working out with dyslexia

[gmattson]

Received the following email, which I thought should be posted here. GEM

Hello Sensei Mattson

I wanted to share with you something I earned today about one of my karate students - maybe
the information could be useful to someone else. Her name is Cindy Parker, and when she first started in my teenage class she was 12 years old, she is now 14. She has been with me since September 1997. She has very severe dyslexia and has a bad case of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). In fact, she is so bad that for years when she would go to bed at night she would lay there and shake, but not sleep or really rest. She is considered a special education/needs student by the Arkansas Dept of Education. She recently was evaluated by the Dept of Education which included a whole series of tests including a psychological evaluation and an I.Q. test. In every single category her score had increased by a substantial amount. Her hand/eye coordination had improved by 17%, her reading comprehension
level had increased from a 1st grade to a 3.5 grade level. Her hand writing had increased by 10-17%, her I.Q. had increased by a range of 10-17 points and of course there were the
intangibles - the people giving the tests said her self-esteem, self-control, self-discipline and ability to focus had greatly improved. They asked her mother what she had been doing the last 17 months to improve so much - the answer: the only thing different was good ole Uechi/Shohei Ryu karate. When her mother explained to the Education department what was involved in karate, such as kata, hojo undo, yakusoku kumite, etc., they were impressed and
attributed her success for the most part directly to her karate practice.

Take care

Jody McFadden

P.S. She also now sleeps peacefully at night.