Watching the Need for Compensation Strategies Simply Fall Away

“When there isn’t integration,

there is compensation with stress.”
      

~ Paul E. Dennison, Ph.D.

During my years as a classroom teacher a common viewpoint was, “If a child struggles with reading, the best we can do is to teach him various compensation strategies to make his reading a bit easier.” For years, that’s what I thought, too.

I now know that this is not true. There’s much more that we can do: we can resolve the learning challenge at its core. Then the person simply doesn’t need the compensation strategies anymore.

Through using the Brain Gym system for the last 23 years, I’ve learned that once a child (or adult) has developed more coordinated movement patterns, he automatically has greater access to the physical skills of reading. He becomes a more capable reader, and there’s simply less need for compensations. I have seen this time and time again.

Reading compensations
Take nine-year-old “Micah,” for example. His mother asked me to work with him to improve his reading. Micah had difficulty focusing on one word at a time, and in going left-to-right across the page. Sometimes he would even skip from the line he was reading, to the line above or below it, without even realizing it. This would create a truly disjointed story, but he didn’t seem to notice the difference. His mother wondered if he even knew what it was he was reading.

Micah had had three years of special help at school, from caring professionals who worked diligently with him; still, he was not improving very much.

His teachers had taught him several techniques for focusing on the “right” word as he was reading along. He could use his finger under one word at a time. He could put a card under the entire line, and use his finger to remind him to go from left to right. Or he could use a special card with a slot cut into it, which would show only one line of print at a time.

Micah used these techniques at different times, with varying degrees of success.

After a bit of “getting to know you” chatting, I asked Micah what he wished was easier. He said that reading was “not fun” and he wished he could read like the other kids in his class. I told him that I would be happy to work with him on this project, and it would very likely help a lot. His face lit up with a big smile!

I asked him to show me what his reading was like. He pulled out his story page, and used the card with the cutout to showcase the first line. He laboriously moved his finger along the line of print, and then carefully moved the card to the next line down. This was a story he had read before; still, he stumbled over simple words, miscalling several, reading in a flat tone that told me there was limited comprehension going on.

Moving into cross-lateral coordination
I told Micah that, now that his mind-body system could feel just what part of reading was hard for him, it would know what kinds of movements to pick, to make reading easier. I showed him a listing of Brain Gym movements and processes, and asked him to notice what was getting his attention.

He pointed immediately to a box at the bottom of the list, with the words “Dennison Laterality Repatterning,” and said, “What’s in this box?” I said, “I’ll show you.”

Dennison Laterality Repatterning (DLR) is a five-step protocol developed by Brain Gym co-founder Paul Dennison, Ph.D. In my experience, the DLR process is one of the most profound elements in the Brain Gym “menu” of offerings. Simply stated, it supports the mind-body system in developing more coordinated cross-lateral movement patterns. Once these new, more coordinated, movement patterns are in place, many things are easier – most notably in this context, reading.

I took Micah through this five-step protocol. Initially, his movements were awkward and uncoordinated, especially those that included the Cross Crawl (elbow to the opposite knee, back and forth). However, after he completed the entire five steps, he could Cross Crawl easily – effortlessly bringing his elbow and opposite knee together. (I wasn’t surprised – this is a frequent outcome of this repatterning process.)

Watching compensations disappear
When we were finished with this I asked him to read again. He positioned his card over the print as before, with just one line of print showing through the slot; he put his finger at the beginning of the slot, moving it along as he read. And he read almost every word correctly. He continued this way for three more lines; by now he was self-correcting the few mistakes he made.

He looked up at me, with a surprised look on his face. I asked what he noticed, and he said, “I’m reading!” I said, “Congratulations! I can see how excited you are! What do you want to do next?”

He picked up his card and looked at the whole story. I got the feeling that he was really seeing this page of print for the first time. He positioned the card in a new way, putting just the top edge of it under the line he was reading, and again moved his finger from one word to the next, more quickly this time, still reading correctly.

Finally, he set the card entirely to the side, and read again. At first he used his finger under one word at a time, then he stopped doing that and simply read. Line after line. Correctly. 

Not only that, but he read with feeling – pausing for commas, stopping at periods, with the kind of music in his voice that shows real comprehension. He wasn’t reading words, he was reading a story.

He looked up at me again, and said again, “I’M READING!” He was thrilled beyond belief. And the look on his mother’s face was certainly something to behold. After years of effort to help Micah improve his reading, it all seemed to come together in this single session.

I realized I was watching Micah’s need for compensation techniques simply fall away.

Micah didn’t need the “crutches” anymore – he was up and running on his own. 

With warm 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

©Copyright 2019 Kathy Brown. All rights reserved.
Brain Gym® is a registered trademark of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation • www.braingym.org

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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"Thank you for teaching me."

There I sat in my office, with a teenage girl I’ll call Sherry in the opposite chair, and her mother sitting not far away. Sherry was not happy to be there.

She had struggled for years with academics despite much special help, and now, as a junior in high school, Sherry was thoroughly discouraged. It took huge amounts of effort for her to accomplish a minimal amount of schoolwork. Her mother had arranged for this session. 

So, there she sat. I did my best to engage her in light “getting to know you” kinds of conversation that I typically use at the beginning of a first session with a young client, but she refused to be drawn out that way. Her attitude was distant, and her answers were monosyllabic.

Finally, I simply asked the question that I often ask children when parents bring them to my office: “Do you have any idea why you’re here?”

“No,” she said.

“OK,” I said. “Let me tell you a bit about myself and what I do, and maybe you’ll have an idea why your mother set up this appointment.”

And I proceeded to tell her about my background: I taught school for 23 years, and every year there were children in my class who I could tell were intelligent, but who couldn’t demonstrate it through their reading, writing, or math. Every year I did my best to work with these children, many of whom got extra help from special teachers, but it was never enough for them to finally have learning be easy and fun. I was frustrated and disheartened, seeing all this intelligence going unrecognized, and seeing children so discouraged and sad.

I took a leave of absence from teaching, and bumped into this thing called Brain Gym^®, a system for understanding ourselves as learners, and helping ourselves (and others) learn more easily. Everything in the courses I took made so much sense to me. I finally began to understand the challenges I’d experienced in my own life as a learner, and the challenges I’d been observing in my students for all those years. And not only did I begin to see where the stuck places came from, I found that the tools and processes of Brain Gym can help un-stick the learning process, so reading, writing, and other kinds of schoolwork can be so much easier.

I suspect that you cannot imagine your schoolwork ever being easy. I want to tell you that, with a few simple shifts, it’s possible that this could be so.

Throughout this entire time, Sherry’s gaze was down at her lap, and she barely moved. She didn’t look like she had much interest or faith in anything I’d said. I had a feeling that she was listening, though, so I carried on.

I switched gears, and said, “Could I check your eyes?” At that, she looked up. I said, “I’d like to find out whether you’re right- or left-eyed. I think it would help us discover why you’ve had such a challenge with your schoolwork.”

She agreed to do this. My simple eye check determined that she was, as I suspected, left-eyed.[1] 

Left eye tracking
on its own 

I drew a little diagram, and then explained it to her:

Our eyes seem to be such a matched pair that it often surprises people to find out that they don’t operate identically. One eye takes a leading role, and the other eye offers supplemental information.

Our right eye most naturally tracks left-to-right, the same way we read. The left eye, however, most naturally tracks right-to-left, opposite the way we read. If a person is left-eyed, and if their two brain hemispheres are not sharing information easily, then the left eye most likely will end up operating on its own, without help from the right eye. Then reading could end up being a struggle, since it will take energy and focus to make your eyes track the "right" way. This is really tiring, and it's hard to maintain for long.[2]

You’re left-eyed. I also suspect that your two brain hemispheres aren’t easily communicating with each other. Your mother told me that when you were a baby you skipped the crawling stage, so your circumstance makes sense to me. Crawling helps to teach our brain how to use both hemispheres at the same time, which is necessary for reading to be easy. You didn’t get that lesson early on. This is not your fault.

I think you’ve had such challenges with school because your brain hasn’t been organized in the right way for reading.

This has absolutely nothing to do with how hard you try, or how much you care. It’s like all your ability has been locked up in a box, without any way to show the world how creative and intelligent you are.

I paused for a moment, to let these words sink in.

Anyone who’s stuck like this has a huge uphill battle in regard to schoolwork. I suspect that it’s been incredibly challenging for you. I actually can’t imagine how you’ve managed all these years. The fact that you’re still going to school, doing your best every day while struggling in this way, is absolutely amazing to me. I think you deserve an award simply for showing up.

Connecting with hidden abilities

At this point, I paused again. Sherry had given me a couple of slight glances while I explained these things, but was back to looking at her lap. Then I continued:

An important part of my work is to help people connect with their hidden abilities. We do this by setting an intention about the change we want, noticing how stuck we feel about it, and then using simple physical movements that help us to release stress or take on new, more helpful patterns. 

I expect you can’t imagine how in the world this could help. My experience is that it typically does help, and you’ll see some kind of difference right away.

Both brains communicating;
the right eye now teams
with the left, so both
easily track left-to-right. 

I drew another diagram.

Our Brain Gym session could have the effect of teaching your two brain hemispheres how to communicate more easily with each other. Then, your two eyes would work more easily together. Your right eye would be able to help your left eye track left-to-right, same as the way we read. This could make reading much easier.

Whatever process we do will probably take about twenty minutes. You’re here right now. You’ve probably never done anything like this, and it could seem like a really strange thing to do, but it will probably help. Would you be willing to take these few minutes to find out?

Sherry nodded her head, and we began our balance process. She did begin to engage with me a bit at this point, briefly answering questions, but not volunteering much information beyond that.

The Cross Crawl

I led her through PACE, the four-step Brain Gym warm-up. Sherry found one element of this warm-up, the Cross Crawl, particularly challenging: it took focus and effort for her to bring her elbow down to the opposite knee. I told her that for the Cross Crawl to be easy, both our brain hemispheres need to be talking to each other. I reminded her of what I'd said earlier, about experiences in infancy being so important for creating patterns for using both sides of our brain and body at the same time, and that it was not her fault that she had gone so long without this kind of inner wiring. 

Then together we set a simple goal: “I read easily.” When I invited her to say this out loud she could hardly speak the words.

Lazy 8s

She said, "This seems impossible." I nodded and said, "I believe you. You've struggled with reading for a long time. It would be crazy for these words to seem true right now." 

For a pre-check of her reading ability, Sherry made a selection from my shelf of kids’ books, choosing a one at about her comprehension level (fifth grade). She read a page from it, haltingly and mechanically, in a flat voice.

Sherry’s balance called on two Brain Gym movements, Lazy 8s and the Double Doodle, and then the Dennison Laterality Repatterning process. She was surprised to find that after the DLR her Cross Crawl was suddenly effortless and natural. 

The Double Doodle 

"Wow," she said, "this feels easy now!" 

I'm reading!

When these activities were complete, Sherry said she felt “done,” and I invited her to read again from her book. This time her voice was resonant, and flowed from one word to the next. She looked up at me, stunned, and said, “I'm reading! And I understand what I’m reading! How did this happen?” I said:

I don't have x-ray vision, so I'll make an educated guess about what just happened. It seems to me that your brain is now organized for reading, in a way it never was before. Your two brain hemispheres are evidently working together more efficiently, and that is what is making your reading easier.[3] 

Sherry was now happily looking up, finally daring to smile. She still said very little, but I was content knowing that she’d experienced a significant change – one that had the potential to make a huge shift in her schoolwork, and her feelings about herself as a learner, and in life.

My fleeting thought at this point was that I had never talked so much during a Brain Gym session, and I felt a bit awkward about that. Then I recognized that this was the only way this particular session could have proceeded. 

My focus throughout the balance had been on Sherry, but I’d also been aware of her mother, who was sitting nearby. She had previously come for her own Brain Gym session, so she knew a bit of what to expect. Even so, she was clearly stunned with the change in Sherry’s reading, and shared her amazement with us.

By now Sherry was opening up, and she participated more fully in the conversation. Our session concluded with Sherry selecting some of the Brain Gym activities she’d experienced as daily “homeplay,” to help deepen the experience of her new learning. I reminded her that she could choose to do PACE and any other Brain Gym activities before she began her schoolwork, her sports activities, or at any other time throughout the day. Her mother bought a copy of Brain Gym® Teacher's Edition, which fully describes the 26 Brain Gym movements, so they could begin to learn them all. 

Finally, Sherry and her mother gathered their things in preparation for departing. As they neared the door, Sherry paused, looked up at me, and with great feeling said, “Thank you for teaching me.”

I told Sherry she was most sincerely welcome, that I loved sharing Brain Gym with her, and that I wished her well in her studies. I bade them farewell, and closed the door behind them. 

Then I paused where I stood, rather stunned, reflecting on what Sherry had said: Thank you for teaching me. I think it’s one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received.  

Warm regards to you all,

Kathy

---

[1] I share one method of determining “leading eye” in my book, Educate Your Brain. See Chapter 11, “Ready for Reading.” As I explain in that chapter, however, some people develop compensations that may make it appear that they're right-eyed when they're not. Brain Gym® Consultants are trained in how to do more in-depth checks using kinesiology (muscle checking). All this said, which eye a person leads with is actually irrelevant, except for purposes of understanding himself as a learner. If he experiences any kind of reading challenges, Brain Gym balancing has the potential for supporting transformative change. 
[2] About 70% of people are right-eyed, and 30% are left-eyed. In my experience, about 90% of children in special education classes are left-eyed. How much of their “learning disability” is the fact that their two brain hemispheres are not working together in an integrated way, and how much change would they all experience if their hemispheres were an integrated team? However - just being left-eyed is not a problem, as long as the person's two brain hemispheres are easily sharing information. Many left-eyed people are fine readers!
[3] This is a very simplified description. Chapter 11 of my book Educate Your Brain, mentioned above, holds a much more complete description of all the interior changes that are occurring as someone finally shifts to fluent reading. You may be surprised to know that a key element has to do with the ability to listen to your inner voice, so you can "hear" the text you're reading. 

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. 

Brain Gym® movement photos © Laird Brown. All rights reserved.

Eye-lead sketches © Kathy Brown. All rights reserved.

Clipart image of girl © 123rf.com. All rights reserved.

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

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