Reflections on Closure

Lately, I have been seeing a number of children who appear to have difficulty with closure. I am not referring to the popular idea of getting closure after some tremendous, or not so tremendous, trauma; but rather the inability to fill in the gaps of a visual or auditory experience. Visual closure is "the ability to recognize an object as a whole when only parts are shown."   Auditory closure is the ability to understand a word or sentence when hearing only a part of it.  A child who has difficulty with one or both of these abilities often has difficulty in school.

Sight words are difficult to learn for a child who finds it problematic to recognize a word without taking conscious note of each individual letter. Many of these children dutifully sound out words such as cat, and, and in while their peers are blithely reading quickly and fluently. Problems with auditory closure may make it difficult for a young child to obey directions, or to follow a story that is being read to a group.  A child with auditory and visual closure problems may find school expectations overwhelming.

If your child is having difficulty in school and testing for a learning difference has been suggested, visual and auditory closure  problems may be diagnosed.  While there are children for whom this is a major problem and require professional help, some children just have to be shown what is expected.

Children can be pretty concrete when it comes to academics. When learning to write, a child may question what number a non-perfectly written 2 is.  Adults then sigh and correct their writing but often just asking a child "what number do you think it is?" helps the child realize that slight differences don't change the reality of numbers or letters.

Although some children have extreme problems with closure, many just need some explanations and practice on these skills. Books with rhyming words, (nursery rhymes, Dr. Seuss, etc.) have a pattern that most children pick up from repeated hearing. Pointing out the obvious helps the child who doesn't seem to be able to predict that fish might rhyme with wish.  Adding why to a short question requires your child to expand her answer.  Modeling expected answers also helps some children.  The talkative child may learn to hold back a bit and the shy child may learn to answer in more than one word. 

Visual closure may be helped by copying a picture, a word or a sentence. Pointing out which letters go above or below a line is useful to some children. Boxing a word to emphasize the shape of the letters may help.  

There are electronic games that help a child learn about closure, but more important is the act of playing.  Running, jumping, playing outdoors, making up games with one's friends, settling arguments without adult help, all these activities help a child understand the world.  Taking a child to a museum, pointing out new things, using vocabulary, reading to a child, and demanding that a child at times calm down, watch, listen and learn helps children to understand how they learn.  Experience helps with closure. 

Remember school is a place where children are taught to think in a specific manner.  All stories must have a beginning, middle and end.  Most of today's children's stories have predictable happy endings. Math problems require that all work be shown even if we can do the easy stuff in our heads. We ask children "what do you think the author meant," but a child may hesitate answering because they think, "I am not the author so I really don't know what he meant." We expect children to give exact answers in a specific manner but not until they get older do we explain to them that there is more than one answer. Some children just need to be told that there is a specific way to do things in school and it isn't worth the effort to argue about it.  There will come a time when they will have more choices and more power.

"Blessed are the weird people:

poets, misfits, writers,

mystics, painters, troubadours

for they teach us to see the world 

through different eyes"

Jacob Nordby

I have a feeling most of us originally saw the world through different eyes -- but the group activity of school narrowed our vision.

How Long?

When a child is diagnosed with dyslexia one of the first questions parents ask is, "How long will it take before she can read?" The question may not be this specific. It may be, "How long before school won't be as hard?" or "... before he won't be as confused? or, "...before she can write a coherent sentence?" No matter the words, parent would love to have a specific amount of time remediation will require. There is no set answer. There are, however,  several factors to consider when looking at remediation.

Assuming that one has selected the correct type of remediation, the first factor is the severity of  the problem.  Is it a problem that can be fixed by learning the sound-symbol relationships or is there a combination of problems? For example, does your child's diagnosis include spatial, memory, auditory, or visual processing problems? Some of these problems can be worked on simultaneously, but usually the more problems, the greater amount of time is needed for remediation.

Many children with dyslexia also have ADHD. This may mean a need for medication. It does mean a need for consistency and patience. A child who has a difficult time focusing on new knowledge and skills usually requires a longer time for remediation.

I know there are controversies about  IQ, but IQ affects learning. A low IQ makes it more difficult to learn new methods or to apply them to new material. An eager, able problem-solver with a mild LD will usually get through remediation quicker than a child with a below average IQ . Of course, children with high IQs often find their own way to hide an LD and may be more difficult to identify. Children with low IQs may be easy to spot, but the IQ is often blamed for the reading difficulty rather than looking for an LD.

What else effects remediation? Oh yes, personality. Actually not personality, but how the child applies himself during remediation. A stubborn child may decide she is going to learn this remediation thing no matter what, or she may decide to fight it every step of the way. A precise, detail-oriented child may eagerly apply this new method to tackle reading or get so bogged down in the details that he can't see the holistic application. Happier children tend not to pout or get depressed at lack of progress. They have the added advantage of being easy to work with, which helps the teacher maintain long time enthusiasm. Drama queens; children who engulf themselves in their emotions, often put a great deal of energy into emoting rather than learning.

A child who wants to learn tends to do better than a child who is apathetic or resists learning. One tool to see if a child is eager to learn to read is to ask them their favorite subject at school. Most kids say lunch or recess. The thoughtful child who says her favorite class is science, history, math, or some other academic subject usually is an eager student. This becomes a cyclical pattern which means an eager student creates an eager teacher who in turn encourages the student. A difficult child needs a very special person for remediation.

So how long will it take? Think about how quickly your child learns new things. Is he is an active or passive learner? Does she want to read? Is he persistent? Is she focused? Are her LDs severe? Be realistic in your assessment and realize that this task is a difficult one that requires stamina, optimism, and determination. Most children with LDs cannot take long breaks from the remediation process. 

Unfortunately, sometimes a chosen remediation process is not the correct one and must be changed. Parents worry, may feel overwhelmed, or get annoyed at the amount of time needed. Modeling high standards, patience, and optimism helps you and your child. Remember, you and your child have more going for you than this learning difference. 

Math Education Rant - Part 2

What Can be Done 

The previous post Math Education Rant - Part 1 divided young math students into three groups: the top students for whom math makes sense and is generally pretty easy, the middle students, usually the majority of a class, and the poor students who find math extremely difficult. My opinions about math education in elementary school take into account all three groups.

1. Maria Montessori based her educational methods on child development. She understood the prerequisites for a child to be ready for math (and other subjects) in a classroom. Her prerequisites were "First a child has established internal order, Second the child has developed precise movement. Third, the child has established the work habit. Fourth, the child is able to follow and complete a work cycle. Fifth, the child has the ability to concentrate. Sixth, the child has learned to follow a process. Seventh, the child has used symbols." Once a child reached this maturity of mind and a readiness to work, it was time for them to work with concrete math materials. There are far too many students who start kindergarten without these prerequisites. These children need to be given time and a curriculum to make sure they have "a readiness to work." 
2. Speaking of time, there is a continuous pushing down of the curriculum. When five-year-olds are expected to do first grade work we are pushing them to learn concepts they may not be developmentally ready to learn. There are complaints about the number of students who require remedial math classes when they start college. Perhaps if children were given time to learn at the beginning of their academic careers, they wouldn't need as much at the end. I have seen first graders who were having difficulty with double-digit addition. When tutoring these children it was apparent that they were still having trouble identifying written numbers such as 11 or 12!
3. Most children in elementary grades need concrete materials to help them understand abstract ideas. Using Unifix blocks, Cuisenaire rods or other math materials needs to be a continuous activity. One day of demonstrating a concept doesn't give children enough time to work through the process on their own. Many teachers stop the use of concrete items in the upper elementary grades, but most children still need concrete items to understand fractions and decimals.
4. Teachers need to understand that manipulating concrete items like beads, while necessary for young children, doesn't mean the children transfer that knowledge to the abstract symbols of numbers. The symbols need to be taught with the items, but that still does not mean a child will totally understand an abstract concept. 
5. In a effort to insure that children "understand" the underpinnings of math we overwhelm them with explanation. Some children who might be good at math are hindered by this overuse of words. An explanation of how to do a complicated process, even with a demonstration, is very difficult for some young children to understand. Requiring students, themselves, to explain the process is even more difficult if they have poor language and/or writing skills.
6. While in theory teaching a child more than one method to do basic arithmetic sounds good, that approach adds a layer of confusion to some children. They may decide to combine the methods, and do so incorrectly, or never thoroughly learn any one method. Adults may readily see how the methods are related, but an eight-year-old may not have the language, or cognitive ability to see this.
7. The visually busier the page (lines, boxes, circles) the more difficult it is for some children to comprehend what they are suppose to do. Lattice multiplication is an example of this. I have tutored children frustrated by required lattice multiplication because the spaces were too small for their large handwriting. A child with visual perception problems can even be confused by graph paper!
8. Some children need more time to learn than others. We have no problem understanding a young child wanting to hear the same book read again and again. We need to give the children who need it time for repetition, or a break to do something else, and then come back to the concept. I worked with classes of children who had difficulty with math (as you can see in the example I gave in Part 1) Parents raved at the progress their children made in my class. I often felt it was just lucky that I taught a child the year he or she was finally able to understand the lessons. When I tutor I meet young children who obviously can't understand something (glazed eyes, a look of panic and complete confusion, etc.) who three months or even three weeks later find it suddenly makes sense. Educators have to be aware if something is beyond a student's ability at a given time. If we can't give an elementary school age child the necessary time, there is something extremely wrong with our education system.

The above eight points concern the need to look at children's ability to learn rather than what is being taught. Too often curriculum ignores the learning differences in children, the various developmental stages of the young student, and the variation of abilities in the new student. The next paragraphs concerns how to implement teaching a curriculum to groups of young children. 

I had the privilege to do student teaching in a school with an excellent math program. The entire school (k-5) had math the first period. The math curriculum had been divided into weekly modules. Each module had a pre- and post test. This allowed a child to test out of a module. The school had specific teachers who worked with children who had to repeat a module. Repeat modules tended to include more hands-on materials and more individual attention. Because everyone had math at the same time, the student who tested out of a module could move up right away. Math classes might consist of children in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. A child who found math easy was not held back, but still could repeat a module when she came to material that gave her difficulty. A student who might have difficulty in subtraction could still move up if he found it easy to measure perimeter. Some modules were reviews of pre-requisite skills for new concepts. 

The children seemed to love math. The math-adept second graders got to go to class with fourth graders. All children knew that if they didn't "get something" they would have a chance to try it again. No one seemed to feel bad about having to repeat a skill because everyone had to repeat now and then, and you got a different teacher when you repeated a module. Worksheets tended to have large print, simple instructions, and plenty of white space since there was a limited amount of material and it was understood that there might be very young children in a class with subject matter often taught only to older children.

The U.S. tends to have a math curriculum that is very broad (many topics) and fairly shallow (not much depth to each topic.) Modules allowed students to get the depth they needed.  I am not suggesting that all schools use this method but I believe elementary schools should have math programs based on the idea that children need to be able to work at different speeds and move up or down at their own pace. The emphasis should be on children and how they learn, rather than on speeding through a curriculum, holding children back who could readily move ahead under the guise of saying, "Why those children learn while they are helping others," and refusing to recognize that individuals might find some areas of math easier than others.  Such a program would give all children a change to get a firm foundation to build on, rather than a shaky platform to start middle school. 

Busy Books for Travel and Beyond Usborne Great Searches

From The Great Animal Search

Many children enjoy the "Where's Waldo" books, but if you want to move to a higher level of picture puzzle books consider the  Usborne Great Searches books. (Usborne books are available at on-line and storefront book stores. Many older editions can be found in used book stores.) These books are composed of picture puzzles surrounded by various animals or objects for the reader to find. The individual object picture includes some information about that object, as well as how many will be found in the larger picture.  In The Great Animal Search various ecosystems form the puzzles in which the animals can be located.

It is a lot of information and entertainment in one place. This book series covers topics from castles to bugs. Children can search under the sea or in a floating market in Thailand. They can wander through the desert or through time. Although the pictures are very detailed, some very young children will enjoy the search. Older children can tally how many animals they find and figure out a strategy to organize their search.  

These are great books to take on road trips, to read when it is too hot to play outside, or to peruse when one is too sick to go to school. This series is an easy way to keep a child occupied while practicing figure ground skills, learning new information, using math (How many more to I have to find?), paying attention to details, learning new vocabulary and general knowledge, and perhaps opening the door of curiosity to learning more.  Oh, yes, and the answers are in the back if one gets too discouraged when unable to find the second quoll.

Multi-sensory Learning

Multi-sensory teaching is often recommended for children with learning differences. All children, all people in fact, benefit from this type of teaching. When person says, "I need to see something on a chart to understand it," or "I can listen to a lecture and learn much better than by reading," or "I need to do it, not just see it," they are saying they learn better by seeing, hearing, or doing. In order to reach all her students a good teacher does more than just lecture. And, despite individual learning strengths, we all do better with a combination of methods that allow us to hear, see, and do something while learning.

Children, of course, do not always know their learning strengths. Think of how many older students aren't sure how to study for a test.  If your child is having difficulty with homework you might try various methods to see which one helps her the most.

Some ways to study may include:

• Visual learning (sight): Charts, graphs, pictures, flash cards, reading material before a lecture, drawing a picture
• Auditory learning (hearing): Tapes, music, audio with video, mnemonics, having the student say a word or describe a procedure's steps aloud
• Tactile (touch - fine motor skills): Making models, feeling materials such as writing in sand or shaving cream, puffy paint flash cards, student-made flash cards
• Kinesthetic (movement - gross motor skills): Jumping onto the correct answer, games requiring running or throwing, large in-the-air writing

How might this translate into specific activities?

Math:  Concept: division  with a remainder

• Visual: Demonstration on board or paper - Color coding numbers for place in equation  
• Tactile: Demonstration with items or have child demonstrate with items
• Kinesthetic: Large problem written on sidewalk with chalk which allows a a child to jump to number's places and then write, dance to the Division Song
• Auditory: Saying a mnemonic to remember the procedural steps. For example: Does McDonald's Serve Cheese Burgers? [D]ivide, [M]ultiply, [S]ubtract, [C]heck, [B]ring down

Spelling:  Learn words for spelling tests

• Visual: Writing the words in different colors - have child put phonemic marks on words
• Tactile: Writing words with a finger in sand, shaving cream, or lightly on sandpaper -write words several times, spelling words on fingers
• Auditory: spelling the words out loud, singing the spelling of a word  
• Kinesthetic: Writing difficult words as a large as you can on a board, closing eyes to write words on large sheets of paper

Homework involving memory or learning a new concept is easier when you think about how your child learns best.  Confucius's quote, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand," overlooks the fact that children learn best if they hear, see and do . . . and maybe sing, dance, and color.

Sound Catalyst - The Letter R

Good readers (and spellers) understand the letter R's role in words. Yep, R stands by itself in words such as rat and ridiculous, but give that letter a chance and it will influence and confuse. Even alone it creates a problem because many children have learned that R has the "er" sound. No, it has the rrr sound which is close but not the same. We say rat not er- at.  But back to how R influences other letters.

•  Combine R with an e, u  or i and  you will discover that er, ur, and ir  are all pronounced "er" That is difficult enough for some children to remember while reading. It becomes a major hurdle in spelling because a child can't figure out what to write by sounding it out. She just has to remember when to use  ir, er, or ur in the middle of a word. That memory is probably a visual memory which doesn't help if you have a poor visual memory for print, or if you've never seen the word. Examples: fern-firm, skirt - spurt, nerd-nurse, curl-girl 
• Children with dyslexia often have a difficult time remembering that er -- the suffix (at the end of a word) is spelled er - runner, writer, player.  I have had children protest, "Why can't it be ir?  How do we know it isn't ur?"  Remember dyslexia often requires direct, uncomplicated explanations and lots of reminders and repetition before the rule is understood and remembered.
• Put an a in front of R and you have the sound ar as in star.  This means you really cannot sound out the word star letter by letter. This digraph  is difficult for some children because they think it is just another er sound that doesn't look like er.
• Combine o with R and you have or: for, tore, adore ---- unless there is a w in the mix, and then you have word and world.  
• Speaking of Ws,  or we should say not speaking, because W becomes silent before an R: wreck, write, and wrinkle.
• What if the group gets bigger ? Ar with an e often sounds like air: care, hare, or dare
• Ir with an e becomes fire, sire or retire.
• Children learn that ee is pronounced long e, but put an R into that group and you get: deer, peer, or cheer.
• Ai has the long A sound such as  paid, maid, raid.  Add an R and you now say: pair, chair and hair.

Obviously, children should not be taught all these rules at one time. I posted this to remind parents that the letter R can make reading and spelling very confusing for a child with reading problems. Sometimes, when they are having difficulty, it help to remind them that R is rather a pushy, demanding letter.

Letters for Learning

"Children's knowledge of letter names and sounds is the best predictor of their later reading and spelling abilities. Preschool and kindergarten students with poor knowledge of letter names and sounds are more likely to to struggle with learning to read and be classified as having reading disabilities."

For the beginning reader working with the alphabet is encouraged; for the child with dyslexia the alphabet is essential. The struggling reader needs direct teaching and constant review of the elements of reading. One handy item to have at home is a set of of magnetic letters. I recommend a set of upper case and lower case letters. They are fairly cheap, so I would probably buy two set of lower case letters just to have some extras.

Assuming your child knows most of the alphabet and can recognize most the letters there are a number ways to use the plastic letters which can help set a sturdy foundation for reading.

Alphabet arc with missing letter cards

• Have your child make an alphabet arc with the letters. Show you child where to place the A at the beginning, the z at the end and the MN in the middle to start the arc. Make sure you say the words beginning, middle and end as you place the letters.
• Time how long it takes your child to make the first arc. After several days see how much quicker he can make the arc. Always have your child start with the A, MN, and Z
• Use different location words as your child sets out the alphabet. That is the first(beginning or initial) letter. What letters are in the middle? What is the last(end or final) letter? This is also a good way to introduce/practice the concept of right and left. Which letter is to the right of R?
• Have your child point to the letter when you say the letter name. Note how she finds the letter. Does she start at the beginning of the alphabet, go to the sections the alphabet should be in, or randomly check the letters?  Later do the same activity with the sounds of the letters.
• Ask what letters are before or after a letter. What letter is before Y? What letter is after G? Does you child need to see the letters to answer the question? Ask what letters are between certain letters.
• This activity can be expanded to making missing letter cards (see photo).  Start with the missing third letter:  Example:  CD __  then the missing first letter   E_G and finally the missing first letter _KL
• Place a letter in a paper bag and see if your child can identify the letter by touch.
• Write the letter in his hand and see if he knows the letter. Have him write a letter in your hand and see if you can guess the letter.
• Have you child pull out all the vowels from the alphabet arc.
• Pull out some end rhyming patterns and then add a beginning letter or letters:  Examples: am,  bam, cam, dam, ham, slam, etc.   Start with short vowel sounds patterns:  ab, ad, ag, al, am, an, etc.  Create patterns with all the short vowel sounds a through u.
• Have your child make the vowel pattern with the letters, as well as the rhyming words.
• Letters are a good way to build a word if a child has difficulties with blends. Example: it, lit, plit, split
• Match lower case with upper case. See which case is quicker when making the alphabet arc.
• It you child has difficulty writing the letters show him how by tracing the plastic letters, making sure you start the letter correctly.
• You might use the alphabet arc as a counting tool. How many letters in the alphabet?  What is the 4th letter? You can even use the letter for counters  for simple addition or subtraction.

Always start the activity with the arc and then do one or two of the activities listed. Sometimes you can have your child do the activity as she puts the letters away. For example: Put all the vowels away. Now put away any letter that has the "k" sound.

Sound Shifter C

The letter 'C' creates a bit of a quandary for a poor speller or  reader.  Why? Let's count the ways:

1. The letter C doesn't have it's own sound. It makes the S or K sound.
2. Teachers may refer to these sounds as the soft or hard C sound, giving students something else to remember about the letter C.
3. The reading rule is that a C has the S sound when followed by an e, i, or y.  Examples? Center, city, or cylinder. For most children this is apparent without even thinking about the rule. Other children have to work at remembering the rule when reading new words.
4. Children have more problems knowing when a C should be used in spelling.  They might be able to cite the rule, but application is much more difficult.
5. The rule is that the K sound is spelled with a K before an e, i or y.  But, of course, the K sound at the end of a one syllable word is spelled CK or K depending what letter proceeds it. A two syllable word that ends with the K sound  may be spelled with a C. For example: picnic and music.  Of course, picnicking is spelled with a ck and musical isn't. 
6. What about the S sound?  When is it spelled with a C and when is it spelled with an S? One rule states after a long vowel it is spelled CE for example race, mice, nice. Remember, you are looking at the S sound not the z sound found in words like nose.  So, obviously the letter S also has two sounds: S and Z.  Let's not go into that right now.
7. What about the S sound at the beginning of words? Before all letters except e, i, and y the S sound is spelled with an S.  
8. Before e, i and y it may be spelled with a c or an s  - silver, cinder, sister, city, system, cylinder, center, sent, etc. Knowing which one to use seems to depend on exposure to the word and visual memory. 

Now, imagine trying to learn how to use the above rules, while having difficulty reading and spelling because you process written information differently. Imagine being an eight-year-old watching another child blithely reading a page of words that you see as gobbledygook. Imagine someone telling you all you need to do is learn the rules.  

Fingers and Math

I doubt there is anyone who has not used their fingers sometime when figuring a math problem. Some people will tell a child not to use their fingers, but I encourage it for the younger child. Using fingers helps a child feel math.

If your child (1st - 4th grade) is having trouble with arithmetic, ask him to hold up seven fingers. If he can do this without counting, ask him to hold up seven fingers without holding up all the fingers on either hand. I have seen five-year-old children do this easily and nine-year-olds who had to count their fingers to show the correct number of digits!

If your child had a difficult time with the above exercise, and is over five, here are some hints to help her feel numbers.

• Call out a number and have your child practice holding up the correct number of  fingers.  Start easy: 1, 2, 5 and 10. Go to 6, 9  and 3. Next try 4 and 8 and finally 7.  
• See if they can demonstrate the even numbers two different ways. For example: 6 is 5 and 1 and also 3 fingers on each hand.
• Write a number and see how quickly a child can show it on his fingers.  
• Have your child do the first three activities under a table or in some way so she can't see her fingers.
• Hold up a number of fingers and have your child say how many fingers she sees.  
• Hold up a number of fingers and have your child quickly write the number.
• Practice addition facts with answers of 10 or below using fingers.
• Practice subtraction facts with top number 10 or below using fingers.

All activities should be done as quickly as possible. These are short activities. Many can be done for two to three minutes in waiting rooms, at restaurants, etc. They should be done frequently until your child has mastered them.

After a child has a feel for the numbers 1 through 10 he can learn to add a larger number using his fingers.  For the problem 13 + 5.  Gently tap the table with a closed fist and say 13, then open your fist and count up 5 fingers 14, 15 ,16 ,17 18. This does not eliminate the need to memorize math facts. It is a method to demonstrate the concept and give your child some initial tools if needed.

Random Reflections

I guess reflections, physical or mental, aren’t random; but alliteration is always catchy in a title.

I have lousy vision - 20/200 to be exact. I tend to be a visual learner, which makes me wonder how many children with bad vision are visual learners. I also wonder how many children with numerous ear infections are auditory learners. Maybe mother nature is more ironic than we realize.

When I became a teacher I was surprised at the many rules for spelling and math. Were those rules not taught when I was a child, or was I just not paying attention?

Many adults are delighted to learn that there is a rule when to use c, k, or ck or to discover some other spelling guideline now being taught. But we are looking at these rules with adult minds. Obviously the rule helps some students. I have a feeling, however, many children hear the rule and view it only as another thing their teacher wants them to learn. They don’t see the connection to what they are doing. That ah ha moment, ”I get it now!” comes several weeks, or even several years after it was taught.