Fixing The Root Cause

In continuation to my previous post on 6th Davis International Symposium, UK. Here is another interesting point that I feel worth sharing with everyone –

This is from one of the lectures that Ronald D Davis gave, it was actually a Q & A session with him  (I will refer him as Ron, that is what everyone fondly calls him). When Ron speaks, every phrase is a nugget of wisdom and the beauty is the simplicity of it...This is really a profound one; he related the efficacy of the methods that he has deviced to his engineering background (another ‘wow’ moment for me; my background is same as his… :) 

Summary of what he said something like, ‘Engineers solve a problem by creating something. Then other engineers will later work on solving more problems which got created by creating ‘that' something… and the cycle goes on… but if we work to find the root cause which created the problem at the first place & fix that root cause… the problem will cease to exist.' (All my engineer friends listening…;)


I am so sure all who are reading this, are able to relate to this; our day in day out agony… At work place  or in life, where problems are everyday life reality, to find the root cause & fix that root cause is of extreme importance rather then just creating new solutions. New solutions without fixing the root issue only complicate situations sooner or later, as new solutions will have their own set of problems  induced with the root cause lying breathing there to surface in another form… it is as scary as it sounds.

In business organisations the buzz word remains RCA acca Root Cause Analysis…  at my previous  workplace I remember the emphasis laid on digging out the right root cause & fixing it, we all know when leakage is plugged at wrong place and not from the source itself, that may simply burst the pipe someday... 

When it comes to learning problems like difficulties faced in learning to read, reading comprehension , spellings, writing, understanding math, behaviour problems, attention problem etc the same concept applies. We have named these symptoms Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, Dyspraxia, ADHD and so on...  

What we see the difficulty in certain areas of learning & behaviour that itself is not a problem… it is just a symptom. Applying methods to correct the Symptom may work but for short term…. The person will keep fighting the symptom with root cause still unplugged, will eventually continue suffering in some way or the other. 

Like if your doctor only gives you painkiller when you have a headache and no further diagnosis is carried out… you will feel have false belief of being cured as along as you take headache pills & eventually even headache pills will no longer work one fine day… that time you have no choice but to go and find out root cause of the headache & get best treatment. Only sad part is the process you suffer so much pain & stress… not far to imagine other complications that may arise! Case of learning difficulty is no different....

Problem is; most parents, educators, and sufferers themselves aren't much aware, so they try their best for warding off the symptoms rather then taking root cause corrections. Root cause correction will be for life long… symptoms corrections are temporary and also not empowering! 

Fortunately Ron could figure this out an worked out the methods to correct his own problems and then later these methods as we know today have helped millions of people across the world. Davis methods always work because they address root cause & apply specific correction method based on the person’s learning styles. It also provide tools for lifelong learning. These tools allows the person to explore their creativity & analytical thinking.  

There is huge difference in knowing the facts & understanding them. Knowing the facts does not make a person essentially capable of applying that knowledge back. This is because they have not learn it though their experience rather they just know it… And many people who fail to learn with  traditional teaching methods, do so because they are wired for real learning not mere reproducing the facts…If you feel this explanation is theoretical .. let's considered example of swimming. If youdecide to learn swimming you may watch many lessons on you tube and may read books with titles ‘How to…’ you will become fully aware of all aspects of swimming, but still I doubt you will get confidence to get into water and start swimming until you take & feel the experience of swimming in water yourself… This is a physical activity so we can relate very well & identify with it better… But process of learning is same irrespective of the subject.

In methods that we teach during 5 day program, experiential learning is taught. The person learns a powerful techniques which can be applied on any subject that they want to master.

Techniques available in a five day program also helps a person becoming more aware of themselves. And that changes a lot in a person from within… 

If you are interested in learning more about these methods, please feel free to contact me would be happy to share more .

Judgements cost heavy!

If you judge someone, you have no time to love them. -Mother Teresa. 

As I read this quote by Mother Teresa it occurs to me; great souls draw their wisdom out of compassion and empathy for fellow humans. The wisdom, that most of us common humans lack! The irony is that it is we who need it badly! We all have our own biases and judgments based on our experiences, observations and our understandings, which we consider as our ‘wisdom’. Now the problem is, these may seem as facilitating factors, but if you think a bit deeply they are infact limiting factors. More a person seem to have  gained the so called 'wisdom' in life, more steadfast their judgments are! This is because we are constrained by what we already know and we make conclusions on that basis. The problem lies when one chooses not to seek information with open mind, but prefers to or is quick to assume and establish prejudices... and here arises the vicious chain reaction of misunderstandings, mistrust, anger and the spiral of all negative emotions... Our judgments (both positive and negative) have negative effect on our decisions and decisions of the person being judged. This has significant impact on the relationships, and productivity in general. You can create a parallel in any situation be it a boss-subordinate, husband-wife, friends… but most significant in terms of impact is that of parent-child.  You will be surprised to know how judgments not only create bias but deprive mutual trust to thrive, and often result in unwarranted behaviour. I see this in many cases I come across during my counselling services. In these sessions, I conduct an informal interview in a very non- judgmental environment with parent and child separately, it helps each individual to open up and state the facts as per their own views. These conversations throw light onto many aspects and connect many dots to reveal complete picture. Below is one such peculiar case which I remember very categorically and would like share as an example.  This was around 4 years back a parent approached for correction of reading and writing problems of their very energetic and enthusiastic nine year old child, studying in grade 4.  While telling about child's behaviour mother mentioned how impertinent and insensitive attention seeking behaviour he has developed, specially towards her. She narrated an incident where how the child behaved when she had taken him for swimming along with his sister and his cousins who were at their place for holiday. Mother narrated the incident; All four kids were swimming and enjoying the play time in the pool, suddenly she noticed her son is not there with other kids…when she asked, they too were taken by surprise, a while back they all were playing together! … they all looked around in the  pool, then in changing rooms, other play areas in the club house…the search went frenetic as they couldn't find him anywhere in the club! By now she was in tears and terribly worried and started getting all sorts of negative thoughts… the club manager was equally worried & all guards were searching and looking into all corners.... And then,  just as she was about to call police, she saw her son waving and coming out of the big container kept at the rear end of the lobby for wet towels. When enquired how he reached there and what was he doing in the container? The response from the son was not just quirky but beyond her imagination! He said, 'I was hiding there purposely and I am happy to see you worried and crying!'  It was but very natural for the mother to get angry and felt hurt too… As a concerned mother she was very much worried about such unexpected behaviour! Friends, Now I will tell you the other part, what son shared; During the interview child revealed; he feels unwanted as mother gives all attention to his sister and fulfils all her demands all the time, whereas he is told to understand, as he is the elder one....'She ask me to wait when I ask for food even when I am hungry, at times, where as she was serving very promptly to my cousins when they were here…' There were many such complaints..the list was long!  Child shared, ‘I know my mother loves me but I don’t know why she ignores me’.  He narrated, how he once he went hiding on purpose in an empty tank, after sneaking out from the swimming pool when his cousins were here for holiday and mother had taken all the kids for swimming. He said he wanted to test if his mother takes a notice that he is missing or will realise only after reaching home. He told, he came out from hiding after hearing his mom talking to someone in chocked throat and was shouting at them that where a little child can go from the club? What is your security doing?... He said, 'I could not control his happiness to learn that mother really cares about me! But, when I told her she got very angry and slapped me in front of everyone'. Friends, can you see how the dots connect! And what picture do you see now?  Such situations are often classified as attention seeking negative behaviour, destructive psychology etc etc.. but if we see carefully, at the root, it is insecurity! If it is addressed early then we can prevent developing them into a troubled teenager or an adult with negative mindset... If the child is facing some learning problems or have some other issues, judgemental parenting often gives the problem a different dimension.  Parents need to remove the filters of their biases in terms of assuming reasons for certain behaviours, instead they must develop a safe and trusting environment by respecting the child’s views and gaining mutual trust by talking to children and taking them in full confidence. When you are willing to listen they will tell.. when you judge them they will mask their true feelings...  Most often our judgments are derived from expectations we secretly harbor for our off -springs. Many times I hear parents saying things like; 'We both were toppers throughout so how can we expect our child to be average in academics' , or 'I am an avid reader, how come my child doesn't like books?' or 'We are a family of mathematics scholars how can I allow my child to pursue music, there is no future in it'… Once a mother shared, 'All in our family are achievers I can’t face them if my son shows such poor performance in academics'!!! Some sound bytes for judgmental parenting most of us can identify are; ‘Don’t be lazy, finish up the home work fast’, ‘All the laziness kicks in only when it comes to studies', ‘Why you can’t get such simple stuff! Don’t fool with me’, ‘You didn't gave your 100 percent , your result is showing it!’ And many more such comments…. It would be much effective and peaceful if we help our kids setting goals & priorities, but these must be set based on child’s best interest not our own desire and wishful thinking. I would end this article with this simple yet quite profound quote ‘Be curious, not judgemental’ by a great writer and poet Walt Whitman. If we are curious we will make all efforts to seek the information with open mind. Our decisions will be more practical and life will be peaceful for ourselves and our children. Thank you for reading and hope you found this writeup interesting and useful.Please share it if you know it may help someone to change their perspective. I would love to hear your stories and thoughts on this topic, you can share here in the messages section.

Enhance Learning Potential right from EarlyYears!

What will you find in this article  --
1. Symptoms in Pre-reading years.
3. Recent Research references in early detection and Need of early intervention.
4. Learning enhancement Programs.
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We all are aware how critical is the gift of learning to lead a happy life! For some people it becomes little more challenge as their needs are different in terms of learning style. Though dyslexia is a gift because of the creative and out of the box thinking style, it poses learning difficulty. Often come across as reading fluency, spelling and words decoding difficulty. (you can refer these links for more details - symptoms of dyslexia, informal assessment )

As per the sources, 17 to 21% of the population is effected by Dyslexia. Lack of right support and help is hugely detrimental and is an opportunity loss for the bright child to flourish in life. Parents generally tend to ignore or want to stay in 'Ostrich mode' and most of the times are ignorant on the symptoms which can be noticed and appropriate corrective action can be initiated. There is big need for the means of early detection and awareness about the correction methods.

Lately, lots of studies are being conducted and research papers are published which suggest that dyslexic traits exists can be identified early on.

Boston Children's hospital is conducting research to establish that dyslexia can be detected in pre-reading years and as early as in infancy stage, with the aim to identify early neural markers of dyslexia among the kids. The site quotes, "Researchers have shown that the brains of children and adults diagnosed with dyslexia are organized differently than those of other people the same age, and have also provided evidence that susceptibility to dyslexia may run in families". 

Hope, such test soon gets available to public as a common test and children at risk can get appropriate help in pre-reading years.

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulty in decoding the phonetic sounds. Some of the typical symptoms parents can watch out during pre- reading years -If the kid is having difficulty in learning nursery rhymes but other things he is quick to learn. Second lead could be difficulty in associating starting letter of the words example failing to relate that word Table is starting with T, and the kid otherwise generally shows sign of brilliance. If these symptoms are observed then that kid might be a dyslexic thinker and early right help would help. 

Davis Learning Strategies is one such program, which works as prevention for 'at risk kids'' and enables life long self learning. This program is effective for not just children who are at risk but enhances potential by enabling self learning in typical not at risk kids also. The beauty of the program is that it is all fun and kids love it!  

Now coming to the effect of unattended dyslexia; A paper published in The Journal of Pediatrics in 2015, an extensive ongoing research over many years, gives scientific and statistical proof for the need of early correction. The paper quotes,"As early as first grade, compared with typical readers, dyslexic readers had lower reading scores and verbal IQ, and their trajectories over time never converge with those of typical readers. These data demonstrate that such differences are not so much a function of increasing disparities over time but instead because of differences already present in first grade between typical and dyslexic readers." 

Below are the graphs showing the comparison of typical and Dyslexic kids. It shows the reading skill gap consistently exists till higher grades and how the IQ gap widens with the increasing grades. 

Comparison of Reading skills

The study was conducted on 414 participants from 1st to 12th grade and test were conducted on two groups dyslexic readers and typical readers and these tests were followed every year.

Comparison of Verbal IQ

Link for reference to this paper is given here   http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(15)00823-9/abstract.

But there is no reason to lose heart if you or your loved one is facing this difficulty. Davis^TM

programs are very effective correction methods as these help alleviating the root cause of dyslexia and enables the person to realize his full potential in life.

If you feel you or anyone you know need help feel free to contact me!

Thanks for taking time to read this article. It will be helpful if you leave your comments and also let me know if you find this article informative and useful.