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Educating All Kinds of Minds: a workshop with Dr. Mel Levine

By Jennifer Paige

Dr. Mel Levine recently gave a full day workshop entitled “Educating All Kinds of Minds: Making a Difference by Understanding Learning Differences” at UC Santa Barbara. He expanded on many of the ideas presented in his book A Mind At A Time and shared personal stories of success with his patients. His main assertions revolved around the idea that learning differently is not a disability and that all children can realize success when an understanding of their learning styles is applied to expand upon their strengths and address their weaknesses. To rehash his amazing presentation would be impossible. I will try, instead, to hit upon some of the key points that rang especially true with me as the mother of a child with Prader-Willi Syndrome who learns differently. The following is my interpretation of Dr. Levine’s points. For primary source info, please see A Mind At A Time.

Dr. Levine began his lecture by questioning the current state of our education system. With mandated curricula and standardized testing that have ‘teacher proofed’ our schools, Dr. Levine worries that the individual learning needs of our children are being ignored. Learning is often equated with memorization but the ability to regurgitate info does not equal an ability to understand or apply it. We have children with amazing strengths and talents who are struggling with learning because their strengths are not being utilized for their education.

A model of education that teaches children how to ask questions and then gives them the tools to find the answers may be more effective for long-term education goals. This model is based on two assumptions. First, you need to have a basic understanding of an idea to ask questions about it. Second, with our overwhelming access to computer and book resources today, is it necessary to memorize every fact? Would time be better spent memorizing the rivers in Africa or exploring info about Africa, posing questions that interest the student and then utilizing resources to answer those questions? In his words, ‘Learning about learning’ as a lifelong tool instead of memorization and multiple-choice tests.

This approach would necessitate some key changes in current educational policy.

--Broadened student assessment: Different kinds of minds will successfully demonstrate their knowledge in different ways.  Timed tests and tests requiring mainly rote knowledge can be damaging to children whose talents lie elsewhere and don’t reflect the types of skills needed in later education and careers. Choices between portfolios, presentations, projects, traditional tests, etc will allow individual children to demonstrate their knowledge in a way that they can be most successful.

--Curriculum reevaluation: No Child Left Behind curriculum standards are providing fewer learning alternatives than ever. Dr. Levine suggests, instead, a model that allows children to become an ‘expert’ in chosen areas of interest. While researching and expanding on their topics over the course of years, students can build the tools of ‘learning how to learn’ while experiencing educational success.

Dr. Levine notes the irony in the idea that as adults we value specialized minds, those who become experts in their field, while we expect children to excel in all realms of study and label them if they don’t. Is it possible that these children just have early specialization of the central nervous system and can use their interests and strengths to have a successful educational career? What happens to specialized minds until they reach an age where they are valued? What gets killed along the way under current educational approaches?

So What’s First? A Neurodevelopmental Function Profile (NFP).

Dr. Levine suggests that parents and teachers must become ‘phenomenizers,’ learning to describe the intricacies of individual children. For instance, if a child presents with a writing problem, which of the following neurodevelopmental constructs are at play in this individual child leading to the writing problem…Deficits in attention…temporal-sequential ordering…spatial ordering…memory…language…neuromotor functions, etc. Only by identifying the underlying neurodevelopmental dysfunction can you address it.

The intensity and intricacies of the NFP make them impossible to accurately describe here. For instance, construct 1, Attention, breaks down into 3 main categories with 14 components. Dr. Levine’s book will be the best source for parents and teachers wishing to explore neurodevelopmental function profiles.

Dr. Levine’s methods for identifying key neurodevelopmental variations should not be used for determinism. Just as with Gardner’s theories of multiple intelligences that have become so widely cited, plasticity is key.

Once the profile is hashed out (a huge step in the process!) What’s next?

Examples of suggestions:

When a problem arises, excuse it from a task. If spelling incorrectly is hanging a student up on being able to write a report without stress and frustrations, separate it out. Don’t risk the love of learning and writing over spelling. Write the report without regard to spelling and then schedule an hour on another day to go back and just focus on the spelling of the words. If you can remove a weak area from everything else momentarily you will not contaminate the strengths.

If a child’s weakness in motor sequencing is causing problems with cursive writing, allow them to print until the underlying motor sequencing problems have been addressed.

If weakness in long-term memory is noted, take new information and first change it (for example, from auditory to visual) and then connect it to something they already know. Utilize the last few minutes before bed to learn something. It will replay 4-5 times right before falling asleep.

You may be asking, “How about a step-by-step book on how to address every Neurodevelopmental Function? Please???” Well that’s not going to happen. Every learner is too unique and there are endless combination possibilities. What Dr. Levine offers are 20 “Intervention Templates”.

Again, please consult the book but here is a sampling of what these entail:

Strength Leverage: Taking a strength (fine motor function), finding a strategy that uses that strength (learning a musical instrument in band) to target a weak skill (social cognition).

Affinity Leverage: Taking an affinity (baseball), finding a strategy that leverages the affinity (teaching percentages using batting averages) to target a weak skill (long-term memory, higher order cognition/math skills).

Breakdown-specific tasks: Take a weakness such as attention to detail (noting the difference between + and – signs on math problems) and isolate that task (turn in a math paper where the only assignment is to note whether the problem is asking you to add or subtract).

If the ideas presented in this summary are of interest to you, I highly recommend delving into Dr. Levine’s theories on education. He is a Pediatrician, founder of the All Kinds of Minds Institute, renowned author and a skilled speaker. Further info can be found at www.allkindsofminds.com, including a calendar of his upcoming speaking engagements across the country.