Parents Teachers Children
Parents
Rosa, Australia
I have 3 children. My eldest just breezed through school. My second struggled. At the age of 9, we moved schools and the special ed. teacher opened my world to a new type of thinking. You see, my son didn't crawl, or roll for that matter, and this influenced his ability to learn. He was inadequately integrated. Imagine my guilt and sense of hopelessness as a mother but more importantly my child's lack of confidence as he struggled with school and playing sport. At the same time I read Barbara Pheloung's book Help Your Class To Learn, among other books. We embarked on a program of better nutrition (even though we thought we were eating healthy food), chiropractic and a movement program with the school and at home. To cut a long story short, my son did his HSC last year, applied for a university place and got his first preference. There is success.
I have only been teaching for about 5 years - I had my children and then went to university. Unfortunately universities don't teach you about this area of child development (well I wasn't taught this). As a pre-kinder teacher, we play games which involve rolling, rocking, cross-lateral movements etc. I fully understand the guilt a mother feels when she sees her frustrated child trying to cope with learning at school and life!. Now as a teacher, my aim is to ensure that every child I encounter has the opportunity to reach their potential. I believe the earlier we begin, the quicker pathways are created and gaps filled.
Louise, Australia
Hi,
I am a physiotherapist and a Mum of a wonderful son who has been challenged throughout his learning career by dyslexia and also a delightful little six year old daughter with cerebral palsy.
I bought Barbara's book when Peter was very young and have passed it around a lot because we felt it as so helpful.
I help to run a support group at our school for parents of children with learning challenges. I have often refered parents to your website. It is fantastic.
Jillian Ballantyne, Nth Queensland, Australia
Hello,
I wanted to let you know, after having purchased your Move to Learn Programme, we are having some significant success – particularly with a number of children’s reading abilities & not to mention self worth & self belief!!
Victoria Goodes, Ireland:
Dear Barbara,
Some years ago you helped two of my boys hugely at the beach house in Manly.
Ben is now 23 and Simon 16. Ben is now in his final year of an arts degree at Latrobe University and has been invited to join the Golden Club honours group - top 15% of the under graduates. Big achievement for Ben, it has been a long road. Simon is in his 4th year of high school and is doing well. He has not been on medication for ADD now for about 3 years and is doing well without it.
We are currently living in Ireland and are due to return to Melbourne in September. Our youngest son Liam has been diagnosed with ADHD and probably is the worst affected out of all the boys. Without your intervention I am concerned that this will only be exacerbated. Ireland is not at all progressive in its education in fact I think they are still back in the 60's - children are educated as I was. Scary!
Anne Hills, Queensland, Australia:
Hi Barbara,
I've just read your fascinating article in the e-bility newsletter. It's very helpful and I want to share it with some friends. How I wish I'd known some of these things when our son was younger. He is now almost 15 and my hair is nearly all grey, figuratively speaking, that is the bit left that I haven't torn out in sheer frustration. I have often tried to enter his world and try to feel how he must feel and I'm left feeling helpless and hopeless. This makes me sad.
I had a very real taste of how he feels recently when I tried to learn some new skills on the computer. The efficient teacher patiently explained, "Now you simply do this, this and this." "And then you go here and here and do this." "OK, now you do that for me again." I sat there not even comphrending the first bit and feeling awful. Now I KNOW how it feels not to understand even simple things.
I recently wrote an article for a Home-School magazine that tells a little of living with and attempting to Home-School a child with learning "challenges." I would like to post it to you, most likely you've heard it all before. You have been a help and an encouragement to us as we continue to try to help this special child find his way through life. Perhaps if I share my story it might help some other parent who is struggling to understand and come to terms with living with a child like "Ben." Thanks for continuing to send your helpful and informative newsletters.
Diana Acheson, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia:
Barbara,
Many years ago (about 10 now) I gave birth to a little boy. He was my second child. He was always sick, he nearly died, he couldn't hear properly because of the constant ear infections, it was a terrible birth and by the time he hit school, he was really struggling.
I am a Kindermusik and Simply Music Educator and have always believed in searching for answers. Doctors gave me no help and so I started my journey of reading everything I could get my hands on. I eventually came across your book Help Your Class to Learn. I found it amazing.
All in all, Cameron is now years ahead in his reading and maths skills. He has done music since he was a child and continues to do it. Thank you. Without your book I would never have found what I needed to.
I teach a lot of children with difficulties. I guess going through what I have for 10 years, people are drawn to you. I have been doing some research because I have been asked to present at the next Kindermusik National Conference in January on children with special needs and I came across the ABT site.
I started reading and it looked really interesting to me. Then I went looking for qualified people and found you again.
Thank you once again and I just wanted you to know what a tremendous difference you have made in the life of not only my little boy, but me.
Neula Sands, Woree, Queensland, Australia:
I have been receiving the Missile and look forward to receiving them every month. They have been very helpful in that it gives me hope for my son. I was once told by a Learning Support person - when Brayden was in Grade 2 - that with a little bit of help Brayden might at least be able to read the paper - in other words he wasn't going to amount to much and if he can read the paper I should be happy with that. I cried for my son that day and I am determined to prove to people like that, that he WILL do well in his life.
Missile has been very encouraging and we need all the support we can in helping our children.
Julie, Australia:
I am so excited about your work and know it is going to benefit many. Tony continues to go from strength to strength.
Today I was for no particular reason remembering the little boy who had to be dragged off to the school bus each morning and how he returned at the end of each day feeling very much worse for wear. He suffered dreadfully from car sickness and the half hour bus trip was a daily dose of misery.
After attending the Manly Beach House my husband built Tony a swing and he would go to it every afternoon and go higher and faster do more and still more circles in the air on it. It was amazing to watch as it was a swing to beat all swings, with really long ropes and plenty of scope for going round and round, as he was advised to do. Of course the aim was to stimulate his vestibula and get his balance mechanism working and that certainly happened as the car sickness is no longer a problem and he went on to become a dirt bike rider able to do heart stopping jumps and compete to the level of NSW trophies.
He found reading so hard back then and now devours each copy of Dirt Bike Magazine as soon as it arrives. Working in a motor bike repair shop he had to order parts, write accounts, deal with the public, all things that seemed impossible to one small shy boy with a "problem pen", that just wouldn't do what he wanted it to do.
I love the Missile. Thinking of you and sending my love and support.
Jean Houghton, Australia:
I thought that you could enjoy some of "the fruits of your labours" by seeing under Bachelor of Theology, Jamie Houghton! Rev. Foord said to George & I that James has a good mind, the way he thinks & asks questions. The N.T. Greek, he reads & writes, the books he loves to read, I'm amazed. God is so good. I thank the lord you came into his life, & spared him much correction at school.
God bless you Barbara.
Teachers
Move to Learn – An intervention programme
I incorporated Move to Learn into my teaching and learning programme 1st term of 2008. I was teaching Year 1 at the time. Three of my students had learning difficulties and another two students showed limited body and spatial awareness. The learning disorders and difficulties amongst these children included
· Autism
· Dyspraxia
· Fine motor control
· Speech
· Short term memory
· Immaturity
These difficulties impacted heavily on their reading, writing and numeracy acquisition.
We always started our day with movement and music and this is where I noted 5 of my boys who displayed awkwardness with their bodies and would tend to find a corner or a table to lean on as they moved to the music. My two students with autism would not move at all. The other 3 lacked confidence and were clearly unhappy with the simple dance movements.
Within 3 months of the programme, the class as a whole worked through the morning’s movement and music with a greater level of happiness and would invent new dance moves which they would teach each other. 80% of the class clearly had mastered all of the basic movements and were able to assist others experiencing difficulties. Their engagement in the learning programme indicated good use of short and long term memory.
By third term, my five boys were experiencing greater confidence with their dance movements and were happy and confident in the classroom and playground. Two of the boys were reading and writing short simple stories and had mastered all the foundation movements. I am teaching Year 2/3 now and half of my students from last year moved along with me, including my five boys.
I have continued with the Move to Learn Programme, however I only target six boys, two of which began this year. Three of the boys were receiving Occupational Therapy weekly throughout term one and two and two have since been discharged as they had achieved age appropriate competency in fine motor control. Of the six learning difficulties, short term memory, fine motor and immaturity have shown significant improvement. These students are still currently behind in reading and writing acquisition but they are making good progress. They move confidently around the classroom and playground and demonstrate greater fine motor control and planning.
I believe that the Move to Learn Programme, coupled with a number of other intervention strategies, has contributed to the range of movement and language competencies that these boys are now enjoying. It is evident that the programme will need to continue for some time to support and tune them into learning.
Jo Bartlett
Classroom Teacher
TOODYAY DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL
27th August 2009
EYES Conference Move to Learn Sept. ‘09
Charmian Venn
For several years now I have been teaching my reading program with selected students form years 4-7 at TDHS.
During the first week or two of each school year I test each student to assess their reading age. Those who test up to -3 years behind their CA are removed from their classes for small group work twice a week. I begin with a phonetic based program, move to a spelling program and finally to a sight word and comprehension based program. I devote the first 20 minutes of each session to MtL exercises and then move to the reading program for the remaining 20 minutes.
After several weeks of introducing and perfecting the MtL exercises I add other physical components, to the exercises, like balancing, throwing, catching, bouncing, hopping, juggling etc.
The immediate benefits that I noticed once I start the exercises with a group of students is that they become less fidgety, are happier and begin to follow instructions more easily.
The classroom teachers notice similar improvements too.
At the end of the semester I test the students and the results have been consistently impressive.
Year 4 and year 5 students improve their reading age at an average rate of 6 months and Year 6s and Year 7s 12 months. The most impressive improvement in a reading age for a student over one semester has been 2 years and 9 months. This improvement is beyond the normal CA increase.
I have been responsible for implementing this program at our school for three years now. At the beginning of last year, two year 1 teachers began to teach MtL to their whole classes which was a huge task and, I might add, at which they persevered with admirably. In one of these year 1 classes there were two boys diagnosed with autism, one with dyspraxia and one who was decidedly different who hadn’t been diagnosed with anything except ‘very intelligent with oral language but unable to write a thing on paper’. These students were especially hard to teach the exercises to and with the whole class involved at the same time and only 2-3 adults helping at any one time.
Progress seemed minimal. But, more of that later. The school admin began to take notice of the results I was getting along with the positive comments from the year 1 teachers! So, in semester two last year we decided to introduce MtL to the three P-P classes with 2 x 40 mins sessions a week.
It took 8-9 weeks to correctly implement the exercises, so that the students, the P-P teachers and the teacher assistants were confident with what they were doing.
We chose to survey the parents of the P-P students at the end of term 3 to see if they had noticed any positive behaviour changes with their child since the beginning of the term. Some of the choices were:-
. happier
. concentrating more
. remembering messages
. showing better sleep patterns
. showing increased self confidence
. improved throwing skills and balancing
Overwhelmingly, the parents replied with ‘improved sleep patterns’.
In term 4 the P-P teachers and assistants continued on their own. At the end of the year the teachers noted a general improvement in the mood and overall happiness of the classes as a whole. One teacher noted a specific improvement with a student who was unable to climb on any equipment as he had little balance, difficulty gripping anything with his hands and lacked confidence. By the end of the year he was climbing the equipment with all his mates and hasn’t looked back.
At the completion of the year our school decided to implement MtL into all the JP classes in 2009. So at the beginning of this year students who had been taught MtL in year 1 were placed in 4 different year 2/3 classes and with their upskilled teachers and assistants continued with the program which has been very successful. All year 1 and P-P classes have continued with the program this year as well.
That left the Kindy class!
I decided that I would attempt to teach the program to the brand new 3 and 4 year old Kindy kids as soon as they started school in term 1.
After several near meltdowns the Kindergarten teacher and I succeeded in implementing the program over the first semester. It is now a pleasure to walk into the Kindy class when they are doing MtL and watch the progress that these ‘babies’ have made since February this year.
Thank you to the Kindy teacher for persevering.
So now our entire Junior Primary classes are experiencing the MtL exercises and regime – a total of 200 students.
Talking of progress, remember the year 1 students (from last year) with autism, dyspraxia and the non-writer? Well, in June this year I was called to the class by the teacher to see the results of 16 months of MtL with these students. Not only did I see some with neat, legible work, correct phonetic spelling and incredible stories I saw one boy, who was told he would never be able to write a word because of his autism, writing. He can now write from L-R and top – bottom and form letters correctly and independently.
I know we will continue to see more and more success stories like those in the future.
In my opinion the MtL program, as a holistic program, has changed the lives of some students at TDHS whether it be they are happier, sleeping better, more confident and coordinated or improved reading and spelling ages. We are certainly lucky at TDHS with such dedicated staff to teach and implement MtL as well as having the support of Admin and parents. Perhaps by the time I get to test the year 4-7 students in the future I will not have any candidates for my small group reading program! That would be progress!
Thank you.
A Teacher’s Testimonial
This is a quick rundown of what we are doing at Toodyay District High School.
After attending the Move to Learn seminar in Western Australia last year I decided that I could run the Move to Learn program with students I teach from Year 4-7 who have reading ages below their chronological ages eg. Between 1 year to 3years below. In total I taught approx. 25 students in semester two.
After four months the improvement in reading ages ranged from no gain at all to improving by 2yrs 3mths. The average gain in reading ages in the year 4/5 was 6 months and the year 6/7 was 1 year.
In Semester one of 2008 the improvement was exactly the same, with the same range and results with the same group of students. So, I in fact had the majority of them involved with the program for 12 months.
Classroom teachers noted a general improvement of most learning areas and attitude to school.
In term two 2008 a year 1 teacher ‘desperately’ wanted me to teach her and the whole class at the same time as she had a third of her students that had learning difficulties or lacked physical coordination. After 10 weeks the improvements were really noticeable, especially with physical coordination and happier people, and the teacher, Jo, was astounded. She was so enthused she attended the PD at Guildford Landing and happily continues with her class, extending the program to include equipment and obstacle courses.
The principal and the administration team have written the program into the school plan for the next 3 years. The aim is to have all staff up skilled in Move to Learn and all classes from K -7 actively participating by 2011. Parents will also be given a workshop about food, food additives, vision, hearing, chiropractor, etc. In the fortnightly newsletter we are also going to put some information a little at a time and hopefully some parents will take the time to read it.
This semester the three of us are teaching a Kindy class and two pre-primary classes and their teachers and assistants the Move to Learn program. Next year we will teach the four year 2/3 classes, then the year 4/5 classes and finally the year 6/7 classes in 2011.
I also work with one year 1 student who last year in P-P was uncooperative, inaudible, hit others and couldn’t write at all. After one semester with him, he now speaks clearly, smiles, doesn’t hit others, counts to 100, reads and writes and can tie his own shoelaces! I will continue with him until the end of the year.
Hope this has been a bit informative!
Thanks for your help Winsome.
Regards, Charm
A Participating Teacher from the 2006 Research;
Last year (2006) we did the MTL programme every day in the school with all the kids (2.5 - 6 years). At the end of the year, we normally expect the older children to be working with 50-odd piece puzzles and be able to draw a decent body image (mostly still 'stick' like). Well by Dec 2006, we were running out of 100-piece puzzles (first time EVER) and the body images were all full figure and with immense detail...... You see - it CERTAINLY works!’
Jocelyn King, Nyngan High School, Australia:
Dear Barbara,
Thank you so much for producing the video. It is very informative and helpful. I have also gained a lot of information from the books. They have been extremely helpful.
Carol Hewatt, Sydney Australia:
Dear Barbara,
Thanks for your 1st missile. I will be able to use the tip about walking up the stairs! Great to have someone to discuss some of the joys and trials. I have continued this term with two classes of 15 for 4 days of 15 minutes.
My sixth class boys have progressed to marching and rope skipping which they beg for after our flip flops etc. I am preparing an evaluation page for them to record the informal changes they verbalise to me e.g. I could read for just 10 minutes, last night I read for an hour! They are so proud of their achievements.
A visiting principal from a sister school in Uruguay spent some time with me watching the movement program and then talking with me. He was so impressed by what could be done for LD with no cost as his country is very poor. He said that, that input was the most worthwhile part of his visit. Of course I loved having a captive audience too! More appreciative than our teachers! He watched your video and went home with a copy and an outline of the exercises and a list of books that could be useful.
My school continues with the usual mix of parent/teacher who can understand what I am doing and are supportive and the others who are negative/derisive.
Great to hear from you... Thank you for all you continue to do... you are an inspiration!
Svea Gold, USA:
Dear Barbara,
Your book and video arrived yesterday and of course I have already read the book and seen the video. I am very much impressed. Of course we are on the same wavelength.
I have great admiration for the fact that you are tackling the schools.
Your information is so valuable but I have little hope to reach the schools here except fot the occasional teacher or so. With the "No Child Left Behind" the teachers are exhausted. The kids are forced to read before they are ready and Middle School and High School students can't read.
Your work is great and I love the whole child approach. Part of the problem here, is that if a teacher identifies a vision problem, the school is required to pay for treatment! Since the schools don't have the money, the teachers are not allowed to say anything. Just forget about the other problems!
Anyhow, one step at a time, and I will do what I can with the backing from your material! Great stuff!
I am delighted to be part of your network!
Children
Chelsea Smith (23), Sydney, Australia:
I just wanted to thankyou for helping me when I was younger at Oxford Falls Grammar School (Primary).
I now work for a great Company in Brookvale; I am a Customer Service Representative. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the confidence, you helped me build. I still am a bit slow at things but it doesn't bother me one bit, cos I could have been worse. I still think in my head 'b'- bat than ball and 'd'- drum than stick, even if I've got the idea by now. I love to learn, I can't get enough and im reading novels that I thought would be impossible.
I couldn't thankyou enough for your love; friendship and support that helped me get through that tough time in my life.
