Day 1 results

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Study the alphabet above hard for 20 seconds. Try to picture it in your mind. Now close your eyes and recite it - backwards. How many tries does it take for you to get it right?

During yesterday's brain training, Mustang got it right on the second go! The facilitator says she is a very visual thinker. Well, I knew that, but wouldn't have expected her to get the backwards alphabet right so quickly!

Another book I've been reading - still in the midst of - is Right Brained Kids in a Left Brained World. It focuses on ADD kids - which Mustang is not, but many ADD kids also have dyslexia, so I've been reading it in that light. One of the tactics the author suggest for tackling spelling is to have the child visualize the word. Write it out big on paper with each syllable in a different colour, have the child make a mental picture, and then get them to spell it - forwards and backwards. Trying it myself, I find I can do it quite easily. Though I do most of my thinking verbally, I guess I've got decent picture thinking skills too - and I know I've always tended to be a whole word reader, like Mustang (and lots of dyslexic or ADD kids). When I go to spell a word, I do often just "see" the word in my mind. I find I have to concentrate a bit harder and "fix" the picture better in order to spell the word backwards as quickly and easily as forwards, but it's not that hard. (It's definitely much easier and faster than trying to spell a word backwards based on sounding it out!) Of course, backwards spelling is not something that one needs to do on a daily basis (!) but it just goes to illustrate the potential strengths of the visual thinker, and how some things are much easier for them than for verbal thinkers. So what we need to do is to figure out teaching methods that take advantage of these strengths, rather than trying to get the kids to work in ways that are suitable for verbal thinkers.

Anyhow, at the end of yesterday's brain training, Mustang was both very tired and excited about what she'd done that day. She said the "orientation" training was 'like a miracle!" in helping her to keep letters & words from jumping around. So it seems like it's working.