I recently worked with a 14 year old boy who had struggled throughout his schooling to read.
He had been made to stand in front of his classmates and read out loud!
The feeling of embarrassment and shame at reading so badly in front of his mates went straight to his subconscious mind so that from that time onwards he struggled until he came to see me.
It didn't help that his teacher thought that he was being lazy and kept telling him that if he just tried harder he would be able to read.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Subconscious Mind and reading...
When a person of whatever age cannot read there is usually a block in the subconscious mind which stops them being able to read fluently. Either the block prevents them learning to read or they have learnt the words but the block stops the information coming out.
Left hemisphere reading...
Either way the person can't read fluently or sometimes not at all. If they read one word at a time it is indicating that they are working more out of the left hemisphere of the brain
They actually can read better backwards because there is no strain to having to understand what they are reading - it is just one word at a time.
Right hemisphere reading...
Alternatively they might read in a sing song manner and when they get to the end of the sentence they can't tell you what they have read. This is them working more out of the right hemisphere.
Once we remove the blocks to their reading hidden in the subconscious mind so that both hemispheres are working well together - it is a bit like a jig saw puzzle: they can read the words or pieces of the puzzle (left brain) and put the meaning or picture to what they have read (the right brain).
Removing the subconscious mind blocks to reading
So with this young man it took me just 20 minutes to find and remove the blocks to his reading that were hidden in his subconscious mind.
As you can imagine it had a lot to do with the humiliation and shame he felt having to stand and read in front of his peers. We also worked on his self -esteem n reaction to his peers and his self worth in relation to himself.
Fortunately he had taken in the information through phonics and learning the alphabet when he was in class so without the block in his subconscious mind the information flowed easily and he was able to read fluently.
'Mum I can read, I can read'
I will never forget when he rang his Mum - he was crying with relief and joy as he said" Mum, I can read, I can read" - and by this time I was crying too!!
