Video to help those not dyslexic learn from those that are

wow, Michelle, you have come a long way since you first published your ebook! You inspire me, as I have a similar passion to ‘educate the educators’, but I have not acted on my passion.

I SOO want to address dyslexia education with my dd’s old elementary school. I still harbor resentment in the disservice they did to her. As such, I am afraid to approach them for fear of coming across a bitter parent.

I remember reading your ebook several years ago and felt it helped me understand more how my dd ‘thinks’ and processes information. Susan Barton’s online webinars were also helpful for me in understanding the mind of a dyslexic.

I wanted to also let you know that I have learned there is a 3rd modality of ‘dyslexic’ thinking. My dd thinks in feelings (vs. words or pictures) I don’t know how common this modality is? If she is presented information orally w/o a picture que, she cannot visualize it or create an image of it in her head.

I did alot of cognitive remediation focusing on memory and imaging. I also learned how to get information to ‘stick’ with her, the end goal of her being able to do these ‘tricks’ herself and become independent.

She is now in HS, getting A’s and is completely self-sufficient except for an occaisional proofing of her writing. However, she still has deep wounds from her early elementary years, that have impacted her self-esteem.

If only schools and teachers could understand how important it is to teach and present information so that ALL their students can learn in a classroom.

Thanks for the work you are doing.

Demarti or anyone else who understands this,
Thanks for your reply. I feel like I move at a snails pace forward, but at least it’s forward not backwards! if you could please give me some examples on how your daughter thinks, through feelings, it would help me greatly. I am on a roll with our school and I have many teachers willing and learning all they can about how to teach to everyone. If I can give them more information to identify and help another child it would be great. We haven’t quite got them to realize that there are many more children that they could reach other then those that we help them “see” Thanks for your help. p.s. I understand your feeling about the school from the past. I have finally decided to get past my own anger about my own children and am sending their old school the DVD conference. Maybe it will help open some eyes and educate them while helping the next child at that school??
Michelle

I haven’t been able to really find any information on ‘thinking in feelings’. Either my dd is rare or very few people have considered this trait.

I’m a very left brain person and think totally in words/conversations (except when night dreaming - where I am balanced). So it’s hard for me to really understand, other than it was quite enlightening to discover that other people don’t think the same way I do.

From what I can understand, she views the world from a ‘feeling’ perspective. When she daydreams, I gather that she does ‘see’ pictures(but it’s not the typical movie going on in her head), very little talking in her daydreams except to express anger, happiness etc. All her dreams are about situations in how she is feeling. An example she told me was maybe playing in a basketball game and her opponent was being rough, which made her angry and thus it was all about expressing her feelings in that situation. I asked if there was any talking in her daydream and she said ‘yes of course’, they were ‘grrrring’ at each other alot.

She has a TERRIBLE time remembering names of people. I always thought this was a left brain/right brain integration, sound/symbol kind of issue. But come to find out, when she meets someone new, she does not pay any attention to what the person looks like, what they are wearing or their name. She is 100% focused on how she feels toward that person - do I like him/her, do they like me, are they nice, mean, gruff etc. She is still not great at names, but now that she has recognized she does this, it has gotten alot better and she makes a point to try to pay attention to something other than how they make her feel.

She has no clue to fashion, hair styles, what kids are wearing, because she doesn’t pay any attention to those details.

She is also a ‘highly sensitive person’. My hunch is that other people who carry this trait, may also think more in feelings. Here’s a link if you have never heard of an HSP before:

http://www.hsperson.com/

You can tell if a person is a visualizer or a conceptualizer if you ask them to describe something. Ex. a candle - a visualizer will describe it as tall, red, has a gold base etc. A conceptualizer will say it smells good, makes me feel warm & cozy, is smooth to touch etc.

As my dd is totally a conceptualizer, I think there is a link to not being able to visually image on her own. She has a hard time following auditory stories w/o picture ques because she can’t visualize the movie in her head.

Thanks for the work you are doing. Hope that helps explain some.

Thanks Demarti for the information. Much like my family who visualize everything, I need to process what you told me a little longer to wrap my mind around it! It’s funny because when my husband meets someone he doesn’t remember a name either, but can tell you down to the buttons on their shirt what they were wearing and how they looked. Do you or anyone else have ideas on how to incorporate teaching techniques when teaching your daughter that I can pass on to our teachers or add to our web site to further educate us all. Thanks.

I had to stew over this a few days. Two things come in mind when discussing with teachers.

1) “Feelers” are extremely sensitive to emotions and they can be very intuitive to other people’s feelings toward them. It’s very important for teachers to provide lots of positive ‘atta boys and way to goes’ and refrain from any negative critism. If the teacher deep down dislikes the child or shows frustration, these kids can feel it. They will completely shut down and not want to perform. If the teacher views them as the worst in the class, they will perform as the worst in the class. Bottom line - lots of postive feedback. (which is how they should treat/teach all kids, but ‘feelers’ it’s even more important - because they do not have thick skins).

2) Conceptualizers lack the ability to image. My dd had severe APD as well. She had a teacher in 4th grade science who was a talker and not a real organized talker at that. This was the class that when studying the night before a major test - I would scratch my head and wonder - ‘were you even in this class’. I would have to help her cram and reteach everything. These kids don’t process auditory information very well. The teacher might as well have been talking Chinese. Show me, don’t tell me.

Problem areas for Conceptualizers may be Reading Comprehension, Math Word Problems and Expressing himself in Verbal or Written form. (the movie is just not going on in their head)

Thanks for your help in educating me. There are actually many similarities that you write that I also see in my kids too. Other then the emotional awareness, they too like the “show me” not just “tell me” ways of teaching. It’s funny how we all look for that common thread in dyslexia to know that we are all on the right track, yet each child is subtly different. Ironic isn’t it- every other child that is not dyslexic also has these common threads and differences too. I still think that my second dd explains it best- “why is there a word for the way that I think and not for the way that you think?” Why indeed!