FEAR OF STUFFING UP

To say that I am computer illiterate is an understatement. In fact I have an enormous fear of laptops and the things they do, that is based in my huge, historic fear of failure, of stuffing up and not being good enough.

In reality it is not the laptop I am afraid of, but rather my capacity to stuff-up when using it. Hence I avoid it whenever possible – and hence I have neither visited nor added to my blog in at least two years. Hardly useful, but that’s how it is - and just to get on to my blog tonight has taken me over an hour!

I have always known that my thinking on any topic develops like a staircase – a flat area for a distance, then an abrupt riser, where the product of my observations and thinking suddenly breakthrough. And I’ve just had another riser. Admittedly this 12 inch riser comes hot on the heels of a 45 mile long flat area, but it is better than nothing.

Over the last five years I have been touring New Zealand and parts of Australia presenting seminars to teachers, parents and kids, under the banner of DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED. So far, around 410 presentations. It has suddenly dawned on me that these have been slowly evolving into a three-part series.

The first part comes from my observations of children over 35 years operating as an educational psychologist, and involves identifying what it is that makes these children different from others, understanding how that works, and building a useful pictorial model to work with.

The second part involves examining the implications of this in terms of the individual child’s academic performance, their behaviour, and their (resulting) self-concept.

The third part is the complex process of applying the learnings of the first two, in terms of what we need to do to work with these children in a more useful way. That involves identifying what we should stop doing, and what we should do differently to allow these children to engage, and to find more success in school.

In the seminars each of these parts takes about two hours in their briefest form, meaning that we can do three hour seminars, or whole day (6hr) presentations to get the basic ideas across. Schools commonly request a follow-up, whole day workshop once that have had an initial exposure and directly experienced the positive impact across the school.

As the response to these seminars causes me to look closer at the ‘problem’ of dys-lexia, more and more I am convinced that dys-lexia is actively caused by the way in which we teach in our schools, (see my comments on putting petrol into diesel engines in earlier blogs), and that it is initially more an issue of what we need to stop doing, rather than what we need to learn to do – although this is surely a challenge as well.

For those who may be interested; I am a solo operator, not employed by any organization, nor do I belong to any group. Now that I have stopped paying my annual fees, I am officially not a ‘psychologist’ any more either.

With no organization behind me I rely on other people to arrange my speaking engagements in their home area. Thus, if you are interested in a seminar or workshop in your school, town or area, please email me directly. I may ask you to consider inviting other schools etc in your area to also host workshops or seminars, in order to make the travel factor affordable. A week’s work in any part of NZ or Australia, (or any other part of the world) generally makes it a financially viable exercise.  I try to keep my fees to an absolute minimum, as it is simply not okay that a lack of funds prevents these kids from having a chance.

Please email me with any questions.  (laughton.king@win.co.nz).

www.dyslexiadismantled.com

Laughton King
March 2012

DISENGAGEMENT AND 'BEST-PRACTICE'

DISENGAGEMENT and 'BEST-PRACTICE'

When I ask adult dys-lexics about their schooling years, and specifically ask what it was that made the positive difference in that nightmare setting, typically the response I get is something along the lines of, “Miss Jones, She made the difference.”

And what the Miss Jones of the world did can be adequately summed up as ‘Gave time, consideration, and TLC’.

So there you go, as far as the dys-lexics of the world are concerned, what any teacher needs to do, in order to deal with the problems associated with this elusive, amorphous thing called ‘dys-lexia’ is give copious quantities of time, consideration and TenderLovingCare.

Great – but not great, as any teacher would just role their eyes and sigh, suggesting that this is what they have been doing their entire teaching career – and the situation still seems to be getting worse.

So, lets look at the scene from a different angle to see if we can find some better sense – or at least a way in.

If we were to focus on the negative classroom experience of both the student and the teacher, we could say that it is characterised by an overriding notion of DISENGAGEMENT – meaning that the child is to some extent removed from what is going on in the lesson.  This could include;

1. - Being bored and dreamy in class and not actively paying attention;

2. - Being physically present, but otherwise withdrawing their energy from the situation (except perhaps to entertain themselves);

3. -Being physically absent from class.  We currently have Secondary schools with up to 40% absenteeism per day.  (That is, 40% of the pupil number are actively absent from at least one class-session per day).

Although it could be argued that point 3. above is really only an issue at secondary level, its preliminary levels are well documented at primary level and are evident in most if not all schools.

If it is the case that active disengagement is at least one of the major factors in the educational career of the dys-lexic child, then it certainly behooves as to ask what measures we can possibly take to prevent this creeping disease.  In fact this is a commonly asked question and is being examined by researchers and skilled educators all over the world.

Unfortunately when we ask a question of this nature we typically lead ourselves into looking for gaps in our system, for things that we could do as-well, instead-of, differently, or better.  What we are less inclined to do is examine our current belief systems, our current understandings of ‘good practice’, or even ‘best practice’, and check to see if they really are worthy of such classification.

Working one-to-one for over 30 years with both children and adults who have experienced difficulty in our education system, I have enjoyed a privileged position and a privileged relationship, and via this have been given information that, sadly, has taken me a life-time to process and recognise.

Although I seldom have directly asked 10 year old lads what it is that teachers do that makes the classroom situation so intolerable for them, when I look back and sense their frustration, anxiety and anger, I recognise a common theme in the feedback they have been giving me.  For them it is not about what the teachers are not doing that creates their difficulties, but rather it is about what the teachers need to STOP DOING.

Their feedback strongly suggests that teachers as a body hold, value and are guided by  a whole range of beliefs and practices (truths) basic to accepted teaching philosophy and style that incrementally erodes the diesel student’s self-concept, their experience of success, their willingness to participate, and eventually their active engagement in the classroom.

Asking for feedback from the students themselves is risky, (some would even say it is unprofessional  and unethical) in that they may tell us something that we don't want to know. Irrespective of this potential debate, any seller of consumer products knows that customer feedback is essential to survival in the marketplace.  Our education system studiously disregards the opinion and the voice of the 'failed' student. To my ears the feedback from the children themselves is that their failure and withdrawal is a product of teacher belief and activity, and that teachers are unwittingly undermining the ability of some children in the classroom, and are inadvertently creating the very problem that they are working so hard to remove.

Although such a statement will predictably and understandably generate an indignant self-protective response from members of the teaching profession, there may be more value in it than some are initially willing to allow.

Yes it is the case that exhaustive and ongoing research has led us to our classroom philosophies, beliefs and style, and that the overwhelming evidence is that this has led to some remarkable and positive techniques and approaches in teaching – but we know that it is still the case that our system does not work for a significant proportion of the children.  Ironically but understandably these are the children who consume a disproportionate amount of any individual teacher’s energy and patience.

In my new book (DYS-LEXIA - THE BIGGER PICTURE), to be published early next year, I will spend some time looking at ‘teaching truths’ - beliefs that are so implicit to our teaching head-space that often we do not even recognise that we hold them, and operate within them.

These ‘teaching truths’ have evolved because they equate with effective teaching with most of the children in the classroom, and we naturally hold fast to methods that are seen to be effective.  But we know they are only effective for MOST of the children we teach.  What we fail to see is that for other children these very same principles, methods and strategies may be actively problematic, and creating a world-wide problem of 'disengagement'.

Laughton King

August 2012

AM I DEVELOPING DYSLEXIA?

"AM I DEVELOPING DYS-LEXIA?”

Yesterday I met a gentleman who, on hearing of my interest in dys-lexia, commented that he thought that with his advancing age – he was 70 ish – that he might be developing dys-lexia..

He explained that he finds himself reversing numbers, saying things back to front, and  forgetting names or words – things that he, and other members of the public often see as being indicators of dys-lexia.

I explained to him that dyslexia is not deterioration of the brain, nor a disease that a person picks up or develops, and indeed that there is nothing ‘wrong’ with the dys-lexic’s brain.  I briefly outlined my belief that it is most commonly related to some traces of left handedness (or at least left-sidedness) in the person’s family, and that it is actually genetic and normal.   He immediately acknowledged left- handedness in his father’s family, so I went on to explain that he was probably just slightly into the dys-lexic mode, that he would always have been of this style, but in his younger years would have gone to quite considerable lengths to hide it, and overcome it.  This would have been helped by fact that his degree of dys-lexia was probably minor, and the added fact that he was obviously a very intelligent guy.

It strikes me that human beings are social animals and are generally highly motivated to be accepted by others.  In our great need to be acceptable, and therefore ‘normal’, we tend to try to minimize any negative points of difference.  We do this both consciously and unconsciously – especially when we are young and vulnerable, and when peer pressure is greatest – seldom noticing just how much effort and energy it takes to do so. 

In this way some of us are quite successful at hiding our dys-lexic tendencies from other people, and indeed from ourselves.  (I have met some distinctly diesel people who become quite agitated, defensive and angry when some insensitive intruder suggests that they might be 'dyslexic' – their anger observably being based in their presumption that there is something ‘wrong’ with the dys-lexic person.)  For others of us who are significantly dys-lexic, our style may be quite overt and beyond our control, and we couldn’t hide it if we tried.  In reality most members of the public are not at all concerned if some particular person is dys-lexic or not.

As we get older most of us get a little more comfortable with ourselves, and a little less hung-up on what other people may, or may not think of us.  Being more comfortable with who we are, and how we are, we also figure that it is perhaps not all that important to cover up some of our personal foibles, and so they start to show through.  It is also the case that the older we are the less energy we have, and as with the gentleman I met, the evidence of his dys-lexic style was starting to come through.

No, we don’t suddenly (or even slowly) develop dys-lexia in our later years.  We are born with a  brain-wiring style, and we have the ability to exercise some control over our own presentation of this.  With advancing age, and retreating energy our priorities change and we let things slip through because we know that they simply do not matter.

Laughton King

June 2012

FEAR - as part of Dys-lexia.

Have you ever seen the parade go by - all the musicians in uniform, blowing, playing, marching - and one of them is so out of step?

Today I am proud to be that person who is so out of step!

After 35 years of working with children with learning difficulties, children with behavioural difficulties, displaced children and emotionally abused children, I have come to a place where I do not accept that LOVE is the prime motivator of the human animal. Nor do I accept that shelter or even survival are the main motivators.

My work with children has finally led me to believe that what is of prime importance to each and every one of us is ACCEPTANCE, and being ACCEPTABLE.  I believe that much of what we do, and in particular, how we do it, is based on a predominating personal fear of not being acceptable. We iron our clothes, we brush our hair, we are cordial in our interactions so as to ensure our acceptability to others.

This is particularly evident in the so-called 'DYS-LEXIC' child where this fear can often become a low-level paranoia. "I am not good enough", "I am not acceptable", "I get it wrong, I will be rejected".  This is so often this child's personal experience, and as a result they do not trust adults, and they do not trust themselves, spending their time watching, waiting for the parental outburst that finally signals that dreaded ultimate rejection.

Being normal human beings, their biggest fear is of fear itself, and so they are forever on edge, watchful, apprehensive, so that when this outburst comes it does not take them by surprise.

The reality of the dys-lexic child in the education system (the diesel child locked into a petrol-based learning system) is a daily experience of failure and inadequacy, and of  'getting the short end of the stick'. Hence they see themselves as being 'less-than-acceptable', of being problematic in style, of being unacceptable to others, and so they live a life dominated by a fear of rejection.

Unfortunately, being normal human beings, they often adopt compensatory responses to their area of difficulty (as a sort-of 'fix-it' response), and inadvertently promote their unacceptability through provocative responses:  they can become sullen, morose, aloof, or emotionally needy; they tend to exaggerate or even lie, and deny responsibility; in particularly negative situations they can even become cheats, thieves and bullies - and inadvertently create the rejection they fear so much.

Because our society has a twisted view of what dys-lexia is (most people think that there is something 'wrong' in the child's brain) we respond inadequately and inapropriately to the diesel (dys-lexic) children in our lives, and in our misunderstanding, often make things worse.

When we understand what 'dys-lexia' really is, we will understand how pivotal confusion with language is to their behaviour, and how we (inadvertently) contribute to this.

For information on my seminars, workshops and books, see my web site www.dyslexiadismantled.com

Laughton King
July 2012