Improving reading ability in a fifth grade girl whose case perplexed the teachers

As a history to the development of the video " Improve Reading Speed and Comprehension " (https://sites.google.com/site/betterreadingcomprehension/ ) I offer this chapter from the book " Leaving Home Going Home Returning Home : A Hebrew American's Sojourn in The Land of Israel". The case of the fifth grader who whispered When I think back on the many children that completed my Being in Control program, three clients and the challenges they faced stick out in my mind as key examples that reflect the power of my program. The first student, Channa, came from an ultra-orthodox Jewish girl’s school and was in 5th grade. Her father, an official in the school, was a great person who made his child’s education paramount, and he helped see to it that there was no lack of remedial help for his child within the school. Despite all this support, Channa’s problem with learning perplexed the teachers, and so her special case made it to my clinic. Channa was a quiet and sweet-looking young girl, but very bashful. Immediately, I became aware that Channa only speaks in quiet whispers. Her father told me that her psychological evaluations did not show that she had ADD, yet he suspected there was something wrong with her concentration. Even though she was a good student, he felt Channa did not reach her potential in some of her courses. This turned out to be a common complaint of parents that sought out my help: the child was studious, attentive, and bright, but “did not reach their potential” – a code phrase for not having the grades their parents thought their children deserved or could achieve. When I first met her, Channa barely talked to me and did not answer any of my questions. Instead, she spoke through her father. Being ultra-orthodox, she probably did not have much, if any, opportunity to speak to men Leaving Home, Going Home, Returning Home outside her family. Partly from this experience, I found that using a slightly passive approach in biofeedback via graphic and video programs was necessary where practitioner-client interaction was lacking. For Channa, I went through relaxation and concentration exercises for a couple of sessions, talking very little and letting the programs show the way. Soon, Channa brought one of her teachers with her to observe, and the teacher told me there was already a marked improvement in Channa’s general class participation since she began working with me. Then, in the following session, Channa brought her sister, whom I let experience the program together with Channa – a practice that I maintain whenever siblings pay a visit. I couldn’t help but notice then that when Channa talked to her sister, she didn’t whisper. These sessions, in turn, served as evidence that as a student’s general well-being improves, that student will feel better about him or herself. Building this self-confidence led to increased class participation. After these early sessions, I began to instruct Channa in building accelerated learning skills and study strategies. When starting speed-reading and reading retention skills, I had Channa bring one of her favorite books to me to read from. I wanted to check both how many words per minute Channa read and how much she could comprehend from that text. Channa chose a siddur, or Jewish ritual prayer book, with her. The Orthodox Jews pray three times a day, so it comes as no surprise that the prayers become ingrained in their children from a very early age. She read the prayers aloud just fine. Good! I then wanted Channa to read from a children’s fairy tale book, which was something she was less familiar with. Suddenly, she began to whisper again, so much so that I could hardly hear her. Her dad, present for each session, intervened and asked Channa to speak up louder. She read the passage again, and to my chagrin, she could not read the words correctly. I had Channa pick up the siddur again and read from it, this time letter by letter. Much to our wonder, she made several errors again, even though we just heard her recite the same prayers so beautifully just moments ago! What was wrong with this picture, I wondered? Then it came to me. I asked her father if he was aware that Channa had difficulty reading. He answered an emphatic “NO!” How could this be? Previously, she read the prayers well enough, but when asked to decode the prayer word for word, letter by letter, she could barely read the first sentence. She must not have read the words the first time around, I surmised, but rather she had remembered the prayers by heart. What Channa was doing was relying on her memory to compensate for her not being able to read well. She did not appear to struggle to the point of potentially having dyslexia, but perhaps she just might have had some concentration problems when she was acquiring reading skills in the earlier grades and at some point started to lag behind. To make up for this shortcoming, she used her memory to get by so her teachers and parents would not notice. As Channa progressed into the older grades, however, she hit a dead end with this strategy as her reading skills were now being tested. That is why Channa was whispering. Her mumbling was her attempt to camouflage her weakness. As a result, no one suspected that she did not know how to read, but instead were left wondering why Channa did not speak up in class. Her teachers and her parents readily identified problematic symptoms of Channa’s behavior, yet they masked the true obstacle in Channa’s ability to learn. Children are, and perhaps always have been, under growing pressure from their parents and school to excel and succeed. Anything less is construed as an embarrassment. Channa was anything but dumb, though – after all, who would ever think that a young fifth grader like her could have everyone fooled, and for so long? In Channa’s case, I recalled well-known set videos in Israel that taught reading skills and the alphabet from scratch. I had her father get Channa a set to bring Channa back to the basics and with enough practice and guidance, Channa soon learned how to read just as well as her peers.