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Observation (12 December 2006)
A new pattern
is emerging from the following existing patterns:
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A link is
suggested between very young children watching too much TV
and autism (see “Remarkable
Treatments and Results”).
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Although
ADHD and dyslexia existed before, medical doctors, for
example, talk about ADHD and dyslexia “explosions” in recent
years.
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Media
reports in Germany and The Netherlands report that today’s
students lack important reading and math skills.
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Teachers
note that compared to only a few years back, many more
students in the same age group lack fundamental language and
math skills.
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There are
too many indicators in multiple countries to blame this lack
of skills on weakened educational systems.
These patterns
indicate something important is going on here, and it doesn’t
appear to be receiving any attention. This is the new pattern
that is emerging: Something is preventing our children
from learning skills that the same age group was able to learn
years ago.
Although there
is public discussion demanding better education, it seems
unlikely that improved teaching will provide more than a
marginal improvement.
Prediction
Children today
have drastically increased exposure to a barrage of information
through TV, the Internet and other means. This information
requires more processing and storage capacity in the young brain
than years ago. As a result, when the child is supposed to learn
reading and math, the capacity needed – which was readily
available in children of the same age group years ago – may now
be in use. If this is the case, it is more difficult for the
child to learn those skills.
With this
increase in information, subsections of the brain and pathways
between the subsections operate closer to the capacity
bottleneck threshold. When that threshold is exceeded, it
implies a bottleneck is in effect. The threshold can be exceeded
with or without an additional complication such as inefficient
processing (see root cause proposal at the home page). As this
happens, these bottlenecks can express themselves in ADHD,
dyslexia, dyscalculation, headaches, autism and other
conditions.
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