Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis

Stress can severely damage a child’s ability to learn:

When the mind is under emotional stress, it produces the peptide cortisol…. Chronic high cortisol levels eventually destroy hippocampal neurons associated with learning and memory. Even short-term stress-related elevation of cortisol in the hippocampus can hinder our ability to distinguish between important and unimportant elements of a memorable event. (Creedon, 2011, p. 34, references omitted)

To reduce your child’s excessive stress and anxiety, it’s often best to first reduce or eliminate stress-provoking environmental factors, like disrupted sleep and frustration-level homework that emotionally overwhelms him (see our post, http://www.reading2008.com/blog/tip-the-right-amount-of-homework.htm ). After reducing or eliminating such factors, or in conjunction with your attempts, you might have a highly knowledgeable and skilled professional teach your child (and you) how to relax. Such strategies, like diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation, might help your child minimize stress and anxiety in situations that he or his Individualized Education Program (IEP) can’t control.

Many struggling learners find these strategies fun and easy to learn. They often have one or two strategies that they like or dislike. Stick with the one or two that your child likes. Progressive muscle relaxation is often a favorite of younger children because it’s physical exercise that can be taught like a game. Children can practice diaphragmatic breathing almost any place. It’s 100% portable; it can be used in school, on the bus, right before the next pitch. Meditation is best for older, more mature children, though I’ve seen it work with a variety of stressed children, youth, and adults with disabilities.

In addition to reducing stress and anxiety, relaxation strategies may even improve behavior and academics. The remainder of this blog will present some research on relaxation and reading; then describe diaphragmatic breathing, the simplest of the three relaxation strategies. In the near future, we’ll describe progressive muscle relaxation and meditation. Before using any relaxation strategy with your child, we urge you to learn it, practice it, and have a qualified professional, such as a licensed psychologist, teach your child how to use it and let you know if it’s appropriate for him. Occasionally, children and adults have an adverse reaction.

Research on Relaxation and Reading. The research is suggestive, not definitive. It strongly suggests that relaxation training can help some children, especially those for whom stress and anxiety interfere with reading achievement:

Frey found that relaxation training had a positive effect on the reading achievement of German boys … who attended an after school remedial reading program once a week…. According to Frey, ‘relaxed students … [could apparently] concentrate more easily and make better use of the learning aids being given them’…. Prichard and Taylor found that a combined remedial reading and relaxation-training program, administered to groups of students, dramatically improved reading achievement. In both silent (i.e., comprehension) and oral reading, better than 80% of the students made gains of a year or more…. Silent reading gains averaged four months growth per month of instruction. Margolis and Pica [found that with continued relaxation training] learning disabled students who listened to relaxation training audiotapes by themselves [improved their] oral reading performance…. Using a combination of progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic relaxation and cognitive behavior modification with hyperactive students of intermediate elementary school age, [Watson & Hall] found significant improvements in [reading] comprehension scores and hyperactivity after twelve half hour sessions of individual training. (Margolis, 1990, pp. 219-220, references omitted).

Diaphragmatic Breathing. This takes only a few minutes and can teach you and your child how to relax when faced with a stress or an anxiety-provoking situation. Here’s how Aggie Casey and Herbert Benson (2006) described it:

• Find a comfortable, quiet place to sit or lie down.
• Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen, just below your belly button. Take a slow, deep breath. Your lower hand should move more than the hand on your chest.
• Concentrate on letting your abdomen expand fully, drawing air down into your lungs. Notice your belly rising and falling with each breath.
• Now practice this breathing for several minutes. (p. 35)

Of course, in stress or anxiety-provoking situations, like classes, your child need not lie down. When sitting or standing, he can just breathe slowly and deeply from his diaphragm. He can breathe secretly from his diaphragm. No one need notice. It’s critical, however, that you and he practice it several times a day, even if only a few minutes at a time.

An Opportunity

Although life offers no panaceas, it offers opportunities. As part of a daily plan to overcome or minimize the destructive effects of chronic stress or anxiety, relaxation can be an opportunity. The strategies are simple, inexpensive, and can work. And if your child is relaxed, if stress or anxiety no longer dominates his thinking, he’ll probably make better decisions, pay better attention, and become a more successful learner.

References

Casey, A., & Benson, H. (2006). Harvard Medical School Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure (Harvard Medical School Guides). NY: McGraw-Hill.

Creedon, D. W.. (2011). Fight the stress of urban education with the arts. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 34-36.

Margolis, H. (1990). Relaxation training: A promising approach for helping exceptional learners. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 37(3), 215-234.

Homework Links

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/using-ieps-to-solve-the-homework-problems-of-struggling-readers.htm

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/solving-homework-problems-three-unique-suggestions-2.htm

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/my-child-has-a-reading-disability-what-level-reading-materials-should-teachers-assign-him-for-homework.htm

http://www.reading2008.com/blog/tip-the-right-amount-of-homework.htm

Howard Margolis © Reading2008 & Beyond

www.reading2008.com

howard@reading2008.com

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Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com)

Psychology Today.com recently wrote that Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds was one of the three “best books about education published in 2010. Recommend [it] to your friends.” On our blog, an English teacher and author wrote that Beating the Odds “is one of the best books, if not the best book on education published this year.”  A Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism called it “a great book.” A parent wrote, “Your Reading Disabilities book is by far the best resource I have found regarding the IEP and IDEA and providing understandable and concrete suggestions and implementation strategies.” Another wrote, your book is “fascinating and effective.” On Amazon, a professor of special education called it “a fantastic resource… well-written, practical… an essential guide.” The Kansas City Examiner.com cited our blog as one of the ten best special needs blogs of 2010. We thank these and many other reviewers for their kind words.

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