents to be extra vigilant of the learning styles and behaviour patterns of their child. Here are just a few eye openers:

1. Daydreams, has a hard time paying attention. – ADHD

A VSL thinks primarily in pictures, hence most of the time is busy visualizing Concepts and Ideas.

2. Has trouble listening to what is being said. – ADHD

A VSL’s strength is visual power and severely lacks auditory skills. Hence, processing auditory commands is a difficult task for the child.

3. Is easily distracted from tasks and play. – ADHD

4. Doesn’t follow through on obeying instructions. – ADHD

A VSL is a whole-part learner. Learns concepts all at once. Hence, sequentially learning is a challenge for them. To get distracted comes naturally to them as they don’t believe, rather CANNOT learn step – by – step.

5. Is disorganized and messy. – ADHD

A VSL is a good synthesizer. Sees the big picture and generally misses out details. They might be extremely messy, one might feel that their rooms are perpetually hit by tornadoes, yet can find a needle from a haystack.

6. Doesn’t want to do things that require ongoing mental efforts. – ADHD

A VSL generally is excellent at math reasoning than computation. They learn the whole word easily than to learn to spell them, which require ongoing mental efforts. They must visualize the word/concept in order to retain them into their long-term memory. (The Glenn Doman method of teaching works wonders for these little marvels of our sequential world.)

7. Often fidgets or squirms; seems to be in constant motion. – ADHD

Touching, feeling and sensing are very essential sensorial needs of a VSL. They are much better at keyboarding than handwriting. Due to their continuous need to be on the move gives them the unique ability to scan, scan and scan continuously, hence, creating unique methods of organization and arriving at solutions more intuitively.

          There are a lot more comparisons for the two, but these were just a few from the list so that the parents may be able to understand their child better. As parents we need to be more aware of our child’s learning styles than to solely depend on a teacher’s note or an assessment done in about an hour’s time by a so called professional. Even if one has to get the child assessed please make sure the assessments are done correctly. A child who is just 3, 4, 5 or 6 years of age cannot be assessed in a matter of a few hours.