Brain Health - Visual Relationships in Young Children

Writing can be difficult for some children

Children are faced with another form of spatial connection in the brain when they start to read and write. It is not uncommon for them to mix 'b' and 'd', 'p' and 'q', 'was' and 'saw'.

At these times children need patience and help from parents and teachers if having difficulty with these concepts. 'S' is another letter often written backwards or confused with 'z' while '2' and '5' are often mixed up.

Difficulty with Spatial Relations
Difficulty with spatial relations can be carried into adult life. I came across a lady many years ago who was always having car accidents because she couldn't work out where she was on the road in relation to other cars. Her children were the same. She came to me for painting lessons. She also had difficulty concentration and understanding instructions. Obviously her brain was not balanced.

Telling the Time
Anyone having difficulty with spatial relations has a part of their brain that is not working quite right. Other areas that these brain problems can show up in is that the person cannot understand the grammar of their language, they just can't understand logic or they find reading an old fashioned clock with the hands just too difficult.

Learning the Basics
In my view, the first three grades of schooling are the most important. It is here that the child gets their basic training on which the rests of their schooling. The education of children has gone backwards since the abolition of specialist teachers for the Infant classes. (Spoken by an specially trained Infant Teacher.)

Reading
Reading and writing are two different methods. The act of reading can be very difficult for some children whose brain is not 'wired' quite right. Reading is a perceptual activity. It requires the recognition of words, letters and numbers. It requires that you have the memory of the written symbol somewhere accessible in your brain.

Writing
Writing is an intentional activity. It also involves kinesthetic perception which is the ability of the arm, hand and fingers to connect with the pencil and paper and to be able to transfer thoughts from the mind to the paper. These thoughts may be in the form of words or drawings.

These activities are centred in the left side of the brain.

Parts of the Brain affecting Learning

• Temporal lobe processes sound and language
• The Occipital lobe sorts out visual images
• The parietal lobe processes spatial relationships and integrated information from different senses.

It depends how well these three parts of the brain are working if you have problems or not.

If you have difficulties in any of the following -

• speaking smoothly
• writing neatly
• reading

then you may need some help to balance these areas.

Further reading:

Brain Health - Spatial Reasoning
Boosting our Glutathione Levels

Alzheimer's Disease Research

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