Oct 29, 2026 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog
When browsing through my library recently, I opened one of the older books on the shelf. Very soon, I was reading with delight some words of wisdom that are as relevant today as they were back in the middle of the last century! I’m talking about the book published by the Gesell Institute, titled Child Behaviour and written by Frances Ilg and Louise Ames, with numerous reprints, in the 19550’s (yes, no typo – it really was written so long ago).
The section I enjoyed dealt with the still common problem experienced by many children today who find it difficult to make shifts. This means that they cannot move easily from one thing to another, or from one behaviour, activity or situation to another. Without help, they simply become stuck.
We all have unique personalities and they may present us with certain problems. Indeed, most people have aspects of personality that they find problematic. A struggle to adapt easily to change is one of these. It isn’t because the child is bad, naughty or difficult. It isn’t a ‘fault’ in the child but simply an aspect of personality. She may be perfectly normal in all respects except for her inability to handle change.
Such children may resist new foods and prefer eating the same thing for every meal. They may find it hard to go to sleep at night, then (after sleeping well) find it difficult to shift back to wakefulness. When playing, they may be able to entertain themselves well for hours but resist shifting from one form of play to another. For example, he may continue to play with lego because he will find it too hard to shift to another toy. Typically, parents of such children find it hard to encourage them to leave their play to come to supper, visit a relative, go shopping, or anything else.
In relationships with others, this personality trait may cause such children to be fine with one person at a time, but find it hard to shift from one person to another. For example, from mother to nursery school teacher. They will find it hard to leave a parent when it is time for school – and then find it hard to leave school to go home with the parent.
How do we help such children? Certainly we can’t scold or punish them when they resist change. They truly need help from their parents whenever there is a transition to be made. Sometimes it helps to provide the changes which she needs and can’t manage herself. An example would be to have the child go find her mother in the playground rather than being met in the classroom, or having a new pair of pyjamas to put on in order to break the bedtime ritual that has become such a struggle.
Of course, some children show reluctance to change in very particular situations and something else may be found to underlie their behaviour. There are many possible reasons for what can be seen as Separation Anxiety, or fear of change due to a traumatic event. What is discussed here is different – we’re describing children who are born with this aspect of personality.
If a child has a personality that resists change in general then it is likely that she will keep that personality trait throughout her life. Accept that there is nothing you have done to cause this, and nothing you can do to change it. You can help her understand herself and provide the kind of situation that makes her feel most comfortable and able to cope with change. But don’t try to change her or make her feel guilty. Individuality is inborn.
Image supplied by Freepik.
Oct 21, 2026 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog
Dyslexia is a widespread diagnosis amongst learners who struggle with reading, spelling and/or or writing. It is not truly understood, not clearly defined and much uncertainty still exists about what therapeutic approaches are really effective. Teachers and parents are often surprised when Integrated Learning Therapy (ILT) practitioners take less notice of the diagnosis and instead turn their attention to the individual’s inner ear functioning.
The part of the inner-ear so often found responsible for the problems associated with dyslexia is called the vestibular system. This little system has enormous implications for our learning and functioning – something which is only truly understood by those of us who have suffered from health conditions affecting the vestibular. To their surprise, irregularities brought about by inner-ear infections and similar prevent them from carrying out their usual daily routines altogether.
The vestibular system has several functions, beautifully described by Dr Harold Levinson in his books (see www.dyslexiaonline.com). Here are some, briefly summarized:
- The vestibular guides our eyes, hands, feet and various mental and physical functions in time and space. We need this for our eyes to fixate and sequentially track letters, words and sentences; to be able to write on the horizontal in a neat fashion; to pronounce words accurately as we speak.
- The vestibular fine-tunes all motor responses that make our movements coordinated and balanced. If dysfunctional, we show delayed speech; impaired ability to walk; difficulty tying shoelaces, buttoning buttons; holding and using pens and pencils. We may also take long to toilet train and show symptoms such as bed-wetting, soiling and more. This find-tuning function also makes it difficult to concentrate and remember what is seen and heard. You could compare this to the tuning function on a TV. Imagine how difficult to watch a programme if the picture and sound are fuzzy, indistinct and blurred out.
- The vestibular also has a compass function. It allows us to be aware of spatial relationships such as right and left, up and down, front and back, east and west and north and south. If the compass system isn’t working efficiently, the brain has to compensate by finding methods such as wearing a watch on one hand, or remembering which hand is which by the presence of a scar, etc. This compass system directs all body functions: sensory, motor, speech, thought, even biophysical patterns. It isn’t always true that all functions will be dysfunctional. One sequence may be misdirected or scrambled while another remains unaffected.
- The vestibular acts as a timing mechanism. If it isn’t functioning as it should, a child may have difficulty in learning to tell time and sensing time. Often, so-called dyslexic learners do not understand the difference in meaning of before and after and can’t sense whether a minute, an hour or several hours have gone by.
Impaired functioning of this very crucial sensory-motor system explains why such learners struggle to learn to read, write neatly and with clear meaning, reverse letters and words and more.
Take note that the vestibular system is located in the inner ear. This part of the ear is prone to damage through various avenues, including but not limited to ear infections. For this reason, ILT practitioners always ask about health history, because just one severe ear infection might underlie later problems in school.
So before treatment begins to help such learners overcome the symptoms they are displaying, it makes perfect sense to ensure that their vestibular systems are helped to restore functioning. A perfect example of why looking for the underlying cause of symptoms is often a quicker and more efficient way of helping those with learning difficulties.
Image supplied by Freepik.
Oct 14, 2026 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog
In a previous post, I explained that there is a difference between sight and vision. Having good eyesight means that the eye is doing its job well and is able to clearly see the world both near and far. Good eyesight is referred to as 20/20 and this is what optometrists look for when children have their eyesight tested.
Vision, on the other hand, depends on how the eyes function as directed by the brain and also how children use the information from the eyes. This means that they have to be able to correctly interpret the information reaching the brain from the eyes.
The first category (function) covers some visual abilities, such as fusing two images from each eye into a single, clear image (binocular fusion); being able to shift focus quickly between near and far images (accommodation); to be able to stablise the eyes so that they can locate a target and ‘fix’ that on the retina so that it is seen in sharp focus (fixation) and to be able to move the eyes along a sequence of numbers, letters or words (ocular motility or ‘tracking’).
The second category encompasses visual perception. This includes several abilities that are necessary for schoolwork:
Figure-ground perception: This is the ability to separate targeted images from surrounding ‘clutter’. For example, being able to discern
Direction in space: Being able to see the difference between letters that go up or down, left or write. For example, the difference between b and d.
Form perception: The ability to realise differences in shape, as for example, the shapes of letters.
Visual-motor coordination: The ability to coordinate body movements with visual information. For example, hand writing, copying, catching balls.
Visual imagery: The ability to picture an image in the mind’s eye. For example, to mentally picture a spelling word.
Visual-verbal match: The ability to match what we hear with what we see. For example, forming a mental picture of what is described as we read.
These perceptual abilities develop with age. Some children may not be ‘visually ready’ when they begin school and as a result, will ‘observe less, remember less, learn less, and in general be less efficient in what they do’ (From the book 20/20 is not enough, by Dr A.S. Seiderman and Dr S.E. Marcus).
Some of these children will learn to read but others may struggle as a result of developmental or perceptual lags. They may become labelled as having learning difficulties. So if a child is struggling at school, don’t only think of having eyesight tested. While good eyesight is crucial, there are other, important aspects of vision to be considered.
Image supplied by Freepik.
Oct 7, 2026 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog
Parents these days seem to be faced with many more challenges than were offered in the past. It isn’t possible any more to bring your children up the way your parents raised you. There has simply been too much change too quickly, with technology literally transforming our homes and our lives. Everything seems to happen much, much faster than it did in Grandma’s day, thanks to the phenomenon of ‘electric speed’ (a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan). This started with the growth of global mass media and is still accelerating wildly.
For adults, this is an exciting time to be living through but we need to be aware of its impact on our children’s lives. Children are not adults. They still have to develop through years during which they acquire the skills needed to live in the social and educational world. They have to learn to focus their attention, defer gratification, acquire self-control, emotional balance, social awareness and empathy, academic skills and a set of good morals. This side of human development can’t occur at a rapid pace; it happens in ‘slow time’. Children of today need the same time-consuming, old-fashioned parenting that has resulted in healthy-minds-in-a-healthy-body since the origins of mankind.
There have been many social changes in the past decades as well. Technology means that we have far more contact with other cultures but this might mean that today’s children have less contact with their own cultural history. Not only this, but today’s lifestyle sees fewer extended family groups, many single-parent homes, a majority of working mothers feeling pressurised on all sides, less stable marriages and the never-ending warnings concerning junk food, electronic babysitters, too much screen time, technobrats, small homes with no access to gardens in which to play; danger on the streets; the demands of consumerism, peer pressure and more. And there are no definitive answers for all of these. The old certainties enjoyed by our parents and theirs have disappeared. Parenting today simply isn’t easy!
The physical side of child-rearing is more simple. Small beings have the same needs as they always have: good, nourishing food, plenty of exercise and play and sufficient sleep. It is the emotional and social support that demands time, attention, communication and love from caregivers. It may be these aspects of children’s development that are most threatened by the side effects of rapid technological and social change.
We see these side effects reflected in children’s attitudes and behaviours. Too many show increasing distractibility, impulsivity and self-obsession. Too many seem to be unable to learn effortlessly, to enjoy life and to thrive socially. This points to the difficult truth that even though it’s more difficult now than it ever was before, good parenting is more essential than ever.
Don’t be drawn into the paralysis caused by the rapid changes, uncertainty of what is the best practice and guilt because of your situation. The social media becomes a tool to help gather information so that you can concentrate of providing a secure, healthy environment in which your child can grow. Use technology to ‘get wise’ and plan how you are going to ensure that your family is able to cope with modern life without losing touch of their humanity.
(Content was based on Sue Palmer’s book entitled ‘Toxic Childhood’, published by Orion Books
Image supplied by Freepik.
Sep 30, 2026 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog
In our schools across the country, we find thousands of learners who just can’t manage reading. In the lower grades, children struggle to learn to read, and in the higher grades, they cannot read to learn. In all other respects, they seem to be normal and just as intelligent as their reading classmates.
This is so sad. We know that these children start school with an eagerness to learn. Then they are confronted with reading and in spite of trying really hard, cannot do it. They fail and fail again. The primary path to learning is through reading, so this first experience of school, of the world of learning and education, has become a disaster.
In spite of the high number of children with reading problems, not all teachers or their schools are aware of the visual problems that may underlie the difficulties. Integrated Learning Therapy (ILT) practitioners are confronted on a daily basis with families who report that their child’s eyesight has been tested and found to be normal. But they still can’t read.
The truth is that vision for reading requires far more than is tested in a standard eye examination. This aims at identifying refractive errors (near or far-sightedness, astigmatism) or an eye turning in (strabismus). These problems are caused by irregular eyeball shapes which prevent the image focused by the lens from falling accurately onto the retina.
Reading requires more than accurate focusing – it also needs good binocular vision. This is the process requiring several sets of nerves and muscles which make it possible for the two eyes to work together so that an image falls on the centre of each retina, then fuses into one and finally has the lens focus the image. Binocular vision is what enables us to see in three dimensions, to estimate distance and basically is crucial for almost everything we do with our eyes. Reading especially requires good binocular vision so that the eyes can fixate effortlessly on a visual target; images appear clearly as one; the eyes are able to track along letters, words and sentences or shift from one target to another. A child with poor binocular vision may show other problems as well. She may appear clumsy, have trouble stacking blocks or pouring water into a cup – all because she cannot judge space accurately.
All of this means that a child may not be visually ‘ready’ by the time they begin school. The question of why puzzles us, and we have no definitive answer. The changing nature of children’s games may be questioned. Instead of games of the past that challenged visual-motor coordination have been replaced by electronic and battery-operated toys, leading to a lack of practice of the visual system. TV occupies a significant percentage of children’s leisure time without providing practice for the visual system.
If reading is a problem, then the child’s vision needs closer investigation. This should be carried out by a Developmental or Behavioural Optometrist, who is a professional with additional training in Binocular Vision and can help a child with Visual Therapy to improve binocularity.
Unfortunately, there are few such specialists in our country so if you are not in an area where you have access to a Developmental Optometrist, you can see if you have an Integrated Learning Therapist (ILT) close to your school or community. ILT practitioners are trained to screen for binocular issues and have the tools to very successfully help children whose reading problems are causing them so much stress.
Image supplied by Freepik.
