“Why is he fighting all the time?” the mother anguished.

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“Why is He Fighting All the Time?”

Blaine (not his real name) was always fighting in the schoolyard at his elementary school. 

The school principal phoned his mother to say Blaine would be suspended if the fighting did not stop.

Finally Blaine’s mother brought him in to see a Neurological Learning Specialist at THE LEARNING CLINIC.

“Why is he fighting all the time?” the mother anguished.

“Can you help him to stop fighting?”

“What else is going on?” the specialist asked. 

“He has struggled since grade one and gets poor marks,” said the mother.

She went on to say that his biggest problem was that he was now in grade four and still did not know how to read.

The learning specialist asked Blaine what he liked about school.

“Nothing.”

“What are you good at?” “Nothing.”

“What do you like outside of school?” 

Blaine brightened and said he loved to ski.

“Are you good at it?”

“Pretty good.”

The mother confirmed that Blaine was, in fact, a top notch skier.

“I can beat my Dad down the hill!” Blaine piped up.

Skier : Little boy on skis in deep snow on a steep slope

Skier Photo from: 123rf.com

“Hey, way to go!” exclaimed the learning specialist, gently touching the right side of Blaine’s head.

Different Parts of the Brain in Charge of Different Skills 

“Hey Blaine, wouldn’t it be great if you could read just like you ski down the mountain, smoothly and easily now?”

The learning specialist then played a game with Blaine, touching the left side of Blaine’s head.

He had Blaine imagine the great skier (in the right side of his head) befriending the not-so-great reader (in the left side of his head).

Then they imagined the skier teaching the reader to read “smooth as a skier going downhill in good snow on a sunny day.” 😮

And so…

As the imaginary great skier (in the right side of Blaine’s brain) taught the imaginary reader (in the left side of his brain), Blaine the boy in Grade 4 at school gradually learned to read “smooth as silk.”

Would it surprise you to learn that as Blaine learned to read well, his fighting stopped?

Doc Meek, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, Friday, January 24, 2014

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