Thinking Confusion & Brain Dis-Integration Limit Learning

1. Dyslexics are multi-sensory thinkers
2. Confusion of the senses occurs
3. The dyslexic is a sensory learner
4. The stress and frustration of sensory confusion
5. The Learning to Read Program is for the sensory learner
6. Examples of sensory-initiated confusion
   
   

Dyslexics are Multi-Sensory Thinkers

Dyslexics are adept at utilizing their sensory abilities to guide their perceiving and thinking. They feel and experience most parts of their life, rather than abstractly think about them.

 

If you tell them you are sitting outside in the snow while talking on the phone to them, they have a physiological experience of you sitting there.  It is not information that they relate to with the mental distance of abstraction. In the realm of the 3-dimensional world, this style of creative and experiential thinking comes from the power of their ability to maintain brain integration while sorting multiple sources of sensory input.

Confusion of the Senses Occurs & Leads to Brain dis-Integration

When the dyslexic confuses input from within one sense (for example, confuses visual input of what he sees) or blend input from different senses (perhaps blends visual and auditory input) without any standard of reference, he is likely to generate stress and misleading perceptions.

When his stress builds to the point that it limits his access to critical brain areas or his ability to maintain and integrate the communication of information between all the brain areas that he needs to process the input, he suffers brain dis-integration.

In this state of brain dis-integration, if he is reading a word, he may mis-read a letter (he reads “bad” instead of “dad”), mis-read the whole word (he reads “then” instead of “when”), be unable to make any sense of the word or he skips the word all together.

The Dyslexic is a Sensory Learner

Because the thinking style of a dyslexic is predominantly multi-sensory (Gestalt more than Logic thinker), he learns primarily from his visual, spatial, auditory, rhythmic and tactile input, and he uses his composite perception made from this sensory input to learn to read and write.

 

The dyslexic is able to experience so effectively in his brain (using all of his senses) what he thinks that his thoughts produce physiological responses within him. The multi-sensory thinker has a full sensory experience of you when you tell him you are sitting outside in the snow while talking on the phone to him. The multi-sensory and physiological experience of what he is thinking is the gift of the dyslexic’s thinking style.  The dyslexic often is surprised to find that other people do not experience their sensations and their thinking as he does.

When the dyslexic does not recognize something he sees, hears or otherwise perceives, he involuntarily and spontaneously moves into multiple sensory perceptions of the object. 

 

The dyslexic’s distortion of perception occurs at a very high speed.  Almost instantaneously, he senses, thinks and blends his senses to arrive at a conclusion. Due to the speed with which the dyslexic processes sensory input, he can solve confusing input and never know he is confused. In solving his sensory input, he may confuse what he sees and hears, or read words unusually or unrecognizably. Even so, he may have no awareness of his confusion. He is only aware of the outcome of his sensory process – which is a solution for what a moment ago appeared unrecognizable. 

Processes of the brain that are Gestalt-initiated functions (multi-sensory, big picture thinking) occur with no respect to time and no adherence to rules and regulations. Time, rules and regulations are part of the linear, sequential, deductive nature of the Logic-directed functions of the brain. A Gestalt-initiated function almost instantaneously produces an awareness of the whole perception and the conclusion (Big Picture thinking) – they are perceived as one event. Gestalt thinking reaches a solution or conclusion with no ability to identify the steps used to get to it. 

 

Big picture, Gestalt thinking is a very difficult thinking style to use while in school.  Teachers want to know how you found the solution to a math or chemistry problem, or why you know all about dinosaurs when you cannot read out loud about them.  Teachers assume students don’t know how to solve problems if they cannot demonstrate their reasoning that leads them to their answers.  This can only be done by logical, linear thinkers who can sequentially sort through information and assemble the pieces to form a solution.

The Learning to Read Program is for the Sensory Learner

The MELT™ techniques and The Learning to Read Program take advantage of the dyslexic’s inherent sensory abilities and his primarily Gestalt-initiating thinking style in order to correct the dyslexic’s learning disabilities. 

 

In The Learning to Read Program, the dyslexic learns to accurately use his tactile, spatial, visual, auditory, rhythmic and kinesthetic input. 

 

He learns how to stop his tendency toward misperception and how to correctly sense and use written characters.  His long-term memory and his performances in school improve, as do his self-confidence and self-image. The MELT™ techniques harness the dyslexic’s innate abilities so that he can accurately and fluidly read, write, do math and understand what he sees on paper.

Examples of Sensory-Initiated Confusion

To give you an idea of sensory-initiated confusion, here are two examples of momentary sensory confusion that you may have had:

1] Imagine that you are aboard a stationary train looking out the window at another stationary train. As the other train begins to move ahead, it seems to you as though you are moving backward. Yet, you question whether this is true because some of your senses tell you that your train has not moved at all. The effect of sensory confusion that leads to brain dis-integration can be unsettling at first. As you (the viewer) quickly and accurately re-interpret the input from your non-visual senses, you conclude that the other train is the one moving.   At the exact moment that you correctly identify what is happening in the physical world around you, brain integration is recovered and the disturbing effects of your brain dis-integration cease.  You no longer confuse the information of your visual input with your sense of movement.  Ease now replaces the tension that built while you experienced your confusion of the senses.

2] Imagine you are sitting in your car at a traffic light. You are waiting patiently (or not) for the light to change from red to green, and notice out of the corner of your eye that the car next to you seems to be moving backward? Or, is it that the car you are in is moving forward? For a moment you experience a confusion of your senses, and you are uncertain about what is “really happening in the physical world.”  You don’t know whether to trust what you see or feel. You seem to be feeling the movement of your car when you watch the car next to you move. Visually feeling that motion is occurring, you find yourself instinctively pressing on the brake pedal to ensure that it’s not your car that is moving! As soon as you press the brake pedal, you feel your car stop. Your misperception clears. You realize that it was your car that was moving all the time, not the other car.