Omri, now at the end of second grade, and his parents had traveled more than an hour to get to the clinic.   I had been forwarded the assessment that had been done before entering school.

It was a  long document.  Basically spelling out  that he would   have problems with reading and writing at school but there was no need to worry about his maths .

Omri came to because he was not coping  with maths!!

Am not sure why, but when he came into the clinic the first thing that I noticed was that this kid didn’t seem to have had it easy but on the other hand he looked like a fighter.  It had something  to do with the way he walked into the clinic and looked me straight in the eye and said “will you help me?”  Not, can you? But will you?

There was something going on with his breathing and while we were working he would every now and then take extra deep breathes, with a lot of noise, as if he was in desperate need of air.

“Omri, I find it wonderful, the way you understand when you need to breathe more  and supply your body and brain with the oxygen it needs.”

He looked at me, almost with tears in his eyes: “you say that, but my teacher gets angry when I do it and the kids in the class laugh at me!!”

That was the connecting moment for us.  He knew that I was on in his side. He had at long last found someone who  understood this basic need of his – a simple need for a bigger supply of oxygen as he was not getting enough with his shallow breathing.  And so we stopped all the cognitive work and did breathing exercises.  Exercises that would start getting him to use those narrow  nostrils differently.  And that was given to him as homework.  He was really amused at what he was given – twice a day and if he could manage three times , that would even be better.  He did them religiously and his breathing became more of a natural automatic slow deeper breathing.

We then talked about his arithmetic problems and he told me that sometimes he knew the answers and sometimes he didn’t and when he couldn’t get them immediately,it would drive him crazy and he felt a lot of anger inside of his stomach and when he felt like that he lost his ability to think.  One wonders why pay so much money for assessing when this kid was brilliant in telling what was happening to him.  What a pleasure, a student in second grade, who was so aware of himself and his body!  And so we worked on anger and I showed him some acupressure points that he could press on his hand when he felt angry.  We spoke about how our brain could not think when the body was busy with being annoyed.  He was amazing – he could so connect to this, as if I was retelling his own personal story – which I was.  So we got rid of anger and anxiety  and started with subject matter.  It is easy to work with kids like Omri once all the other cobwebs are pushed aside.  I suspected that he did not own efficient strategies for doing things – some things he knew by heart and could only get to them if his body was calm, other things made him feel stupid and then this whole circle of things would happen : he would get angry, he would start his heavy breathing, the teacher would comment, the kids would laugh and he felt like an insulted wreck!!

He was working at his sums in a long, tedious, tiring  and certainly no fun way.  We started  on ‘how to work out answers to a question using  different methods.  We laughed a lot and it was great.  I would show him that  the same thing could be done  in a  long and complicated way  and also in a simple and quick method and he could choose the way he thought would be easiest for him.  I made it very clear that I was not interested in the answers, I was interested in the method.   And so he had to explain to me the method before he did each exercise and why.  This was something new for him.  He always concentrated on answers before and here I was saying -I don’t even want to know the answer, I want to know the way your mind is thinking.  We parted great friends and looking forward to seeing each other the next session.

One of the things  that I do when  dealing with arithmetic problems is to ask the student to write 3 addition and 3 subtraction exercises.  I then note the things  they write.  Omri did not venture further than what he knew for certain – easy things , one plus two.  Not even adventurous enough or brave enough to write 10 plus 20 which other kids would do, just to show me that they really know!!  Very cautious and aware of his difficulties and wanting to show me his successes.  So we will move along slowly but surely and build up his confidence at his own pace and make sure that he understands what he is doing.

Two weeks later he  arrived again.  He ran up the stairs, his hair brushed, he was clean, showered and one could feel his eagerness to succeed….what fun!!  i was curious to check whether he had remembered the things that he had learnt at the first session. We first did brain gym exercises, calmed our bodies, drank water and I could hear how much easier his breathing was.  He did not have to take in one deep breathe all the time.

Well…not much to write…..Omri remembered everything that he had learnt.  With great joy and a huge smile  he told me the method before getting down to do the exercise.  HIS FACE!!!!!  what a picture of a happy little boy.  I then showed him that if he could do 24+4 he could do 124+4 AND EVEN 1024+4…HE WAS WILD WITH DELIGHT. No one else in my class can do that, but I CAN!!!  There was no going back – he was happy and excited and motivated and he just worked and worked and succeeded more and more… and it was fun – and then the lesson was over.  Already? he said, “that was so quick!!”  He hopped, jumped and almost flew down the steps with a big smile and a big thank you.

He is on his  way and  the barrier of arithmetic has been cut – … the assessment was right after all!  We  worked together during the summer holidays so that he could get himself up to standard – learn the things that he should have learnt and given a footing into the following years material.

Omri has learnt some very basic important skills for his future learning:  *to breathe     *to calm his system down   *to think about strategies and not answers