I believed that my sons would become
young men of character, great readers,
and independent thinkers (they did!)—
so my actions had to show it. It’s not
about how quickly they get it or the number of books they read or how high they
score on testing day. It’s about meeting
children face to face, loving them with
the love of Christ in us, being an example
of His grace and goodness, and enjoying
life and learning together. Had I realized
some things earlier, my different learners would have figured things out with a
healthier can-do mindset, with less pushing and fretting, and with more rejoicing
and admiration for the mega-way God
wired them.
Right Is Bright
In her consultation practice, Dianne Craft
finds that 80% of the struggling learners
she sees are right-brain dominant.
6 At 14,
Jeremie asked me if I thought in pictures.
“Huh?” It was a Twilight Zone moment.
As a visual-spatial learner,
7 when he
reads he sees pictures in his mind. “Don’t
you focus on and say the words to yourself?” I asked. Nope—he visualizes and
then stores it in his memory. Why didn’t
I know this before?
“Aha!” That’s what I said while reading
Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained
World.
8 I now understood the tears and
misunderstandings we had experienced.
It’s no wonder that reading aloud is frustrating: they see words, make the connection to turn them into pictures, and
then must verbalize them.
9 But hey, these
same kids will likely become great silent
The reading process
varies, sometimes
taking years.
readers! Just think—he who easily visualizes comprehends best.
10 As a teenager, I
remember devouring difficult books with
no comprehension; I read every word,
but was I reading?
In college my husband and I took the
same history class. My left-brained self
attended every lecture, studied and re-
read every chapter in the book, and took
copious notes, while my husband just sat
through the lecture—we both got a B. His
and my sons’ method of figuring out dif-
ficult problems in their heads astounds
me; their memories are the notepads. Do
right-brainers have an advantage?
Phonics Plus Mnemonics
Eventually most right-brained children do learn to read by around third
grade, probably with the help of an expanding sight vocabulary.
11 The more
right-brained a child is, the less progress you’ll likely see with your phonics
program. For us, phonics wasn’t enough.
We added a visual-kinesthetic approach
to our routine. Looking at color-coded
cards and gazing upward while visualizing, Ben clapped the rhythm with me
while spelling words aloud. It appeared
that dictation and copywork—Charlotte
Mason style, plus memorizing rhymes
and Scripture, reinforced the reading
process and advanced their progress.
Games like those found in Peggy Kaye’s
Games for Reading added an element of
fun too.
12
Rule Out Dyslexia
According to Dr. Moore, dyslexia exists in brain-damaged children, and we
should not attach the dyslexic label to a
child simply because his physiology is not
mature enough to tackle the complexity
Make Learning Easier This Year!
Train Your Child’s Photographic Memory
and
“Teaching the Right Brain Child” DVD
by Dianne Craft, MA, CNHP
See a 2-to-3-year growth in
spelling in one year…
...no matter what other
programs you have used!
Spelling
Teach your child how to use his “photographic”
memory to make spelling easy…
even for the non-speller.
Right Brain Phonics
Inexpensive strategy that causes phonemes to
stick: no workbooks, no writing.
A 2-hour parent training
program that brings real results.
Sight Word Strategy
Instead of just repetition, immediately put
sight words into long-term memory.
Learn to teach your child/teenager
how to store information in
his/her strong, right brain
for permanent storage.
Reading Comprehension Strategy
Teach your child how to make a “movie”
in his/her head while reading.
Test Taking Study Skills
For kids who know the material
but don’t test well.
Math Facts and Processes
For those kids that “can’t remember.”
Dianne Craft is president of
Child Diagnostics, Inc., Denver, CO
For use with teenagers, adolescents, and young children.
www.diannecraft.org
