Dyslexia, APD And Ray Peat

[Fil72]

This might be a long shot to ask here about the following, but as my son has just been diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a disability that affects how the brain processes spoken language and represents a major factor in the difficulties affecting people with communication disorders) and Dyslexia. He also has dust allergy and is bedwetter (i did a thread about this too) . In the past I might have considered an overgrowth of yeast, doing a possible gut healing protocol a la GAPs Diet etc. since coming to Ray Peat I am not so sure anymore.
I am new to RP and still learning but does anyone here has suggestions on how to support these sort of issues. I am sure some gut healing could be beneficial but how would it be done the 'RP' way? Thanks

 

[Regina]

This might be a long shot to ask here about the following, but as my son has just been diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a disability that affects how the brain processes spoken language and represents a major factor in the difficulties affecting people with communication disorders) and Dyslexia. He also has dust allergy and is bedwetter (i did a thread about this too) . In the past I might have considered an overgrowth of yeast, doing a possible gut healing protocol a la GAPs Diet etc. since coming to Ray Peat I am not so sure anymore.
I am new to RP and still learning but does anyone here has suggestions on how to support these sort of issues. I am sure some gut healing could be beneficial but how would it be done the 'RP' way? Thanks

I have some thoughts. FWIW
I think you can note behaviors in your son without drawing too much attention to them. So he does not stay stuck with the diagnosis.
I had rather severe dyslexia as a child. I barely spoke and I was simply unable to follow whatever anybody was saying. After two words, my mind was already somewhere else and the person was just a blur. I was not "processing spoken language" at all. I could barely read. I got through school by faking it. I was thought to be allergic to milk but no other allergies and did not bedwet. In grade school, I was horrible. Like 'what should we do with this mute retard? Fortunately she's cute.' My mom made me a child model (so I earned my keep ;o) ); but even the photographers knew I was odd. They just bought me crayons and coloring books and I would sit mute in my own world coloring and sometimes eat the crayons between photoshoots. There were a couple of decent nuns at my school that were kind. Even in the 8th grade, I was illiterate. They knew it and just thought, 'poor child.' In high school, I was good at a few odd topics for no apparent reason: Latin, creative writing, Brit Lit and Trigonometry and a bit good at chemistry. I was suspected of cheating. So, idiot savant; emphasis on the idiot. I could go on. But skipping ahead.
I did my PhD in Music Theory and Composition will a ***t-ton of int'l awards, full ride and fellowships, teaching-assistantship throughout grad work. My works are highly contrapuntal and studied and lectured about for their orchestrational techniques and innovative harmonic schema. I say this to warn that there is hope for your son that he will find his gifts.
I found that I could only do things that I could make my own.
For example, getting the teaching-assistantship (on the back my compositions I submitted). How the hell was I going to stand up in front of a classroom and talk??? (without peeing myself, stammering, hyperventilating, having the room fragment, legs shaking, forgetting where I am). I was handed my teaching materials and was utterly dreadful the first week. Like a real real bad situation. I threw all of the teaching materials in the garbage and wrote my own. By the 2nd year, there was a waiting list for all my classes. Particularly jazzers wanted to learn theory/harmony from me because I could talk to them. So, if I could just talk about whatever subject that held my interest then I could do it. So, of course, it seems like an attitude problem. She can't be bothered. She's aloof. She does whatever the f%$# she wants. And I'm totally lying about what I'm doing in class. Each week in T-A meetings, I would be handed the syllabus and assignments/exercises for the students and then I'd throw them in the garbage and did what I thought instead.
Reading was the same. I just started to pick up books that I felt like. Not the ones I was assigned. I could read the ones I wanted to. But extremely slowly. It's still always arduous. But my slow process makes for very good comprehension. I can write massively long essays and commentary which would just convince my teachers that I must have plagerized.
So, I don't know how your son's abilities will manifest. And how is the best way to nourish his destiny.
For my family, they just basically still stick with the 'she's a retard' label and have never shown the slightest interest in anything I've ever said or done. None of them has ever heard a single piece of music I have written or read a single one of my papers and they unaware of my professional achievements. So, that was definitely a restraint early on because kids get their reference points from their parents. So, we wouldn't want your son to get stuck in the idea that he has this or that disease or condition.
So most of my childhood conditions did not prevent me from prospering in the "real" world. I've never been fired from a job. I worked as a exec on wall street. I've owned several companies.
Spatial problems were tough for me when I worked in NYC. At the top of the subway stairs, everything fragments for me and I would have to clutch the rail with both arms to get down the stairs each time and get myself on to the packed train to wall st.
I was able to greatly improve this problem with aikido. Though, at first, it was the biggest problem. The stress of class made the room fragment. Changing my nutrition had a massive positive effect on this condition. As well, a female senior student gave the correct kind of encouragement for me and she is now my official teacher.

It's a safe enough martial art and does not encourage its students to dominate and hurt others BUT it is martial. You have to be in the present or you'll get clocked. It's highly structured and the teacher teaches by demonstrating and then you get to try to knit together with changing partners. There is NO talking. So, it's a wonderful way to develop the brain without the verbal processing problem. It just so happens though that that improves too. So, aikido hits a lot of notes for a person like me.
So for me the things that have worked (improved my oddities) are:
finding my own interests; captaining my own ship; changing to Jaminet Perfect Health Diet (which got me off PUFA and wheat; eating gelatin and more shellfish); aikido. Morphing from Jaminet to Ray Peat-arian has bumped everything up another notch. I can stay in conversations better, read much better (though still much slower than average person), physically much stronger. Good luck.

 

[Giraffe]

Just throwing out thoughts...

What I've heard/read about APD reminds me a lot of (1) the challenges I meet when learning a new language, (2) the problems people with ADD have (e.g. the distraction by noises).

Some skills require years of repetition before a certain degree of mastery is reached. @Fil72 , if I were you I would try to not see your sons problems as a disability of the way the brain to processes things: He is lagging behind, but he still can learn it.

I am sure some gut healing could be beneficial but how would it be done the 'RP' way?

How about you spell out in your other thread what he is eating and what kind of food he likes best. A food diary might be helpful to figure out how he reacts to certain foods.

Is he getting some sort of training/therapy for the language problems?

 

[MommaBear]

Great posts. I have a cognitive impaired child.. as well as kids with learning disabilities , dyslexia, etc. I have focused on diet so much to 'heal them' I think I perverted their association with food so now I gotta deal with that. Instead of being OK with how they are.

I have been In many groups where moms, with good intentions, are restrictions diets, forcing 3+ enemas a day, feeding diatomaceous earth and clays, etc.... I wonder if these are more damaging to our kids than just loving on them...

I think the Peat way is a good way to look at food for all of us. My brain works much better on more sugar and more food. . and my kids seem to be doing better too now that they are able to eat more and not be always hungry. It's hard to let them eat so much but I am relearning as well.

Thank you, Regina, for your beautiful words. I'm greatly encouraged!

I unschool home school my kids to keep the labels down and stress of school down. They learn as they are led and it makes it easier. My worst dyslexic son just randomly figured out reading around age 10. He's slow and makes a ton of mistakes but we work with him instead of making him feel bad. My cognitively impaired child is 15 but at a 1st grade level. She loves coloring and plays with ponies and petshops aND she has a gift of touching peoples hearts.. It's hard to get out of the world view that everyone needs a job to be a participant of society. I wish we could change this wrong attitude but Idk how we can do that.

loving them how they are and not having to fix them is the shift I am going thru.

(My phone loves typos..sorry)

 

[jaguar43]

In old age the brain steroids fall to about 5% of their level in youth. Pregnenolone and DHEA improve memory in old rats, and improve mood stability and mental clarity of old people. Pregnenolone's action in improving the sense of being able to cope with challenges probably reflects a quieting and coordinating of the "sequencing" apparatus of the forebrain, which is the area most sensitive to energy deprivation. This is the area that malfunctions in hyperactive and "dyslexic" children. Weakening of the sequencing and sorting processes probably explains the common old-age inability to extract important sounds from environmental noise, creating a kind of "confusion deafness." Insomnia, worry and "restless legs" at bedtime are problems for many old people, and I think they are variations of the basic energy-depletion problem.

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/multiple-sclerosis.shtml

 

[GAF]

WOW! Simply amazing posts. My 11 year old step grand daughter seems to just zone out when attempting to play sports like volleyball or soccer or other group sports. She just kinda stands there in a clueless fog.

She is a great reader. Loves to tell stories in front of people and loves to write. Bright girl.

Any ideas as to what is happening when she steps into a group sports situation?

 

[MommaBear]

Group sports are confusing. . So many rules. So many people. So many skills. Gotta remember not everyone has athletic skills! Especially those gifted in the arts.

Just my observations.

 

[Regina]

WOW! Simply amazing posts. My 11 year old step grand daughter seems to just zone out when attempting to play sports like volleyball or soccer or other group sports. She just kinda stands there in a clueless fog.

She is a great reader. Loves to tell stories in front of people and loves to write. Bright girl.

Any ideas as to what is happening when she steps into a group sports situation?

Of course, I was horrible at group sports as well. Always last picked. So out-outfield in softball and I would just lay down and watch the clouds or study pieces of grass and have absolutely nothing to do with the game. Just not relevant.

 

[Regina]

Great posts. I have a cognitive impaired child.. as well as kids with learning disabilities , dyslexia, etc. I have focused on diet so much to 'heal them' I think I perverted their association with food so now I gotta deal with that. Instead of being OK with how they are.

I have been In many groups where moms, with good intentions, are restrictions diets, forcing 3+ enemas a day, feeding diatomaceous earth and clays, etc.... I wonder if these are more damaging to our kids than just loving on them...

I think the Peat way is a good way to look at food for all of us. My brain works much better on more sugar and more food. . and my kids seem to be doing better too now that they are able to eat more and not be always hungry. It's hard to let them eat so much but I am relearning as well.

Thank you, Regina, for your beautiful words. I'm greatly encouraged!

I unschool home school my kids to keep the labels down and stress of school down. They learn as they are led and it makes it easier. My worst dyslexic son just randomly figured out reading around age 10. He's slow and makes a ton of mistakes but we work with him instead of making him feel bad. My cognitively impaired child is 15 but at a 1st grade level. She loves coloring and plays with ponies and petshops aND she has a gift of touching peoples hearts.. It's hard to get out of the world view that everyone needs a job to be a participant of society. I wish we could change this wrong attitude but Idk how we can do that.

loving them how they are and not having to fix them is the shift I am going thru.

(My phone loves typos..sorry)

MommaBear, You have so much on your plate. It sounds like you're doing a great job and you are so loving.
For me, I remember every one of my mentors and am eternally grateful to them.

It might be just someone who, when I was 5 said, "don't worry about it. You don't have to talk."
I remember them.
One time, a nun offered me a cigarette. Now THAT was cool. (I thought she was reaching in to her habit for a gun to execute me--for being a lousy student, but she pulled out a pack of smokes and said 'let's go for a walk.' 'I know you can't read. Don't worry about it. It's no big deal."
I remember her.

 

[Fil72]

In old age the brain steroids fall to about 5% of their level in youth. Pregnenolone and DHEA improve memory in old rats, and improve mood stability and mental clarity of old people. Pregnenolone's action in improving the sense of being able to cope with challenges probably reflects a quieting and coordinating of the "sequencing" apparatus of the forebrain, which is the area most sensitive to energy deprivation. This is the area that malfunctions in hyperactive and "dyslexic" children. Weakening of the sequencing and sorting processes probably explains the common old-age inability to extract important sounds from environmental noise, creating a kind of "confusion deafness." Insomnia, worry and "restless legs" at bedtime are problems for many old people, and I think they are variations of the basic energy-depletion problem.

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND OTHER HORMONE-RELATED BRAIN SYNDROMES.

Thanks for posting this, will have a read that article with pen and notepad handy. Interesting insight in what happens biochemically. So much to learn still..

 

[Fil72]

I have some thoughts. FWIW
I think you can note behaviors in your son without drawing too much attention to them. So he does not stay stuck with the diagnosis.
I had rather severe dyslexia as a child. I barely spoke and I was simply unable to follow whatever anybody was saying. After two words, my mind was already somewhere else and the person was just a blur. I was not "processing spoken language" at all. I could barely read. I got through school by faking it. I was thought to be allergic to milk but no other allergies and did not bedwet. In grade school, I was horrible. Like 'what should we do with this mute retard? Fortunately she's cute.' My mom made me a child model (so I earned my keep ;o) ); but even the photographers knew I was odd. They just bought me crayons and coloring books and I would sit mute in my own world coloring and sometimes eat the crayons between photoshoots. There were a couple of decent nuns at my school that were kind. Even in the 8th grade, I was illiterate. They knew it and just thought, 'poor child.' In high school, I was good at a few odd topics for no apparent reason: Latin, creative writing, Brit Lit and Trigonometry and a bit good at chemistry. I was suspected of cheating. So, idiot savant; emphasis on the idiot. I could go on. But skipping ahead.
I did my PhD in Music Theory and Composition will a ***t-ton of int'l awards, full ride and fellowships, teaching-assistantship throughout grad work. My works are highly contrapuntal and studied and lectured about for their orchestrational techniques and innovative harmonic schema. I say this to warn that there is hope for your son that he will find his gifts.
I found that I could only do things that I could make my own.
For example, getting the teaching-assistantship (on the back my compositions I submitted). How the hell was I going to stand up in front of a classroom and talk??? (without peeing myself, stammering, hyperventilating, having the room fragment, legs shaking, forgetting where I am). I was handed my teaching materials and was utterly dreadful the first week. Like a real real bad situation. I threw all of the teaching materials in the garbage and wrote my own. By the 2nd year, there was a waiting list for all my classes. Particularly jazzers wanted to learn theory/harmony from me because I could talk to them. So, if I could just talk about whatever subject that held my interest then I could do it. So, of course, it seems like an attitude problem. She can't be bothered. She's aloof. She does whatever the f%$# she wants. And I'm totally lying about what I'm doing in class. Each week in T-A meetings, I would be handed the syllabus and assignments/exercises for the students and then I'd throw them in the garbage and did what I thought instead.
Reading was the same. I just started to pick up books that I felt like. Not the ones I was assigned. I could read the ones I wanted to. But extremely slowly. It's still always arduous. But my slow process makes for very good comprehension. I can write massively long essays and commentary which would just convince my teachers that I must have plagerized.
So, I don't know how your son's abilities will manifest. And how is the best way to nourish his destiny.
For my family, they just basically still stick with the 'she's a retard' label and have never shown the slightest interest in anything I've ever said or done. None of them has ever heard a single piece of music I have written or read a single one of my papers and they unaware of my professional achievements. So, that was definitely a restraint early on because kids get their reference points from their parents. So, we wouldn't want your son to get stuck in the idea that he has this or that disease or condition.
So most of my childhood conditions did not prevent me from prospering in the "real" world. I've never been fired from a job. I worked as a exec on wall street. I've owned several companies.
Spatial problems were tough for me when I worked in NYC. At the top of the subway stairs, everything fragments for me and I would have to clutch the rail with both arms to get down the stairs each time and get myself on to the packed train to wall st.
I was able to greatly improve this problem with aikido. Though, at first, it was the biggest problem. The stress of class made the room fragment. Changing my nutrition had a massive positive effect on this condition. As well, a female senior student gave the correct kind of encouragement for me and she is now my official teacher.

It's a safe enough martial art and does not encourage its students to dominate and hurt others BUT it is martial. You have to be in the present or you'll get clocked. It's highly structured and the teacher teaches by demonstrating and then you get to try to knit together with changing partners. There is NO talking. So, it's a wonderful way to develop the brain without the verbal processing problem. It just so happens though that that improves too. So, aikido hits a lot of notes for a person like me.
So for me the things that have worked (improved my oddities) are:
finding my own interests; captaining my own ship; changing to Jaminet Perfect Health Diet (which got me off PUFA and wheat; eating gelatin and more shellfish); aikido. Morphing from Jaminet to Ray Peat-arian has bumped everything up another notch. I can stay in conversations better, read much better (though still much slower than average person), physically much stronger. Good luck.

Wow thanks for taking the time to writ this in response to my thread. It did make me think a lot about my son and how he sometimes must perceive the world. I know the times (when he started school) that we thought it would be good for him to be in a group setting to 'learn' the cues so to speak, we signed him up for group sports like net ball etc and he blankly refused to go. He wanted to stop steelpans because it was too noisy...as a parent and trying to find your way you tether between thinking he is just can't be bothered and saying, no problem. Now I totally understand him a lot better and I wish that (of course silly with regrets) that I hadn't pushed him, felt irritated, annoyed when these things happened... He is amazingly resilient and knows his own mind for which I am now grateful. But I can also see his confusion and stress around group settings. Aikido might be an idea as it has to be quiet. (although playing on his own he is one of the noisiest kids i know). I kind of get in a different sort of way that embracing him and his particular ways is the best way I can parent him.
With regards to nutrition, i have noticed that excluding gluten seems to help with minimizing frustration and anger. I am still learning about eating for good metabolism and how it fits into our daily lives.

 

[Fil72]

Group sports are confusing. . So many rules. So many people. So many skills. Gotta remember not everyone has athletic skills! Especially those gifted in the arts.

Just my observations.

Yep, i can see that he has a real issue with group sports and this would be why.