No, she has not, but as all the doctors and scientists have said there is no cure, I have taken to teaching her to be ambidexterious and especially balance. She has exibited, what seems to be a mild form of dyslexia.
I wrote this piece origionally, about 3 years ago and not only did I send my thoughts to the AMA here in the states, I also sent them to 2 sites in England and Canada. About 4 months ago, there was a special on 60 minutes or 60 minutes 11, about dyslexia and some of what I wrote was included in the piece, but not all of it.
When I wrote about the cells that start out under the brain as a fetus and rose to the top of the brain in normal children, but those same cells did not rise in children with the severest form of dyslexia and my thoughts of right handed and left handed people,procreating, it is also likely, that children that are left hemisphere dominate, have those cells form and rise to the top of children that have those cells under the right side of the brain and vice versa for right hemisphere domination, which will also prove that there is right hemisphere dominance and left hemisphere dominance.
BALANCE I believe, has much, if not all, to do with those cells, along with even mild forms of Dyslexia. For instance, can those cells just rise to the edge of the brain? Can those cells rise part the way to the top of the brain and many other questions.
I believe the English investor and his doctors, presented only part of what I spoke of, so they could earn money and that is despicable.
I’m not trying to discredit it. I was asking a question. I have a vague recollection of it not really being a mainstream theory anymore, and I was hoping someone else in the thread could answer that. But maybe I can dig up something on the web - I’ll give it a try.
Well, I see lots of references to hemisphere-dominance, so I must be remembering that part wrong. However, it does appear to be false that hemisphere-dominance corresponds to right or left handedness.
http://www.nutramed.com/brain/rightleft.htm
“A popular notion, that the dominant left hemisphere is “analytic” and the right hemisphere is “synthetic or artistic,” makes little sense and is not a good way to try to understand how the human brain works.”
http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/brain.html
“This association between hand and brain captured the imaginations of researchers because it would be so useful (so easy, so non-invasive, so cheap) to study patterns of brain asymmetries by using a person’s handedness as a marker for brain lateralization (direct methods involve neurosurgery, invasive drug testing, or expensive imaging techniques). I have argued, however, that many fundamental problems exist with this methodology, and advocate going back to the drawing board to work out some of these basic problems, rather than continue to embrace 19th-century methodology.”
http://www.usd.edu/~ssanto/brain.html
“Brain dominance refers to a preference for using one hemisphere of the brain over the other hemisphere. The left hemisphere of the brain is rational, analytical, and verbal, while the right hemisphere is holistic and intuitive, responsive to visual imagery. Brain dominance can be assessed with the Hemispheric Mode Indicator or with the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument.
Once very popular, this view of the brain has fallen out of favor recently due to further research showing it is not quite as clear-cut as all that.”
I guess it’s not clear-cut at all.
Oh, and I found a reference to this dyslexia theory, but it says it’s not supported by the evidence.
http://web.intercom.es/jorgemas/cerebral.htm
"Since about 30% of left-handed persons have language located in the right or inboth hemispheres, cerebral dominance research has sometimes identified these individuals as prime candidates for dyslexia. Tests for hemispheric dominance have been conducted by noting preferences in listening, clapping, jumping, sighting with one eye, and balancing on one foot. Failure to demonstrate a decided preference for one side or the other, the theory maintains, indicates a defect in brain development wich is fully or partially responsible for dyslexia.
Solid evidence to support the cerebral dominance theory has been lacking. Most recent studies have not supported the concept that dyslexia children differ greatly from normal readers in right-hand or left-hand preferences."
You don’t say how old your granddaughter was when you noticed she would hesitate when reaching and write some letters backward, but I assume from the general tone that she was somewhere age 2-4.
During those years, it is well within the range of normal development for children to use either hand for tasks. It is also perfectly normal for children just learning to read and write to write letters backward – or for that matter, to replace letters with other letters or even numerals. Children learning to read and write often confuse the letters d b p q and use them interchangably, because they all are essentially a circle with a line. Early in the developmental stage it is difficult to tell the difference between these type of mistakes and the pattern of non-recognition/misrecognition that is characteristic of dyslexia.
Even after handedness has fully asserted itself, it is common for people even with a strong preference, to use the opposite hand for some tasks. It is especially common for left-handed people, because many tools and objects are designed to favor right-handed use. You say that you are teaching your granddaughter to be ambidextrous. While you may be teaching her to perform some tasks with either hand, surely you understand that you can not “teach” handedness – right, left or both.
You say that your granddaughter has not been diagnosed dyslexic, but that there is “no cure.” Do you mean there is no cure for dyslexia in general, or that your granddaughter has been diagnosed with some other condition for which there is no cure? There are techniques which can help people deal with and compensate for dyslexia, although they are not a “cure.”
When you speak of “balance” are you suggesting there is some relationship between physical balance and dyslexia? I know there is no relationship between dyslexia and general athletic ability, but perhaps you should search literature for any studies of gymnasts, who as a group have extraordinary balance.
Finally, I’m sorry, but I have no idea who or what you were talking about when you mentioned “the English investor and his doctors.”
You direct,–“A popular notion, that the dominant left hemisphere is “analytic” and the right hemisphere is “synthetic or artistic,” makes little sense and is not a good way to try to understand how the human brain works.”
I agree. I would also point out that as Aldebarans people, force all people in their culture to be right handed, that seems to be wrong, especially when in many cultures, we see right and left handed people.-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------You go on to direct,–"Since about 30% of left-handed persons have language located in the right or inboth hemispheres, cerebral dominance research has sometimes identified these individuals as prime candidates for dyslexia.
I say, ----as to hemisphere dominance, I believe it to be very true and the supporting factors are both right and left handedness, eye dominance and which side of the body we use for balance, while the opposing side is used for power. The cells that start out under the brain, when we are all but a fetus, rise to the top and I believe they are the determining factor in balancing the bodies and brains, mechanisims. By the way, in medicine, there will always be exceptions to the rule. When you mention both hemispheres as to language, that is also an indication that the balance within the brain is odd, or has been directed to both hemispheres.
Very good, she was 4 and yes, I have been told that before, but she has eye trouble, causing the need for glasses, she seems uncoordinated, she was turning her writing paper as a lefty was, which was probably a learned trait from either her dad or brother and to this day, she still has trouble with balance and power. While all this could be normal and not be dyslexia, she was the reason for my look into the world of dyslexia.
As to you saying, that we cannot teach someone handedness, I would at least say it can be very much influenced and even probable, that a righty teaching a normal lefty can create many problems, such as the simple idea that she was taught to turn the paper as a lefty when very little, if she is a lefty. It is also a fact, that if a righty teaches a lefty the balance is on the left side and the bodies power is on the right, when the left handed persons balance and power are directly opposed.
No, she has no other disorder that we know of.
As to balance, yes, I believe that the cells under the brain at birth are what focuses the balance within the body and brains mechanisims, almost exclusively. Gymnasts have learned and practiced balance for many years. It is not an inheirant trait. Even dyslexics can be taught physical balance and while there will always be exceptions to the rule, it will set up even more strain for the dyslexic athlete.
Below is another piece I wrote about dyslexia—
It is very likely that some people with milder forms of dyslexia create more connections within the brain.
I’m willing to bet that because of the many factors involved, dyslexic individuals that are pressed very hard, develop what is known as cluster headaches, because they overdevelop the connections within the brain and possibly create a feedback in many ways, eye strain being one of the major factors.
Some or most of these people will be brilliant in many ways.
A recent test was done on children, where they read a whole lot more books than normal and then they were subjected to a form of brain scan, which showed there were a lot more connections made within the brain.
Now, if we think about dyslexics, they are born thinking in somewhat of an inverse way, so they have to think and work twice as had to come to the levels other children in their classes do, or they may be kept back.
The harsher the dyslexic problems, the harder the person has to work to stay at grade level, which will create more thinking, reading and studying, to accomplish equality. This can lead to an overload of connections within the brain and when these people come under a lot of stress, it usually creates tremendous eye strain that creates a sort of overload.
The above is why dyslexics within the milder forms become more creative. They look at things from two different ways all the time.
Cite what, someone elses web site that can’t prove what they say? I simply offer new thinking and ask that it be disproven and if it cannot be disproven, that it be looked into, by professionals in that field.
It is up to you, the one who has all the ideas, to convince us that your argument has merits. You have offered us no data, no readings, no anecdotes (other than shugie) that support your claims. It is simply not enough to say you have ideas. You did not just wake up one day believing that hemisphere dominance and dyslexia are related. I’m asking you to produce the background info that has brought you to this conclusion. If you don’t have background info, I’d suggest you’d get some. Scientists don’t like it when people challenge their conclusions simply based on personal feelings and “theories”. They like data and facts.
There are people here who want to learn. They are willing to hear you out. Where can we learn more about this fetal cell migration stuff you speak of? Is this something that you’re concocted yourself, or is this a widely accepted concept?
When I first started writing about dyslexia on another web site, I was challenged by a person from a dyslexic organization, where he posed the cell migration and explained that the most serious of dyslexics did not have these cells rise to the top of the brain as in normal children. He said that when this happened, those children could not function enough and had to be cared for all their lives.
I arrived at cell migration and its reasoning, thru a favored side in sleep and given enough time as a fetus, sleeping on the favored or correct side, would be, that the cells under the brain, need time to rise as a fetus and that those cells rise in stages, hence my questions to the medical community, can those cells rise to the edge of the brain or rise partially on top of the brain, as well as many other questions.
If I am correct about this one point, and that is, are the cells spoken of, on one side of the brain for a right handed child and on the opposing side for left handed children? If so, that in itself, proves right and left hemisphere, dominance.
The problem with this is that cells in the body don’t “rise” like bubbles in a glass of beer. Bubbles rising against gravity is a result of their density in comparison to the density of the medium in which they are embedded. However, the brain isn’t a liquid medium that is prone to embedded objects rising. Just look at the opposite case, of people involved in accidents that result in foreign objects being embedded in their brain. Consider the story about a man who had had three sewing needles stuck in his brain for 29 years. Metal is quite a bit denser than brain tissue, and 29 years is a long time. If the idea of something rising like bubbles in the brain were valid, then these needles would have sunk to the base of the man’s brain over the years. However, the needles were still embedded close to the skull.
In your first sentence, you say,–The problem with this is that cells in the body don’t “rise” like bubbles in a glass of beer.
Then tell us, how do those cells that are under the brain in the fetus, rise to the top of the brain, as found in normal children, but remain underneath in children with the severest forms of dyslexia?
I believe there is no other way for those cells to rise, then as bubbles in a glass of beer. They sure can’t jump up there. I would also say, that as the cells rise at their natural rate and if correct, as the cells dominate balance, as the cells rise properly, they could very well act as a signal for the connections within the brain to begin and even act as a guide for those connections, from their points of origion, to their specific regions of the brain.
As the body has balance and cannot act without it, the body must have sleep. With that as a partial guide, the body should have a favored side in sleep, which NO ONE ELSE HAS OFFERED, as well as much that I have offered on this and other subjects and that as the fetus naturally sleeps on its favored side, which if correct, the cells spoken of will be on the opposing side, those cells have time to move to the edge of the brain and rise to the top. Nature provides. If the mother is right handed and the fetus is left handed as say the dad and the mother being right handed naturally sleeps on her favored side, that would be in direct conflict with the needs of the child, which can and in cases, will either slow or stop the ascention of the cells, for which, the fetus will probably give the mother many sleepless nights.
Now, if the mother figures out that sleeping on her normal side is not working and she turns to the opposing side and gives the fetus a chance, she may be able to have many better nites sleep and the child may turn out fine.