Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity Non-linear thought how School kills creativity

02/03/2012 by brain-e 4 Comments

I thought I would start this blog by talking about where a lot of the difficulties start, looking at the education system. My PG cert thesis 6 years ago, was on dyslexia and creativity; explaining that dyslexic individuals are more likely to be creative, whether in the arts or sciences. To many dyslexia specialists use the term lateral thinking to describe the thought process of people with these different styles: ADDers, dyspraxics, Aspies etc that fall into the Neurodiversity spectrum. Essentially, an individual with executive functioning difficulties would lean away from convergent sequential thought processes and more towards divergent/tangental/holistic thought. The term lateral thinking was coined by Edward DeBono as mentioned I believe in this video (I havent seen it in a while). Lateral Thinking is a process that DeBeno devised to promote creativity amongst convergent/linear thinkers, it is a way to allow a conventional thinker to think out of the box or to think out of the linear way into a new direction… Divergent thinking just happens… like a eureka moment, non-sequential and unpredictable.

The Lateral Thinking process probably works well for sheep who go the same way and can be herded. The education system and society expects everyone to be a sheep, to fit in to the pen or box… but some of us are goats that jump around and is difficult to herd (using Will Self’s analogy for Why prison’s fail), which is why schools fail and why essentially why society fails to be able to deal with people thinking differently. Why just eat grass… when you can eat loads of other stuff. Its funny how the education system and society has to put people into boxes, whether you black, white, brown, dyslexic, ADHD etc…. Then there are those that say… To progress there is the need to think out of the box then why is it then those who think out of the box are the one who are always the first to be excluded in education and society, by failing the education system, being institutionalized and undermined.

SuperReading course for Dyslexia

01/03/2012 by brain-e 1 Comment

The SuperReading course has been found to improve the reading speed and comprehension of dyslexic people. To the extent that they can eventually become better readers than Non-Dyslexics. So that turns the word dyslexia on it’s head, but being dyslexic it already was upside down. This is what the research by Dr Ross Cooper has found. When I started the course my reading speed was measured and answering questions on what I had read to test my comprehension . My words per minute (WPM) was multiplied by the percentage I got correct in the comprehension. This is then interpreted as a Reading Effectiveness (RE) Score. My RE Score at the beginning on the course was in the bottom 2% of the population, which isn’t great. However, after I completed the course my RE Score was better than 61% of the population. I was disappointed at first, but Ross pointed out that it’s actually better than most teachers.

It took me a while to complete this course, not because I found it hard… the fact is you cant find it hard, a bit of a brainstrain, but hard no. I was part of the dyslexia control group when it is was first brought to LLU+ (an adult learning centre, which used to be…) part of London South Bank University. It was just when my first child was being born, so in amongst the studying, running a business, nappies, crying, puking, sleepless nights (that was all just me) practicing the EYE-HOP™ technique was too much to handle. The second time it was being run and I had the opportunity to do the course my second child was being born. So the SuperReading course improves reading, or as I found out both reading and fertility.

When I referred “brainstrain”, I feel during the practice of the EYE-HOP™, it feels like you are literally training your brain to read in a different way. SuperReading is a course that has been created by Ron Cole. A reading guru, inventor, coach, entrepreneur; what ever you want to call him he is generally a great guy, who wants to help people in improving their lives and how they feel about them selves. I believe he has helped me and many others (including Ross Cooper who is also dyslexic), to be really DYSatisfied with how we are taught to read at school.

Student Finance England have been paying for the course for students in Higher Education who are dyslexic and also for those who have other difficulties that relate to concentration and comprehension during the reading process.

Dyslexia SuperReading Course

ADHD makes you feel Marooned? …you’re not alone

03/12/2011 by brain-e Leave a Comment

Adam Levine the lead singer from US band Maroon 5 came out about being ADHD, back in June this year. He has since also made adverts for medication that is licensed in the US. ADHD is something that is definitely misunderstood in the UK, it is still mainly associated with children that misbehave in class and who through things at teachers and are more likely to be violent and aggressive to their peers. This in some cases is the case, but this idea is what comes from the media and documentaries that have been shown on TV.

Another celebrity that has come out about being ADHD is the UKs impressionist Rory Bremner. This was done through a radio program entitled ADHD and ME, originally broadcast on Mon 23 May 2011. This documentary was really interesting, as it allowed you to hear the different perspectives of people who choose to medicate and those who do not. Sometimes however even if you choose that you want to get medicated, it can take a long while.

At the time of the broadcast for the Bremner program, there was a years waiting list at the Maudsley Hospital London. At the time of this post it has gone down to 9 months. Still, after the full diagnosis, and you require CBT specifically for ADHD along with medication, due to other mental health issues that can be a result of many years of not having a diagnosis; then your in for another years wait. Come on UK Gov!!! Stop spending money on wars, and fancy cars for MPs, spend the money on the NHS and Education. That way the UK can be healthy and educated and the minority of people who are neurodiverse, don’t have their lives thrown in the bin; as they may have ended up in prison or another institution for essentially thinking differently. How many of these people who have ended up excluded in these ways, could have been those who have found and included themselves by finding and utilizing their talents.

Despite technology, reading is still a challenge

27/11/2011 by brain-e Leave a Comment

This is quite old news really. Text-to-speech software sounds out words through voice syntheses, all very interesting especially if you would like to sell a computer in the 80s.

If you have a problem with auditory processing (a “symptom” of dyslexia and other neurodiversity types), listen to people talking to me can still lead to some confusing alternative understandings of what has been said. This can lead to argument, confusion, laughter and the dyslexia usual suspect “hurdle”, low self esteem.

It is an agreeable article, however one expects there to something more being said about the failure of text-to-speech software with dyslexic users. Our experience is that it is a great tool for proof reading, but for absorbing and understanding new information have a look at the SuperReading course that we provide and what a change it has made in peoples lives. Including the director of NeuroKnowHow Joseph Aquilina. At the start of the coursehe was amongst the lowest 2% of the UK population for reading speed and comprehension. After completing the 8 to 10 week course, he was amongst those who are better than 61% of the population for reading speed and comprehension, and still improving.

In response to

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/lifetimes/article/1458953

Mary Colley Rest in Peace

27/11/2011 by brain-e Leave a Comment

Mary Colley was an educator, a humanitarian and visionary; who believed that the holistic acceptance of all kinds of people was a mission and a passion. Mary Colley who founded the Charity DANDA (the Developmental Adult Neuro-Diversity Association) died on the 22nd September 2010. This was an extremely sad day for those who had discovered who they were from meeting Mary, and found a place for simultaneous solace and celebration.

Mary will be greatly missed as she was a hard worker, a source of inspiration, energy and knowledge. If it was not for Mary I may have not found out that I was ADHD. With her empathy and being able to recognize me “Scanning” (Looking around the room) and swinging on my chair, and flicking bits of paper at my peers during one of her lectures; my life now may be very different.

I believe that I am not the only person who she has had a profound affect upon in their lives, but I thought I should share it. When I thought a life long friend had walked into my life, those footsteps became echos, and knowledge to all of us who work and live with the ideology that is the acceptance of Neurodiversity.