Friday, February 27, 2009

Dyslexia Programme

Well, it's been a while since I updated my blog and would like to tell you what we have done. When we started, we had no idea what would work, clearly it would be trial and error. Well, the traditional treatment of dyslexia is quite bleak and I am a positive person and made a positive decision that we would try everything we could to beat this! I got Kelsey on board and she was prepared to do the 'hard work' and have this disability not inhibit her! I was determined to make sure school was still a positive experience and not something she dreaded as it's many years to waste 'hating' school because you're not coping with it.....so.......

One of the first things we did was get the teachers on board - give them the information and copies of the reports we had from her testing. It was a great comprehensive report and volunteered a lot of information - which was very helpful! So the teachers looked at what resources they had and then have helped from their side - they have been incredible!

We then took her to see a kinesiologist who treats people through vitamins, minerals and natural herbs (H-erbs NOT ERBS :)) and she also uses iridology to diagnose. She saw that there was a spot on her frontal lobes causing the dyslexia and has given her a mix of these herbs and vitamins to break it down (she did tell me what it is but for the life of me I cannot remember - hence the 'spot'). She also gave her a program to do every day - brain gym - simple crossing over exercises - crossing over meaning using left and right sides of the brain to recreate brain neural paths.

This lead me to remember what I had learned from Carolyn Copeland about Sensory Integration (SOI) - see this website for some information http://www.turningonthelight.com/balance.html - it is informative! See http://www.autismcoach.com/Sensory%20Integration%20Program.htm to see what the equipment looks like. But I was interested in this many years ago and had done a home course with her when she was doing her masters in South Africa and I bought the equipment - just to enhance the functioning of my children's bodies and brains. Well, with the brain gym exercises recommended, I remembered my training and managed to get my balance board from South Africa (thanks to a great friend who brought it over) and we began these balance board exercises every morning (well every weekday morning). They incorporate using a pendulum ball, a beanbag and a stick. The balance board takes the effects of gravity away and by having to keep your balance while doing the crossing over (left/right brains again) exercises, you open the flow of cerebral fluid and neural pathways are opened up. I guess that's VERY basic and not sure I've even explained it properly with my limited training, but this has been effective.

Another thing that we did was to eliminate sugar, regular milk and cheese out her diet. This was also recommended by the kinesiologist. And I remember in my SOI training I was taught that sugar inhibits the messages being passed from one neuron to the next. So this made complete sense to me. I know there is not much conclusive evidence that sugar does this, but anything was worth trying if it helped! So we went off sugar and it's really hard especially around Halloween, Christmas and Easter! But Kelsey has been amazing and has shown such strength of character, she is absolutely amazing! I use xylitol, honey, agave, pure maple syrup and stevia as sweeteners and substitutes in baking and cooking. I figured out that if a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar - you can substitute it with 1/2 cup of xylitol and 1/2 cup honey. People cannot tell there is any difference! For icing sugar substitute (powdered sugar for the Americans) I found a recipe and adapted it a bit: equal quantities of corn flour (corn starch), milk powder and xylitol - blend it all together in a liquidizer to make it fine powder - then add to any recipe that calls for it.

I cannot say that it has been any one of these things that has helped - I feel a combination has been effective. She started 3rd grade at reading level 2 and 4 months - she is now 7 months into 3rd grade, reading at level 3 and 7 months! Her spelling application in her writing is still very phonetical, but we have seen huge leaps forward in progress! She is encouraged and motivated by these results and has seen the monotonous routine every day has paid off - and she is more intrinsically motivated to do them on her own accord. Her teacher told her that she must continue to do whatever she is doing as it's working.

Please feel free to ask any questions you'd like if I haven't explained things adaquately! I get accused of not explaining things properly!

2 comments:

Rory & Charné Adams said...

Janene, that is so exciting...I am also fascinated with this area of learning - especially recreating or forming those brain connections. You and I need to do a course together on this - I did one a few years ago on "Learning Techniques". I took the course at University of Utah - a two day course.....eye opening and I know they work - as I tried them on my 6th grade class. I had Moms asking me what I was doing with her child as he suddenly had greater abilities to succeed in his sports as well.

Amber-Jean said...

How do I get hold of Carolin and find out more?