Dyslexia, Fasting, Justice, National Theatre Wales

BLOG NOTES
I have been so busy these last couple of months that although I had plenty I wanted to blog about I couldn't find the time to write it up. The house has been in chaos for the past month due to a major re-decoration project. Outside I have been engaged in an ongoing landscape project in the garden, which as usual involves moving tons of material as I change levels yet again, this time cutting off the highest point of the lawn and using the soil to restyle the 40 years overgrown ditch between us and Clyne Common. One day I'll have things as I want them.

This week I had the outpatient's eye operation for cataracts so I am banned from risky activity for a month, hence the writing. I will try to make more frequent postings in future, keeping them shorter at the same time.  

GROWING CHILDREN - DYSLEXIA

I listened to the recent BB4 program because of a very real personal interest in this issue. It demonstrated how far thinking has progressed in the 40 years since we first became aware of the severe problem faced by one of our children. At that time an otherwise absolutely excellent primary school teacher would not accept the existence of Dyslexia, maybe thinking it was a case of informed parents attempting to get enhanced results for less bright children. We first became aware of the name dyslexia from a full page article in the Observer pointing to the single school in the country then attempting to improve outcomes, Millfield, who were offering a summer school which we jumped at.

Some years later Esther Rantzen presented a TV documentary which left me fuming. It followed a frequent stereotype that dyslexia was a problem associated with bright, talented children. I saw no reason why, in absence of evidence to the contrary, it would not have a normal distribution of varying intensity across the whole population range.

Over the years dyslexia has become a commonly accepted problem but never until this latest Growing Children series have I seen a documentary so pertinent, which is why I am recording its findings here. In particular it concluded that dyslexia had nothing to do with intelligence, visual acuity or eye tracking problems, but is associated with extreme difficulty the brain has in processing written work (reading and writing), and is now estimated to affect one in ten children.

Moreover these children would go through life always needing several times as long to process written information. They will always have to combat ‘this life long incurable condition’.

It was estimated that we each deal with around 100,000 written and spoken words per day. The negative affects on their lives being ‘poor self esteem, high stress and low achievement’. If left untreated they lead to frustration.

The program was presented by a child psychologist, Leverne Antrobus, who had previously been a primary school teacher. Two children with caring homes were portrayed. Lettie from the age of 10 for a couple of years up to the point she started at a unique (paying) secondary school for dyslexics. No doubt her progress there will be followed by researchers.

Alyce was diagnosed at the age of 7 and followed right through normal state schooling where she obtained a clutch of good GCSE results, though assisted by having her own reader and being allowed 25% more time. She said her main problems were spelling and that dictionaries were no help if you couldn't spell, but was good at mathematics. In Further Education she specialised in child care. She was shown teaching young children to read in her first job as a teaching assistant, and accepted with good humour that they sometimes were able to correct her. Perhaps the most telling comment of all came from a far older dyslexic member of staff who advised ‘Don’t let it destroy you – it doesn’t have to’. Alyce will be OK, but it so nearly ruined the life of someone precious to us

One line of research pursued at Southampton University’s Centre for Visual Cognition related to a dyslexic’s lack of a stationary view of written work, of that I was well aware. Words move around, letter order changes so they confuse say ‘dog’ and ‘god’, and the sequence in which words appear also alters. It was observed in Lettie’s case that repeated fixations and to-ing and fro-ing of the eyes extended overall reading time by a factor of six.

There were telling computerised examples of how written sentences might appear to a dyslexic, with which anyone would have problems. We know only too well that under stress the dyslexic child will say written text appears blurred, or to be double, and doesn’t make any sense.

In our case uncertainty of letter order applied equally to the ordering of written numbers, leading to problems with written arithmetic quite unrelated to mathematical ability.  

Of course they can improve, and with familiarity will learn to adapt (guess) better, but they will always have difficulty converting phonic representation to and from written work. Especially so with new, long, or unfamiliar words which were shown by the Department of Cognition and Brain Sciences at Cambridge to follow a different path through the brain.

(Interestingly Cambridge were also studying the process of learning by tasking adults with learning a completely new language with its own distinctly different character set. It could have been Mandarin without the help of the Romanisation of Pinyin which uses our alphabet and modified phonics, though Chinese characters are better thought of as syllables not letters.)

What was completely new to me was the avenue of research being followed by Usha Goswami at the Department of Neuroscience in Cambridge. She observed that dyslexic young children often had problems listening to spoken language and compared it to being colour blind. The core problem lay in the child’s failure to distinguish changes of sound intensity leading to a complete lack of awareness of the rhythms and emphasis so helpful in normal speech. She felt this aspect of learning is normally instilled from the over emphasis in the ‘baby talk’ of mothers, and that because of it babies recognise stress rhythms before they learn to distinguish sounds.

In retrospect we had dealt with problems in learning to speak, but it was not until years later that we observed the classic problems with written language. I have never before linked the rhythm and stability of vision as two stages appearing at different ages.

Alyce took six times as long as presenter Laverne to translate written syllables into phonic sounds, or spoken sounds into written syllables, but found the latter improved greatly when facing the speaker and thus able to lip read as well. The same factor of six as found at Southampton University in tracking the excessive eye movements needed to sort out confusion.

Professor Clare Wood at Coventry suggested that texting by mobile phone is a huge help because it makes it easy to relate text to phonic sound, unhindered by the complexities of English spelling, and because kids will be stress free and highly motivated to learn to communicate freely with their friends. 

Add poor spelling to slow reading and an inability to memorise stories, in book, film, theatre or joke form, and I am even more convinced there’s something undesirable in my literary genes !!

On the positive side Dr Nicola Brunswick of Middlesex University suggested that it was not purely a coincidence that so many creative artistic people are dyslexics but that deficiencies in language by the left side of the brain can lead to additional development of the right side dealing with spatial visualisation and shapes.

Forty years ago frequent reference was made to actor and film star Susan Hampshire and the naturalist Peter Scott the son of the Antarctic explorer. In this TV program they pointed to the famous architects Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, the painters Picasso and Andy Warhol, and the clothes designer Tommy Hilfiger. To which list hundreds of other dyslexics could be added including Cher, Albert Einstein, Jamie Oliver, Jackie Stewart and Richard Branson

Maybe Dyslexia should be seen less as a Disability and more as a Difference and as Nicola suggested this should lead them on to multi-sensual education, rather than the solely verbal approach.

POLITICS & CITIZENSHIP GROUP
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
The process aims to get perpetrator and victim to understand each other and produce a sort of closure in a final, short (one hour), meeting together. A major effect of reconciliation is diffusion of anger. A motion to make such procedures mandatory in British prisons was defeated by a single vote in parliament.

Swansea U3A member Don Mason has been involved in a new procedure instigated in Swansea prison since its start a year ago, and having just successfully completed his first case on GBH (grievous bodily harm) was in an excellent position to lead our discussion.

Facilitators like him and prison staff are given 3 days training and vetted by the Home Office. There are now 40 accredited Facilitators in Swansea. Crimes involving drugs, rape and domestic violence are excluded otherwise the first essential is to ascertain that the prisoner wants to follow the process by asking for volunteers. The cases followed are generally serious involving at least two years of outstanding sentence. The first meeting is with the prisoner to find more about the crime and the motivation. 

The next contact is with the victim to establish his/her willingness in working towards a face to face meeting. In the case of murder the 'victims' will be close family or friends. Typically their interest will be to get an answer to their main concerns, 'Why was I targeted? and Will it happen again?' 

In the discussion I was pleased to hear him say he had found the prisoner's attitude very positive and that he did not over-dwell on his own circumstances or misfortunes in life. Indeed he said that here were many examples of prisoners becoming ambassadors for the process and starting for example Youth Clubs, so as to help others avoid the pitfalls he had met. 

He thought the younger group of prisoners were particularly responsive to the scheme and benefited from understanding the effect on the victim. 

Many victims benefited to, because many were initially frightened of a recurrence on the prisoner's release but after the face to face meeting felt far more secure. 

It was thought that offenders following this procedure would be far less likely to re-offended. He also pointed out that the process assured a good start for the Probation Service.

I am sure Don 402309 would be willing to speak to anyone interested in volunteering as Facilitator. Alternately contact Austin Smith the Prison Officer involved at  
austin.smith@hmps.gsi.gov.uk or phone 01792 673183.

It was pointed out that the approach of getting the two sides to understand each others point of view was often used in schools for tackling bullying. Also such face-face procedures were common in Maorie culture.

UPDATE ON INTERMITTENT FASTING (see previous posting)

Joan and I have now been following two fast days per week for two months, with only 500/600 calories on fast days. Initially Joan found it hardest to 'starve' on Fast Days, but then she had been overeating for 20 years or so and suffered greater risk since she has always done the cooking in our household. However time has made it easier to bear, otherwise apart from bringing forward the time of eating to around 4pm and a greater concern to avoid extra eating on fast days little has changed.

We both continue to lose weight, though my rate has slowed to 0.4kg/10 days whilst hers is almost double that figure at 0.7kg/10 days (0.5kg, or just over 1lb per week). Only by graphing daily measurements can I convince her she is still winning, but the trend is clear and close to a straight line descent. Anyone else taking daily measurements should be very careful since the day to day figures, especially around fasting day, will fluctuate widely by over a pound a day and in my estimate merely reflect the amount of food, fluid and waste carried at weigh in.

My GP could not arrange for measurement of IGV-1, the rate of cell growth factor used in the TV study, but I have just submitted a blood sample for lipids which will measure cholesterol.  

My own weight is now just below 79kg, well below the 81kg weight I used to squeeze under when boxing at 20, but then I was much stronger and really fit at with much more muscle. In recent decades I have been happy with a weight between 85 and 89kg, only at the later did I start to take myself in hand. A vital factor is that I feel better, perhaps weight loss alone or better self control. 

Joan's aim is to lose a good deal more weight, mine to improve my chances of living a long and healthy life. She saw the Orthopaedic specialist recently who scheduled a second replacement on her first knee. We hope it will be done early in the new year to avoid further pain and damage to the bone, and once mobile again look forward to resuming independent travel.



WOULD YOU PAY to be a PLEB? - We did

In fact Joan took part in the National Theatre Wales latest production of a mixture of Shakespeare's and Bertolt Brecht's  Coriolanus. A slight exaggeration! But at the very outset 'The First Citizen' had his arm around Joan's shoulder as he whipped up a political rally on film and stage. 

The promenading audience were on the stage as extras, very appropriate given the nature of this play, political and election rallies, and battle scenes.

The theatre was a huge aircraft hanger at St Athan, the stage was the floor where actors and audience met. The props were cars and caravans giving mobility as the scene changed from one city to another. 

Fights broke out between actors in street, breaking up the audience crowd who learned to keep out of the way of the fights and cars on the move. Everyone in the audience had been issued with high quality headphones, which Joan found these excellent for the hard of hearing, and the actors wore small head microphones.

The action was filmed by a couple of film crews following the action, so you had the choice of promenading, or sitting watching the events unfold on a large screen, or sitting anywhere you liked on a simple chair and just listening - very effective by itself.  I promenaded, Joan sat, we met up again on the way out. It took me about a quarter of an hour to get into the swing but thereafter the clear as a bell text was as inspiring as I have ever experienced.

One night at the theatre we will never forget thanks to the innovation of directors Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes, and thanks to Spark Notes I had already got familiar with the plot and characters. Somewhat previously they had staged a Greek Tragedy, The Persians by Aeschylus, on a military Firing Range near Brecon - but we didn't hear about that in time to go. It doesn't take much to inspire me to go to Brecon!