A ten-year-old girl was referred to me by her tutor because of learning difficulties in school. Her working memory was poor, she had trouble with reading comprehension, and her math skills were lagging behind.
She had some fussy-baby concerns and had ear tubes at one year of age. She presented like the vast majority of these children, with a zero-second brain cycle and fascial strain in her neck.
I postulate that this clinical presentation could be true for most, if not all children with learning disorders. The bottom line is that their brains do not have optimal neurophysiology.
The brain needs to expand and contract well to function correctly. It does not for these children, causing them to struggle cognitively.
After three therapy visits, her brain cycle reached a great 230 seconds, and her life changed. My wish is that her birth trauma had been mitigated on day one to have prevented these issues.
Parents always want the best for their children. When a child has difficulty in learning a subject, a tutor can work wonders with him or her.
I needed a private tutor in ninth grade to help me with English. Now, professionally working with a private tutor in the Philadelphia suburbs, I have found that the Gillespie Approach and tutoring are perfectly complementary.
A typical scenario is the tutor recognizes a struggling student, thinks of possible cranial tightness, and refers the child to me for evaluation. I cannot feel any brain motion, which, in my world, can readily explain the neurological disconnection.
As the brain cycle opens in therapy, the tutor can now fully connect cognitively with that child. She or he starts to blossom intellectually and builds enough confidence to handle the school workload with more ease—a win-win for everyone.
The Tutor’s Observations
"After even your first therapy session, I’ve noticed that her sentences were much longer and complex. Her performance was better in decimals and advanced topics. She also seemed to be more cognizant of what we were discussing before she zoned out.
"After her second session with you, her dad mentioned to me that she had recently jumped from 25 out of 57 correct words for her decoding list in the fall to 50 out of 57 words for her decoding lists! This is tremendous growth.
"I find that her general language capacity seems to have been unlocked by your work. She is talking in longer, more-complex sentences and has dropped her former immature phrases.
"Her understanding of her chapter book is much greater in terms of her summary and reading comprehension. My special reading guides for the chapter books require continued attention and global thinking, which, before, were mostly beyond her reach without help.
"Her dad said that she feels much more confident and is trying to do most of my work on her own. Before, she would rely on a parent's assistance.
"To be frank, her math has not progressed as much, but her dad just informed me that she has had a long-term substitute teacher for the past few weeks as her usual teacher is out. I imagine that break in routine and expertise accounts for the difference in her performance in verbal versus the math domains.
"So overall, I'm really impressed by her jump in verbal ability and her growing understanding of decoding. She has made tremendous strides in a short period of time, which cannot be linked to tutoring alone. I hope that with time and some more stable math practice in her classroom, we will see a similar boost for her math performance."
