1. Scientific
research into brain function
2. Overcoming
dyslexia can be very fast, effective, permanent and FUN
3. Dyslexia may not be genetic
4. Connection with phonics
5. What
is it like for parents? 6. Visualisation
is really easy for Autistic Children
7. Is
dyslexia real? Is that the right question? 8. Seeing
Spells Achieving works in any language
9. The
fastest and cheapest assessment on the planet
10. Could
we stop dyslexia happening?
11. Could
we stop dyslexia happening?
12. Visualisation
is used naturally by very gifted children
13. Dyslexia
in the workplace
14. Reducing
re-offending
15. Is
it acceptable to have to spell words you have never seen before?
16. Some
interesting facts
Brain research supports visual spelling
It has recently been shown
that the front of the brain is involved in the slow analysis
of a word that the reader has never seen before. Once someone
has seen that word a few times they then develop the skill to
recognise the complete word. This is the skill of fluent readers
and is carried out in the back of the brain. So the back of
the brain recognises, or 'sees' the word, whilst the front of
the brain tries to analyse new words.
We had been noticing for sometime, how slow readers, pick apart
every word, making it into syllables, using phonics and blending
the word together. This is where they may get into total confusion
turning the word, or parts of it around, e.g. confusing "ea"
with "ae". But if they visualise the word, once they
have seen it a few times they can then literally recognise the
whole word.
Through developing the skill to visualise whole words, Seeing
Spells Achieving, seems to be accelerating the speed with which
the client transfers reading/spelling from the front to the
back of their brain. This is the part of the brain where fluent
readers just see words and have immediate access to the same
'visual' dictionary for spelling.
We have also noticed that some children develop the skill to
read fluently, but find it very hard to spell. It therefore
would seem that spelling is going on in the front of the brain,
whereas reading has migrated to the back. We often describe
this to a client as "you seem to have one dictionary for
spelling and another for reading, or in some cases no dictionary
at all for spelling". Little did we realise that we had
actually found out the answer - for these individuals fluent
reading, using a visual dictionary, is going on at the rear
of the brain, whilst spelling is probably still in the front
of the brain, until they become confident to trust their internal
image of a word. No wonder the same dictionary is not being
used.
When we teach Visual spelling,
we first get the client secure in seeing words and spelling
them. Then, when trying to spell a word, we often ask them to
imagine they are reading as part of a sentence and they can
then confidently spell it - this enables them to access the
words from the rear of their brain.
Learning Visual Spelling
through Seeing Spells Achieving, always improves reading too,
for those who are challenged both by spelling and reading. So
learning to see words visually appears to automatically put
those words into the rear of the brain for use when reading.
This appears to explain why clients change into more fluent
readers, when learning to spell - they recognise the words.
Overcoming dyslexia can be very fast, effective, permanent and
FUN A few hours is
all it takes for parents, grandparents, friends, teachers, trainers
and after school clubs to learn the basic skills. No need to take
children out of school, spend a fortune and get kids doing all
sorts of exercises over months. Reading and writing has no relevance
to IQ - it is possible for anyone. Everyone can visualise and
progress to visualising words and this will invariably improve
their experience of reading and writing. You can banish your gremlins
with just a little practice. Whenever people learn to visualise
they smile as they have never done this before with words and
they can do it - its FUN. To see someone change their experience
with words and grin from ear to ear is so rewarding - and an everyday
experience with Seeing Spells Achieving.
A lot of media attention has
recently focused on pronunciation in "The
Letters & Sounds Program" for reading systems
going into schools.
"Seeing Spells Achieving"
are in support of any program that improves individuals' literacy
skills.
The approach highlighted
in the media works on the link between letters and sounds, pronunciation.
Children read letters from a card, and then pronounce them. e.g."ai"
"th" "ei" etc. This requires they firstly
see the letters held up on the card in the classroom. They must
then develop a process to remember these groupings or 'phonemes'
in order to recognise them next time they see them.
Seeing Spells Achieving helps
individuals of any age develop this Visual Memory, to visualize
letters and words.
In addition to helping with
pronunciation Seeing Spells Achieving
" works on spelling and numbers in addition to developing
reading skills"
" assists those with ADD,
ADHD, Autism and Aspergers"
" works for all ages including children from the age of 4"
" works for 50% of prison populations who have dyslexia,
and 10% of the national population, 6 million people.
" works in any language, essential in today's multicultural
classroom and society.
If you would like more information and are interested in attending
one of the workshops or in becoming accredited.
Call 07940 791237 or 07970-854388 or mail info@seeingspellsachieving.com
What is it like for parents? As parents
I am sure you have agonised over why your children just don't
"get" spelling and reading, struggles with comprehension,
can't do mental arithmetic, has a poor memory and can't remember
what they have just read? And why is one child having such a struggle
when others in the family are finding it so easy?
Some children may have been diagnosed as dyslexic, dyspraxic or
have discalculia. Ignore the medical diagnosis for a moment and
find out what the child's brain is doing or not doing by asking
them about their experience.
Can they visualise words? And for that matter, can you? All the
best spellers can - FACT. Everyone can visualise but some do it
much better than others. If they are able to visualise or imagine
stories and information they will recall them more easily - FACT.
If they learn to visualise words, they will be able to spell better
- FACT. If they can visualise numbers they will be able to do
mental arithmetic - FACT.
So give them
a gift they will always thank you for: help them to improve their
visualisation. Some may even become great visualisers, and to
use the skill for words, numbers etc. We can all improve. Parents
are invariably best placed to help their own children, especially
when they are young, visualising objects and words is fun. When
parents use skill with preschool children, they can avoid confusion
with words that may lead to dyslexia.
Visualisation is really easy for Autistic
Children Since publishing
the book we have found that Seeing Spells Achieving can be taught
to most Autistic children in about half an hour. The reason is
they are naturally very visual and so visualizing words is really
easy when they realise that is a good idea.
All the Autistic
children we have met are very visual which is a great talent and
one that more and more children seem to have. But often all their
visual field is so full of pictures it is overwhelming. Firstly
you can ask them to more the pictures a bit further away, say
about 3 feet away and then you can teach them visual spelling;
simply putting words into their pictures. If you like to look
on www.seeingspellsachieving.com you will find many more details
about how to teach visual spelling, which is very simple, can
be done by anyone with a little training and also improves reading
and maths.
Is dyslexia real? Is that the right question? There is
so much publicity around these days arguing about whether dyslexia
is real or not , at Seeing Spells Achieving, we should like to
put a quite different frame on the question. Dyslexia is very
real for those with it, but it seems to be a learnt behavior (this
may be a shock for you, but read on), that we learn by ourselves
or by watching our parents/teachers around the age of 3 or 4 years
old and by the time we are finishing junior school we are quite
proficient at this confusing behavior. The symptoms we have of
not being able to "see" words, like all the best spellers
can and not being able to keep them still when we do "see"
them are 2 behaviors that can be changed in minutes, not months
through the NLP techniques described in the book, Seeing Spells
Achieving. It is so quick it should be the first place to look
for any concerned parent. If you understand the technique and
help your child early enough they should never become confused
by words. If your child is older, a few hours is all you need
to help your child. For more information take a look at www.seeingspellsachieving.com
and you are welcome to e-mail the authors for help - this is a
real offer of direct assistance. And returning to the original
question, all children who are using their visual capabilities
well, are much brighter at school.
Seeing Spells Achieving works in any language It is simply
an explanation of how your brain is designed to capture, retain
and access words. We have trained in the Netherlands teachers
in the British, International and Dutch schools, A Montessori
teacher, parents, after school tutors - a real team effort for
the benefit of the children. Teamwork like this is essential for
children to reach their potential. We have a trained associate
in The Netherlands and in Greece. We have interest from Germany,
Canada, Australia, South Africa and South America. We have also
talked with the Welsh Assembly as it may be particularly useful
when children are brought up to be bilingual (Wales seems to be
small enough to get some decent statistics and my contact at the
DFE might be able to too).
The fastest and cheapest assessment on the planet Ask your child or pupil if they can visualise their
bedroom door with their name written on it. If they can't they
just need to develop their visual memory. If they can - great,
they already have a visual memory. But if the word is missing
a few minutes practice will enable them to do this - they just
need to know how to. For more details take a look at www.seeingspellsachieving.com
Could we stop dyslexia happening? From the
work we have done, it seems that dyslexia is a very real learnt
behavior that children can make a mistake about probably before
they reach school (take a look at www.stopdyslexianow.com
for all sorts of very practical help). It is essential that we
stop children carrying this challenge forward throughout their
schooling into adult life just because they made a small mistake
when they were about 3-4 years old. They will keep their great
skill to see different perspectives, but not use it on 2-dimensional
words.
Visualisation is used naturally by very gifted children There is
published material about how intelligent some of our children
are now; they are coming on to the planet with more skills than
our generation had to solve some of the real challenges of this
century. They can be described as gifted, indigo, crystal etc.
The thing they all seem to share (from a small sample we have
met) is the ability to visualise. Seeing Spells Achieving can
help them use their great visual capabilities to make spelling,
reading, maths, art and all manner of school work much easier
and for children to reach their true potential.
Dyslexia in the workplace Many managers
in business have little idea what can be done to help people with
spelling, reading and dyslexia challenges. There is no reason
why they should, they are experts in a completely different field
and there has been much work done to help people, since they left
school. Visualisation, as described in our book, Seeing Spells
Achieving, can dramatically help most people who struggle with
words, in just a couple of hours. We can run 1-1 coaching with
individuals and organise in-company programmes. In just 2 hours
you can help people make a dramatic difference to their skills
with words and number "this must be the most cost effective
training ever" quote from an HR Manager. Take a look at www.dyslexiaintheworkplace.com
for the introduction to a FREE an article to help you.
Reducing re-offending Reducing
re-offending: Somewhere around 50% of the prison population is
dyslexic and prisoners are aware of how significant this is in
re-offending. Just imagine living in a foreign country, you can
talk to people, but you can't read anything - newspapers, books
road signs, directions - wouldn't you feel just a little isolated?
Once a prisoner has had basic level of training in about an hour
they can practice easily with no special equipment.
Is
it acceptable to have to spell words you have never seen before?
There is an interesting question
about whether we should have to be able to spell words that we
have never seen. Some children have noted this as a completely
unreasonable request. In addition when we have struggled to read
a word we have never seen before it really is of no help as we
don't know what the word means. We see developing spelling and
reading capabilities as a step-by-step approach, start with short
words, increasing the number of letters, to build up your confidence;
only when you have developed real confidence to read and write
fluently introduce unseen words as a further level of challenge.
Some
interesting facts
In the course of our work
with people of all ages, who have difficulties with words, we
have discovered the following FACTS:
1. All the best spellers
visualise words
2. Everyone can visualise but the best are able to see or 'visualise'
stories and information and . . . . . . they can recall them more
easily.
3. When people visualise words, they are able to spell better.
4. Because the best mathematicians visualise numbers, they are
able to do mental arithmetic.
5. Developing our visualisation skills and visual memory is not
taught, or even mentioned in the National Curriculum in the UK.
6. People who do not visualise have a poor memory.
7. More time and money is spent assessing children than helping
them to develop their skills of visualisation..
8. Most people with dyslexic tendencies have never visualised
words.
9. It takes less than 30 minutes to improve individuals' visual
skills - regardless of age and the majority of learning disabilities
including dyslexia, dyspraxia, Autism, ADD, ADHD.
10. To remember what we read, we must create a picture or a visual
image. This lasts longer and is easier to recall. This skill is
not even mentioned to children.
Stopping words and letters
from moving on the page, improving comprehension, excelling with
new vocabulary and languages, and learning musical staves, can
and have all been achieved through developing the powers of visualisation
we all possess. See someone you know change their experience with
words and their beliefs about who they are and who they can now
become.
