MEMORY WORK AND LEARNING DISORDERS
by Alison Shortridge
It used to be hyperactivity. Then it was dyslexia. Now we hear continually of children who “have” ADD or ADHD. All of these come under one general heading: learning disabilities.
What is a “learning disabled” child? One who can’t perform satisfactorily at school. “Hyperactive” means that he can’t sit still. “Dyslexic” means that he can’t read and spell. ADD stands for “attention deficit disorder” and ADHD for “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder”. Both of these meant that the child cannot concentrate. ADD pupils simply withdraw, but ADHD pupils tend to be disruptive. Obviously children who can’t concentrate, can’t sit still, and can’t read and spell are not going to perform well at school. But is it fair to label them “learning disabled”?
When we hear the word “disabled” we immediately think of some medical condition which has rendered the individual unable to perform at a “normal” level. Thus we seek medical and therapeutic solutions for the child’s “learning disability”. Unfortunately, this does not solve the problem; because, as it happens, the “conditions” described above are not medical or even psychological problems. They are educational problems, and as such have educational solutions.
Let us begin with concentration problems. Why can a child not concentrate? There are both external (environmental) and internal reasons for this. We will take the external factors first.
The first possibility is that the child is overtired. He is not getting enough sleep. While adults need eight hours of sleep per night, young children and teenagers need at least ten. In many homes the family sits up late watching TV, with the result that the children get to bed as late as 10:00 p.m. or even 11:00 p.m. at night. Thus the child is tired in class, and as we all know, it is difficult to concentrate when one is tired.
Secondly, the child may be undernourished. This does not mean that he does not have enough to eat (he may well be eating more than he should), but it does mean that he is not eating a balanced diet. Children need meat, vegetables and fruit, milk and dairy products and wholewheat cereals and bread every day. Foods containing excessive amounts of sugar should be cut down to a minimum (it is rarely necessary to cut them out altogether, but they should be a “treat”), and fast foods and take-aways should be avoided except on very special occasions. Water is better than fruit juice (although a certain amount of fruit juice is good), and cold drinks, especially fizzy cold drinks like Coke and Fanta, should be avoided altogether (except, again, on very special occasions). The brain needs to be properly nourished if it is to be alert. A child who is not eating correctly could well develop concentration problems.
Thirdly, the child may be overstimulated. The main cause for this condition is the TV. Children sit passively in front of a TV screen and have a tremendous amount of information “attacking” their brains. The result is confusion and fatigue; and the child learns to “switch off” his mind – a habit which all to often is transferred to the classroom. Computer games have a similar effect.
Finally, too many extra-mural activities may also contribute to the child’s concentration problem. Many children these days are busy every afternoon of the week with music, art, ballet, sport, drama, youth activities and a host of others. While some extra-mural activities are necessary and helpful, too many tire the child and make him less able to concentrate at school.
These external factors are usually beyond the control of the child, but can be effectively addressed by the parents. First, it is important for a child to have a proper routine. Meals need to be taken regularly and at certain times, and it is important that the child goes to bed early (if possible by 8:00 p.m.) every night, and gets up at the same time every day. It is also helpful for a child to have a rest in the afternoon – a time when he needs to be lying down with a book (NOT watching TV).
A child needs to follow a balanced diet. With some planning and care, this can be fairly easily arranged. It is essential that the child has a good breakfast before he goes to school, or, if he is homeschooled, starts his lessons. A mid-morning snack of sandwiches and fruit, a light lunch and a good, nourishing supper are also important for his intellectual development.
TV and computer games need to be severely limited. Some families ban TV throughout the week. If there are mid-week programmes that the family really wants to watch, they are video-taped and watched at the weekend. Remember: the more time the child spends in front of the TV, the less time he has for the brain-developing exercise of reading, and the greater chance he has of developing serious concentration problems. Computer games, likewise, need to be limited to certain times, and if possible, only at the weekend. These are addictive and time-consuming and may also contribute to the child’s concentration problems.
If a child has too many extra-mural activities, these need to be cut down. Children need time to play and be children; if they are continually involved in organised activities of some kind, they become frustrated and tired.
The above are external or environmental factors, which can be fairly easily addressed by the parents. However, a child’s concentration problems also depend on certain internal factors. These are firstly, that he may not understand the information that is being given him, and may become frustrated and “withdraw”, or in the case of the ADHD child, become disruptive and difficult to control. Secondly, he may lack self-discipline, and take “the easy way out” rather than try to understand a difficult concept. This is particularly the case if he is used to watching a lot of TV, where he is not required to exercise his mind at all. Thirdly, he may simply be lazy, and unwilling to make the effort to concentrate on his work. Unfortunately, when he is labelled ADD or ADHD, he has a socially acceptable excuse for his laziness. Nobody can expect him to work when he has a medical condition that prevents it! Thus we may unwittingly be condemning this child to a lifetime of laziness and lack of achievement, by allowing him to avoid making the necessary effort in mastering his lessons.
One of the most effective ways in which to help a child overcome these internal factors is to require him to memorize. When a child is made to commit a passage of Scripture or a poem to memory, he is forced to engage his mind. This brings discipline and helps him to learn to practise self-discipline later on. Furthermore, having to remember a sequence of words in a particular order also helps to bring order into his mind. An orderly mind is able to categorize information and store it away for future use. The mind is rather like a filing cabinet; if it is well organized, it is fairly easy to retrieve needed information. Organization of the mind, however, does not come without effort – just as it takes effort to organize a filing cabinet or a cupboard! A child who develops an orderly mind early in his school career is assured of academic success later, as he will find that he is more able to study effectively and retain what he learns.
Perhaps the most important aspect of memory work, however, is that it involves the child himself in actually exercising his mind. Nobody can memorize for him; he has to do it himself. Furthermore, having made the effort, he has the immediate feeling of achievement and success that comes when he is able to recite what he has memorized. Thus his self-concept problem begins to be addressed. To be effective, memory work should be done every day. A long passage or poem can be divided up into small “bite-size chunks”, and recited cumulatively until the whole passage or poem is memorized. Nothing succeeds like success, and having found that he can successfully memorize a passage of Scripture or a poem, a child is more confident when it comes to other areas of his schoolwork.
Memorizing comes fairly easily to young children. As they grow older, it becomes more difficult, unless their memories have been trained while they were young. Adults who have never memorized anything find it extremely difficult to begin. However, no matter when a person decides to embark on a memory programme, he will find that it becomes easier as he goes along, and he will definitely find that his ability to study and retain what he has learned improves. There are several very expensive memory training programmes on the market that operate exactly on the basis of this principle!
Finally, we need to say something about the problem of a child not understanding the information that is being given him. Usually this can be traced to inadequate teaching of the basics in the early grades. The two main areas of concern are the teaching of reading (which is related to spelling) and the teaching of Maths. If a child cannot read properly he is severely compromised in his ability to learn any other subject. If he is weak on his basics in Maths, he is going to have great difficulty in being able to cope with more sophisticated mathematical concepts. As there are mathematical concepts at the basis of virtually every discipline, he is going to find that he is checked at every point when selecting a career. (This is why most universities still require Maths as an entrance qualification, even for students not intending to follow a scientific career.)
Children should be taught the mechanics of reading in a fairly short time. By the end of Grade 1 a child should be able to read anything – from the children’s books in the library to the Bible, the Reader’s Digest, or even an encyclopaedia. He may not understand everything he reads, but he should be able to decipher the words on the page and read them correctly. This can be accomplished if a phonics approach to reading is used. Children should be taught the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, their names and the sounds they make. They should then be taught how to put them together to make different sounds. Of course, English is fairly difficult here, but not impossible. Most words obey the phonics rules, and for those few that don’t, it is a simple matter to memorize them. This is much easier than trying to memorize word after word merely by their shape, as happens when the “Look and Say” system is used for the teaching of reading, which is the case in most South African schools. Once a child can read, he should be allowed to read books that interest him, and not forced to read boring, repetitive readers. Interesting reading matter given to a child who can read can deal with his problems of frustration far more effectively than a drug such as ritalin can.
Secondly, while mathematical concepts need to be introduced in a concrete form (e.g. counters for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing), the four basic operations need to be consolidated early by daily drilling and mental work. By the end of Grade 1 a child should not have to think before he gives you the answer to 3 + 4, or 8 + 9. Later his times tables should become almost second nature to him. If this is attended to in the first three years of school, he will find that he has few problems with Maths in later years. (Of course, not every child will become a mathematician, but every child needs a basic knowledge of Maths in order to function effectively in our highly technological society.) Over the last few decades, drill work in Maths has been discouraged and even dropped altogether in our schools. We see the results in our low performance in mathematical skills as compared to the rest of the world.
If school teachers are unwilling or unable to teach children along these lines, parents should seriously consider undertaking the task themselves. It is significant that so-called “untrained” mothers are very often able in a short time to achieve results with their “learning disabled” children, while the “professionals” have failed dismally, even after a number of years.
To sum up: we need to realize that “learning disabilities” such as dyslexia, ADD and ADHD are not medical or neurological conditions. They are the results of failure by the educational system to educate children in accordance with the way they have been designed. Once certain environmental factors have been addressed, the solution is to train the child’s memory, thus bringing discipline and order into his mind and helping him to learn how to work, to teach him to read in a relatively short time using a phonics method, thus avoiding frustration, and to drill his basic maths skills, thus equipping him to be able to deal effectively with more complicated mathematical concepts later on. He should definitely not be drugged with ritalin or anything else, or have his schedule taken up with unnecessary “therapy”, when often all he needs is some time to be a child.
NOTE: The author has developed a “Step-by-Step Phonics Reading Scheme” which teaches a child to read and spell from the beginning. This is available from TCE at a cost of R150 plus postage and packing. Phone (021) 557-2612 during office hours to place your order. You can also fax us on (021) 556-1277, or email us on tcecc@mweb.co.za.
For those who would like to take full responsibility for their child’s education, THEOCENTRIC CHRISTIAN EDUCATION offers a fully structured, Christian-based Curriculum, designed specifically for mothers who are not trained teachers. Memory work forms an important basis for the academic excellence of the curriculum, and children are tested and examined on a regular basis to ensure that they are progressing satisfactorily. For more information contact T.C.E. on the above numbers
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DYSLEXIA – A COMMONSENSE APPROACH
by Alison Shortridge
To Whom It May Concern:
Please excuse Johnny’s poor spelling and handwriting. He suffers from dyslexia. I trust you will not penalize him for this.
Dear Sir/Madam
Elaine has recently been diagnosed as suffering from dyslexia. Please take this into account when marking her exam papers.
Dear Examiner
I would like to apply for spelling and handwriting immunity for my child, who has suffered from dyslexia throughout his school career.
Letters like these arrive on the desks of school principals and teachers on almost a daily basis. It would seem that we have a serious disease in our midst – dyslexia. But is this really the case?
Before we begin, we need to define our terms. Solomon said (Ecclesiastes 1:9) that “there is no new thing under the sun.” Yet, in the late 1960s, a “new thing” suddenly came into being – dyslexia. Or was it really new?
The word “dyslexia” is a new word formed by using the prefix “dis” (spelled “dys” because it looks better) with the root word “lego” (Latin) meaning “to read”. The prefix “dis” means “not”; thus “dyslexia” means, literally, “not reading”. When we examine children who are dyslexic, we find that in addition to being unable to read, they cannot spell. Thus “dyslexia” seems to be the condition of being unable to read and write (express themselves correctly in writing).
Now, do we have another English word that describes someone who is unable to read and write? Yes! That word is “illiterate”. It is a very good word, and describes this condition admirably.
Why, then, was the new word “dyslexia” coined in the late 1960s to describe a condition which has always been known as “illiteracy”?
Why indeed? To give parents the idea that the fact that their child could not read was attributable to some kind of medical condition. If they could be persuaded to accept this, they would not enquire too closely into the inadequate teaching methods of the schools.
And it worked! While I have never yet met a parent who is willing to say, “My child is illiterate”, I have met literally hundreds who say (often quite proudly), “My child has dyslexia.”
There is another serious consequence to this way of thinking. If the child is told that he “has” dyslexia, he ceases to try when it comes to reading and spelling. After all, it is out of his hands. Why battle to learn spelling words, or struggle to learn to read, when it is impossible because of his medical condition? Thus we confirm a child in his laziness. As human beings we are all basically lazy and self-indulgent, and it is a lifelong battle for us to overcome these tendencies. None of us enjoys getting out of bed in the morning, especially in cold weather, and most of us look for and take easy ways out of our difficulties! What we are doing here is supplying the child with a socially acceptable reason for him to stop working – a problem that may well have lifelong consequences.
If dyslexia is a disease of some kind, obviously it must be “cured” by medical means. (In some cases Christians have been known to pray for “healing” for a dyslexic child.) Thus parents go from doctor to psychologist to occupational therapist in an effort to find the “cure”. In this very expensive process they are subtly informed that the child’s condition is their own fault. The fact that he cannot read and write is attributable to the fact that he is the eldest, or the youngest, or the middle child, or he is an only child, or he is a member of a large family, or there is sibling rivalry. At the time of his birth his mother was in a traumatic state (what woman in labour is not in a “traumatic state”?) Mothers are sometimes asked if they “really wanted” the child. If he was “unplanned” – why, there is the problem! The feelings of rejection that he suffered in the womb account for his inability to read and spell. And of course, if there is any discord whatsoever in the home – for example, arguments between the husband and wife – his problem can be traced to that.
If this line of questioning fails to bring any results, the next “solution” is to examine the child’s nutrition. Now, of course it is important for the child to be eating a balanced diet, but this is not the focus of attention. Possibly he is “allergic” to wheat, or milk, or sugar, or something else that forms an important part of his daily intake. The poor parents are forced to buy expensive vitamin supplements, or strange-tasting “health foods”, and overturn their entire style of eating, simply to find a “cure” for the fact that the child cannot read and spell.
And if all else fails, there is always the “wonder-drug”, ritalin. Parents are told that if the child is on ritalin, he will be able to “cope”. I asked an education department official if this meant that whereas the child could not read before, he would be able to read once he was put on ritalin. The answer was that this would not necessarily be the case, as there were “other factors” to consider. He would, however, be able to concentrate better, although this did not happen in all cases! Yet the number of children in our country on ritalin has risen to almost epidemic proportions in recent years. Talk about induced drug addiction!
The whole scenario changes when we substitute the word “illiteracy” for the word “dyslexia”. Ask anybody how he would deal with the problem of illiteracy, and he will tell you – teaching! Nobody suggests that a child (or an adult) is illiterate because of sibling rivalry, trauma during pregnancy and labour, or poor nutrition! In fact, every person on this earth – even the most erudite professor, and in fact, even the great William Shakespeare himself – was once illiterate! A baby cannot read and write. No amount of ritalin or good nutrition will enable him to do so. He must be taught.
“Now wait a minute,” I hear you say. “My child has been taught to read. He has been in school for three – or six – or nine – or (heaven help us!) twelve years, but he cannot read or spell. It must be because there is something preventing him from being able to learn.”
Not so. Your child may well have attended school, but he has not been taught to read and spell. He has been taught to “recognize words” by their shape (there is even a move to teach children to recognize sentences “by their shape”!), with the result that he has learned to guess words, but he has not been taught the mechanics of reading, and consequently, cannot grasp the rudiments of spelling either.
What is reading? It is merely the process of encoding and decoding spoken language. Every language is made up of a limited number of sounds, known as the phonics of the language. English has forty-four of them. A written language has symbols that represent those sounds. There are various orthographies in the world – Greek script, Chinese script, Arabic script, etc. – but we use Roman script. As there are only twenty-six letters to represent forty-four sounds, obviously some letters have to be combined to make certain sounds. In addition to this, the English language’s twelve-hundred-year history has resulted in many different ways of spelling the same sound. This means that there are about a hundred and fourteen different ways of spelling the forty-four basic sounds in English. This makes spelling complicated, but not impossible. After all, rather learn a hundred and fourteen different ways of spelling forty-four sounds than learn over a million words by their shape!
The worst example in English of a combination of letters representing different sounds is the “rough – cough – dough – bough – through – thought” group, where “ough” says six different sounds! However, we should remember that this is the worst, and affects so few words that these can easily be memorized. More than eighty-five percent of all English words obey the phonics rules. Why then can children not spell? Because they have not been taught these rules in a systematic way.
How long does it take a child to read? A few months. Spelling may take a little longer, but even that should not take longer than three or four years. By the end of Grade 1 a child should be able to read anything – the Bible, the Reader’s Digest, the encyclopaedia. He may not comprehend all that he reads, but he should be able to decipher the actual words accurately, even if he doesn’t understand them. There should be no need for “readers” – especially the mindless, boring, deadly, repetitive “Look and Say” readers that are inflicted on our children. By the end of Grade 1 he should be able to go to the public library and select any book he likes and be able to read it – and, as a matter of fact, this is just what he should do.
To be fair, we need to remember that a thorough knowledge of the phonics of the language is not enough in itself to make a child a reader. He needs practice, and plenty of it. The best way to help the child is to set aside time each day (for example, an hour after lunch) when he has to be in his room, on his bed, with a book. He may read or sleep – nothing else. As this habit takes hold of him, he will begin to be more skilled at reading and be able to develop a real love for it. While it is important for the parent to read to the child, this should not take the place of personal silent reading.
If you have a TV, you need to limit it if you want your child to develop good reading habits. It is far easier to watch TV than to read, and a child will naturally do what is easier. Every hour spent in front of the TV predisposes your child to academic mediocrity and helps to ensure that he will become a non-reader. In our home we finally banned the TV from Monday to Friday, and limited its use over the weekend. Even then we believe that our children watched too much TV while they were growing up. You need to decide on a policy that works for your family.
How can a child learn to spell? He needs a thorough knowledge of the rules and how to apply them. Simply memorizing lists of words does not seem to work very well. Probably the most effective approach is to insist on perfect spelling in all your child’s work right from the start. Words that he misspells must be corrected and, if necessary, written out. From time to time he should be tested on these words that he finds difficult in order to consolidate what he has learned. (Thus you need to keep a list of them.) The very worst thing you can do is to give the child the impression that he has some sort of medical condition or genetic imperfection that makes him unable to learn to spell. This is simply not true. It is also very unfair on him to lead him to believe that “spelling doesn’t count.” Even today, the ability to spell correctly is still considered a sign of being educated. Illiteracy carries little status!
What is a “commonsense approach” to dyslexia? Let us go back to calling a spade a spade. Use the word “illiteracy” rather than “dyslexia”. Realise that an academic problem has an academic solution. Stop trying to find some mysterious “cause” for your child’s illiteracy, and begin without delay to address the problem by teaching him!
NOTE: The author has developed a “Step-by-Step Phonics Reading Scheme” which teaches a child to read and spell from the beginning. This is available from T.C.E at a cost of R150 plus postage and packing. Phone (021) 557-2612 during office hours to place your order. You can also fax us on (021) 556-1277, or email us on tcecc@mweb.co.za
For those who would like to take full responsibility for their child’s education, THEOCENTRIC CHRISTIAN EDUCATION offers a fully structured, Christian-based Curriculum, designed specifically for mothers who are not trained teachers. Memory work forms an important basis for the academic excellence of the curriculum, and children are tested and examined on a regular basis to ensure that they are progressing satisfactorily. For more information contact T.C.E. on the above numbers
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ADD, ADHD AND HOW TO TREAT THEM
by Alison Shortridge
They were never heard of before. Yet now, almost daily, we hear of some child being diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. What are these?
ADD stands for “Attention Deficit Disorder” and ADHD for “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder”. What this means is that a child who has ADD is quiet, but cannot concentrate, while a child who has ADHD can’t sit still and cannot concentrate. According to experts at the Education Department, the cause of these conditions is the same: cortical unreadiness, which is a neurological problem. It can be outgrown, but is helped with medication (ritalin) and therapy (occupational therapy). Children with these disorders develop a low self-concept because of their inability to achieve, and with medication (ritalin) they are then “able to cope”. This does not mean, unfortunately, that they can then do the work that they previously could not do, but they are more able to “concentrate”. If the medication doesn’t seem to be working, the search is on for other external or internal problems, starting with the home background and progressing through the birth experience, trauma of one kind or another, sibling rivalry and a host of other day-to-day problems experienced by the child.
What are we to say to all this? Most parents are intimidated, especially when they hear that their child has a “neurological problem” associated with “cortical unreadiness”. What is that, anyway? It sounds terrible! Could it be that the child is brain-damaged in some way? The results of tests normally show that these children have a “non-verbal IQ” of two or more years ahead of their age, but “verbal skills” (i.e. reading, writing and spelling) of a much younger child.
I believe that we should examine these claims a little more thoroughly before we put our children on to ritalin, or subject them to some kind of “therapy”, which we can be sure is going to cost us a lot of money!
Let us take the problem of concentration. Is it really true that a child is unable to concentrate? If this is really so, he should not be able to concentrate on anything, not just his schoolwork. He should not be able, for example, to play with his Lego for hours on end. He should not be able to sit and draw, or model with clay, or build sand-castles on the beach, or make roads for his cars in the garden, or do anything that normal children do. Furthermore, these problems should have manifested themselves well before school age. Yet most parents are taken completely by surprise by the news that their seemingly intelligent little boy or girl “has” ADD.
What about ADHD? Again, if the child cannot sit still during his classes at school, this condition should manifest itself elsewhere. He should not be able to sit through a TV programme either. He should not be able to go on a journey in a car for any length of time. And again, this problem should have manifested itself long before he got to school.
I believe that we need to look elsewhere for the causes of so-called ADD and ADHD. Having found the causes, we will be more likely to be able to rectify the situation.
First of all, I do not believe that either ADD or ADHD is a medical or even a neurological condition. Thus they cannot be “treated” by medication or even therapy. Both of these are educational problems, and as such must have educational solutions.
Let us take the concentration problem first. If a child cannot concentrate, there could be various reasons for this. He could be overtired, undernourished, or actually sick (in which case the problem would obviously be temporary). He could be overstimulated by having too much information given to him at once. He could be confused by the fact that what has been told him does not seem to make any logical sense. He could be just plain bored!
If he is overtired, the solution is easy. See to it that he is in bed early. Children should be in bed not later than 8:00 p.m. at night, but unfortunately many families allow their children to stay up until 10:00 p.m. or even 11:00 p.m. watching T.V. Adults need eight hours’ sleep in order to function properly; children, especially young children and teenagers, need at least ten. A rest time for about an hour in the afternoon is also very valuable. If the child does not want to sleep, he could be encouraged to spend this time reading (NOT watching TV!)
Undernourishment could be the result of allowing a child to eat what he likes instead of what he ought. Children should be given a balanced diet, including meat, vegetables, wholewheat cereals and dairy products. Foods containing an excessive amount of sugar should be given only in small quantities. Plain water is often a better option than fruit juice, and of course soft drinks such as Coke should be avoided altogether, except on special occasions. Fast foods should also be avoided. Furthermore, a child should have a good breakfast before going to school (or starting his schoolwork if he is at home), and should eat at regular times every day. A good routine is a great help in making sure that the child is well-fed and rested.
The problem of overstimulation can usually be traced to the TV. Children should be severely limited in the amount of television they are allowed to watch. The family should decide together what TV programmes are important to them, and arrange to tape these so that they can be viewed at a time that suits the family schedule. Parents who are addicted to TV need to change their own habits in this regard, and spend time on other activities involving their children.
Computer games also cause a problem of overstimulation. The child would be better off playing outside. Don’t tell yourself that computer games are “educational”. They are not. Reading exercises the brain, and according to a well-known Cape Town eye specialist, actually strengthens the eyes. Computer games, on the other hand, tire the brain and are bad for the eyes. A child can get more useful information from reading even a novel than from playing a computer game.
A third problem that parents need to consider is the number of extramural activities in which a child is involved. Some children are busy every day of the week doing music, ballet, sport, art, drama, ice skating, youth activities, and many more. Some extramural activities are necessary and valuable, but too many may tire the child and cause him to have concentration problems at school.
Finally, we need to consider the possibility that the child is confused by what has been told him because it seems to make no logical sense. He may struggle for a while to make sense of what he has heard, and then simply “switch off”, concluding that there is no point in thinking about it at all. An ADD child will sit quietly and look as though he is listening, but in reality he is miles away in his own world, which is more interesting. An ADHD may become unruly and difficult, causing disruptions in the classroom in an effort to make the environment more interesting than the lesson! This type of child is not prepared to sit quietly and disappear into his own world. He wants activity and excitement. Possibly he feels the need to express his frustration in a tangible way. Thus he causes disruption, and is labelled “hyperactive” and his parents are told that he “has” ADHD.
There is an interesting psychological phenomenon at work here. When a child is labelled ADD or ADHD, his educational problem is very subtly converted into a medical or psychological problem. The use of words like “cortical unreadiness” or “neurological problem” have the effect of frightening the parent into believing that there is something seriously wrong with the child. Nobody mentions “brain damage”, but the idea is there, hovering at the back of everybody’s mind. Teachers hasten to assure the parents that the problem is not the child’s fault. Of course not; nobody but a brute would suggest that a mental or physical problem can be blamed on the child! The parent experiences a sense of relief which he or she passes on to the child. It is not his fault that he can’t spell, it is because he has a neurological problem called ADD or ADHD.
What is really happening? The real source of the problem is being very cleverly masked. Parents are in a state of shock, and the first thing they want to be assured of is that it is not their fault. Once this is done, they relax, accept the diagnosis, and start the treatment. Nobody thinks to ask whether it is possible that the teacher, the teaching methods and the educational system have produced, or at least aggravated, the child’s concentration problems! Yet this, I believe, is all too often the case.
There is another serious consequence to labelling a child ADD or ADHD. He decides that, if his poor results at school are the result of some medical problem, he no longer has to try, but can just give up. It is not his fault that he cannot spell; he “has” ADD or ADHD. Thus he is given an acceptable excuse for his own laziness. Now before everybody rushes to inform me that their children are not lazy, let us remind ourselves that we human beings are by nature both lazy and self-indulgent. There is not one of us who enjoys getting out of bed in the morning, especially on a cold day. Every one of us looks for and usually takes an easy way out of a difficulty. And many of us will do almost anything to avoid the labour of thinking! Our children are no different from us, their parents. They, too, would rather not concentrate if they can avoid it. By labelling them ADD or ADHD, we give them a socially acceptable excuse to do exactly that – avoid learning to concentrate, and avoid hard work. Thus we confirm them in their laziness, which in some cases becomes a lifelong problem.
How can we begin to rectify this complicated problem? The first problem, I believe, is that the child’s memory has not been trained. Since the days of the Reformation, children have been required to memorize both Scripture and poetry. Our grandparents memorized long poems – often we find it difficult to believe that they really did so! In our parents’ day the poems were shorter, but for the last thirty to forty years, the memorization of Scripture and poetry has been all but dropped altogether as being “rote learning” and having no value. However, the training of the memory is of vital importance to the future academic achievement of the child.
When a child memorizes, he is forced to recall words in sequence. This disciplines his mind, and also helps to bring it into order. An orderly mind is able to categorize information and store it away where it can be fairly easily retrieved. A disorganized mind is like a drawer into which all kinds of documents have been pushed at random. When one wants to find an important document, like the TV licence (the inspector being at the door), the task is well-nigh impossible. If the documents have been systematically filed, however, it is a relatively easy task to find the one we need. When a child memorizes, it does for his mind what our filing cabinet does for our documents! Of course, it is a long process; but early training in this regard proves to be well worth the effort in later years.
Another important aspect of memory training is that it enables the child to bring his part to his education on a day-to-day basis. He has to make a conscious effort to memorize, and if the memory work is tested daily, this becomes a lifelong habit. Furthermore, there is immediate reward – the child is able to recite his memory work correctly, and this gives him a feeling of achievement. This daily feeling of achievement begins to overcome the problem of the low self-concept, from which many ADD and ADHD children suffer. Memory work is fairly easy (there is not difficult concept to understand, for example), but it does require work, and this is something that is important for the child’s future study habits, and also helps him to counteract his own natural laziness. As this is a battle all of us have to face, the earlier he begins to fight it, the better!
The second problem is that the system used to teach reading is illogical and frustrating to children. They are expected to memorize word after word after word merely by their shapes, and for boys especially, this becomes a mindless chore. It is made even more mindless by the boring, repetitive readers that they are forced to “read” (actually, they don’t really read them, they merely recognize the words they have learned). It is not too long before they find that knowing the words in their readers does not help them to read anything they might want to read, such as the Noddy books, fairy tales, or anything else. They haven’t memorized all the words necessary for these books. Knowing by bitter experience how difficult it is to remember fifty, or a hundred, or even five hundred words, they become discouraged as they begin to realize how many more words there are to learn! Thus they soon lose interest in learning to read. As virtually everything else depends on reading, this lack of interest soon communicates itself to the other subjects, and the child begins to perform very poorly at school. This affects his self concept, and it is not too long before he is “diagnosed” as ADD or ADHD.
The third area where problems soon manifest themselves is in Maths. Children usually get on well in Maths for the first couple of years, but as they get older problems begin to surface. These can be traced to the fact that the child is not very secure in his knowledge of the basics: his number combinations and times tables. In days gone by these were drilled until they were almost second nature to the child. Nowadays drill is considered old-fashioned and even harmful, and children are given calculators instead. The result is that when a child needs to find a common denominator between, say, 4, 5 and 6, he is at a complete loss because he simply does not know his 4, 5 and 6 tables – and the calculator doesn’t seem to be of much use. In his frustration he may simply withdraw into his own world (ADD) or begin to express his frustration in tangible ways (ADHD).
It is significant that when a child is diagnosed with either ADD or ADHD, the parents are assured that his “non-verbal IQ” is above average for his age, but that his verbal IQ is below standard. What this means is simply that he cannot read, write and spell; but he is of above average intelligence. If he really is of above average intelligence (or even of normal intelligence), there is absolutely no reason for his inability to read and spell unless he has not been taught!
Having identified the problem, we should go on to proposing some solutions. Basically, this is an educational problem, and as such, must have an educational solution.
We have already mentioned the importance of getting enough rest, following a balanced diet and avoiding overstimulation by watching too much TV, playing computer games or having too many outside activities, so we assume that these areas have been attended to.
The first thing that is of utmost importance in encouraging a child to develop good concentration habits is the discipline of the mind. This is best accomplished by training the child’s memory. As he memorizes passages of Scripture and poetry, he is bringing discipline into his mind by forcing it to remember words in the correct sequence. In addition to this, he is helping his mind to become more orderly. A trained memory tends to categorize things; thus when new information comes in, it is stored away in a particular category. This ability is invaluable when the child needs to get down to serious study, as he does in high school and beyond. Furthermore, God has designed children with tremendous ability to memorize. However, this ability needs to be harnessed and exercised if it is to benefit the child later on. As he grows older, memory work becomes more difficult (unless he is already used to it), until when he reaches adulthood, it is a very difficult task. However, no matter what age a person is, once he begins to make the effort to commit Scripture and/or poetry to memory, he will find that his ability to concentrate improves.
It is significant that the educational system to which we have been exposed for a number of years has downplayed memory work more and more, so that now children are not required to memorize anything – except, of course, every word by its shape! No wonder we have problems with children unable to concentrate – their minds have simply not been disciplined.
Secondly, children should be taught the mechanics of reading in a fairly short time. By the end of Grade 1 a child should be able to read anything – from the children’s books in the library to the Bible, the Reader’s Digest, or even an encyclopaedia. He may not understand everything he reads, but he should be able to decipher the words on the page and read them correctly. This can be accomplished if a phonics approach to reading is used. Children should be taught the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, their names and the sounds they make. They should then be taught how to put them together to make different sounds. Of course, English is fairly difficult here, but not impossible. Most words obey the phonics rules, and for those few that don’t, it is a simple matter to memorize them. This is much easier than trying to memorize word after word merely by their shape! Once a child can read, he should be allowed to read books that interest him, and not forced to read boring, repetitive readers. Interesting reading matter given to a child who can read can deal with his problems of frustration far more effectively than a drug such as ritalin can.
Thirdly, while mathematical concepts need to be introduced in a concrete form (e.g. counters for adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing), the four basic operations need to be consolidated early by daily drilling and mental work. By the end of Grade 1 a child should not have to think before he gives you the answer to 3 + 4, or 8 + 9. Later his times tables should become almost second nature to him. If this is attended to in the first three years of school, he will find that he has few problems with Maths in later years. (Of course, not every child will become a mathematician, but every child needs a basic knowledge of Maths in order to function effectively in our highly technological society.) Over the last few decades, drill work in Maths has been discouraged and even dropped altogether. We see the results in our low performance in mathematical skills as compared to the rest of the world.
If school teachers are unwilling or unable to teach children along these lines, parents should seriously consider undertaking the task themselves. It is significant that so-called “untrained” mothers are very often able in a short time to achieve results with their “learning disabled” children, while the “professionals” have failed dismally, even after a number of years.
To sum up: we need to realize that ADD and ADHD are not medical or neurological conditions. They are the results of failure by the educational system to educate children in accordance with the way they have been designed. The solution is to train the child’s memory, thus bringing discipline and order into his mind and helping him to learn how to work, to teach him to read in a relatively short time using a phonics method, thus avoiding frustration, and to drill his basic maths skills, thus equipping him to be able to deal effectively with more complicated mathematical concepts later on. He should definitely not be drugged with ritalin or anything else, or have his schedule taken up with unnecessary “therapy”, when often all he needs is some time to be a child.
NOTE: The author has developed a “Step-by-Step Phonics Reading Scheme” which teaches a child to read and spell from the beginning. This is available from TCE at a cost of R150 plus postage and packing. Phone (021) 557-2612 during office hours to place your order. You can also fax us on (021) 556-1277, or email us on tcecc@mweb.co.za
For those who would like to take full responsibility for their child’s education, THEOCENTRIC CHRISTIAN EDUCATION offers a fully structured, Christian-based Curriculum, designed specifically for mothers who are not trained teachers. Memory work forms an important basis for the academic excellence of the curriculum, and children are tested and examined on a regular basis to ensure that they are progressing satisfactorily. For more information contact T.C.E. on the above numbers
