Post #5 Digging In

The heavy lifting is in the day-to-day. The wins are often far apart but the cumulative effects are gratifying and lasting. Be patient with the process; early intervention does work. Staying in the moment helps from becoming overwhelmed. Getting creative improves the odds. This critical window of development is time-boxed. Maximize it.

At age four, Luke was in the garage on his tricycle, but not using the pedals – his leg “didn’t work”. Back inside, we moved furniture to create “lanes” to drive in. Luke needed to ride his trike everywhere he wanted to go. The furniture got all banged up, but it was worth it. What seemed like many months later produced a foot that could pedal – we were beginning to begin. Tip 1: create opportunities for hundreds of iterations in a short time span to help develop synapses in the brain. Once created, it is “always on”.

Tip 1: create opportunities for hundreds of iterations in a short time span to help develop synapses in the brain.

Severe attention deficit required a play-learn-play rhythm. Luke was given 10 minutes of outside play, often loud and rambunctious. This was the “wake up your brain” portion of studying. Pressure from running, jumping, being wrapped tightly in a blanket, bumping into or wrestling with his brother, were sources of comfort and windows to promote learning. Physical therapy incorporated a sensory blanket, which had a calming effect and improved focus. When the timer went off, it was reset for 15 minutes of study. Luke knew another round of play followed soon thereafter, allowing us to concentrate on the task at hand for school. It was time-consuming, spanning multiple hours, but effective. Tip 2: create study rituals that are bite-sized and enjoyable to increase adoption and optimize learning.

Tip 2: create study rituals that are bite-sized and enjoyable to increase adoption and optimize learning.

Categorization was a big challenge: we started with Luke’s favorite – food, then moved on to vehicles, animals. Everything had to be hard-wired. The caveat was this hyper-fascination with company logos. The paper published a colorful ad with hundreds listed on a half sheet – no words, just logos. Luke would carry it and study it constantly. Unbeknownst to us all, Luke was learning each one – perhaps finding them while driving around town. Luke helped me find my destination one day by identifying the store’s logo perched high on a pole. Brilliant! He was only five. Tip 3: never underestimate the power of visuals, and sticker books to keep a child motivated and engaged. The Teacher Supply Store was a valuable source of creative workbooks and motivational stickers to keep Luke engaged.

Tip 3: never underestimate the power of visuals, and sticker books to keep a child motivated and engaged.

Luke’s fine motor skills were as impaired as his gross motor skills. Holding a crayon, pencil, or paintbrush was difficult. Attaching Legos was problematic. We found that Q-tips had a pleasing sensory experience for water painting. We invested in colorful finger gels to “paint” on the bathtub wall during bath time, improving Luke’s sense of touch, and distracting him during offensive contact with water. At five, Luke could not button, zip, snap clothing, and tying shoes was years away. The therapist compared Luke’s sensory perception to wearing gloves, without messaging to/from the brain to discern the subtlety of touch. At home, I pulled on thin gloves and couldn’t perform the tasks either. Naturally, learning to write letters was a source of frustration – there were so many things to consider: the process, the paper, the grip, the utensil, and the amount of focus needed to get the job done. Tip 4: Switch to college-ruled paper. The smaller space in which to write the letters allows for greater control and enhanced dexterity.

Tip 4: Switch to college-ruled paper. The smaller space in which to write the letters allows for greater control and enhanced dexterity.

Advancing to third grade, Luke is clearly a multi-modal learner: informed by engaging all his senses. We invented the “See It, Smell It, Touch It, Taste It” game – especially effective for vocabulary building. When Luke didn’t know what a saddle was — field trip! We went to see one, touch it, smell it. Moss, how do you teach moss? Field trip! The neighbor’s tree up the street: see it, smell it, touch it – done! And, we never figured out why Luke had zero volume control, an exceeding loud child. We incorporated volume into the “Say It, Spell It, Say it” game. With Marine-style intensity, standing near a wall, Luke would yell out the word, spell it, yell it out again. I plotted a 15% increase in accuracy – I have no other proof there’s a correlation between volume and learning but try it! Tip 5: Observe what habits your child naturally gravitates towards and incorporate those aspects into learning opportunities.

Tip 5: Observe what habits your child naturally gravitates towards and incorporate those aspects into learning opportunities.

Fast forward to fourth grade; Luke was struggling to learn his phone number. A scramble of numbers did not have meaning. Going on field trips heightened concerns of Luke getting lost or hurt and not being able to contact his family. The abstract was a challenge. Where is the top of the car, the top of your head, the top of the piece of paper? But now, we were telling a story about how phone numbers came to be. A map of the local area was drawn with the zip codes. Friends’ faces were added to the map with the next three subsequent numbers for their neighborhood. Surprisingly, the first six digits were learned from this visual queue. But how to get the final four digits 1-3-7-9 so Luke could recall his full phone number? And there it was: a ruler, all odd numbers, leapfrog over the middle number. Fun, visual, effective. Tip 6: Tell a story with abstract concepts to make them concrete, meaningful.

Tip 6: Tell a story with abstract concepts to make them concrete, meaningful.

A fun saying evolved whenever a new synapse developed in Luke’s brain, or when Luke reached a milestone. “So, when you went to bed last night you couldn’t snap your fingers, but this morning you can – that’s amazing Luke! I cannot wait to see what you can do next!”