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.
Sep 23, 2026 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog
Neurodevelopment starts in the early prenatal stage that begins with rapid growth of spreading brain cells, forming synapses especially during the last trimester. Further synaptic growth during the first 2 years of life is particularly critical to ongoing functioning and development.
Myelination begins in the second half of pregnancy and continues until the mid-twenties, with different systems myelinating at different times. As we have learned, the brain’s centre of reasoning and problem solving is among the last to mature, during young adulthood.
The first areas of the brain to mature are those with the most basic functions, such as processing the senses and movement. Areas involved in spatial orientation and language (parietal lobes) follow. Areas with more advanced functions – integrating information from the senses, reasoning and other ‘executive’ functions – mature last.
Tremendous rate of growth in areas of vision and sensation occur in the early school years. During the middle school years (Grades 5-8) areas responsible for language development show rapid growth.
Because infancy and childhood are characterized by the development of different systems, children have unique susceptibilities not seen in adults – and critical time windows for these susceptibilities. The critical times include preconception, gestation and the postnatal period.
It might be hard to imagine that it was only a few decades back that the discovery was made that the foetus is vulnerable to exposures. You’ll remember the terrible wake-up call that came from the use of thalidomide by pregnant women. This was a tragic lesson of the ability of chemicals to traverse the placenta and damage the foetus.
Now we know that during gestation, the foetus may be susceptible to various chemicals, ionizing radiation, alcohol, methylmercury and lead. During the postnatal period, infants are susceptible to second-hand tobacco smoke and lead, amongst other offenders.
Let’s have a brief look at some of these heavy metal offenders.
Lead
Preventing lead exposure continues to be a major challenge in many countries, especially developing countries. Poverty, a large informal sector, limited public health challenges and low levels of awareness of lead hazards and weak capacity to enforce legislation contribute to the intensity of the challenge. Despite progress in this area, a wide range of sources of lead exist in South Africa and certain settings and groups continue to be at high risk of lead exposure. Exposure comes from paint, mining, lead melting in subsistence fishing communities (making of sinkers) and food production.
When lead poisoning begins in the womb, it can affect the most critical system, being the central nervous system of the foetus. The effects of lead exposure can be seen in various areas. Firstly, high levels cause loss of intellectual capacity and changes in behaviour. It has been identified as adversely affecting speech and language, attention, cognitive flexibility and visual-motor integration. These may come about because of low lead concentrations that don’t necessarily produce physical signs. High levels of lead exposure results in disruption of semantic language function in young adulthood.
Mercury
Children who are exposed to mercury (often by mothers who consume a high fish diet contaminated with mercury) may develop reduced IQ, learning and behaviour problems. Mercury is known to have neurotoxic properties and is identified as a significant risk factor for neurodevelopmental behavioural disorders in children.
Acceptance of this now recognised fact has been slow in coming and only recently have dentists acknowledge that teeth fillings containing mercury are a risk factor.
Tobacco
There is now strong evidence that prenatal tobacco exposure is linked with the development of attention difficulties associated with ‘ADHD’. Such exposure can be due to mothers who smoke or who were exposed to second-hand smoke in the home.
We know that there are other heavy metals and environmental offenders that can be contributing to a child’s learning and behaviour challenges. This serves as a reminder that we have to be aware of the many aspects that can impact on neurodevelopment. Don’t overlook anything and if you suspect heavy metals, have a hair analysis done at one of the pathological laboratories
Image supplied by Freepik.
Sep 16, 2026 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog
It seems that your child’s performance at the beginning and end of the Foundation Phase (that is, the end of Grades 0 and 3) of school can be a reliable predictor of future academic success. The reason for this is logical. Higher academic skills depend on fluent reading, writing and mastery of numeracy, which is why the ‘three R’s’ have been emphasised through the ages. Truly, the early years of school create a firm foundation for what is to come.
Many countries realise this, which is why schools are, for example, trying to introduce reading skills into the Grade 0 curriculum. Is this good or bad? Some children will be able to gain reading skills at this early age but there is a good chance that a percentage of young learners will struggle with the pressure of early academic demands.
This will lead to some children being held back because they are considered to be immature. Repeating the grade is believed to give them time to ‘catch up’ and mature further. Very often, however, the child will be a year older but still immature in certain significant ways.
The maturity needed for academic tasks concerns the central nervous system – with the brain being a crucial part of this. The development and maturity of the brain and its functions depends on the internal wiring of nerve connections that allow us to function in ways recognised as human skills. This includes speaking, listening, perceiving, moving, and balancing as well as learning to get along with others, read, spell and calculate.
If this network of brain cells has not developed optimally by the time a child enters school, it can impact negatively on that child’s ability to cope with classroom demands. The process of brain development is widely referred to as ‘neurodevelopment’.
We are well aware of the importance of early childhood and the need children have for stimulating the brain. This comes through the senses so that the brain is activated to grow, insulate and make connections between cells. Active engagement with and exploration of the world with adult intervention is an important component of brain growth, but there are also many circumstances that can impact negatively on brain development. These cause delays in the brain ‘wiring’ that will result in the child’s lack of learning readiness.
Included in, but by no means limited to, the list of possible negative circumstances that children face in our modern society include our technological age, our internal and external chemical environments, nutrition, factors during pregnancy and birth, and many others. For example, the fear of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) led to parents being urged to encourage babies to sleep on their backs. This led to babies becoming less inclined to want to be on their stomachs, consequently spending less ‘tummy time’ in infancy. The spin-off from this is that some infants fail to mature certain neck reflexes that cause problems in later years. The greater majority of hyperactive children are found to have immature reflex patterns that create physical discomfort when trying to remain still. There are many other similar examples of ‘what can go wrong’.
A year repeated in a grade might help to some extent, but what is needed is careful assessment of what is lacking in the child’s neurodevelopment and then using the information to give the brain a second chance to develop optimally. We are not dealing here with a child’s chronological age. Another year of growth does not guarantee better brain networking.
A neurodevelopmental approach helps tremendously in enhancing and mastering abilities that ultimately provide the learning readiness that is needed to succeed in school.
Image supplied by Freepik.
