Focus vs concentration; Some Disruptive learning Strategies – DLS

Are Focus & Concentration interchangeable terms and same processes? How they affect our learning?

We often say ‘Concentrate hard you will get it’ or ‘You need to concentrate on work/ studies if you want to be something in life’. Parents and teachers look for ways and means to increase concentration. Have we ever thought what concentration is and how do we achieve it? More so WHY THERE IS EVEN NEED TO CONCENTRATE?

Most of us would respond saying; ‘Yes! Of course, we need to concentrate… the child need to concentrate otherwise how they will score marks or something better’ or ‘Because they don’t concentrate they make mistakes’ and so on… which are probably right answers till we release and understand ; What is that we are wanting to achieve?

So let's take few minutes here to reflect; Remember those experiences when you are engrossed in any activity be it reading an intense novel, watching a deep thoughtful movie, painting, singing for your soul.. There can be numerous such activities. When the engagement is from core such that you are so engrossed and forget everything else, these are most joyful moments for our soul! Take a moment to realise were we forcing us to concentrate for this joyous experience?

You see the point! So what is it that is making such engagement possible? We know it well… our heart was in it… We were focused on the activity or pursuit of it… When we are focused on something we apply our all our resources physical and mental to the task with most ease without any external force. When we are focused we pursue the activity as a long term endeavor. Whereas ‘concentration’ is transactional. It is characterised by external forced.

So, our kids be better with Focus on their studies or Concentration! Of course answer is Focus ! So next question is - How that becomes possible?

For that we would want our kids to love and endure the learning process. The good news is ; IT IS POSSIBLE! And right from the age of pre-primary classes.

Denial Goleman (2013). 'Focus: The Hidden Driver Of Excellence'

Denial Goleman, author of famous book Emotion Intelligence, in his book on 'Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence', emphasis on how now more than ever we must learn to sharpen focus to meet the ever increasing demands of complex world we are in today.

Young children at that age are made for playing in the open but class room setting requires them to sit confined to their allotted seats; the first detractor.. how will they enjoy the classroom! And the dangerous Smartphone menace; child is pacified these days by handing over a smartphone to watch videos before they even start walking...there can be countless examples to note that how much we need to teach our kids the important life skill FOCUS so they can direct their attention on learning, and of course the challenge is to make learning interesting and a creative process.

Yes something can be done about it… This can happen by deploying efficient classroom Management techniques, by teaching effective learning methods to children. Methods which provide the following –

1. Providing them a self-directed ability to stay on task with focus.
2. Mechanism to maintain their physical energy appropriate for the task at hand. 
3. Engage them by letting them using their creativity in every learning task.
4. Confidence to make mistakes. (Mistakes are learning opportunities
5. Reach out to kids to every learning style can be exploited.

All above points are The recipe for generating lifelong love for learning in children and satisfaction galore to teachers….

Where we get these methods! We adults’; teachers and parents will have to unlearn and learn many ways of dealing with kids… but at the same time these are simple enough to learn and implement. Sure these are disruptive.

What am I talking about here; These Davis Learning Strategies - DLS, the methods developed in California in 1993, by Ronald D Davis and Sharron Pfeiffer (www.davislearn.com) . Since then these methods are followed across the world in many schools and each such school has a great success story to share.

I personally got opportunity to mentor teachers at an international school in Chennai, India and recently at a charity run school in Mumbai. In both the schools my experience has been amazing and much rewarding. These schools fall on a wide range of spectrum from size, scale and resources. But when you talk of kids they are same energetic bundle of enthusiastic learners and the teachers, the dedicated souls who try to make all ends meet to provide their best to let kids bloom.

Teachers find these strategies as answers to the missing puzzle piece what they were looking for e.g. Being able to reach all the students out equally,

Want every child to apply their creativity,

Want them to love their studies,

Not want to get them board….

These are some of the actual answers from teachers when I ask them what single most important thing that they feel they would to make different for their students. During the training, they could reflect on the all practical difficulties they face in the classroom and could relate to make their teaching more effective by applying these methods.

What more can be a proof that teachers happily came early to school than their scheduled time, so they can attend training to learn the techniques which they saw spelling wonders on the kids in the classrooms, when I volunteered to take 1 period to teach some of these strategies to children. Now if I need to tell how children felt; where do I start to describe the enthusiasm and fun children had in the classroom. It will be subject for another blogpost J

These are my personal experience examples. In the recent International Davis Symposium I got chance to meet many facilitators/ teachers who are instrumental in bringing a sea change in the way education in being given in schools. In particular a group from New Zealand, their success story was a tale of their determination and resolve… they are now in the process of talks with their education ministry to provide funding as more and more teachers what to get trained. Here is the link to a TV documentary film that says all….
https://www.facebook.com/202530493222647/videos/920134424795580/

My personal vision is to reach out as many children and teachers as possible and impact them this lifelong learning skills… so we nurture innovators, inventors, artists and happy humans for tomorrow! So, if you are a teacher or parent or associated with schools in anyway, please reach out... lets scribe a success story of ours! 

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.

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!

Gifts that comes with Dyslexia

I had sought experiences from people on how they feel about dyslexia and their experience of it as a gift.

Now many people are waiting to understand, how it can be a gift!

This article explains how a dyslexic brain works and what are the traits that people can possess with such thinking style. Please share your feedback and your thoughts.

If you are a dyslexic or parent or a friend of a dyslexic you will relate with qualities listed below.

Gifts that come along with pains of being a Dyslexic thinker are associated with their versatile ability to-

•  Perceive their thoughts as reality and alter them at will.
•  They can have multisensory, 3 dimensional thinking style; mostly think in images with highly vivid imagination.
• High Emotional Quotient
• Highly intuitive and insightful

Verbal Thinking - Thoughts as self speech

Non Verbal Thinking - Thoughts are multi dimensional, including all senses 

These qualities bestow them with following abilities-
- One who can view things in broader perspective 
- Out of the box solution providers 
- Can see correlation in things which people generally ignore.
- Inventor 
- Innovator 
- Good at design 
- Good at mechanics 
- Good at science and engineering 
- Individuals with very high emotional intelligence 
- Good at interpersonal skills as they have great empathy too
- Highly imaginative, so can excel in creative field.
- Good at dramatics 
and many more such amazing qualities…

We have many examples to corroborate this. Below are some high achievers in their fields and proud dyslexics-

Richard Branson- A billionaire, founder of Virgin group. He says "Once freed from archaic schooling practices and preconceptions, my mind opened up. Out in the real world, my dyslexia became my massive advantage: it helped me to think creatively and laterally, and see solutions where others saw problems."

Tom cruise – One of the most successful star in Hollywood. He was diagnosed with learning disability when he was 7 years old. Tom says," I trained myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read."

John Chambers – Former CEO of Cisco, he is dyslexic and had turned his dyslexia to his advantage.  He says," I give no speeches: I just do an outline in my head".

These few examples highlight on the 'giftedness' of the brain in non verbal thinking. And how these successful people had managed their dyslexia.

Some of  the other well-known personalities  - 

Agatha Crystie 

Albert Einstein

Leonardo di vinci

Walt Disney 

Steven Spielberg

Steve Jobs

Tommy Hilfiger

Jay Leno

Many more such examples of success stories, you can google and read more about them. I am sharing a link where you can find the consolidated information - https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/dyslexic-achievers/

        

Links on interview experts, news articles, websites I have referred -               

http://money.cnn.com/…/…/investing/richard-branson-dyslexia/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/dyslexia-richard-branson-potential-intelligence-genius-advantage-virgin-a7710676.html

http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/success-stories/tom-cruise

https://www.businessinsider.in/Cisco-CEO-John-Chambers-My-Dyslexia-Is-A-Weakness-AND-A-Strength/articleshow/38979345.cms

https://chiefexecutive.net/quarter-ceos-dyslexic-says-ciscos-john-chambers/

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…