Balancing for Reading Success

If you follow this blog, you likely know how much I care about supporting children in reading easily, and how much I value the tools and techniques offered through the Brain Gym program that are so effective in doing just that. If this is new information, you can refer to these links for a start:

Henry and Reading – Revisited  

“Thank you for teaching me.”  

Ready for Reading  

You may also know that I dedicated an entire chapter of my book, Educate Your Brain, to the topic of reading. In that chapter, titled "Ready for Reading," I cover many challenges to fluent reading: issues with eye-teaming, eye-tracking, reading comprehension, and more – and and how using Brain Gym can help to overcome them. 

I’m posting here the concluding portion of this chapter, which brings together many of the topics I've covered, and offers a compassionate perspective on those who struggle to read.

And at its end, I share some exciting news about my next writing project, and ask for your feedback, stories, and suggestions, as well.

An excerpt from “Ready for Reading”

In my own practice, I work regularly with clients of all ages who want to address reading issues. Many adults have struggled their whole lives with these challenges, and their outcomes from balancing may be life-altering. And the same changes can turn around a child’s experience of school, and of life, as well.

When I work with youngsters, I always have the parent on hand to observe and participate. It’s often a real eye-opener for a parent to see how much difficulty her child may have with the Cross Crawl, for example, especially once I explain the correlation between lack of coordination and academic challenges. And if we discover that he leads with his left eye, or has other eye-teaming issues, it puts a whole new perspective on the battles over reading she may have had with him, for example.

Then the parent is amazed to see how easily the child may be
 Cross Crawling after his session, and how his reading improves. She is in a perfect position to appreciate changes in her child’s academic performance and attitude in the days that follow and to do Brain Gym movements with him at home.

A very concerned grandmother brought Clark, age eight, for a Brain Gym balance session. Nightly reading practice had become quite a battle at his house. His parents said they could hardly get him to sit and read at all. So I turned to Clark and asked, “Why don’t you like to read?” Clark told me it made his stomach and head hurt.

When I asked Clark to read out loud from a very simple storybook, he read haltingly, miscalling several simple words and completely ignoring the punctuation. He was extremely awkward in the Cross Crawl portion of PACE, and almost fell down as he did it.

At the end of his balance (which included Dennison Laterality Repatterning and a few additional Brain Gym movements), perhaps forty minutes later, Clark picked up the book again and read without hesitation, and without stumbling over the words. He even read with inflection, pausing or stopping at the appropriate punctuation—indicators of true comprehension.

I heard later from the grandmother that when Clark came home that night he had his nose in his book until bedtime, and the next day he enthusiastically read thirty more pages! A note from the grandmother concluded, “His self-esteem is so much higher now. I have never seen such a turnaround in my life. I am a very enthusiastic believer in Brain Gym. Thank you for giving Clark so much hope and help.”

I love telling this story for several reasons. First of all, it shows the profound effects that one Brain Gym balance can have.

Secondly, this is a perfect example to share with teachers. When I finish telling this story, I often mention, “I did no reading practice with Clark; he did no comprehension worksheets. We simply did Brain Gym movements and processes after Clark set his goal to improve his reading. The reading ability and comprehension were waiting to emerge, once his mind-body system was truly prepared.”

Lastly, and most importantly for me, this story illustrates the belief I strongly hold: all children really do want to learn, do well, and get along in school. Think of Clark’s headache and stomachache when he tried to read. Of course he avoided it—wouldn’t you? How many of us sign up to do things that make us feel ill? I would certainly be surprised if someone with motion sickness said, “Oh, boy! We have a long driving trip coming up. I think I’ll sit in the middle of the back seat!” We’d think that person was crazy. But if a child avoids something, we may call him “contrary” and just make him do more of it, because it’s so “good” for him. Perhaps not. Perhaps it’s time to look at why he’s avoiding it and do something about that.

Exactly what shifted for Clark?

It’s impossible to know for sure, but I can certainly make a guess or two based on what Clark told me, what I know about learning challenges, and what I observed in his session.

If someone’s eyes aren’t teaming properly, he can feel uncomfortable (stomachache, headache) trying to bring them to focus on a specific object, like a letter or word. Trying to follow a line of print that seems to move around on him would be extremely disorienting. Think: vertigo.

If the two sides of his brain aren’t sharing information easily, it’s hard for him to create meaning out of words on the page. Attempts at this would require a tremendous amount of effort, leaving him frustrated, confused, exhausted, and with a tendency to avoid it at any cost.

With Clark’s two hemispheres now sharing information more fully, his eyes would find it much easier to cooperate with each other. His right eye would be a stronger lead, or a strong blending partner, and focusing with both eyes would be much more comfortable and require less energy. The “squiggles” of written language would automatically become the meaning of the story.

Just like that, reading can be so much easier. And what’s easy is often fun or rewarding, so we end up doing lots of it. Sometimes, it’s actually just that simple.

So imagine this scenario: you’re the student who simply can’t read (or comprehend, or understand math—and on and on) when others all around you can. How long will your good nature hold before you stop trying and start doing something that’s easy for you? So you begin to draw (or play with your shoelace, or fidget, or find patterns in the ceiling tiles—anything!) and you get into trouble—again, and again, and again. And you keep getting farther and farther behind. Your self-esteem is in shreds, but your energy has to go somewhere; you end up acting out and reap the consequences.

Before long, you begin to think that you really aren’t intelligent, that all the negative messages you’ve received over time must be true, that the wonderful confidence, imagination, joy, and dreams you had as a young child must be false. Years of this create students who end up in alternative schools or juvenile detention, on drugs or alcohol, or pregnant. What career choices does life hold for them? Only the most unusual of students are able to rise above these circumstances.

Now imagine this scenario: again, you’re the student who simply can’t read, when others all around you can. Your teacher recognizes your struggle and introduces integrating movements that help you build the inner capacity to make sense of what’s on the page in front of you. As your ability grows, so does your sense of accomplishment, and you see yourself as someone who can overcome challenges and confidently pursue your studies. Now what’s available to you? A whole world filled with career choices and the means for a happier, more fulfilling life.

The “aha!”

Perhaps now you see why I was so incredibly excited to learn about all the elements that comprise reading and, especially, learning to read. Once I understood the elegant complexity of the systems involved, I had a greater appreciation for where so many learning challenges originate, and I valued the Brain Gym movements and Edu-K balance process even more.

Now, when I explain these concepts during workshops, I love seeing the “aha!” on participants’ faces as they begin to realize just why some of their students or children are having such difficulties. I’m happy knowing that this new perspective will change forever how they view these learners and the issues they’re struggling with, holding the door open for greater patience and compassion in working with them.

I hope your new awareness of these key concepts will inspire you to use simple Brain Gym techniques to begin addressing the source of reading challenges. I look forward to the day when all children read easily—and naturally—because integrating movement has prepared them for learning and achievement.2

I have long considered this chapter on reading to be perhaps the most pivotal of the entire book. 

Now I find myself inspired to begin a new writing project: expanding all these concepts into a whole new book, to be titled Educate Your Brain for Reading. 

My goal is to create a single volume that focuses entirely on reading, which will include more explanations, more stories, and more specific ideas for movement activities that can truly make a difference for struggling readers. 

To that end, I welcome and request your participation and feedback, in response to any or all of these questions:

• What have you read in my blog or my book that means the most to you?

• If you’ve used Brain Gym yourself, or with your own children or students, what has the result been? Could you share a story that illustrates your experience? 

• If you haven’t noticed positive changes, or have had challenges using Brain Gym, would you consider sharing that story with me as well?

• What questions do you still have?

• What would you like to see included in a volume about using Brain Gym to improve reading?  

• What message would you offer to parents, administrators, and teachers – or to the children themselves?

You are most welcome to use the Comment feature below, or to send your thoughts by email, at kathy@wholebrainliving.com.

I truly look forward to your comments. You are part of a growing community of people who understand how vital physical movement is in developing the capacity to read, and I deeply value my connection with you. 

Thank you for being here, and for spreading this important information, so it can transform the lives of children everywhere.

With warmest regards,

Kathy 

Kathy Brown, M.Ed.
Educational Kinesiologist
Licensed Brain Gym® Instructor/Consultant
Author of Educate Your Brain
WEB: www.CenterEdge.com
BLOG: www:WholeBrainLiving.com
BOOK: www.EducateYourBrain.com
1] Dennison, Paul E. Brain Gym® & Me. Ventura: Edu-Kinesthetics, Inc. 2006. 119. 
2] Brown, Kathy. Educate Your Brain. Phoenix: Balance Point Publishing LLC. 2012. 112-115. 
Brain Gym® movement photographs Copyright© Laird Brown Photography. All rights reserved
Photograph of wooden figures with acupuncture points Copyright© Claudio Curro, through iStock/Getty Images

©Copyright 2017 Kathy Brown. All rights reserved.

Brain Gym® is a registered trademark of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation  •  Ventura, CA  •  www.braingym.org

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Ready for Reading

It happens all the time. A parent calls my Brain Gym^® practice, and the conversation goes something like this:

“Hello, 
• a friend told me about Brain Gym
• I was doing some research online and bumped into your website
• I found a book that mentions Brain Gym

and I’d like to talk with you about services for my

• son

• daughter

age

• 7

• 8

• 9

• 10

• …

• 15

He/she has been struggling in school since kindergarten despite all our best efforts and special help, is behind his/her classmates, and hates reading. We finally had some testing done, and the diagnosis is..."

• dyslexia and dysgraphia

• inability for both eyes to track together

Most often I simply take a bit more information from the parent and set up an appointment. But the other day I found myself saying,

“Let me make some guesses about your son. He’s left-eyed, and skipped the crawling stage.”

There was a pause, and the mother on the phone laughed. “Both those things are true! How did you know?”

I laughed along with her and said, “An educated guess." 

I explained that the left eye, on its own, prefers to track right-to-left, opposite to the way we read. If both brain hemispheres aren’t fluidly sharing information, then the left eye won’t be able to team well with the right eye, which naturally tracks left-to-right, in line with the way we read.

Left eye on its own

Right eye on its own

I went on to share that the crawling stage is nature’s way of teaching the two hemispheres of our brain to work together. When there's fluid communication between the two sides of the brain, then the two eyes naturally team, and track together in the correct direction. 

Both eyes working together
because both brain hemispheres
are working together

It's as if the right eye can now talk to the left eye and say, "Hi, friend - I know the way to go - follow me!" The reader no longer has to expend so much effort to make his way across the lines of print.

When this happens, the words themselves often start making so much more sense because the reader is no longer limping along with just one hemisphere or the other - he can finally use both together. The left brain does sound-symbol association (phonics) but has no idea of what the story is; the right brain holds the big picture of what the story is about, but can't "sound things out." Children who haven't crawled for a sufficient amount of time are at risk for not having the patterning in their body for being able to easily use both hemispheres at the same time.

At this point in this Blog entry I could explain that 
• one of the key outcomes of the Brain Gym program is that the two brain hemispheres begin communicating more efficiently
• the Cross Crawl movement from Brain Gym helps to develop those cross-lateral patterns over time
• (in my humble opinion) the Brain Gym process called Dennison Laterality Repatterning, a fifteen-minute process, is the equivalent of months of infant crawling
• using Brain Gym often transforms the reading process. 

But actually, I’ve already done that, in three different places...

1) An article about eye-teaming that I wrote years ago for the Brain Gym^® Journal, which you can read by clicking here.

2) An article I wrote years ago for my own newsletter, that tells the story of Henry, who had never crawled, and who had severe “dyslexia and dysgraphia”… until a single Brain Gym balance – after which he read easily. That night, he read his mother One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (a Dr. Seuss story) at bedtime. No struggle or tears – for the first time ever. Two weeks later, his handwriting had matured from pre-K level to that of a second-grader (which he was).* His occupational therapist was astonished. You can find that article here.

3) And, if you’d like to dig deeper into this topic, I have dedicated an entire chapter of my book, Educate Your Brain, to the subject of reading. In this chapter I explore 

• eye teaming and eye dominance

• how to know whether a person is right- or left-eyed

• how stress affects reading

• why listening and inner speech are such important aspects of reading

• and why, once the reader can use both eyes (and therefore both brain hemispheres) simultaneously, reading comprehension naturally emerges. 

Most importantly, I share in this chapter how you can boost all these aspects of reading – through physical movement. 

(Oh… and why are they taking recess and P.E. out of the school day? To make more time for reading instruction? But that’s for another blog posting…)

Warm regards,

Kathy

* Note: Not every child's reading changes this significantly with just one Brain Gym balance. But this (very true) story serves to explain the challenges inherent in a situation like Henry's, and what the possibilities are. And this kind of change actually does happen more frequently than you might imagine. 

Click here for a link to the website for my book, Educate Your Brain

www.educateyourbrain.com

Copyright© 2014 by Kathy Brown. All rights reserved. 

Photographs copyright© Laird Brown Photography. All rights reserved. 

Brain Gym® is a registered trademark of Brain Gym® International, Ventura, California • www.braingym.org

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If you see a comment space below, please enter your thoughts there. 
Otherwise, click here to access this article as a separate page,
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Learning as a Force of Nature

I was incredibly privileged today: I got to watch learning happen.


Lara, eight years old, had arrived at my office for her second Brain Gym® session, this time choosing to improve her handwriting. She said it was “hard” and she was “too slow” in her writing.

I invited her to write a sample sentence. She labored over each word; still, her letters had inconsistent spacing – big spaces between letters within some words, and no spaces between some of the words. Her letters were inconsistent in size: some tall letters, like “h,” were the same height as shorter letters, like “m,” and some floated off the line.

Throughout the 23 years I taught elementary school, I would remind children again and again about proper handwriting, and yet certain letter formation and spacing habits persisted. Now that I have almost 15 years of experience as an Edu-K instructor, there's one thing I know for sure: children cannot achieve any kind of alignment in their writing that they cannot experience in their body. How would Lara choose to experience internal alignment today?

I invited Lara to select activities from the big Brain Gym movement menu hanging on the wall of my office. First she chose the Thinking Cap, then Space Buttons, and finally Lazy 8s. It was at this point that I observed something truly remarkable.

Lara had never experienced the Lazy 8s activity before. I drew a sample Lazy 8 on the whiteboard at about her eye level, and handed her the marker, which she took up with her right hand. She began tracing the Lazy 8 over and over – slowly at first, and then with tremendous focus and drive.

Before I go any further with this story, let me back up and explain something about the Lazy 8s activity and its specific pattern.  

Typical Brain Gym practice is to begin the Lazy 8 in an "up the middle" direction, starting at the center and flowing initially up and around to the left, then up and around to the right. This movement pattern helps us practice the direction of flow of the circular letters that we write: a, b, c, d, g, etc. (See pages 32-33 of Brain Gym® Teacher’s Edition for instructions on the Lazy 8s activity, and pages 36-37 for Alphabet 8s. Here’s a letter “a” in its place on the Lazy 8, as an example.) 

Paul Dennison, Ph.D., co-creator of the Brain Gym program, has also explained that learners who are still exploring their sense of body and grounding will often choose to do their Lazy 8s in the "down the middle" direction.1 In my experience, children will not become truly fluid at the “up the middle” Lazy 8s pattern (and therefore correct letter formation) until they are integrated for the “down the middle” pattern, and the accompanying sense of personal grounding. (You may want to check out this link for an article I wrote for the Edu-K Update, about this whole topic, “Refining Lazy 8s." This article also exists as “Appendix E" in my book, Educate Your Brain.) 

Now back to Lara, at the whiteboard:

Lara had the marker in her hand, tracing her Lazy 8s over and over “up the middle,” with amazing focus and concentration. Then she made a rapid reversal of flow and began drawing them flowing “down the middle.” Then she reversed direction again - and then again. She must have done a good 40 tracings of the Lazy 8, switching back and forth between “up the middle” and “down the middle” after every four or five tracings. Very unusual!

When she finally slowed down and paused, I invited her to switch the marker to her other hand, and she repeated this same process. With great concentration, she flew through the Lazy 8 pattern again and again, reversing the direction of flow again and again.

Finally, holding the marker with both hands, she repeated this same process. She again flew through her 8s with total concentration, faster and faster, repeatedly reversing direction.

When she was done, the evidence of tremendous learning was left behind on my whiteboard. This may look like a Lazy 8s scribble, but as I watched Lara create it, I must say I was in awe: in that moment I knew I was observing learning taking place on a very deep level. Right before my eyes, she was absorbing a pattern – one that I expect would help her to write more easily (and do many other things more easily as well) for decades to come.

… The truth is, I watch learning happening every day in my Brain Gym practice, as clients experience new ways to accomplish their goals with ease and grace. Large and small aspects of learning are happening all the time as we take on new patterns and abilities through the balance process. But it's not often that learning involves so intense and obvious a period of "absorbing a pattern." 

Watching Lara in those moments had been like watching a force of nature at work. And, indeed, I believe that’s what true learning is: an innate force of nature. When the opportunity presents itself to take on a pattern our mind-body system has been crying out for, perhaps for years, we can become intensely immersed in such an activity, in just this way.

Lara finally said she was finished with her Lazy 8s, and was ready to return to her writing. She picked up her pencil and wrote her sentence with clarity and flow. Her letter and word spacings showed considerable improvement. We paused and chatted a moment, then I suggested she write her sentence again. This time, her letter and word spacings were correct, and all her letters were clearly based on the line. She perceived one small error, and tidily fixed it. I was also impressed with the confidence with which she now held her pencil, and the ease of each stroke as she formed each letter.

We celebrated her new ability and confidence, and she happily departed with her parents, leaving me wondering: What kind of interior change had Lara undergone in these few minutes? 

Enhanced spatial awareness (the two sides of the Lazy 8 are symmetrical and mirror-image to each other) and a newfound sense of grounding are just the beginning of what she may be experiencing. These are an important foundation for handwriting: letter formation and direction of flow, proportion, spacing, and letters firmly established on the line. 

Yet this foundation will support her far beyond handwriting. Now that she had this symmetrical, grounded pattern "in her body," what other opportunities are now open for her? 

Please share your comments, or your own experience of Lazy 8s! 

With warm regards,

Kathy

Citations:
1 - Brown, Kathy. "Appendix E: Refining Lazy 8s." Educate Your Brain. Phoenix: Balance Point Publishing, 2012. 223-224. Also – http://www.centeredge.com/ArticPDF/Lazy8.pdf

Brain Gym® is a registered trademark of Brain Gym® International • www.braingym.org

Copyright © Kathy Brown 2013. All rights reserved.

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