Robbed oppertunities!

Hima Das our Golden girl! Wasn't significant to most of us till yesterday, now has made our heart swell with pride and mind left wondering on her simplicity and iron gut!

The vedio clips gone viral; her final winning race, her award ceremony, where emotions rolling down her cheeks, fills my heart with range of emotions everytime I watch it.... likewise, many of us are overwhelmed...too overwhelmed!

On podium standing and watching the tricolor, with our national anthem tune  playing along... What sort of escatsy  she must be going through in this moment of glory!

My heartfelt blessings to this lovely confident teenager!

 I wonder how many of  us can actually even imagine the level of this girl's hardwork, commitment and her dedication towards the purpose of this gigantic dream!

Often, such sensational victory and the story of toil behind it, inspires many. It triggers the thinking in many of us that how such extraordinary achievements are made possible by ordinary children...

We (esp. parents) start  judging our own facilitation and our own kids in comparison! I am penning my thoughts down specially for this reason.

How Hima made this possible even though she didn't had privilege of all best eminities right from her childhood... like when fancy gym and fancy equipment to train with etc...

(This picture from National herald, speaks volumes, click on this link to see the article https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/the-dream-run-of-hima-das-the-golden-girl-from-assam)
So, what she has! What enables such dedication and single minded pursuit of purpose? There are obvious answers like her perseverance, discipline and all qualities we know...

I would like to throw a different perspective here; what she didn't had! What was absent which didn't prevent or deter her from dreaming and giving shape to those dreams. In my understanding these factors are--
1. Absence of loaded baggage of expectations from her providers (parents)
2.Absence of judgemental influence from her most trusted ones on her choice and her passion!

These are two prominent factor I see as common thread in all wonder achievers... just think about it, kids like her have biggest privilege;  'humble & honest support from thier parents.' Just a bit like potter making his pot! The force ought to be just there, not more; not less! which essentially means just being their for the child and not violate his rights by taking away responsibility and control  from the child, by constantly telling what to do and what not to, limiting a budding flower by our aspirations, biases judjements.

In the quest of doing best we, the urban parents provide every possible facility to our children with unsaid expectations that he should excel in life. We enrol them in all sorts of classes, put in  best schooling we can afford. We want to develop his personality, we want him to be successful. He is furnished with best equipment from best brands one can afford. We try hard and everything possible because we want him to excel in life, have respect in society...Unknowingly our precious child becomes specimen of our experiments!

If the child performs well i.e fetches medals etc we feel proud and successful! If not, then child feels guilty (&made to feel guilty/ incapable),  our prestige is hurt, we are hurt! Even if as parents we don't say anything to the child, he knows; I have not made my heroes happy. This sets in a channel of negativity; lack of confidence (we name it complacency...), feeling of being at loss (this leads to dissatisfaction). We know these are dangerous emotions for self esteem and self belief in formative years...

'Child' whom we treat as our extension, looses on the opportunity of discovering himself, being himself to know what he likes, to do what he can be best! We parents 'Rob' it from him... We teachers 'Rob' it...Our urban society 'Robs' it from him... and worst part; child is blamed for not achieving what we want him to.. oh! no! no!... failed to achieve what was best him!


Then we go on to  label these beautiful creation of God as 'lazy', 'stupid', 'complacent', 'not having fire in the belly' etc etc....! Some parents would even say “you get everything easily that’s why you don’t value it". Probably that’s absolutely correct! But the reason is not abundant availability of resources  at disposal, but absence of opportunity and freedom to explore self!

Think about it!

Sharing & Spreading Happiness!!

August brings lots of festivities, fun and fervor in Indian house hold. If one diligently follow all customs and celebrate all the festivals, they be celebrating an occasion each day during monsoon season (The Shravan month!). More so, the monsoon showers make the environment so colorful and full with life making everyone so happy….and yesterday my happiness grew multi-fold among the galore of Independence day and Janamashtami celebrations, for a very special reason!!!

I got call from a mom whose son completed Davis® Dyslexia Correction Program and Davis® Math Mastery Program with me last year. She had called to congratulate me! Her son has cleared his 10^th Grade exams in flying colors, securing marks in range of 75 to 79% in Science and Mathematics. This is a commendable feat for him. He is now aim for a degree in Computer Science, of course after completion of his IB Diploma.

Not just that he proved himself in studies; this young brilliant chap is an avid footballer! He had been also selected for professional football coaching in Spain.  

Mother is so delighted and was thankful that he got the Davis® tools on time, and how his dedicated in follow up exercises along with his consistent use of tools he conquered his battle… and now is confident to march on journey of his dreams…

She was very excited to share that how few months before the exams the school councilor was worried for his performance and suggested he opt for the core curriculum instead of extended curriculum….  But with his sheer grit and determination, he didn’t fall prey to the prejudice and ignorance of the councilor, on the contrary proved her wrong.  I must mention here mom’s unrelenting support is exemplary. Her unwavering confidence and determination to support the child is commendable.  

I remember this boy was so determined to overcome all his difficulties he improved his reading and comprehension dramatically, so after completion of his first program he asked his mother to enroll immediately for Math program and completed that too successfully.

He had unlocked his potential by fully adopting Davis tools. I remember, her mother has send me the school monthly report note after 1 month of the program. It mentioned that now her son has started showing remarkable improvement in vocabulary and how he contributes enthusiastically in all classroom discussions and also improved on spellings.  

There can be no bigger satisfaction than being the medium of someone’s enlightenment! This feeling which I find difficult to express in words is what motivates me and makes me keep going….

Daivs® Methods are gaining popularity in India now.. .. but still large section of society is unaware of these wonderful self-empowering methods. If you know someone who is bright and intelligent but is not able to realize this full potential, do provide my reference, who knows you can be first in the chain to help someone. If you think you need such empowering tools to enhance your life skills, don’t wait more to call…

Dyslexia does not happen only in English!

Dyslexia does not happen only in English! It is language neutral.....

I often state this fact to the parents of my little clients while asking them about the symptoms, and also as one of the strengths of Davis® Correction Programs. Davis® methods are completely language neutral. These can be delivered in and for any language using same techniques and are equally effective.

This is the reason the best seller book written by Ronald D Davis The Gift of Dyslexia is translated and published in 21 languages, and worldwide Davis Facilitator's network is providing this program in 30 different languages across 47 nations. But, very sad to say that the book is not available in Hindi or any other Indian languages.

Today, when I bumped into the news article from Indian Express,, about the toolkit designed in Hindi, Marathi & Kannada, to diagnose dyslexia in schools in grade 1, my heart filled with joy and hope. Congratulations and kudos to Ms Nandini Chatterjee Singh & team for taking up this noble work.  

Worldwide, approximately 15% to 20% children are said to be affected by learning differences and 10 % are estimated as having trouble in learning to read and write (typical dyslexia.)  This toolkit brings a ray of hope for 35 million children in our country. Out of which  a fraction who are the privileged to be studying English medium and those too elite schools. Among these privileged ones too only few get identified and get timely help due to various issues.

There is big need to reach out children with timely help and this toolkit is going to serve a great deal.

Davis®  Program is one such unique program which does not rely on phonics and language specific instructions, but builds it's foundation on creating an image of every symbol with it's meaning using the individual's creativity. It the learning and hence is equally effective in any language.

A glimpse of  work done in Davis ® Correction Program, the picture also shows handwriting improvement after 5 days of Program. 

The efforts to come-up successfully with the toolkit for Indian languages has encouraged me to initiate the search again for a suitable  publisher who will translate the book The Gift of Dyslexia in Hindi and other vernacular languages. The wonderful program which is provided one-on-one, is customized and personalized to suite each individual's need. It provides self empowerment to individual by controlling the symptoms at will.

Two years back, I was discouraged by following up with some publishers who made false promises but never got back even with the reasons of not pursuing the project. Now, again I am filled with hope. It has to reach so many people who will be able to relate with the problem and will get introduced to the wonderful correction methods.Amen!! the search begins.....

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.
____________________________________________________________

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.

On-line interview published last month

It was indeed a moment of pride and I like to take pride in every success however small it may be... as that is what keeps one going....

It seems now the on-line community support for the cause of this soft issue of difficulties with dyslexia and related learning differences is now started to take some shape. Call of the interview from Schools N' More validated two of my convictions-

1. When you choose a larger good purpose, one or the other day people will come with you.

2. Organic reach works. When the cause is right people will notice and that is why electronic social media is a blessing.

But the real cause of happiness was sharing information to more and more people....The complete interview can be read on below link  -

helping-kids-with-learning-difficulties - Smrati Mehta with Schools N' More

ADHD Awareness

A very well written article on #ADHD in #Mid-Day  by #Sachin Kalbag, published this Sunday, the article was brought to my notice by a friend in Britten. true picture of how a brilliant child when does fit in cookie cutter approach is labelled by society without even thinking that they are crushing a blooming flower....parents must provide right support, it is responsibility of educators to be sensitive.

There are ways and techniques to empower the individual to self manage and bloom with the original talents.....Message to parents do not provide 'churches' of drugs, rote repetitive drills or mental tricks....take the right approach customised for your child...preserve his/her self esteem.

The biggest gift parents can give to their child is self-esteem and self-reassurance, no one else will and can do so for your child. 

Parents have make concious effort to be out of rat race. Help the child to explore the hidden talent and in-still the real confidence, as the writer has mentioned in the article.

Thanks to #Sachin Kalbag for writing. And thanks Richard Whitehead for bringing it to notice.

link to the article - http://www.mid-day.com/articles/lets-pay-more-attention-to-adhd/15286177

Dhoom 3- If not 'Milk Disabled' then why 'Learning disabled'!

I loved the dialogue in Dhoom 3, where +Aamir Khan tells Katrina that 'Some people cannot tie shoelaces, even Einstein could not tie his shoelaces', when she wonders on how come the person who can play dreadful stunts in a circus not tie shoelaces...

Loved this movie,  because  (leaving all other things of the movie aside) it creates awareness among common public that being a little different is not being abnormal. In today's world when we are progressing on every front, then why this aspect of human life be left in haze and blur. Why education system is still largely a cookie cutter system, one cut fit all...And from where we coined the term 'Learning Disabled'. Do we call a person with milk allergies as 'Milk disabled' or a asthma patient as 'Breathing Disabled'. No, but if a person not able to respond to commonly teaching aids, he/she get labelled as 'slow', 'LD', 'special needs' and this stigma of labels and false pride, pushes many parents into denial mode and they cause more harm then good to their child...

Methods are available which empowers a person to overcome these issues and they can participate  in life to fullest...

The Gifteds-Learning Enablers

Learning through Mastery; Mastery through Creativity