By Audrey E. McAllen: Robinswood Press, Stourbridge 1985
‘the content of this book is an attempt at correlating the approach initiated by Rudolph Steiner with the problems presented by the child with learning difficulties.’ (p8)
[Note from Helena Eastwood. This book is focused upon what Steiner referred to as the extra lesson. This was Steiner’s way of offering an enricher supportive learning environment that was presented as one to one ‘special time’ with a teacher who would attempt to help a child make good of areas of their development and learning that are not for one reason or another meeting the child’s true learning potential. Even today many children placed at the Steiner schools are there in order to get the holistic Steiner approach to learning. Steiner’s focus on creativity and the natural world, music and drama offer children a chance to be inspired to meet their real potential. Children who have experienced an alternative education appear to have a notable level of confidence and ability to engage in self-directed projects and hobbies. Even those children with specific learning difficulties often do extremely well in the Steiner schools, especially those who receive extra lessons, either in basic academic skills or learning to play a musical instrument, dance, drama and eurhythmy. This encouragement in the arts at young age can greatly boost any child’s development and academic skills. Steiner’s passionate embrace of music and arts and crafts is also seen in more recent approaches to educational, such as Reggio Emilia, Forest schools and High/Scope nurseries. Maria Montessori also presented a strong focus on creative activity through project work and this approach gains more focus after the age of seven. Before this age most alternative approaches focus on a rich environment that encourages natural play and learning.
Audrey E. McAllen’s book on the Extra Lesson clearly presents how we can improve on our understanding of how children learn and what we can do to empower them all to do well.
The following notes are a window into the Steiner philosophy as presented by Audrey E. McAllen in her book titled The Extra Lesson.
Introduction
The Physical body is governed by the – Life force –the ethic body- the energy responsible for growth and sustainability within plants and animals.
Soul life- the astral body – consciousness – feelings, the pain and pleasure –
The human spirit – the faculty of thinking – willing – the ego
‘Our physical body as such is the reflecting organ of our consciousness of thinking, feeling and willing directed by the spiritual member, our ego.’ (p5)
The threefold form of the adult body –
The head – predominantly responsible for the reception of sensory information and its organisation within the brain as our thinking activity.
The chest, the centre of our ’feelings for life’ – containing the heart with its active responsibility for the circulatory system and the lungs the ‘seat our breathing’.
The sustaining metabolism and limbs– responsible for assimilation of food and ‘willed’ movements of the limbs.
‘Ideally, this inner and outer picture of the human form should be in Unison. During the first seven years of our life the agents of this imprinting are movement and speech.’(p6)
There is a spiral of movement throughout our body moving from above to below, from left to right, from outside to inside. The spiral movements are acknowledged and reflected within the early years activities such as ‘weaving, spinning, stirring, wringing out washing, etc. All activities which bring to birth intelligence….’(p7)
Chapter one
The development of movement in the first Seven years.
In Victorian Times the newborn baby had a very quiet regime for this first six weeks of life before he was old enough to lift his head himself.
Some aspects of today’s baby care are not recommended:-
‘the wealth of sense impressions which pour ‘on to the young baby from birth onwards’.
Leaving the baby on his tummy before he can lift his head and roll himself over.
Encouraging the baby to stand prematurely, holding him in the vertical position before he has developed controlled of the posture of his body.
Stages of movement development during the first seven years
Co-ordinated movement in the horizontal position
Crawling and creeping when the child learns the gravity weight of his body – a full integration of the central nervous system that reflects our spatial and bodily awareness
Uprightness combined with the midline barrier whereby both hands each work on their own side of the body creating an ambidextrous state
Dominance with handedness, 6-7 years. At this time left and right hemispheres have developed their ‘holistic and localised functions’.
In the last stage the threefold structure or the form of the body is present, the child can now place the arm over the head and take hold of the opposite ear lobe. He has found his physical body.
The child can consciously engage the will and has an awareness of ‘body geography’ and has established aspects of dominance e.g. hand, eye, foot and ear.
‘The milk teeth of the hereditary body are pressed out and his own individual teeth take their place’. At around this change of teeth the child can meet the requirements to learn and subconsciously organize skills of: spatial orientation, movement coordination and the ability to be able to change his sight perception instantaneously between three dimensional and two dimensional space.
Chapter two
How do I get into my body
The young child imitates the people who are important in his life. By the age of seven the child will have strengthened its individuality and thereby gradually transformed the imitated patterns into ones expressing his own ‘latent abilities’.
When the child has been over stimulated; complicated sense impressions have overwhelmed the growing child, he may become apprehensiveand there natural movement of the ’will element’ may go into reverse.
The exercises in the book bring about correct movements and directions based on the child’s archetypal movement – relationships between the soul and spirit and the life body and the physical body. The child discovers through his own activity and ‘feels strengthened in identity and confidence’
Chapter Three
Children with writing, reading and arithmetic problems
The teachers in a Waldorf school are encouraged to develop detailed awareness of each child’s development and personality. This chapter begins with an example of the child whose behaviour had become difficult in class for no apparent reason. His teacher noticed a pinkness around his eyes and on seeing the anthroposophical Doctorwho prescribed natural treatment for his condition and within a short time his behaved was normal again.
‘constitutional problems, such as, asthma and constipation are greatly helped by curative eurhythmy, while both physical and emotional problems can be ameliorated by artistic work and therapy.’
When playing the game of musical hats teachers can observe the size of each child’s head.
Large head:-Connection with soul -spirit
Rich imagination, essentially artistic
Reading whole words, may not notice individual letters, and may be a poor speller.
Handwriting – large, poorly spaced wobbly letters
Good comprehension
Small head:-
Connection with life and physical bodies
Warm has a more logical mind and may be practical and skilful with his limbs.
Sees detail and will probably know how to spell
May not have a deeper understanding of what he reads.
Handwriting, small letters, written close together and too much pressure
Either of theabove types are liable to display classic dyslexia symptoms. This may be caused by: an imbalance in ‘the in-breathing’of the soul spirit (either too strong or too weak) and the life body, environmental pressures, relationships at home, emotional problems. Developmental delay may be caused by retained primitive reflexes, confusion with hand dominance, poor body image,failure to attain spatial orientation.
All learning difficulties are symptoms of co-ordination/spatial orientation problems and incomplete development of stages between one and seven years, ‘and need immediate attention before secondary psychological reactions set in.’
Chapter Four
The First Remedial Lesson
All the exercises presented in the extra lesson can be used from eleven years onwards. It may be advisable to support this with Eurhythmy therapy and/or Hauschka artistic therapy and/or Bothmer movement exercises.
Good hand eye coordination arises from ‘rhythmic movement’.
Ask the child to draw a line down the centre of the paper (this brings out the child’s relationship between left and right) and tell him to put a cross on one side of it. ‘the symbol of the cross documents standing in space’. When the child draws the vertical cross he tells us that his visual capacity in left right and above below orientation is awake . He will have a quick physical reaction to movement . If he draws the diagonal cross it shows he is held back in his life processes and has a slower physical reaction to movement perception. The children who put the cross on the right side of the line indicate that there are obstructions hindering their perceptual physical reactions. ‘it is very rare for the type of cross to be changed’.
‘’ to characterise, the user of the vertical cross on the left side of the line will see something falling and catch it in time, but he will not necessarily assess what caused the incident. When the diagonal cross is placed on the left side, the user will see it happening and be able to explain why but he is not likely to be in time to avert the accident without a great effort of will on his part.
This chapter goes on to describe activities that illustrate:-
- Established dominance and cross dominance.
Activities presented for this include looking through a roll of paper, closing one eye, standing or hopping on one leg, kicking a ball,etc. The recommended activities are those that involve looking and aiming activities such as, skittles and throwing games.
- Hand eye and speech coordination.
Suggested activities include sorting the beads and then counting the beads as they drop into a jar.
- Handedness and relationship to three dimensional space.
Draw a large red circle on a white card 20in by 30in. Place the card upright against a wall.
‘An exercise to establish co-ordinated dominance and produce the correct movement pattern for the right side of the body in relation to the astral soul body, ether (life) and physical bodies’
This exercise illustrates the integration of balance and self movement engaged through the postural system.
The flower rod exercise (mirroring)
This exercise illustrates if the child can visualise inwardly to himself the spatial dimensions. The teacher presents to the child how to make the drawing and invites the child to share the experience by completing the mirror image on the opposite side of the central line. Finally, the child is asked to do the whole form from memory.
Eye colour affinity-awareness of inner space. From seven years.
The colour blue belongs to space which stretches out expands and surrounds us; it is a passive cool colour and corresponds to the left eye and thought.
The colour red draws together and comes towards us; it is an active warm colour and corresponds with ‘the will’ and the right eye.
‘If we experience these colours inwardly our feelings are aroused’ (p27)
In this exercise the pupil is asked to draw a blue Moon and a red sun. Ideally the colour and position of the Moon and the Sun should correspond with the associated left and right eye.
Children who reverse this positional responsehave not established the will forces and remain held in the habit patterns and organic activities of the body. ‘He is asleep and lives passively in what he has imitated and inherited from his parents.’ However, some time reversal happens for a short period of time when the child is adapting to a new stage of development or overstrained physically or intellectually or emotionally.
Mirroring (from 9 years )
This exercise illustrates whether ‘independence between hearing and visual activity is established’.
Positional responses – primitive reflexes and midline barriers
The retention of specific reflexes interferes with posture, free movement, the appropriate sitting positions, eurhythmy, gymnastics and games, handwriting and copying from the blackboard.
The following primal reflexes
- The asymmetric tonic neck reflex
- The symmetric tonic neck reflex
- The tonic labyrinth reflex
- The horizontal midline barrier and the vertical midline barrier
- Tactile defensiveness
are described together with how to assess their presence and remedial exercises.
Further assessment and remedial spatial orientation and body geography exercises are presented for
- Eye Movement
- Sidedness
- Presence of ambidexterity
- The overall picture of the child’s situation as presented within their person,house, tree picture activity
The conclusion of this chapter describes art activities that can be used to assess children’s readiness for class one and the use of the balance-board to extend relevant exercises.
Chapter Five
describes exercises related to the development of spatial orientation and body geography.
Chapter Six
The reintroduction of formal work in reading and arithmetic
This chapter emphasises the importance of pictorial imaginative association when the children are learning initial literacy and numeracy skills. The author describes how through their stories children can express themselves on a deeper level than their spoken communication.
Reading aloud
The chapter also describes activities that help to prepare them to gain the ability and confidence to read aloud. Rhythmic reading is also recommended to help the development of reading and writing.
There are also suggested some arithmetic activities designed to build ‘confidence and pleasure in the beauty of numbers’.
Chapter Seven
Structure and timing of lessons
‘The lesson should be composed so that it is an artistic experience for the pupil’
‘Exercises should be chosen on the principle of in and out breathing, expansion-contraction element and the three soul faculties of thinking, feeling and willing. ‘Movement exercises and painting must be maintained and comprise the greater part of the lesson’. Homework for ten minutes a day must be given. Progress must be monitored and reassessed at regular intervals. Movement, drawing and rhythm must be an important part of the lesson.
Conclusion
Form drawing helps the child develops visually and inwardly and consciously calls on the ‘inner intelligence hidden in each human being ’. These basic forms are discovered and rediscovered.‘They raise man’s thinking to eternal truths and at the same time make him master of the earth.’