PRACTICING YOUR PERCEPTION
Perceptual problems can be improved by practice. Some people think this can't be done. They forget that normal people improve their perception through training and effort. A piano tuner improves his already good auditory discrimination. A medical student learns to visually discriminate subtle shadows on X-rays.
But a person with a perceptual problem has a disability. If you have a visual figure-ground problem, you may work as hard as that medical student just to be able to spot your friends in crowded places. Alternatively, if you are uncoordinated, you may have to train as hard as any football player in order to throw and catch a Frisbee.
Activities that use your areas of perceptual weakness can help you practice them. A few examples follow.
- Visual figure-ground problems. Look around you and focus on objects. Look at a forest and study each tree. Study the lawn, find an insect and watch it move. Choose a specific person in a crowd and watch what s/he does.
- Auditory sequencing problems. Listen and then repeat. This can be done by playing a taped conversation, repeating a sentence from memory and playing that section of the tape again to check yourself. In conversations say, "So what you are saying is ...." and repeat what you heard. Check and see if you were correct.
- Tactile discrimination problems. Go to stores and feel the different textures of similar items. Can you tell cotton from wool? Ripe from unripe fruit? In the woods, feel the leaves and bark on trees. Study the texture of paper. Can you tell the feel of laser print paper from the feel of the newspaper? Try various settings on your computer for equipment sensitivity such as the movement of the mouse, the pressure needed to push the keys, and the double click rate.
Make a game out of practicing your perception. Don't work too hard. Find a level that challenges you but isn't too difficult.
Hobbies in your area of weakness can be fun. For example, many computer games improve visual perception and visual motor skills. Bird watching and other nature activities improve both visual and auditory perception. Listening to music helps auditory perception.
Although practice can improve your perception, it probably won't make the disability disappear. How can you limit its effect on your life? The next sections on visual and auditory handicaps will give you some ideas.
LIVING WITH VISUAL PERCEPTUAL PROBLEMS
Improve your environment. Home and office should be simple, uncluttered, and well organized. Color codes and labels help to keep things in order. Keep important objects where you can see them. Shelves and pegboard walls are better than drawers are. Mark your automobile so you can find it in a crowd of cars. For example, put a large object on the antenna or use a vanity license plate. If you have problems following your companions in a crowd, ask them to wear a hat or recognizable shirt.
Improve your habits. Karl solved his grooming problem with an organized routine. Good habits can reduce your need for accurate visual perception. Have a place for important objects and train yourself to put them there. For example, always put your keys in a specific place.
Have a routine for keeping track of items such as your money, glasses, keys, cell phone, ID card, and health insurance card. You might want to have a checklist and review it before you leave your home. In addition, you might have a routine of checking your pockets or purse before you leave an area such as your place of work, a restaurant, or a park.
Find objects you lose. No matter how careful they are, people with visual perception and memory problems often lose things. If you can't find something, keep calm. Try to remember when you had it last. What did you do with it? If you can't remember, retrace your steps backwards, going first to the last place you were, then to the place before that. Then relax your eyes and look for it. Don't look carefully by focusing your eyes first in one place, then another. Swing your eyes all over the room. Use your peripheral vision. If you still can't find it, consider waiting until it shows up. Can you buy another one? If you need it, systematically look in and under things. If it's still missing, take a long break and start over. Consider asking another person to look with you.
If you lose things frequently, keep duplicates of important cards that go in your wallet, such as your identification card or insurance card. If security routines prohibit duplicates, consider the possibility of confidentially disclosing your disability proactively to the security personnel, as they may see your frequent losses as a sign of criminal activity or worse. Leave extra keys with your neighbor or in a location that cannot be identified with you, such as taped to a wall behind a fire extinguisher. Reproduce documents that should not be lost. Buy two or three umbrellas, scarves, pairs of gloves, or other frequently lost items. When buying technology such as personal communication devices, consider the cost and the possibility of having to replace it. Back up your data daily or weekly. That may mean less expensive and effective items. Check the steps to back up data before buying them.
Use your hands to help your eyes. Study shapes, textures and weights with your hands. For example, if you run your hand over a surface that has not been cleaned, you can often feel the dirt and grease.
Use your ears to help your eyes. When a task is being demonstrated, pay more attention to the words than to the actions. Ask questions. The sound of someone's voice can substitute for a facial expression. Tapes can replace books. Take advantage of lectures and recorded information on telephone interactive voice systems.
LIVING WITH DYSLEXIA
Many people with dyslexia get remediation for their reading disabilities. Even as adults, it is possible to learn. However, there are two taped book programs that can help.
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB &D) ®
National Headquarters
20 Roszel Road Princeton, NJ 08540
866-RFBD-585 (866-732-3585)
RFB &D provides educational materials to all people who cannot effectively read standard print because of a visual, perceptual, or other physical disability. RFB & D is the number one producer in the world of audio textbooks and has more than 98,000 titles in their library. If you have learning disabilities, you must apply to use their services and a qualified professional must attest to the physical basis of the disability which limits your ability to read standard print.
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress
Washington D.C. 20542
1-800-424-8677
To use this service, you must have a doctor certify that you have a reading disability, that it is serious enough to prevent reading regular printed material in a normal manner, and that the identified condition has a physical basis.
Arrange ways to meet your academic needs. In high school, you might obtain an individualized educational plan (IEP), which allows you to have the accommodations you need such as your reading assignments in advance, large print books, or time extensions on examinations. In college, you would use the disabled student services. Many people with dyslexia join or form study groups so they can learn the reading materials from discussion. Don Winkler, former Chairman and CEO of Ford Credit, had trouble mixing up the words in hymns at church. The minister let him take the book home so he could practice.1 Some students obtain help from fellow pupils or their parents who assist them with reading and writing chores. Consider alternative forms of learning such as videos, movies, and tapes.
Communicating without writing. Many people with dyslexia become masters of verbal communication. Use discussions and telephone calls rather than e-mails and letters. Computer software is available that will allow you to talk to the computer and have it write for you. There is also software that will "read" your e-mails and other documents on your computer. Reading machines can read books that are not digital.
Working without Reading. Jobs which require a lot of reading may have to be avoided. Remember, people who are blind fill many professional jobs by using tape recorders and paying readers. There are many ways to work around your dyslexia. Some workers have cheat sheets with important words written on them. Harry Sylvester, former President of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, described how he worked in a paper mill and teamed up with an older engineer. The older engineer liked to do reports and writing. Harry liked being out in the field working with the crews. They worked together successfully for many years. However, Harry also reported that he had difficulty being promoted because he did not leave a paper trail.2
Remediation. Learning, communicating and working without reading are not easy. Some adults who have dyslexia choose to undergo the difficult process of learning to read. If you make that choice, avoid clinics that do not know about learning disabilities. They may say that you are "just not trying." Find a teacher, tutor, or educational therapist who is experienced in instructing adults with dyslexia. The Resource List (Chapter 10, pp...) has organizations that can help you locate a person or program. The International Dyslexia Association specializes in helping people with dyslexia to read.
LIVING WITH AUDITORY PERCEPTUAL PROBLEMS
Improve your environment. Limit the background noise around you. Try to live and work in quiet places. Turn on appliances and listen to them before buying them.
Use your eyes to help your ears. Look at people's faces and lips as you listen. Watching them do things will reduce your need for explanations. For example, if you are going to work for a fast food chain, watch people work in another restaurant of the same chain before you begin the job. Read a lot to learn what you may not "pick up" through hearing.
Follow directions carefully. If directions are given verbally, repeat them. As you say them, make sure people are listening to you. If possible, write them down or ask to receive them in writing. You may have to ask for one direction at a time. But no matter what, be sure to remember the first thing you are told, so that your first step will be correct.
LIVING WITH BOTH AUDITORY AND VISUAL PERCEPTUAL PROBLEMS
Some people have both visual and auditory perceptual handicaps. This causes insecurity. Neither sense can be trusted. One sense cannot easily be used to compensate for the other. If you have this problem, decide if one sense is actually stronger and use it to help the weaker one. If both senses seem equally inaccurate, practice your perception as proposed earlier, working with one sense at a time. Don't be surprised if your senses develop unevenly. Your ears may seem stronger for a while, then your eyes may seem stronger. For the most part, the sections on living with visual and auditory perceptual problems will apply to you.
Here are a few tips to help you learn.
- Get information from as many sources as possible, for example, if you are taking a class, you might: -discuss the class with other students -read or listen to as many books as possible, including books written for youngsters, if they cover your material -ask if you can audit another section of the class -ask your library if you can borrow videotapes or DVD's of the material -get help from the instructor
- Because of your double disability, you are especially apt to make mistakes. When errors occur, correct them immediately. Don't get angry with yourself.
- Practice a lot but be careful not to overload yourself. Many short periods of effort are better than one long period of work.
- Your perception will be uneven. Some days will be better than others. Don't push yourself when everything seems to be going wrong.
- Ask yourself how you like to do and learn things. Use that technique. You will naturally find the most efficient way for you.
- Should you use taped books and lectures? Taped books may not be helpful as you may have to listen to the tapes many times.
- You will have to use your eyes and ears together to learn a task which is being demonstrated.
IMPROVING PERCEPTION
It's hard to learn when both your seeing and hearing are inaccurate. Try to improve your perception by:
- Paying attention. Some people who receive inaccurate information from their senses ignore their environment. They daydream and let their minds wander. Don't let this happen to you. Struggle to be aware.
- Relaxing. Some people who receive inaccurate information from their senses pay so much attention that what they see and hear confuses them even more. If you relax, your perception will automatically improve.
Most people with perceptual problems alternate between paying too little and too much attention. Try to find a state of relaxed awareness. Most people without learning disabilities have a section of their brain which automatically keeps them relaxed and aware. You may have to train yourself to do this consciously.
Copyrighted Dale S. Brown ©
1. Stories of Hope, Book One, Eaton Coull Learning Group, 2003, Vancouver Canada, 113
2. Legacy of the Blue Heron by Harry Sylvester, Oxton House Publishers, Farmington, Maine pp 25-6
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