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'How to help my child read'


When the Arts College gets asked this question on how to help their children read, most parents think it is very difficult. Children are pretty easy going, what complicates the situation is adults who are trying to get children to do things according to their ways.

There was a powerful quote on face book the other day. There was an image of various animals including an elephant, giraffe, monkey, octopus and lion. They were 'students' in the image of a safari school. The teacher said that in order for them to pass the exam they had to all climb the tree........

During the case studies in the 13 years of research, the Arts College found that many teachers and parents do the exact same thing with children. No one is ever aware that they are doing it, because they have been taught 'one' way of doing something that they are now used to, as well as confident in. When adults can 'remember' that children learn powerfully through play and balanced thinking techniques - they can help children beyond their expectations.

When the Arts College has worked with various schools, the problem the teachers were experiencing was that the children were bored, not engaging and could not remember the information. When the Arts College asked to have a different approach by introducing very small activities into their current schedule, they would find that they would not have the problems they said they were experiencing.

What did the Arts College do?

- When children came in from their lunch breaks, a 3 minute game was introduced by counting how many times children could jump up and down within a time limit.

- Within this 3 minute space, they sang a song the children chose as a group aloud with musical instruments

- After the 3 minutes, the children did various breathing techniques. A total of 4 minutes was taken away from the lesson.

(This got the children to start to use both sides of their brain, balance any over stimulation that had been experienced from home, their previous lessons and the play ground)

When the Arts College asked what was the learning outcome of the lesson, the teacher replied to be able to read certain amount of words and understand those what those words mean.

The Arts College suggested to introduce various creative pieces alongside their lesson plan to create the book they were reading. This included:

The class was separated into groups based on the way the children learn. Each group got given a task to choose one of the following to complete the book or reading. Two groups could not do the same outcome. They could choose:

- A print out of pictures that needed to be coloured in along a timeline

- Graffiti of the words they were battling to remember

- To choose a favourite song and bring the words into the song from the book

Children were then taught techniques to create amazing graffiti techniques, learn how to do calligraphy and 3 dimension colouring in techniques with an art medium they had never tried before.

The results were a complete turn around!

When The Arts College introduced various activities, these activities stimulated the 'thinking process' of each child's brain and enhanced their strengths when working together as a team. Results had increased successfully by 80%

What the Arts College had found is teachers are under so much pressure with deadlines, which puts them under stress to not be able to teach a lesson creatively. They don't know how to adapt to each child's individual way of learning. Schools are taught the basics of the visual, audio, kinesetic and writing learner. They are not taught the other hidden senses that stimulate a child's learning or how the brain is constantly developing in left as well as right brain learning. This is very easy to understand......if you know how.

It is assumed that someone is either 'left brain' (logic - writing/kinesetic) or a 'right brain (creative - visual/audio) learner. This in our research is not the case. The Arts College found that the left and right brain needed to be stimulated simultaneously, in order for the brain to take in the lesson as well as apply it successfully. Children who were learning logically were introduced creative activities, whilst children who were learning creatively were introduced logical activities.

The Arts College found that it is very simple to identify how a child learns based on their individual thinking approach - it just needs to be introduced or taught in a simple way for teachers and parents to understand.........


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