Brain Training

I have to commend Elizabeth for her stamina and motivation this past week during her "perception correction training." She far exceeded my expectations. She loved every minute of the training and even when she got tired she wouldn't quit. The woman who worked with Elizabeth finally had to tell her to take a break when she needed one.

Matt and I spent about two hours with Elizabeth and her teacher on Friday afternoon. We learned what Elizabeth had been doing all week. We had a general idea what the week was going to involve before it started, but it was good to get specifics.

Kids who are visual spatial learners do really well if they have a picture to attach to a word. If they are able to picture the word they are trying to learn, say an apple, the word can easily be stored in their long term memory and not be stumbled over again when they read. However, words that do not have a natural picture, for example, "there," "where," etc., will throw these kids off track.

Elizabeth spent a large part of the week looking up these "non-picture" words in a dictionary, then forming representations of the words out of clay. Once a picture is attached to the word, the child can easily store it in long term memory. So at the end of our two hour session, the woman had Matt and me work with the clay. Sounds easy, right? Not exactly, especially if you're not naturally a visual spatial thinker, which neither Matt nor I are.

I was given the word "make." I thought, "This will be a cinch. I'll just make a clay figure of Elizabeth with some clay in her hands." First, I had to look up the word in the dictionary. The woman told me to simplify the definition to "to build or create." Next, I made my clay figure. The only problem was, I made a completed clay project for my clay Elizabeth to hold. "That's 'made,' not 'make'," the woman said. Then I had to do "making." I pointed to my clay figure and said, "There is Elizabeth making something with clay." Wrong again. I needed to fashion two other people who were having a conversation in which they said, "There is Elizabeth, making something with clay."

Matt had the word "he" meaning an "male adult, a male child or a male animal." Matt ended up having to make five clay figures, including a rooster.

Elizabeth has a long list of these words she needs to work through in the same manner in the next year or so. She's totally motivated and excited. Her whole attitude has changed. I think she was just so relieved to have someone actually understand the way she thinks. She's like a bird that's been freed from its cage. We're praying that all that she's learned will be retained and that her new methods of how to perceive things will become second nature to her. We're also very thankful to both sets of Elizabeth's grandparents, without whom this training would not have been possible.

Of course, we couldn't leave out God. He is worthy to be praised. I know He lead me to this method and this woman. My mother-in-law asked the woman how many people do what she does. She told my mother-in-law that she's one of three in the whole United States. Isn't God great?