We consistently receive questions about testing profiles and learning issues which may have some general interest to both professionals and parents. We invite you to write in about any profiles or situations which are puzzling you. EDU-T will respond and we will probably have additional input from other specialists! We welcome you!
Use Verbal Logic Training:
Last week I had an inquiry – can you help me – question. The woman is interested in attending law-school but first has to take the LSAT – the preliminary examination to qualify for entrance. When she was confronted with the analytical questions she realized that she had no idea how to tackle the problems. She was very concerned that she would be a failure in law school. She initially called and asked if we could help her with algebraic word problems but after having her read an example I understood what she needed – Mind Benders!
I would like to challenge all of you who work with youth and adults to develop your personal abilities to do Mind Benders/ Verbal Logic Problems. There are some wonderful sources out there including the easier versions which are available through Critical Thinking Press (Seaside, CA) and are useful beginning in third grade. I personally like to use the Penny Press version, although Dell also has a series.
Why use verbal logic problems? For you personally – because you will continue to activate new brain cells, increase your logical reasoning, avoid Alzheimer’s dementia, and be an excellent detail reader. Your skills will save you time, increase your accuracy in decision making, and make you feel very smart!
For your students – all of the above, plus: 1) To increase reading comprehension skills and reading accuracy. 2) To improve test taking skills because of improved reading efficiency and effectiveness. 3) To increase confidence in approaching learning. 4) To increase logic/reasoning skills.
I use these with all of my clients. My private practice is age 16 and above with most of the clients in their 40-60’s. When we begin with doing these exercises they have a very difficult time. I step them through the exercises over and over, never allowing them to fail.
The first thing they learn is that they will reach a point where they are lost, confused, and frustrated. We talk about this as “hitting the wall” or developing a “tolerance for confusion” and work on strategies to use. What is happening at this point is that there is so much information whirling around in their inner language they experience mental fatigue. Developing a strategy is useful in many situations.
The formula I use is: take three deep breaths, drink a half cup of water, take a break from the task! [The breath brings new oxygen to our brains. As we become upset, we tend to constrict our muscles and tighten up, reducing the oxygen flow. The water will assist in conducting messages from one brain cell to another via our neurotransmitters. The break will help us think about something else and activate other areas of our brain. Often the break will be a few minutes of Infinity Walking – reference Dr. Deborah Sunbeck.]
For clients who are having problems with comprehension or passing a test, be it a college class or the Bar Exam, verbal logic problems are a very important part of the training for success. We will work on some strategies as we continue with our communication.
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March 4, 2010 at 2:35 am
edutherapeutics
This is a great start of the Edu-Therapeutics blog. It should inspire some interesting comments.
March 4, 2010 at 3:24 am
Question from client
Inner language Issues:
Q – “Joan, if you have time, I have a puzzlement here and need some advice.
The 4th grade girl I assessed on Saturday presents with dropping grades (C’s and D’s now were all A’s in 3rd grade), poor reading comprehension. Her teacher reports to the mother that the child is not reading on current grade level (4.5) and not meeting academic math target. When I questioned the mother further, I heard that the teacher is one who (for example) throws a paper in the trash if a child hands it to her or puts it on her desk instead of in the basket. Teacher will reply, “I already explained that,” if Z. asks her a question, so Z. no longer asks the teacher for help.
Her REO is (standard scores) VV 128, VM 119, AV 102, AM 141. She is also low in Selective attention, Auditory Analysis and Logical Reasoning. Her Woodcock Reading scores are all 5-6 grade levels: Word Identification: 5.1, Word Attack: 6.4 and Comprehension 5.3. She is strong in her memory skills.
I haven’t seen an REO like this one. There were no distractions in our quiet testing area during the VV portion of the REO. She is obviously a bright child, and I think, a sensitive child.
What puzzles me is the word-calling with these above-level word attack and recognition skills. When Z. reads aloud, she skips punctuation, but answered some comp. questions well.
What am I missing? This is not as clear-cut as usual. Thanks so much for considering this.
March 4, 2010 at 3:26 am
Joan Smith
As you have identified in your review – I think there are at least three very different issues going on here.
First, is a punitive, insensitive teacher acting on a very sensitive, wanting to please child who probably feels a bit different from others in her home/school. She is receiving messages about the worth of her work…and subsequently herself (because we are our work at this age) which are inappropriate and abusive. This needs to be addressed and resolved. It is not appropriate to let it continue.
Second, fourth grade can be very different from third grade. In third we are still working with basic skills development. By fourth, we are supposed to have that all in place and use it to learn content and apply it to new tasks. This is a huge jump…especially when we are having inner-voice challenges.
Third, she is having difficulty in using her inner voice/ inner language to talk through problems. That is the consistent theme in your testing. You are on target to use echo-tap and add Neurological Impress Reading ( which will begin to register the punctuation, phrasing, etc for her.) The inner voice issue is likely being compromised by her stress situation. [You know the feeling that when you have tried to do something and not understood it, and had to take another shot at it… and you make mistakes just because you are certain you are going to ? This is where she is coming from at this point. ] While she attempts to please the teacher, she is so panic ridden that she just continues to make mistakes and gets jumped.
So while you use those two techniques Echo-Tap and Neurological Impress Reading, [These are modeled in the LTDVD 109, Symbols to Comprehension – http://www.edu-therapeutics.com for your review.] I would also do some direct work with her inner voice – made external. For instance, do math dialoguing with her…she is the teacher and she directs you – the scribe – on how to do the problem. Since you are only a pencil she will really have to direct you exactly in where to put the numbers and what to think. You can do similar exercises with attribute blocks, Visual Mind Benders , Verbal Mind Benders (The last two from Critical Thinking Press in Seaside, CA). Several other inner voice exercises are to ask the student to count – in her head how many times you tap your pencil or say a letter of the alphabet beginning with A each time you clap your hands. When you stop, ask the her what number (or letter) you are on. You will get the idea if she is beginning to use her inner voice. Guide her in understanding that she is using that voice in her head to direct think through her answers.
Do you remember the dictation cards – from the Ready, Set,. Go in your Sourcebook – it is also in DVD 107, Developing Brain Attributes for Learning. This will be great for her and she will enjoy them. Also, I would do lots of power walking with her to begin to get the integration going across the corpus callosum – it does wonders for reducing stress. Start every session with it.
It would also be appropriate to do some desensitization counseling around her classroom situation once a decision is made about her placement. If she is to remain in the classroom, I would teach her to do some teacher behavior modification. Great technique for her to learn. Have her plan a question she can ask the teacher. Practice with her and pretend to be the teacher. Have her image herself walking up to ask the teacher the question. Also, practice with her knowing the answer to the question. After she asks the teacher the question, and the teacher answers her, she then says to the teacher..Oh, you mean I should do …., thank you for helping me, I understand now. Smiles confidently at the teacher and returns to her desk. She really needs to gain some control back and this will help her.
Let us know how she is doing.
March 4, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Michael Cerreto
Joan, congratulations on launching your blog. I know it will be a great help to many people, including me. I will be following your posts and comment to add value whenever I can. Thanks Joan.
March 4, 2010 at 8:30 pm
David Johnson
I am moved to respond both to the lady concerned over the LSAT and to the 4th grade child. Joan’s answers are characteristically brilliant and incisive, and I have little to add, but that never stopped me before.
Joan, you are the Hemingway of educational therapy: courageous and succinct. Substitute the 4th grade teacher’s head for the kudu and you have my picture. Please keep on keepin’ on. You are ever my hero.
For the lady facing the LSAT, Joan has already said it all. When things are tense, move your body and change your psychological locus; drink water and make neurotransmitters; breathe and feed the brain.
Now, let me add my own observation that 98% of nearly everything in life is just hooey. With Joan, her work and this blog that percentage is nil; but, with the LSAT and law school the rule prevails. There is virtually no correlation between the LSAT and law school. They are hoops; it’s a business. Know this and lighten up.
Also, I think that if you are a person who can do a variety of things reasonably well you are also likely to be emotionally intense. I’m not sure why, but that’s how it works. Lighten up. Remember the 98% rule and laugh. Do not feel diminished, it only feeds their egos. Remember the sign at the zoo.
For the 4th grade child the zoo sign does not apply. The child needs to feed the teacher’s hungry ego, but care must be taken that the teacher never senses a ruse. Maybe this teacher is insecure and cynical. I use the word maybe so I’ll appear humble. That’s a ruse. Here are my suggestions: (1) Let the child hold a mirror before her and practice smiling; (2) Make a smile board with pictures of smiling people and include her picture; (3) Switch roles when you do “Thank you for helping me” and do it in a variety of contexts so it becomes natural; (4) Make a game of it and an important rule is that the child does not reveal to the teacher that she is being coached by you to do these things. Insecurity is fear and that makes all creatures skiddish, and if you scare the game you won’t get the trophy head on the wall. Don’t cringe like that!
For developing the inner voice, again, Joan has pretty much said it all. You might try combining recited language with other physical activities, like jumping rope (easier said than done, I know), or clapping hands to emphaisize accented and unaccented syllables in poems and songs. Have you tried facing the child and making a hand patting game of this, as in “patty cake”? (Don’t laugh: Japanese children have taken patty cake to a complex level by crossing and reversing hands while singing “Yankee Doodle” in Japanese. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it as an Olympic event some day.) Singing and dancing are good for developing inner voice, I think.
This child needs to learn to do something special, and I’ll suggest Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” for starters. It’s a good one for walking, skipping, clapping. You can walk the poem and say only selected words, say each second word with each second step, while remaining silent on the others. She can learn what iambic tetrameter is, and she can explain that after she recites the poem. The teacher probably won’t know this, as she reads self help books to make her feel empowered, not poetry to remind her that she just feels.
Good Luck!
March 24, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Joan Kuba
Joan,
I have a fourth grade student that needs extensive work with fluency. We have been doing Impress reading, and she does well afterwards, but she seems to be unable to transfer strategy to a cold read. What do your think about using poetry, and working with phrasing with the poems and stories? Any other ideas would be appreciated.
March 25, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Joan Kuba
Joan,
Thanks for your input. Some additional information in regards to my fourth grade student. I believe that her personality has a lot to do with her poor fluency, too. She is a very meticulous child, whose perfectionist qualities really slow her down. She always starts off slowly, and as the story progresses, she picks up speed. Her speech and thinking processes are very similar to her reading fluency. Her word recognition, understanding, and comprehension are good. She reads as if her life depended upon saying each word correctly. I know that she knows the words, but the processing she goes through slows her down. I am hoping that the poetry will help get a faster start. In addition, I am working with isolated phrases that I accumulated off the internet, so she will recognize common phrases more quickly. Using rhythm sounds like a good idea, because her intonation is very flat, but is improving. I did a small bit of tapping with her, and it did seem to help.
July 30, 2010 at 8:53 am
Joan Kuba
I have a 10 year old student that is having a difficult time making choices. When she must choose a toy as a prize (for one example), she is unable to decide what she wants, and will make the choice to take nothing – rather than select one of many. Her thinking processes are made within a box, it is either black or white. If there is any other criteria, she is stumped. Is Working with critical thinking skills and problem solving enough to overcome these issues? I was looking for a game that we could play that had choices, but the only one I can find is about life choices, not common every day choices. Any other ideas would be very helpful.
August 4, 2010 at 4:18 pm
joan
Hi Joan K.:
I think there is a lot of other elements to this issue. One is the face-value one that she appears to have difficulty making choices. That is fairly straight forward and would be easily improved with analytical thinking training as you are suggesting. I would go way back to basics on the analysis of choices. Start with sorting of pictures or colors or shapes. Have two piles – yes , I like and no, it is not my choice. Have her sort the colors, shapes, foods, sports, games, cereals, pictures into two stacks. an easy way to do the food cards is to take the Safeway or other grocery store newspaper insert and glue pictures on cards. Once she can do this, she is already committing to making choices. If she starts to take time on it then make it a timed task where she races to see how many she can sort through in 30 seconds or one minute. Then go back and analyze what are the qualities of pizza that make it a yes and broccoli a no! i.e. develop categories of qualities that lead to preference and record them like – taste, texture, color, smell, etc. What you are doing here is beginning to establish criteria. This can then be escalated to other types of choices – such as the prize she is choosing!
The other element of this is one of attention and control. By not making choices she is getting all the attention and concern focused on her. She has gained control of the situation. With that in mind, when you offer her two choices and she cannot make up her mind which she wants after one minute (Call this the One minute choice!) then say, “okay, lets go on to….next task.” In other words we don’t really want to spend time encouraging this behavior of deliberating and rewarding it with our attention.
One other element to consider is that she may have a slow response time and making choices is very confusing. That is why those simple exercises described earlier while begin to build skills.
Any other ideas??? Let me know. JS