learning @ lightspeed · 2017-09-07 · learning @ lightspeed ©darin browne, 2010 2 the full...

Learning @

Lightspeed

The Exclusive Vision

Therapy Program You Can

Do At Home To Help You

Help Your Child Reach Their

Full Learning Potential! By Darin Browne B.Optom

Learning @ Lightspeed ©Darin Browne, 2010

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The Full Learning @ Lightspeed Program

Level 1: Pie Tin Rotations

Abduction Calisthenics

Pencil Versions

Ball Skills- Balloon Tossing

Level 2: Threading Beads Basic

List and Tap

Visual Memory Activities

Angels in The Sand

Level 3: Auditory Span

Balance Board

Ball Skills- Ball Rolling and Bouncing

Flight Plan

Dancing Chart- Coding

Level 4: Capture The Mosquitoes

Chart To Book

Body Rolls and Creeping

Picture Program

Level 5: Card Rotations

Scissor Activities

Robot In The Mirror

Cross The Road

Level 6: Chalkboard Body Map

Visual Coding and Sequencing

String Walk Marionette

Ball on A String

Level 7: Flashlight Tracing

Body Code

Beads And String

Haptic Writing


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Level 8: Chalkboard Lines and Circles

Near Far Rock

Magnet Maze

Crawling With Pattern

Level 9: Hopscotch

Flip Flops

Arrow Chart 1

Blind Man's Bluff

Level 10: Arrow Chart 2

Morse Listening And Drawing

Near Far Rock 2

I Went To The Shops

Finger Chart

Level 11: Human GPS

Saccadics

Matchstick Manipulations

Estimation

Level 12: 3D Noughts And Crosses

Visual Matching Blocks

Near Fars 2 Directions

Flashcards

Level 13: Battleships

Spelling With Touch and Visualization

Word Lists

Level 14: XO Hand Control

Secret Message

Septum Reading

Spelling Continued

Level 15: Coding

Pursuit Reading

Word Rotations

Spelling Continued

Level 16: b,d,p,q Chart

Shadow Reading

Peripheral Card

Lifesaver Card


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Learning @

Lightspeed

Level 1 Therapy

Manual

By Dr Darin Browne


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This should only take 1 minutes per eye maximum

PURPOSE: To break down the muscle tone in the eye muscles by forcing and stretching them, giving them maximum flexibility.

EQUIPMENT: Eye patch, Paddle pop stick target.(sticker in the end of a stick)

METHOD:

1. Cover one eye with a patch (or a spoon if no patch is available) 2. Starting in the center (straight ahead position), move the target as far as the

eye will stretch towards the ear. When the end point is reached, and the target no longer seen, encourage the patient to stretch and see even further. This may

cause some discomfort, but that's OK, because we really want to stretch the muscles as far as possible.

3. Repeat the above towards the nose, up as high as possible and down as low as possible. Do the same for diagonals (making the shape of the Union Jack),

each time stretching the eye muscles as far as possible. 4. Compare the two eyes range and discomfort, and see if they are similar. If

one eye is worse than the other this should be noted. And turned eyes will have less range of movement, and will be more uncomfortable.



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This exercise should take 5 minutes per session.

PURPOSE: To help develop smooth eye movement skills (pursuits) and coordinated hand movements. We are trying to separate head and eye movements.

YOU WILL NEED: Round and square pie or cake tins, eye

patch, various size balls (e.g. beads, ping pong ball, golf ball, marbles, ball bearings)

METHOD: 1.Stand comfortably with the pie tin in both hands and with eye patch on one

eye. 2.Place a marble/bead/ball in the tin and roll it around the sides of the tin. 3.Follow it with your eyes but you must keep your head and body still.

4.Reverse the direction of the marble every five rotations. 5.Vary the speed of the marble: (a) see how fast you can go without spilling it

out (b) see how slow you can go without cutting across the tin 6.Hold the tin in different positions while keeping your eyes focused on it, e.g. to the right, left closer, further out, higher, lower.

7.Vary the size of the tin and the ball to make the process more complicated. 8.Try moving the circular pie tin in a circle with your arms while still rolling the

marble in it as in previous steps. Remember to keep your eyes on the marble at all times. 9.Try the same with a square tin (i.e. Move in a square pattern by holding

opposite sides of the tin). 10.While watching the ball, try to see other things in the room. Try walking

around 1 the room and continue to watch the ball. 11.Repeat with the other eye.

ASPECTS TO EMPHASISE: 1.Be aware of rotation of wrists (Feel the motion)

2.Be aware of looking at the balls. 3.How is it different with different combinations of balls and tins.

4.Be aware of the rest of the room. 5. Remember, the eyes move BUT THE HEAD AND BODY MUST REMAIN STILL!

Pie Tin Rotations


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This exercise should take 5 minutes per session.

MATERIAL:

A balloon OBJECTIVES:

This activity enhances: fine and gross motor.

This is designed to be fun, but is also training a variety of gross motor functions

at the same time.

LESSON:

1. Give each child a balloon, and have

them keep the balloon off the ground using their hands. 2. Next, do the same thing, but they are allowed to use hands and feet.

3. Next step is to keep the balloon off the ground using hands and feet alternately.

4. Add in 2 balloons, so they have to keep both of the balloons off the

ground. Then add in 3 balloons, then 4. Time the result and see if they can improve during the week.

VARIATION:

Give the children a sequence of body parts to keep the balloon off the ground with. You may include right/left arm/leg, head, elbows, knees, nose, etc.

Ball Skills Balloon Tossing


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This exercise should take 2 minutes per session. PURPOSE: To learn to converge (cross) and diverge (un-cross) the eyes quickly and easily

and to shift the fixation from one target to the other.

YOU WILL NEED: 2 pencils, or paddle-pop stick targets, different colours

PROCEDURE:

1. The parent and the child sit facing each other. Slowly move ONE pencil toward and away from the child's nose. The child must keep the target SINGLE AND CLEAR. Change directions when they says it is blurry or 'two' (double), and then

have them report when it becomes single or clear again. The goal is to keep it single and clear to a point approximately 5 centimeters (2 inches) from the

nose.

2. Using TWO pencils, hold one pencil closer to the child's nose and the other about 30 centimeters (12 inches) behind the first. Ask the child to look at the closer pencil so that it becomes single and clear and be aware of the second

pencil. "While you are looking at the first pencil, how many of the other pencil do you see?" If both eyes are working correctly together, the child will see two.

3. Then have the child look at the further pencil and be aware of the closer one. Again try to get them to see two of the closer pencil while looking at the further

one. The goal of this exercise is to make the jumps between the two targets accurately and smoothly with no other fixations in between. You may use the

Rhythm Tape and advise the child to jump from one pencil to the other each time they hear the beat.

4. Hold the two pencils as before with one closer than the other. Move the closer pencil slowly toward the further pencil. Remind the child to keep their eyes on

the moving pencil at all times but to be aware of the other pencil also. After moving the pencil back and forth, ask the child what is happening to the stationary pencil while their eyes are looking at the moving pencil. If both eyes

are 'on', the stationary pencil will appear double. The closer the moving pencil comes to the stationary pencil, the closer together the doubled pencil moves. It

appears as one pencil when the moving pencil reaches it. The opposite occurs when the moving pencil goes away from the stationary pencil. The goal is to move the eyes in and out smoothly and easily.

Pencil Versions


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This Final Exercise is worth doing, even if your child knows all the letters…

Let me say first of all, it is the most effective way I have ever seen of learning the letters of the Alphabet, so if you are unsure as to whether your child knows all of his or her letters, then this is a MUST DO for you.

However, even if the child knows their letters, it is a fun, interesting and

profitable exercise, linking gross motor, coding and letter shapes. Even if your child KNOWS ALL THE LETTERS, they will still benefit from doing this activity,

and it gives them a feeling of accomplishment when they have completed it. I know that this will extend your time per day, but it may be well worth doing it

anyway.

So, I would encourage you to include this fabulous technique in with your therapy session, and especially to make it fun and lighthearted. Teach your child the letters in one or two sessions, then move on to spelling out code words, etc.


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This should only take 10 minutes per session

MATERIAL: Body Alphabet Chart

OBJECTIVE:

This is the most effective method I have ever seen for teaching letter to young children. It's fun, it's very

interactive and it really makes the letter shaped “stick in their brains!”

However, even for older children who know their letters well, it can be a fun and useful activity. Is is a great way of helping children to process a number of

things simultaneously, and it can be used in all sorts of games later on.

So, even if your child is a bit older and knows their letters, I would encourage you to do this activity anyway. It is an “optional extra”, but it's fun and will certainly not damage them, so why not give it a go! Remember, we don't want

to leave ANY STONE UNTURNED when it comes to helping your child and their learning.

However, in an older child you can probably simplify the method, but only if you are sure that they know the letter. If their knowledge of letters is good, just

quickly breeze through the process and teach the physical shapes.

1. The child is to imitate the movement of the demonstrator (parent) and transfer the knowledge of the form to the symbol of the alphabet. Start with the letter X.

2. After the child has made the X 5 times and repeated the name of the letter, make the X on the chalkboard or paper, saying "I want you to go to

the board/paper and using your pointer finger, erase the X, starting on the top (left), and draw your finger down on the chalk mark."

3. Next, play the game of FREEZE. When the demonstrator blows the whistle

and says X, the child must freeze in the form of an X. Freeze is repeated 5 times.

4. The same procedure is repeated for the y and the t. This constitutes the first lesson.

Body Alphabet


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RATE OF LEARNING

1. Preschool: After the initial lesson, one new letter per day can be taught.

2. Kindergarten: Teach 3 letters per day for 3 days. Practice the 9 letters, until they are mastered for 3 days. Continue with 3 letters per lesson, until the alphabet has been mastered.

3. GRADE 1 & 2: 3 letters per day for 9 days.

4. GRADE 3 & 4: 6 letters per day for 5 days.

5. GRADE 5+.. 26 letters can be taught in one lesson, while the posters are hung for reference at the front of the class.

SUGGESTED SEQUENCE

1 x-y-t

2 c-l-n 3 o-r-s

4 e-i-j 5 k-m-z 6 f-g-q

7 p-u-w 8 a-b-h

9 a-d-v FORMING WORDS

After 9 letters have been mastered, introduce words. For example, ask the child

to form the word “cat.” For older kids, ask them to act out words to other family members, so that they

can send coded message to one another.

This entire process need to be fun and interactive, so please relax and enjoy the process. This will take longer than the allotted 5 minutes, but if approached properly the child will enjoy it and benefit from it.


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Darin's Body Alphabet


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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14


1 min

Pie Tin Rotations

5 min

Ball Skills-Balloon Toss

5 min

Pencil Versions

2 min

Body Alphabet

10 min

Learning @ Lightspeed Record Sheet – Level 1


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Learning @

Lightspeed

Level 2

Therapy Manual By Darin Browne (B.Optom)


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This exercise should take 5 minutes per session (do one activity per day, not all of them!).

OBJECTIVES:

This activity enhances: the child's visual memory, using a series

of activities designed to stimulate visualization or “picturing in the mind.” In each of these games always say to the child, “make a photo (or snap shot) in your head.”

ACTIVITIES:

A.TRAY OF HOUSEHOLD ITEMS:

1.Show the child a selection of objects (start with, sat, 3-4) for 5

seconds, saying “make a photograph in your head”. Cover the objects, and ask the child to describe, not simply list, the objects.

2.Then try removing an item and revealing the remaining ones and get the child to recall the one removed, again describing it in detail. To get the child truly

visualizing, the MUST be able to accurately describe the objects, so for example, the item is not a pen, but a blue pen with white writing and a red grip.

3.Start with only a few items and increase them as they get better. The more the better, and you can have up to 10 or 15 if the child can handle it.

B. TOOTHPICK PATTERNS:

1.Make a pattern with 4 toothpicks or matches. Ask the child to look at it carefully for 5 seconds. Cover the pattern and allow the child to reproduce from memory with their own toothpicks. Again, we need the child visualizing, so don't

use recognizable shapes such a square, triangle or cross, but use odd shapes where possible. say, “make a photograph in your head.”

2.Then uncover your pattern and allow the child to make corrections to their

pattern.

3.Again start with simple patterns and make them harder as they improve. You

can use as many sticks as you want, but

C. USING MEMORY GAME (available from toy stores):

This is an excellent and really fun to improve visual memory! This can be played by the whole family as well (If unable to obtain this game, a pack of ordinary

cards can be substituted: works just as well!).

1.Place 10 pairs of picture cards on the table face down. Take turns to pick up

Visual Memory Activities


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two cards and try to find a matching pair. As you pick up two cards, get the child to look at them carefully before you turn them face down again and to take

careful note as to where you put them.

2.The child then picks up two cards and carefully looks at them taking

careful note where they are put back.

3.The aim is to pick up two cards exactly the same. If the child (or you) succeeds in this, you need to place the matched pairs next to yourself or the

child for scoring at the end of the game. D. FIND A PICTURE:

(A)Open a small picture book or story book to a particular page. Have the child

look at it for a few seconds. Close the book and ask the child to find the page using their visual memory.

(B) Show the child a card and shuffle them and get the child to find it again.

(C) Show the child a number of pictures in a sequence, starting with 4 cards.

Shuffle pictures in a pack and get the child identify the pictures IN ORDER. E. EXERCISES TO IMPROVE VISUAL-SEQUENTIAL MEMORY

PURPOSE: Visual-sequential memory involves being able to hold a mental picture of a sequence of letters, numbers, words, objects or shapes etc.

A.VISUALISING PREVIOUS EVENTS: The child describes in detail:

1. What they had for breakfast that morning. For example, got the bowl, got out the cereal, poured it in the bowl, added milk, got my spoon,

ate, etc.

2. What they did before going to bed the night before.

3. How they get to school. That is, when they leave home, they turn first

left walk up the street. Then stop at an intersection and turn right, etc. B.REMEMBERING SEQUENCES:

(a)Make a row of different coins, plastic animals, etc. Then mix up the

order and ask the child to place them in the original order. (b) Draw a row of objects, e.g. a mixture of triangles, circles, numbers,

even letters all mixed up together. Cover and then get the child to draw then on their sheet of paper in the correct order, get the child then to

look at your drawing to see if they were correct and re-draw in the


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rrect order if they were wrong. Start with a few shapes and increase the difficulty as the child impro.

OBJECTIVES:

This activity enhances: Coordination between both sides of the brain and the body,

motor skills. This is not really about arms and legs, it i about coordination both sides of

the brain simultaneously. LESSON:

1. The child lies on the floor on his/her back with his/her arms at the side and feet

together. Essentially, we are going to do “star jumps” lying on the floor.

2. The child is encouraged to move both arms up and out until they are straight up by their ears. Then bring them back again

to the side. Make sure that the child’s arms touch the floor throughout the movement. The arms need to move together at the same pace.

3. Next the child is then encouraged to move feet wide apart yet keeping heels on the floor. Again, the legs must move together at the same pace.

4. The parent may point while giving sequence of instruction such as:

a) Just this arm -Teacher points to the right arm and child will move just the right arm. Same for the left arm. b) Just leg –Child does likewise with legs as instructed by the teacher.

c) Both arms –child does with both arms. d) Both legs –child does with both legs.

e) Only right arm and right leg or only left arm and left leg. f) Both arms and both legs. g) Alternate left and right –the child moves his right arm while moving his left

leg.

NOTE: The main objective is that ALL MOVEMENT happens SIMULTANEOUSLY, not one portion at a time. This equates to the child linking both sides of the brain so they work simultaneously

VARIATION:

1. Listen and move: Give specified sounds for each movement. For example, make beep sound to move the right arm and leg, and a ring sound

to move the left arm and leg and a buzzer sound to move both arms and legs.

2. Use a metronome or ticking clock, so that movement is completed in a given

number of beats.

Angels In The Sand


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This exercise should take 5 minutes per session. OBJECTIVES: This activity enhances: Auditory Focus, Discrimination, Memory

LESSON: This exercise should take 5 minutes per session. 1. Tap on the table or your lap several times using a specific rhythm:

● ● ● ●

2. Instruct the child to listen, and then repeat the tapping pattern exactly the way he/she heard it (i.e. as per number of taps, volume, rhythm and timing).

If he/she has difficulty, tap on his/her hand or knee so that the student feels the taps as they attempt to repeat your pattern.

3. When using a hard surface, vary the sound by tapping loudly, softly, slowly, rapidly and so on.

4. When using a hard surface, vary the sound by tapping loudly, softly, slowly, rapidly and so on.

5. Next, vary the rhythm (two slow, then tree fast, etc.)

● ● ● ● ●

VARIATION:

When the student can successfully follow the pattern vary both the rhythm and the volume, for example: (three slow and soft, two fast and loud)

● ● ● ● ●

When the student can successfully follow the pattern, have him/her turn around so

they cannot see the teacher or what they are doing.

Listen And Tap


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This exercise should take 5 minutes per session. MATERIAL: Beads of various sizes and shapes, and cord to thread them on, of various sizes and shapes.

OBJECTIVES: To promote and train fine motor activities of the fingers, as well as some sequencing. LESSON:

Gives your child a cord, and a selection of beads. The child must then take beads one by one and place them on the cord. Try to give a variety of sizes and shapes, because smaller beads demand higher fine motor control.

VARIATION: Offer a variety of coloured beads, and give them a set sequence of beads to be placed on the cord. For example, red-blue-red-blue. Increase the complexity of the sequence, say red-blue-green-white, repeated. Try it also with large-small-small-large or some other size sequence. Give them a sequence of colours to place on the string, starting with 4 colours, but say them only once. The child must REMEMBER the sequence and place the beads in the correct order.

Threading Beads Basic


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MATERIAL:

Body Alphabet Chart (from the previous Level's activities)

This activity is allowed time to continue if the child is struggling to learn all of the letters in the allotted time. If the child is comfortable with letters and knows

them all well, you may skip this activity.

However, I would strongly urge you to carefully check and make sure they are very good at it, because if you skip this it can come back to haunt you in the future!

The instructions are in the 1st Level Manual, but I enclose the Alphabet below.

Body Alphabet Revisited


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Darin's Body Alphabet


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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Visual Memory

Activities

5 min

Angels In The Sand

5 min

Listen and Tap

5 min

Threading Beads Basic

5 min

Body Alphabet

10 min

Learning @ Lightspeed Record Sheet – Level 2

learning @ lightspeed · 2017-09-07 · learning @ lightspeed ©darin browne, 2010 2 the full...

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