My education and years of experience have shown me that many times children struggle and do not perform up to their potential because they are lacking three basic skill sets. These skills are body control, eye movement control and focused attention. Parents usually call me seeking help when their child is falling behind, getting discouraged or even having the school comment that maybe their child might need medication. Some parents have already tried reading and math tutoring with little success. Success is not happening because the basic, fundamental skills are lacking.These skills need to be in place, developed and integrated before higher level learning can take place.
These are the skills children need to smoothly track their eyes across a page, the ability to make both eyes work together and aim at the same point so that the print is clear and single. It also involves how easily and quickly the child can change focus from near to far. When these skills are not developed children struggle with reading, re-read words or lines, lose their place, forget what they read and are slow copying from the board. Their handwriting many times goes uphill or downhill and has bad spacing so that all the words run together. The children I have helped are now reading books for enjoyment, even whole series of books. The child who was never expected to read started learning sight words. Others thankfully report that homework is finished in half the time with no tears and without needing constant supervision.
The very same children are many times also uncoordinated, they bump into things, are clutzy, fidgety in class and poor in sports. These are signs of body control difficulties. These need to be worked on at the same time as the eye movement skills because they are connected. If a child has trouble controlling their big muscles it will affect the fine muscles needed for handwriting and the even smaller muscles of the eyes. Improvement in one area will be seen in the other areas as well. One area of body control that is frequently overlooked is rhythm and timing. As children develop this area their fluency in reading improves. Another area that I work on is bilateral integration and crossing the midline. This involves the ability to use both sides of their body at the same time such as hopping, jumping, cutting, walking, dribbling a ball and is needed for the development of many fine motor skills. I see many children who have not yet figured out which hand to write with, can’t draw a diagonal line, unzip a school bag or even sit cross legged on the floor. After working with their children many parents are thrilled to report that their child is learning to skateboard, ride a bike, swim, enjoy dance and gymnastics and try new things. They no longer avoid sports and no longer move awkwardly.
Children need to be able to pay attention and not be distracted by all the sights and sounds around them. They also need to notice and be aware of the tiny differences and similarities between objects such as the letters b,d,p,and q. The activities I use also reinforce their concept of left and right which is so important in noticing the spatial differences between those letters. Paying attention also involves being able to quickly and easily find the correct problem on a page, an item in a cluttered desk, or even a friend on the playground. I teach the children techniques and give them practice so that they can process information more quickly. Many times children are very distracted and need to be taught to really look and pay attention. When children learn how to slow down and really look at details their memory and spelling improves. I help them learn what to focus on. Paying attention is a learned skill and I help children develop that skill.
I work with the children so that all these basic skills are integrated and become automatic. It’s similar to when we learned how to drive a car. When we first learned it took all of our concentration to remember every little thing such as adjust the mirrors, use the turn indicator, how to change lanes, or make a turn. As we became familiar with driving it became automatic and no longer needed to be done at a conscious level. I help children develop the basic skills of learning so they are automatic and they can devote more energy to actual learning and not just to the mechanics of what they are doing.