Native American Intelligence - a difference defined.
February 27th 2008 21:58
Signature Tune
Native Americans were dancing, drumming and creating art before the left hemisphere dominant, European invasion imposed its ways.
A misunderstanding of the right hemisphere strategies being used by the Native American child can wrongly be attributed to verbal learning disability.
All samples of Native American tests showed lower verbal scores than non-verbal scores – an average of 76 on tests requiring language and an average of 96 on tests of non-verbal performance – a significant statistical difference.
Twelve studies of Native American children consistently showed definite pattern in the ranking of their abilities on twelve Wechsler Adult “Intelligence” tests. Their best performance was in Mazes which required them to draw paths through mazes within time limits. The worst was seen in Vocabulary subtest which required them to provide definitions of words. The ranking, in ascending order, was [1] Mazes [2] Object Assembly [3] Picture Completion [4] Block Design, [5] Picture Arrangement [6] Coding/Digit Symbol [7] Digit Span [8] Arithmetic [9] Similarities [10] Comprehension [11] General Information and lastly, Vocabulary.
As an illustration of brains found deficient by Normal standards, but showing extraordinary abilities in other ways, the 'savant' world is fascinating.
An 1862 newspaper article described the “blind, negro, musical genius Tom” who was born nearly blind, the 14th child of a slave and who could not speak, could scarcely walk and gave no other sign of intelligence other than an everlasting thirst for music. Tom had never been instructed in music or educated in any way but would perform for crowded music halls by playing what he had heard upon first trial. One piano performance included playing Fisher’s “Hornpipe” with one hand and “Yankee Doodle” with the other as he sang “Dixie”, all three at once. He also played a piece with his back to the piano and his hands inverted. When he was 7 years old his first year’s concerts earned him $100,000 and at age 11 he performed for President Buchanan at the White House.
In 1887 a man with “extraordinary memory but with a very great defect in reasoning power” read the entire book “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” and in a single reading imprinted it in his memory. He could then recite it word for word.
Martin A. could recall the entire nine volumes of Grove’s 1954 Dictionary of Music and Musicians. It had been read to him by his father, and the text would be “replayed” in his father’s voice.
As a boy J.D. showed phenomenally superior results on tests of line orientation, visual closure, and block design allowing him to complete a 500 piece jig saw puzzle in about 2 minutes.
Jedediah Buxton, “a simple minded laborer” who in 18th century England displayed an unbelievable memory and ability to calculate. When he was asked what would be the cost of shoeing a horse with a hundred and forty nails if the price was one farthing for the first nail, then doubled for each remaining nail, he arrived at the nearly correct figure of
725,958,096,074,907,868,531,6 56,993,638,851,106 pounds, 2 shillings, and 8 pence.
A fascinating EEG study was made of 16 bilingual Hopi children (in grades four through six) who were listening to stories read in Hopi and English. Right hemisphere involvement occurred when the children were listening in Hopi compared to the left hemisphere when they were listening to a story in English.
Music has been defined as “what emotions sound like” and offer an important avenue for communication. Dance movements involve the expression of ideas and emotions. Art is a form of expression that uses art materials such as paints, chalk and clay.
The teacher or counselor who attempts to gain access by knocking on the front door (education or treatment dependent upon language) but with no success should then try the side or back doors (education or treatment by non-language means). Any form of education or treatment based upon other populations that does not identify the avenues of entry of the unique Native American clientele will probably fail.
Adapted from an article written by Robert G. Owens, NativeTimes.com
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Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
This is a very interesting. My son's grandmother is Cherokee. I forwarded this post to her. I believe that it explains a lot about my ex-husband and son'g difficulties in school.
Mis