Ruchi was a sweet child but quite impatient and awkward. She had lost total interest in studies because she would fail to copy down from the blackboard. Her writings were atrocious with a number of spelling mistakes. She wrote ‘b’ instead of ‘d’ and jumbled up spelling. Somehow she was promoted in 3rd standard, while 4th was now difficult.
She was extremely sensitive, quite resentful and would always consider herself low compared to others. A colleague who treated her with NATRUM MUR without any relief referred to her Recurrent pharyngitis and dreams of a snake clinched the diagnosis of LAC CALCIUM, which not only improved behavior, but also improved the writing skill.
Now she felt well motivated for school but improvement in scholastic performance was short lived. Impatience and awkwardness also improved to some extent.
One Sunday morning in 1991 September, I went to Ruchi’s house to see her ailing – bedridden paternal grandmother. While I was examining the old lady, I heard Ruchi’s mother shouting : did you finish your exercise with swings? Your skipping rope is lying here – you have not even touched today”. “Okay mom, I will do it” — replied young Ruchi and went swimming. I was surprised. I asked her mother about this. She told me about an occupational therapist whom they have been submitting for her dyslexia. Now, he has suggested intensive exercise with swimming and skipping ropes. I put her on placebo and observed the impact of swings. After some time, I saw LAC CANINUM kind of response with these.
I was astonished. I met the occupational therapist who has been seeing Ruchi for the last 3 years. He told me that Ruchi’s behavior and sensitivity substantially improved after your medicines. His therapy & remedial teaching became much more effective after LAC CANINUM. Parents became complacent and abandoned therapy. Scholastic difficulties compelled them to consult him once again.
After reinstitution of the therapy, writing improved substantially. Again stagnation with awkwardness and clumsy behaviors worsened. I resumed Lac can , & it did wonders.
Following Points Emerged:
- Imparied sensory processing can lead to dyslexia.
- Homoeopathy can correct the defective sensory processing.
- Sensory integration (part of occupational therapy) helps to correct dyslexia.
- Homoeopathy and Sensory Integration improve sensory processing and thereby can help DYSLEXIA.
- If remedy covers the entire pattern of learning disorder, the depth is much more & so the impact. Lac can have deeper & wider coverage.
I went to the basics. I was always impressed by the great scientist JEAN PIAGET, the great scientist, physiologist who had done pioneering work on child development.
His teaching showed maximum practical application PERCEPTION is cognitive ability to receive and make sense of incoming stimuli. There is a relationship between perception and physical movement. When a child traces a line, he alters the movement and direction of his hand in response to feedback from visual information. He believes that basic skills – eye-hand coordination, temporal-spatial integration and form perception – must be taught in their natural order of development. Children who are weak in this area will demonstrate definitely buttoning, lacing, cutting, lasting, WRITING AND ALSO COPYING from the blackboard. They will get confused by shape, size, and position of objects. If one needs to correct them, they will need to grasp “motor patterns” & not isolated skills.
Thus faculty integration of sensory processes becomes an important factor for causation and maintenance of various learning disorders. These children do present with awkwardness, clumsy behavior, and hyperactivity.
Here lies the role of Homoeopathic sciences. Various children prototype – Homoeopathic profiles describe these features. Number of Homoeopathic drugs in the proving has brought out characteristics features which we relate to learning disorders:
- Makes mistakes in writing and speaking
- Omits final letter or letters of a word when writing (Lac caninum = Hering page 515)
- Uses the wrong syllabus, mixes up letters and syllabus or omits parts of words (Hering page 91)
- While writing transposing letters: China2 Lyc2 (Kent Rep. 67)
- A careful study of these drugs indicates the presence of various other coordinates like:
- Clumsiness, awkward, hyperactivity
- Bangs head while turning
- Missing steps
Critical interpretation of these patterns brings us to conclude about the syndrome which is similar to the dysfunction of sensory processing. We see defects in laterality, direction, spatial orientation, etc. You get evidence of various perceptual difficulties.
We can conclude that Homoeopathic medicines can positively modify these defects. They are present in children with various types of developmental disabilities.
These are fairly structured patterns that are integral components of the system. They cannot be eradicated totally by medicines but can suitably be modified by proper similimum. This makes them extremely receptive to other therapeutic measures, which can consolidate these gains and enhance learning.