Square Peg Child & Family guidance, training and development therapist

APPLICATION IN REALITY
by Sarah-Jane Goosen

May 2009

I always make reference to a very special boy who overcame all obstacles at school and is now a first class, grade 7 learner. When I initially started my work with him, let's call him Scott, his profile revealed that he lacked logical thought and methodology. No wonder then that he consistently left for school each morning with the incorrect books struggled to keep his files and books organised, neat and tidy. He often forgot what was for homework and rarely remembered his tests dates. This poor child was a walking disaster. You see it is not natural for this profile type to be organised and in control. I set out immediately on teaching Scott how to better manage his books (using a plastic case for each one), organise his home work diary and plan his time better. Slowly improvements were evident. Our next challenge was to increase his concentration within the classroom. His left eye and ear meant that he was very easily distracted by both visual and auditory distractions in his learning environment – a slight inconvenience in a typical classroom! Yet, by knowing and acknowledging his profile I was able to establish that he would perform better and listen for longer periods of time if he was placed in a specific area of the classroom. Next we challenged his ability to learn for tests – Scott (as revealed by his profile) is a visual learner who learns best by seeing pictures and big fonts. In addition, he learns well when he has to teach others about the knowledge at hand. And to top it all off he needed to be taught how to mind map – you see his brain ultimately, needs to see the bigger picture and how everything fits together. It must be remembered that not all children will benefit from using mind maps as a study technique – each and every child has a unique way of learning and thus I focus on teaching those necessary skills.

Finally, with permission and support from Scott's school I was permitted to accompany him to certain classes. Here I was able to observe his exact shortfalls and rectify, demonstrate and assist him immediately and adapt my goals and future plans for intervention accordingly. As his facilitator I guided him along his learning process and at times was permitted to ‘scribe' his tests for him. Scott had tremendous difficulty in putting his thoughts and answers down on paper – he was frustrated that he could not express himself effectively in writing. Yes, Scott is dyslexic but at the same time his profile reveals that verbally he is incredibly strong and so I suggested that we use this strength to overcome his difficulty. Answering his tests verbally, improved his marks by nearly 40%.

Slowly, he was weaned off and I encouraged him to learn to use self talk as guidance when writing his tests so that he slowed his thought process down as he attempted to put them onto paper.

I am so proud to say that Scott is no longer seen as the under achieving twin but rather as an individual who is independently excelling and reaching his own heights and academic achievements within the school environment.