Jason | Integrated Learning Therapy

Learning Difficulties

Jason was 11 years old and in Grade 5 when his parents approached ILT. According to the school, he was struggling.

In spite of showing excellent verbal abilities, he could not write legibly at all. He didn’t take part in any sport. He wanted to play rugby but could not catch the ball. He was always in conflict with his class mates for pushing them when standing in line. Not knowing how to help, his teachers recommended that he attend a remedial school.

At home, he refused to do any written homework. He was called ‘clumsy’; he was a poor, restless sleeper who still preferred sleeping with his parents.

His developmental history was uneventful. There were no problems before, during or after the birth. He reached all developmental milestones within normal limits although he showed clumsiness from an early age.

Things went well at school during the earlier grades, in spite of him always having handwriting problems. It was only from Grade 4 that his work showed deterioration. As a result, this spontaneous and friendly child began to lose confidence in himself and believed that he could not do anything right.

During the evaluation, Jason was very tense and needed much encouragement. Results of this assessment showed:

Irregular vestibular-cerebellar functioning
Poor midline crossing
Faulty memory for movement (kinaesthesia)
Low muscle tone in general
Poor fine motor control
Problems with differentiation

Jason began his programme at the beginning of March and ten days later the practitioner was able to confirm that all activities were being done correctly on a daily basis.

Three weeks later, the parents and class teacher attended a programme review. It seemed that Jason was still keen to persevere with the activities and he enjoyed doing them. Progress could be noted. Jason was more relaxed, his balance had improved and he had mastered several of the activities.

There was a definite improvement in his handwriting, which was very encouraging for everyone and his teacher said that as a result of her being better able to read his work, he was clearly more willing to try and produce written work for her.

The teacher had also spoken to the sports coach who said that, as he now understood the reasons for Jason’s clumsiness and lack of coordination, he would give Jason a chance to play rugby in the third school term.

During the third follow-up session, it was reported that Jason was sleeping much better and did not thrash around in bed any longer. He no longer showed problems with midline crossing or differentiation. Handwriting continued to improve and his confidence continued to grow.

Jason still had a way to go before being able to work up to his potential, but his parents and he understood this and were committed to continuing his programme.

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.