Can this program help a left handed child?
Yes, it certainly can, however, it is apt to take longer as the left hand-right brain connection is not as direct as the left brain - right hand connection.
How long is this going to take to see some changes?
That depends on the extent of your child's problems and the willingness to carry out the practice. I've seen some make changes in a few weeks. Others may take a few months. The ideal is to urge schools to undertake the process so it is done daily.
Why is it necessary to use the music? Why can't I just have my child do handwriting?
Adding therapeutic music transforms the handwriting process, changing it from an intense, frustrating cognitive process to a non-threatening cognitive format that stimulates the brain. This removes stress and anxiety generated in trying to meet expectations from the process. The brain benefits from the regulated stimulation gained by simply doing it. Therapeutic music has the capacity to "entrain" the brain's rhythm and pull it the music's rhythm which stabilizes how the brain is "firing," calming the brain and enhancing the learning process.
If handwriting is so important to the educational process, why do the schools neglect the process so much when compared to the "olden days?
Other than how to teach "penmanship", teachers today get virtually no handwriting training in this country and do not understand handwriting's deeper implications. A historical perspective reveals why. Back in the "olden days," (1920-40s) in this country, penmanship and the old Palmer "push pulls and running ovals" movement exercises were strongly stressed of the 3Rs -- for years, not for days. Penmanship teachers had special training at the university level. During the depression in this country, school boards began to seek ways to save money -- they quit hiring penmanship teachers. Colleagues who knew that it was strongly stressed elected to carry it forward for several years, but now this country is 3-4 teacher generations away from an awareness that such a concept or such an emphasis ever existed.
What is the connection between impulse control and handwriting?
As an intentional movement, handwriting's impulses are the essence of the emotional life force. Handwriting is "brainwriting." Akin to a legible EEG, it is the most basic of the 3'Rs, the unrecognized foundation for developing the other 2Rs. Regulating the hand- writing reveals that one has learned to harness his/her emotional energy flow and impulse control has been achieved. As the process integrates the specialized powers of the hemispheres, it enables one to be able to direct the emotional energy so being functionally productive, i.e., goal directed, is possible.
Ever increasing numbers continue to escalate of children who need special education services? Why is this happening now? What are the primary contributing factors?
Today's world is vastly different than it was just a few short decades ago -- many major societial changes have strongly affected the young brain. Major factors are TV's pervasive passive influence, (video games' interactive influence is very pronounced), poverty, sensory deprivation, single parent homes, and poor quality day care. Lack of sufficient hydration for the brain and diet are also contributing influences. Even highly processed food with a strong chemical basis can influence sensitive children. Combined with all the factors listed, children arrive in the system without development readiness in place. On top of these factors, the lack of sufficient penmanship that can physiologically impact the brain to counteract those factors and bring on left brain dominance is a central factor.
I've heard the term "developmental readiness" applied to young children. What does this mean and why is it such an issue with the child entering school?
It refers to a normal transition that a child usually achieves between 5-7 years. It is an indication that the brain is "ready" to do the hard thinking necessary to learn the 3Rs -- left brain dominance. Yet for a variety of reasons listed above, many children today are not achieving this state naturally by the time they enter school. They may enter the system labeled "at risk"-- without intervention it sets up the potential for learning disabilities
You state that TV and video games are detrimental influences? Why is this the case?
By their very nature, both "image based," and promote right brain dominance, a state of mind", that is counter to left brain dominance. The right brain is emotionally influenced and lack of impulse control and emotionally driven behaviors are often a factor.
The left brain is "the brain that goes to school" -- reading, writing, and arithmetic all require a step-by-step processing (sequential) style, the inherent functioning style of the left hemisphere. Leonard Shalin, M.D., suggests that in just 50 short years, TV has changed 5,000 years of history in causing a shift from left brain to right brain dominance. Because the schools have done little to counteract this shift, it has a major impact on "developmental readiness" and the stress and anxiety in trying to meet expectations starts the slide down the slippery slope to learning disabilities.
Lt. Col. David Grossman, West Point psychology professor, and author of Stop Teaching Our Children to Kill, states that video games "shred the attention span," which may fur- ther promotes impulsive (emotionally driven), behaviors in the process. Lack of impulse control can lead to violence according to a recent study at the Univ. of WI - Madison.
