Learning Problems Begin When Written Abstract Words are Not Recognized by the Dyslexic

1. Ineffective learning can be remedied
2. What do you visualize when you read?
3. Word visualizing exercise
4. Concrete words 
5. Abstract stumble words
6. Mind takes a mental-health break
   
   

Ineffective Learning can be Remedied

The dyslexic’s ability to think conceptually is impaired by reading or hearing words that lack visual or other forms of sensory associations.  Sensory confusion and brain dis-integration soon follow such input of abstract words and symbols. 

What Do You Visualize When You Read?

When reading the word “car” in a newspaper, a book or a magazine article, do you see (or sense) your car?  “No!” No one sees their own car.  Since you have no confusion about what the word looks like ( c-a-r ), what it sounds like (kär), and what it means (a vehicle that moves on wheels), you keep reading until the sentence or paragraph fills in the details of what the car looks like in the story.

1. How do you recognize words you hear?
2. How do you visualize them?
3. Do we all assign the same meaning to a word we hear?

The following exercise will give you an experience of how you and your friends visualize words. 

Word Visualizing Exercise: 

    Ask your spouse or some other adult to:

1. “Picture pencil” …                   “What do you see?”
2. “Picture beach ball”…              “What do you see?”  … 
3. “Make it spin …                      "Now make it stop.”
4. “Picture house” …                   “What did you see?”   

Four out five people will see their own house. (If the person has not pictured his house, ask him to “picture spouse.”)

   Now ask your spouse or adult to:

1. “Picture ‘the’” …             

The answer you get over 99% of the time is: (the letter symbols) “t–h- e,” or “Blank… I see nothing.”

Notice that when I said to you, “picture pencil,” you did not go to picturing the letters of the word pencil. Instead you pictured the 3-dimensional object.  The same occurred when you pictured beach ball and house.  These are concrete objects that are easy to visualize.  However, there is no 3-dimensional object that the word “the” represents; therefore, you could not picture it. 

Confusion Starts to Build When Reading Abstract Words 

Mental confusion starts to build for a child learning to read each time that he encounters abstract words like “the.” Confusion continues for this child until he builds a 3-dimensional definition for the abstract word. Until then, the letters make "no sense" to him ... the 2-dimensional word has no inherent meaning.

Concrete Words:

Concrete words like "car" can be pictured or can be internally experienced by any of the senses. Because of the internal experience that is had with concrete words, there is no snesory or mental confusion in learning their meaning and how to recognize and read them -- once the abstract written symbols are learned!

Abstract Stumble Words:

The opposite is true of reading stumble words.  Stumble words are abstract and cannot be pictured or sensed. Unfortunately, stumble words make up more than 50% of the words in books read by children in Kindergarten through 3rd grade! 

 

How can we expect the young reader to know how to think when he meets many stumble words (for example, the, in, on, there, me, his, or I)  in a reading assignment? 

The Mind Takes a Mental-Health Break

After running into a series of stumble words over a couple of sentences, paragraphs, or pages, the senses overload with confusion and the brain dis-integrates – the processing of information is no longer integrated throughout the brain.  Due to the frustration of confusion and the lack of brain integration, the mind's eye of the reader takes a mental health break ... the student's imagination and focus leave the task!

 

Typically, after several months of this type of stress-release behavior, the teacher will label your son or daughter as a day-dreamer, as lazy, or as unable to stay focused.  The teacher believes she cannot help your child because he cannot stay connected to the work they are doing.

 

Your child may be sent to special education as someone else's problem, and your child may be labeled to be a poor reader and a poor learner. Unless there is organic damage, injury or chemical imbalance to the brain, this is seldom the truth of the situation!

Your child is learning and reading the best he can with the tools being given to him.  However, these tools are inadequate and what results is high frustration and fatigue while reading.