 |
| Photo courtesy of the Columbia Missourian |
Not only did my client take charge of that piece of clay, he was also fully in charge of this Davis Young Learner's Reading Program that we were venturing upon.
At this point in the program my plan was to be working on Alphabet Mastery, but since I wasn't in charge here I had to just try and keep up!
Once he'd sufficiently formed the clay ball he moved on to shape another; this one a bit bigger. Look closely at the first picture and you'll notice he's placing clay on the desk. Slowly, over time, the clay balls began to line up. Although in which direction we were headed, I still had no inkling!
An Out Of This World Experience
When he started asking questions about Jupiter, Saturn's rings and the planets nearest to Earth my view of the planetary direction we were traveling began to open! ...which planet had the red rings? ...which planet had the most moons?
We traveled into the planetary world some more and I did my best to answer his questions along the way. You know, I was totally prepared to deliver a Davis Young Learner's Reading Program, but as an astronomy expert, I had not done my homework!
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars ... eventually we had a discussion about Pluto and the discovery it was a dwarf planet.
None of this was actually about terrestrial planets, moons, the rings of Saturn or clay balls, though. No. This five-year-old was using his personal approach of getting rid of disorientation. Conquering confusion. Not confusion about the planets, either; about conquering the confusion surrounding language.
Getting To The Core Of The Matter
As his questioning moved on he nonchalantly reached over to pick up the clay-V from his alphabet still on the desk. Then he allowed the letter-V to straddle oh, so carefully the second 'planet' in his solar system. As that task was completed his energy waned.
"No, I'm not tired," were his exact words when I questioned if he needed a break.
Now I knew what all of this had been about.
It was about the letter-V; V, a symbol for the sound /vvv/.
/Vvv/, as in the beginning sound of the word Venus.
V
Mission To Worlds Beyond!
As a Davis Facilitator I help clients discover what triggers their disorientation; what causes them to lose focus. Sometimes our missions travel to the far regions of the mind and worlds never before explored! Often, we're not the one in charge. Those can be the best kind of quests!
 |
| This astronomical brain work can be utterly EXHAUSTING! |
When I again asked if he needed to rest here's what happened: his head bobbled, his body leaned to the right, his eyes fluttered. I asked if he'd like to lie down. Flash! He was instantly ASLEEP!
I finished the session answering the final questions for the reporter and photographer (who did a great job watching this young genius work!)
For the next hour, in that exact spot, he slept. My attempts to help him lie down were met with resistance, so I left him to sleep there in that chair.
One last thing: Look at the picture of him sleeping. See the largest figure next to the planets, near the bottom right corner of the picture? Later he told me that's an astronaut out there conquering LETTER V!
For Additional Information
Additional information on the sound of /v/:
In English, V is unusual in that it has not traditionally been doubled to indicate a short vowel, the way for example P is doubled to indicate the difference between 'super' and 'supper'. However, that is changing with newly coined words, such as 'divvy up' and 'skivvies'. --From Wikipedia.
More information about the Davis Young Learner's Reading Program visit: http://www.dyslexia.com/davisreading.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment