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This short article is contributed by Ms Esther Yap and Ms Siti Rohanis. Both are speech language therapists based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The authors have recently carried out a 2-week study investigating the efficacy of slam poetry as a strategy to improve and increase word recognition in 10 young children who are reluctant or poor readers and speak very little English. The findings of the study have been reported and presented by Ms Pauline T.C. Poh, a reading therapist at the LDcentre, Singapore, at the recent Third International Conference on the Arts for Early Childhood Education held at the National Institute of Education campus, Singapore, June 1-3, 2009.

What is our definition of slam poetry?

Many genres of poetry have employed the use of the spoken word to convey meaning of their messages. However, there is no genre of poetry other than that which is known as slam poetry relies very heavily on vocal delivery, whose poetic style is found in hip-hop music and has drawn heavily on the tradition of dub poetry (Roberts, 2006) - a rhythm and politicized genre belonging to the blacks and particularly West Indian culture - as well as using traditional theatric devices including shifting voices and tones, while others may recite an entire poem in an ironic monotone (Cavallari, 2003). A relatively recent movement within the changing world of poetry, slam poetry has been credited to an American poet, Marc Smith, who started the poetry slam at the Get Me High Lounge in Chicago, US, in November 1984. He is also known as the founder of the Poetry Slam (Cavallari, 2003; also see Smith, 1984, at http://marckellysmith.com/#/history/). Slam poetry revolves around a strong and distinct vocal presentation, thereby lending itself to a more rhythmic, almost musical creation. The forum in which these poets wrote and present their work is a competitive performance called a poetry slam (Ellik, 2000).

Special acknowledgement:

The two contributors of this article wish to thank Ms Pauline Poh for taking an interest to write on the findings based on this quasi-experimental study done in KL, Malaysia. 

References:

Cavallari, D. (2003). What is slam poetry? Retrieved on May 17, 2009, from http://www.weegeek.com/what-is-a-poetry-slam.htm.

Ellik, C. (2000). Dead cat bounce. Berkeley, CA: The Author.

Roberts, C. (2006). Heavy words lightly thrown: The resaon behind rhyme. Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press. 

Smith, M.K. (1984). Poetry slam. Retrieved on May 20, 2009, from http://marckellysmith.com/#/history/.

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This article is co-authored by Ms Esther Yap, a speech-language therapist of 20 years’ experience based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Dr Noel K.H. Chia, a board certified educational therapist of also 20 years’ experience based in Singapore.

The term sensory processing disorders is a syndrome of composite neural transmission inconsistency and/or poor integration of sensory information resulting in neurological disorganisation affecting afferent and efferent neural processes resulting in one or more of three primary subtype categories: (1) sensory responsivity disorders (also known as sensory modulation disorders), which can be further divided into sensory hyper-responsivity disorder, sensory hypo-responsivity disorder, and sensory indulgence disorder; (2) sensory discrimination disorder; and (3) sensory-motor disorders, which can be further divided into postural-motor disorder and developmental motor coordination disorder, also known as dyspraxia.

Sensory responsivity disorder (SRD) concerns about the response of the nervous system to the external stimuli in terms of too much (hyper-responsivity) or too little (hypo-responsivity) reaction relative to the external stimuli. Hence, the first two secondary subtypes are sensory hyper-responsivity disorder and sensory hypo-responsivity disorder, respectively. A third secondary subtype is the sensory indulgence disorder in which the person continuously seeks and craves for an unusually or intensively high level of stimulation in obtain more sensory input to satisfy his/her sensory indulgence.

Sensory dsicrimination disorder (SDD) concerns the disability to distinguish one specific input from another and such a person often encounters the challenge of distinguishing and categorising various attributes about the physical environment (Delaney, 2008).

Sensory-motor disorders (SMD) concerns disability in processing and/or integrating movement and somatic information resulting in somatosensory-motor interference. According to Delaney (2008), there are two secondary subtypes of SMD: (1) postural-motor disorder; and (2) developmental motor coordination disorder or dyspraxia. The former subtype refers to an individual’s difficulty in maintaining appropriate somatic postures for any given motoric activity and/or sedentary activity. The individual would display poor or low muscle tone and feel fatigued easily. The latter concerns breakdown in any of the three main steps in praxis (i.e., the complex procedure of steps the brain and the body collaborate to see that some expected task is done properly and correctly): ideation, i.e., knowing what to do and how to go about doing it; perceptuo-motor planning, i.e., determining how to perform a task through constant revision and accommodation of new information; and execution, i.e., to act on the idea and the perceptuo-motor planning that the brain has processed.

Chia (2009) argued that sensory processing disorders also play an important part in causing the following related deficits: (1) deficits in auditory processing which can be either aural or otic (to hear) processing, e.g., dysphonesia, or oral (to talk) processing, e.g., dysphonia; (2) deficits in visual or opto- (to see) processing, e.g., dyseidesia; (3) deficits in gustatory processing (to taste), i.e., dysgeusia; (4) deficits in olfactory (to smell) processing, i.e., dysosmia; (5) deficits in haptic (to touch) processing, i.e., dysesthesia; and (6) deficits in taxic or kinetic (to move) processing, e.g., dystaxia and dysnemkinesia. These six subtypes of sensory processing deficits are closely associated with the sensory-motor disorders.

How to help children with sensory processing disorders? It is best to seek professional help as soon as the parents realize that their children display symptoms typical of the SPDs. Professionals such as occupational therapists, speech-language therapists, educational therapists and special needs therapists trained to deal with sensory processing issues will be best people to approach for help and advice. Accurate diagnosis and identification of the sensory processing challenges and implementation of an early intervention programme play an essential part to ensure better prognosis for such children.

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The guest contributors of this article are Dr Noel Chia Kok Hwee and Mdm Betty Kuan Fui Ha. Dr Chia is a board-certified educational therapist registered with the Association of Educational Therapists, USA, and he also holds a board-certification in special education as well as a diplomate of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals. He is also a professional counsellor registered with the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors. Mdm Kuan is a board-certified dialogic-diagnostic art therapist registered with the International Association of Counselors & Therapists, USA, and a qualified counsellor.  

According to Webber and Plotts (2008), the use of classification systems in the behavioral sciences has always been controversial because of the imperfections inherent in the current systems and the lack of empirical precision in developing such a system (see also Forness, 2005; Kaufman, 2005; Taylor, 1997). However, it can help facilitate the understanding, treatment, and possibility the prevention of some emotional-behavioral disorders (EBDs). Hence, in the fields of special education, educational counselling and educational therapy, defining EBDs as a group of disorders is most useful for the purposes of determining its prevalence, providing appropriate services, conducting and communicating research on it, and for determining probable intervention outcomes (Webber & Plotts, 2008). In addition, the classification of EBDs can form the key to understanding large groups of events, objects, or phenomena related to feelings, emotions and behaviors, and provides a means of communication among professionals by defining the rules by which psychological constructs such as emotional disturbance are defined (Quay, 1986).

We would use either of the terms - emotional and behavioral disturbances or emotional-behavioral disorders interchangeably - and define EBDs as a syndrome of composite maladaptive behaviors (Ullman & Krasner, cited in Russ, 1974) of internalising and/or externalising nature and can be best expressed in terms of bio-physical, bio-ecological, psycho-dynamic and cognitive-behavioral disturbances (Webber & Plotts, 2008), resulting in the inability to perform the following activities: (i) “to learn at a rate commensurate with intellectual, sensory-motor and physical development” (Haring, 1963, p.291); (ii) to “adapt to reasonable requirements of social regulation and convention” (Blackham, 1967, p.73) so as “to establish and maintain adequate social relationships” (Haring, 1963, p.291); (iii) to respond appropriately to activities of daily living (Blackham, 1967) in how events are construed, i.e., how an individual thinks, believes, expects, attends to - in short, his/her mental life - that influences how he/she behaves (Haaga & Davison, 1991; Rosenhan & Seligman, 1989) or to perceive reality clearly or meet the ordinary demands of the various ecosystems (Blackham, 1967; Graubard, 1973); and lastly, in addition, (iv) display a variety of excessive, chronic, deviant behaviors ranging from hyperactive, impulsive and aggressive to depressive and withdrawal acts (Haring, 1963) that “violate the perceiver’s expectations of appropriateness and that the perceiver wishes to see stopped” (Graubard, 1973, p.246).

In summary, the EBDs can be categorized into four behavioral profiles (Webber & Plotts, 2008) as follow: (1) conduct disorder that is characterized by aggressive, hostile and contentious behavioral traits (Quay et al., 1966, p.297); (2) personality problem as characterized by anxiety, withdrawal and introvertive behavioral traits (Quay et al., 1966, p.297); (3) a less distinctive profile of inadequacy-immaturity that involves pre-occupation, lacking interest in or awareness of the environment, sluggishness, laziness, day-dreaming, passivity and other autistic-like traits (Quay et al., 1966, p.298); and (4) deviant behavioral traits that closely approximate social maladjustment (Quay, 1972, 1975) and are known as socialized delinquency. This fourth behavioral profile relates to participation in cultural sub-groups (or gangs) that break rules or laws, play truancy, shop-lifting or stealing, vandalism against public property, violate curfew.

These four behavioral profiles can easily be classified into the internalizing behaviors (i.e., personality problem and inadequacy-immaturity) and externalizing behaviors (i.e., conduct disorder amd socialized delinquency) as identified in many research studies on EBDs (e.g., Kaufman et al., 1979; Quay et al., 1966; Webber & Plotts, 2008). 

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The guest writer of this feature article is Dr Noel K.H. Chia, a board-certified educational therapist with the Association of Educational Therapists and a registered professional counsellor with the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors.   

In 2008, the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) has recommended that children with dyslexia who manifest handwriting problems should be taught to write in continuous cursive style rather than learning to write in “print” before moving on to “joined up” handwriting at a later stage. According to the BDA, this is because for these children, learning two styles of handwriting - print and joined-up - can add an extra layer of difficulty and cause confusion. As a result, “the most widely recommended handwriting style is called continuous cursive. Its most significant feature is that each letter is formed without taking the pencil off the paper - and consequently, each word is formed in one, flowing movement” (BDA, 2008, p.1).

Dyslexia is considered one of the many literacy disorders (Manzo & Manzo, 1993), which also include dysgraphia, dysnomia, hyperlexia and alexia, its underlying problem concerns phonological processing deficiency which affects reading and spelling processes - both are specific literacy skills. Reading is a cognitive process involving decoding of words for word recognition (silent reading) and word expression (oral reading) so that meaning can be established and comprehension is achieved. On the other hand, spelling is part of transcription which in turn is a part of the writing process, which involves composition, transcription and handwriting (Chia, 1999).

Chia (1999) has argued that transcription and handwriting are two different forms of motor skills where the former is psychomotor and the latter, graphomotor. The term psychomotor means “of or related to movement or muscular activity associated with mental processes, especially affects” (see www.dictionary.com) while graphomotor means “of movements used in writing” (see www.dictionary.com). Later, Chia (2005) added imagination into the writing process without which “composition cannot occur, and without composition, transcription canot take place” (Chia, 2005, p.1).

“Transcription is a psychomotor skill involving spelling, legibility, punctuation, capitalization,and indenting (or paragraphing)” (Chia, 1999,p.5). It overlaps with handwriting which is “a graphomotor skill … involving memory of letter formations, spelling, grammar, context and more” (Barchowsky, 2008, p.1). Hence, spelling appears in both transcription and handwriting.

The term penmanship concerns an instructional program that formally introduces motor control and motor learning skills which are essential for the development of good handwriting in order for proper transcription to take place (see Willingham, 1998). In short, penmanship is handwriting instruction.

Good penmanship can help a child with dyslexia to develop good visuospatial-motor coordination so that along the way as the child develops good handwriting habits, he/she is also picking up the salient features of letters, and in doing so, helps to reduce letter reversals (e.g., “b” and “d”, “p” and “q”), inversion of letters (e.g., “m” and “w”, “n” and “u”), omissions of letters (e.g., “s” is missing from the word shot and becomes hot), substitutions of letters (e.g., the “o” in son is replaced with “u” to become sun), insertion of letters (e.g., “r” is inserted into ham to become harm), etc.  

It is important at this point to be aware that a child with handwriting problems does not mean he/she has dyslexia (or dysgraphia or even dyspraxia). Poor teaching/learning of letter formation that results in untidy handwriting, sometimes known as cacographia, is not a disorder of handwriting. A real disorder of handwriting can be a result of graphomotor skill deficiency and proper assessment is needed to diagnose the issue so that appropriate intervention is implemented to rectify the problem.

Copyright © 2009 LSES. All rights reserved. see Disclaimer  

This article is contributed by Dr Noel K.H. Chia, a board-certified educational therapist (AET, USA) and registered professional counselor (AIPC, Australia). He is a regular guest writer at the invitation of the LSESnet.com for its web blog. 

“The results of our psycho-educational assessment suggest that you child has …”

Autism spectrum disorder … low IQ … dyslexia … mental retardation or any other developmental or learning disorder. What happens when a child is identified to have some kind of a life-long disability? Often the diagnostician (e.g., psychologist or therapist in special needs) just states it matter-of-factly to the parents, who are lost completely how to respond to the devastating news. it is a tremendous blow to these parents and very little is done to help them. The next thing they hear is “you may want to delay one year before you register your child for Primary 1″ and then refer them to some relevant support group for a further follow-up or remedial learning centre for their newly diagnosed special needs child to undergo an intervention programme.

While the psycho-educational diagnosis helps to clarify things for most parents (or families), the real struggle for them, of coming to terms with the fact that their child with special needs would never be normal and that the challenging issues would never go away, would probably take them a lifetime to adapt or adjust to. More can be done to understand and help these parents cope with the diagnosis of their child with special needs. Counseling comes in but its focus should be more on helping the parents to understand and know how to cope with the identified disorder as well as where to seek special needs services available for their child.

In most instances, the immediate reactions from the parents are more or less similar to those seen experiencing bereavement or undergoing the process of mourning. Shock and disbelief being written on the faces of these parents, especially mothers (I have noticed most fathers try to keep a straight face), a sense of unexplainable numbness encompasses them and they feel as if they are totally cut off from the rest of the world. It is also at that moment many parents feel most difficult to accept the results of the diagnosis. They would ask repeatedly if there could be some mistake in the assessment or reject the results because “that is NOT true of my child. I know my child better than you. You saw him only once during the assessment, but I am with him/her everyday. He/She’s certainly smarter than you know.”

As a result, most diagnosticians would rather keep their conference with parents short and simple. The reason is often to let these parents a moment of quiet as well as a chance to recover or let them compose their feelings after receiving the news.

Next, there is often a period of denial. This is a way of coping with the anxiety, fear and stress … and for some, acting normally as if nothing has happened. It is also their need to stave off the unfortunate reality of their plight rather than on their child’s needs. Then there are other parents who appear withdrawn (i.e., they do not wish to discuss or talk about their special needs child) or even become over-protective of their children. This is a “dangerous” phase, I feel, as an early intervention for the child is essential to have a good prognosis of the condition.

Anger and guilt soon follow suit. I have encountered parents (or even an entire family including grandparents, in-laws, relatives …) coming to see me seeking a second or third opinion after rejecting an earlier diagnosis. Anger is manifested through heated words uttered by the parents either at each other or being directed at the professional whom they have sought for a re-assessment. The salient feeling of guilt would creep in, especially for the mother who feels it is her responsibility that she had not done right or enough during her pregnancy. it is at this phase that most parents, I feel, are most vulnerable. They begin to seek some kind of miraculous cure through unproven complementary and alternative treatments which are often costly and time-consuming with no guaranteed improvement.

Next, the parents turn to sadness and despair, wondering what they should do and how they are to cope with their child. This is also a very sensitive phase because such feelings of sadness may precipitate a serious depression - depression, together with profound misery, pessimism and worthlessness, loss of appetite, sleep disturbance and a failure to experience pleasure in activities that are usually enjoyable.

Finally, most parents would accept the fact that their child is special, come to terms with the diagnosis, and become pro-activie to seek practical ways of helping their child and/or coping with the situation. This is also the time when two parents can develop a special intimacy between themselves as they attempt to comprehend their child’s challenging issues in a unique way, creating a special relationship with him or her. Yet, I have also encountered several cases when one spouse has chosen to resolve the problem by walking out of the family, leaving the other spouse to cope with the special needs child. Hence, given the stresses of parenting a special needs child, it is small wonder that I have heard from others that having such a child either makes or breaks a marriage.

For parents who have other normal children, it is important to take note of these children, too. There are cases I have seen when some siblings experience emotional adjustment problems. Older siblings are often expected to take care of their younger sibling with special needs and that becomes an emotional burden for them. Parents are advised never to overburden their other children with responsibility as they, too, have their own needs and time for their activities as they grow and develop.

As children with special needs grow older, their parents should take time and effort to explain to them their condition and challenging issues that come with it. This is done so only if these children can understand their problems. Joining a support group and participating in the activities it organizes would be most helpful to both parents and their children with special needs as well as the other siblings. They do not have to be alone dealing with their problems. They can meet others with similar problems, share interests, exchange new ideas and learn about latest developments in special needs education and services. In this way, not only the parents work to make their world a better place to live, but also for their special needs children.

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