Reading, and especially spelling, from flash cards will generally require that the individual hold an internal visual image in the mind's eye. The author postulated that if the child had an underdeveloped visual system, it might account for the trouble. Judging by the child's body type, tonality and accessing cues, she should have been fully capable of making internal visual images. The author tested the girl's visual abilities by asking her to make and describe a series of images, which she could do readily. He then tested her reading and spelling strategies by flashing a card and asking her to read it and spell it. After looking at the card, the child's eyes immediately moved down and to the left, then, remaining down, over to the right, and back to the left, as she stumbled with the words — unable to achieve the outcome. It was immediately obvious to the author that it was the child's strategy for reading and spelling — an internal auditory and kinesthetic loop
—that was causing her so much trouble.
The author asked the child if she would like to play a flashcard game with him. This game was to be fun and she would not have to "try" to read or spell anything. She readily agreed. The author proceeded to show the child a flash card. As the author held the card and pointed to each letter in succession from left to right (Ve), the child was to pronounce each letter and sound each word out (Aed ). Then she was to look back at the entire word and pronounce it (Ve → Ae) out loud, and, then looking down and right and using her feelings (Ki), tell whether the sounds she made were a real word. If it didn't feel right, she was to look back at the entire string of letters and pronounce them again a different way, and feel that out. She would continue until she felt good about the pronunciation and the word. Every time she pronounced and read the word correctly the author would smile, say "Good" in an encouraging tonality and squeeze her wrist. The fun of the flashcard game came, however, when the author put the flashcard down, for he would then direct her to move her eyes up and left and keep looking up there until she could see the card he had just put down. She could imagine the letters any color she wanted and was especially invited to try her favorite color. When she could see the series of letters clearly she was then to read them off to the author —not "spell" the word, just read the letters off as she saw them. She was even allowed to see the author's finger moving from left to right if she got stuck. (This was her favorite part of the game.) After she had read them off she was to look back at the words in her mind's eye, change the color again if she wanted to, sound out the letters, look back at the whole sequence, pronounce the word and then move her head down and right to feel if she was correct. Again, at each successful completion of the step, she was given positive reinforcement tonally and with a smile; and the kinesthetic anchor on her wrist was reinforced.
A special surprise soon emerged into the game. After a few trials, if the child got stuck, the author could make the internal image or pronunciation appear in her head simply by squeezing her wrist. Eventually, the child herself could make any difficult word-picture or pronunciation appear by squeezing her own wrist.
Another positive aspect of the game was the surprise that was vocally and congruently expressed by the child's mother, who had never heard her read or spell so well. In the half hour spent with the author, playing the somewhat mysterious flashcard game, the child successfully made it through more fiashcards than they had previously been able to get through in days — and the child was eager to do more of them, as she had gotten quite good at it. In fact, the little girl at one point exclaimed, "This is a lot easier than what I do with Mommy!" Additionally, even though she would occasionally leave a word or letter out, the child did not once reverse a word or letter during the entire game. (It should be noted that the author stopped pointing to the letters after the first few cards he held up, for the child was soon able to imagine it there as she read.)
Let us review, for a moment, some of the important aspects of this example. (1) The "game" was set up such that the emphasis was on form rather than content, on what to do and when — where to put her head and eyes, when to use feelings and pictures. The processes being rehearsed were framed so that they were more like learning a dance than like spelling. If she began to get stuck she was not corrected for being "wrong" but was simply told where to put her head or eyes. (2) Because the strategy being rehearsed was different from her typical strategy it was truly not "spelling" or "reading" in the sense she knew them. Simply reading the letters from her internal image was very different than "trying" to spell. (3) Her old strategy for reading, which had gone
was not well suited for the task. The new strategy,
provided much more efficient tests and operations tor the task and outcome of sight reading. (4) Her existing strategy for spelling had been even less appropriate — a simple loop. Again, the newly designed and installed
strategy,
Emphasizing the "game" aspect of strategy rehearsal can be greatly beneficial to your installation procedures. Playing a game is generally thought of as easier than changing your way of thinking, which is serious business.
We have a used a strategy similar to this one to help people who want to learn to draw. The outcome of the strategy is that you don't end up having to "draw" anything, but rather you trace it. The strategy, simple and easy, begins as the client either looks at the object he wants to draw or imagines a scene he would like to draw until he can close his eyes and still see it clearly. He is then to open his eyes and look at the drawing paper until he can imagine the picture right on the paper. Then taking his pen, pencil or brush, he is to simply "trace" the image he sees there.
6.22 Rehearsing Accessing Cues.
Another method of rehearsal (used extensively in the case of the "dyslexic" child) is the rehearsal of specific accessing cues. Since accessing cues are the primary method we use for naturally accessing our representational systems, this is an extremely effective installation method. This particular method also has an advantage in that accessing cues can be rehearsed and installed as a sequence without the client having to be conscious of representational content — the person's full conscious attention can be directed to the details of where to put his head and eyes, where and how fast to breathe, how to posture his body, etc. For this reason the rehearsing of only accessing cues, for strategy installation, can serve as a very powerful covert tactic. The individual simply rehearses the appropriate sequence of accessing cues which will lead automatically to the representational systems required for the strategy. The programmer tunes only the client's body — but still elicits the desired representational sequence. When the individual has learned the sequence to the point that it is automatic, the eye movements, postures, gestures, breathing rates and other behaviors that he has learned will automatically access the designed sequence of representational systems.
A client who has had no experience with NLP, will have no conscious understanding of what is occurring but may be very surprised and pleased when he finds that his behavior begins to change radically.
One way to keep this process even more covert (or when one is in situations where it is not appropriate to verbally instruct someone through the various accessing cues) is to lead the eyes of the subject to the appropriate accessing positions with hand gestures, or by leading them to the appropriate positions with one's own eye movements.