Elisa's Journal

Hi everyone! I found two great websites that are worth looking at. ONe is www.brainpop.com. This dandy has a 2 to 3 minute video clip on tons of subjects in math, social studies, health, language arts, etc. They also have cartoons, experiments, an opportunity to earn points, etc. Great way to help the visual learner (and the auditory learner) grasp or reinforce concepts. It's targeted for 5th through 8th but I see loads of stuff for high school kids and some that would apply for younger kids. You get unlimited access for only 34 bucks a year. Very worthwhile.

I also like www.mentura.com. You can order an unlimited number of DVD's (educational or otherwise) for dirt cheap. THey follow whatever queue you create as soon as you send back one in the prepaid envelope, they send you the next. SOme of the ones I have on my queue include the Bill of Rights, Newton's Laws, Standard Deviants Physics, Standard Deviants Goverment I and 2. SInce my kids are visual spatial learners, it helps reinforce the concepts I teach.

Posted by elisa at 07:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Has anyone out there had experience with behavioral optometrists? If so, have you had any luck with them correcting visual processing disorders? Give details if you can!

Posted by elisa at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Doesn't it seem like more and more kids are being diagnosed with ADHD? SOme think this is because kids are being raised with more permissiveness and therefore get out of control, and parents will do anything to drug them to the point that they're manageable. Some think doctors are just better at picking up the diagnosis. Many, including me, think ADHD kids are more common because early in our history, the concentration of immigrants with ADHD was much higher than the general population of their countries of origin because of tehir sense of adventure, risk taking, etc--all traits of an ADHD mind.

I, like others, also feel that ADHD is not a disorder, it's a gift--a different cognitive style. In fact, I think it's a more highly evolved way of thinking. Since evolution works the way it does, this may explain why we're seing more and more of it. In a nutshell, these kids are picture thinkers, not word thinkers. You can think in pictures several thousand times faster than you can in words. And their thinking evolves in all directions in a three dimentional way rather than sequentially word by word by word. They use thier right brain or even both halves while the other kids use their left brain. These kids are called "visual spatial learners" while the others are called "auditory sequential." Unfortunately, schools are geared to teach in an auditory sequential mannerand so the ADHD kids get distracted, impulsive, etc.

For disciplining ADHD kids, I like Dr. Thomas Phelan's "1-2-3 Magic." It's simple and easy to apply consistently. Also, on this site under Parent Connection, Parenting Tips, you can to get a couple of free articles: one on rethinking discipline, one on how to be a calm parent and one on achieving family harmony. They all have great discipline techniques that will help prevent what usually happens to ADHD kids: they receive parenting that is too controlling, strict, and oppressive, turning them into rebellious and defiant teens that are perpetually angry and get into trouble at school, at home and with the law.

I would also buy some books to understand the way your ADHD child think. Oh, how I wish I had done this earlier with my own kids.) The books are: The Gift of Dyslexia by Ron Davis (Even though they might not be dyslexic, this book explains the connection of ADHD with picture thinking.) ALso, get "Upside Down Brilliance: The Visual Spatial Learner," by Silverman,and "Teaching for the Two Sided Mind" by Linda Verlee Williams, and "How Peole Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School." At least start with the first two. They might have it in the school library or your neighborhood library. (See if you can get a copy of my book too--"Raising Children Who Think for Themselves."

Let your children know that what they have is special and that most teachers don't have these special types of brains and don't know how to teach kids who do. Medication is only for the purpose of helping your children accommodate for what the schools lack.

Posted by elisa at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday was tough. My teenaged daughter was on her third day of vomiting every 10 minutes. I checked her blood work (Since I'm a doctor, all I have to do is fill out a requistion slip and take her to the neighborhood lab.) It indicated she was extremely dry. Her hemoglobin went up 20% from a few weeks ago when we did the annual lab checkup thing. Now that's pretty concentrated blood. Even her kidney function was worsening. So I fed her Pedialyte every 15 minutes for a few hours (with a chicken broth chaser,) then every thirty minutes for a few hours, then every hour for a couple of hours. She perked up just like my wilted Bouganvillas do when I water them. All this on top of a tough homeschooling day for my son Erik and his friend Sean. Then there's bills to pay, groceries to get, and well, you know the routine. Illness doesn't give a hoot about our schedules, does it? All this and I was still surrounded by gripes from my sick daughter and complaints from the students. A mother's day is rough sometimes. WHat we do we must out of love, not out of any expectations of gratitude. (Although that would be nice.)

Posted by elisa at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My 9 year-old daughter's friend spent the weekend with us and it didn't go too well. They are so different, even in basic things like energy levels. My daughter loves to bike, play outdoors and engage in other high energy activities. Her friend is comfy just snuggling with her Game Boy for hours. Soon, my duaghter was getting annoyed with her. She told me that her friend is much more fun when part of a group of friends than alone. I was impressed that she came to that conclusion. I guess the friend needs lots of encouragement to increase her level of energy.

Of course I've had friendships that have weakened when tested that way. We took a dear friend skiing many years ago and after living in the same condo for four days, that friendship was not as strong. One on one for long periods tends to draw our attention to little annoying quirks and habits. I'm sure they notice ours too!

Posted by elisa at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm using the Play Attention method to help my two ADHD boys, and so far, it seems to be helping alot. I hope to have both off of medicine soon. What is it? It's a computer program designed at NASA that trains Air Force pilots and astronauts to maintain their focus for extended periods of time. It has five different games, each with its own purpose, many with increasingly difficult levels. Using a helmet with two sensors: one that measure attentional brain wave activity and another that measures cognitive processing activity, the child tries to use only his mind to manipulate screen characters. There are versions for both Mac and Windows. The first game helps sustain focus. The child can choose between two games here: making a bird soar or making a fish sink. As long as she focuses, the bird will climb and the fish will sink. When she zones out, even for a second, she'll see the fish climb and the bird sink. So for the first time, the child sees her inattention in real time. She sees that she and she alone in responsible for zoning out and for coming back into focus. She understands that she is in complete control, that her ADHD is not something that happens to her. If her cognitive activity is good, she feeds "power pills" to the bird or fish. The second game helps sustain visual tracking. This is important for sustaining focus while a teacher is talking and moving around the room and for tracking across the page or chalkboard while reading. The child can choose Hopper (a frog will hop around on a lily pad as long as she's "on task") or Skitter (this one's a bug on a leaf.) The third is Tower Builder. As long as the child pays attention, blocks will rise from the bottom and go on top of one another. As soon as she zones out, the block will freeze and then start to drift in reverse. There are three levels of difficulty. This game helps sustain focus and ability to complete a task. It is also used for "academic bridging" so that the child can transfer these hew skills to real life settings. In other words, she must build the tower while reading, doing math problems, listening to someone read, etc. The fourth game is Mind Maze. On the screen, there are four blocks of different colors. A different auditory tone will play when each block lights up in turn. Each block has its own tone. The child uses the arrow keys (which duplicates the exact layout of the four blocks) to copy the sequence of blocks that light up. First, they start with a series of two, then three, up to eight blocks in succession. Errors and length of blocks successfully memorzed are measured. This helps with sequential memory and auditory and visual discrimination. The last game helps with visual discrimination and impulsivity. The child is in a spacecraft being bombarded by asteroids. She must hit the spacebar as quickly as possible when she sees a white asteroid and refrain from hitting it when a red asteroid appears. Speed and accuracy are both measured. All data can be reviewed in text or graph format. The graph format can be seen in linear or curve form. You can even export data to Play Attention to get helpful feedback and suggestions. After a certain number of hours, they send the child various prizes for free. They have excellent tech support. Check it out on www.playattention.com!

Posted by elisa at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I've been doing the Davis Dyslexia Correctional Method on my two sons. Although they're both visual spatial, nonverbal learners, only the eldest has established learning differences because of it. So far, I'm amazed. It took only 30 minutes to teach them how to "park" their mental perception (the mind's eye--that looks at metal images) on a set spot called "the orientation point." So when they need to use only their visual perception as in reading, paying attention, writing and other auditory sequential tasks, they can get "on point" and avoid the disorientation that comes from trying to examine things with both perceptions simultaneously. WHen they're on point, they focus, their reading jumps up by two levels and even my son's dysgraphia improves right way. You can actually make sense of his handwriting. (Can't say the same with mine, sadly.) My youngest, who reads well but has poor reading stamina, can now read for well over an hour without blinking an eye. I'm going to teach my other kids how to get "on point" to see if it helps verbal thinkers too. Can't hurt. If you want more info, email me through this site.

Posted by elisa at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hi all, I'm toying with the idea of writing a book about kids with disabilities. Each chapter would be the self-told story of a teen or young adult who battled the odds to overcome the stigma, abuse, challenges and hardship of their physical disability. I'm wondering if I should include non-physical disabilities as well like emotional ones (sexual abuse, etc.,) Any ideas? Also, if you'd like to be one of the story tellers, let me know. Your words could serve as inspiration to all kids, disabled or not.

Posted by elisa at 07:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As promised, I have an update on my son's progress using the Davis Correctional Methods for his dyslexia. When he has established his orientation point (which took only thrity minutes to locate and "anchor,") he suddenly write and read at least two grade levels better. As he reads, he can spot when his gets "off point" instantly and just goes back on point within milliseconds. We haven't done the symbol mastery yet, but will get started soon.

Posted by elisa at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A series of articles in the September 8th edition of Newsweek shed some interesting light on the effects of the Digital Age on kids today. While some of the effects were positive (multitasking, visual perceptual skills) others were negative: (shallow thinking, reduced creativity, harmful influences like violent video games, etc.) In my opinion, I think all things in moderation. Kids today are way too addicted to tech activitities that do little to develop the mind--IM messaging, chat rooms, etc. They engage in tech activities that make them grow up too fast, too soon and that mold them into a generation of homogenized, corporatived consumer-minded lemmings. I say we should limit their exposure to games/other acrtivities that stimulate the mind in positive ways that will prepare them for the future. I say we should limit even these to only a few hours a week. I say we should boot kids out into the backyard or neighborhood with little more than a cardboard box, a piece of plywood and some scraps of cloth and let them use their own imagination to entertain themselves.Let them use free play to solve problems and conflicts, to resolve frustration and boredom, and to develop the social skills they need to interact with non-machine beings. It's all about balance and judgment. What do you think?

Posted by elisa at 06:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)