Conceptual Development and Indigenous Peoples - ADHD, the loss of Connection?

Conceptual Development

We are the words we know, they give us structure, they enable us to build understanding of what we experience in the world around us, they draw our attention to detail, to quality, to movement. When we are babies placing everything into our mouths we are picking up sensations, and as we begin to listen to the sounds around us, we hear language, and that language is symbol for what we interact with as our physical beingness here.

So, the sensing nature of us, is not of language, it is of sight and sound, and texture, form and shape building in conceptual awareness. Words help us to order the details of living in this physical world because words are concepts of reality.. Words are really a code. 

Perhaps, somewhere in time, the units of words as the individual sounds we make, were like that of a bat, sounding something to see how the sound bounced off the physical object of the environment around us. I think of this because of a documentary I recently watched about the Mama indigenous indians in South America. They would take a bead and drop the bead in a bowl of water to see how the bubbles moved, perhaps picking up other subtle things, doing this again and again, until they build an understanding of very subtle changes in movement  as they “ read” the reverberations of the world around them, thereby sensing change and how the physical world functions- like what is the difference on a cloudy day and a rainy day.

I also am asking myself this because I notice that when I play my violin, I find that humid days produce a different sound than dry days. This change in the instrument within the space happens in many ways. Each hall makes a different sound, the reverberations differ, and this will change once the hall fills up with people. I can remember the shock in the difference in sound at a rehearsal with an empty hall and the actual performance when the hall is filled with people. To note, even restaurants need soft objects, such as fabric,  to dampen sound, or the reverberation is so sharp that hearing someone directly across the table becomes difficult.

Back to words. Humans have developed language to communicate, and this is done with words. Not only do we need a broad vocabulary to communicate, we also use words to draw attention to subtle aspects that perhaps we did not notice because we exist with more separation from the natural world and are not taught the ways the structural systems men have created move and function in detail. Words have become the means to expand our conceptual development because they focus and consequentially enable the  means of  awareness of reality when clearly defined. Words, as vocabulary, can be used to integrate a physically directive referential memory that equalizes us to seeing directly, thereby eliminating limited choice making that ends up creating problems that take time to correct.

We know the first seven years builds a personality, and that the personality is the sum total of experience, of opportunity, of exposure. And since humans use language to communicate, the number of words we learn, and the unclear-values attached to the words determine our personalities, our characters, as the sum total of what we first take in about the world around us. This is also why so much effort is placed into education, because one can continue to learn and build, but it takes a great effort to do so.  After seven the child begins to reference the first seven year’s experience,  slowing down the direct seeing process that built that experience. This slows down the child’s processing ability because they are referencing something outside of reality.

If that cognitive map is limited, this means that the child not only has had little exposure, but also that their reference material is very limited. 

So, a child is in school, trying to piece together what is being placed before them, referencing their ‘ reference material’ as their experience, and, at the same time,  taking in new forms, new concepts. Depending on their understanding, they build - some faster than others. the ones who are faster, simply have more referential structure within, and thus more groundwork to reference and order the without determining how they self direct.  The number of words they know, and how clear the meaning of those words are, will determine their effectiveness at generating successfully, what is needed. I say this, because what is being delivered can be understood, and a sense of understanding can exist, but if the means to communicate, as having the language development, generating will not move effectively. Thus, knowing our words in this society determines not only the strength of our communication skills but also the ability to conceptualize and use common sense in life.  

If we are in lack in this ways and means of human interaction, then we become insecure because we cannot express ourselves to others, and this in itself builds insecurity which then can turn into self definitions of inferiority and behaviors of frustration. A self perpetuating downward spiral and a loss of potential.

Now, all of this has been going on for generations, thus a lack of understanding in this, because we are not taught this, yet intuitively understand this, means that we need help in making sure that ourselves and our children’s cognitive maps are clear, as the words we know. With  clear meanings for our words, and a broad and diverse content of words,  we can conceptually move directly in this world becoming confident and realizing we have the freedom to choose. The lack, in itself can become a distraction, limiting that innate ability to observe and order the world around us.

Because we learn so much through language, which is cool, we can build a cognitive map as the words we know, to expand our awareness and draw us to subtleties in this world that we might not have had the time to notice, given the way we exist.  Here words can order us and our understanding, and also expand our understanding, directing us to look in more detail. 

So, we can use words to form a stable cognitive map, the information that directs us physically as our behaviors, to ensure that we build a cognitive map that matches the physical world the child begins to map before they build their language skills. We ensure that the within is equal to the without. Then the child is stable.

Also, because of the plasticity of the human body, the brain’s ability to build neurons, we can order this development through the units as what words are, helping us to help ourselves, and we can use technology to do this. This really is like re-sounding ourselves through using words to structure ourselves. And we can focus ourselves from that ability, that initial building mechanism, as our ability to absorb and conceptually form awareness.  If our “referential memories’, our cognitive maps are clear, we have a superior memory, one that sees directly and enables us to have the freedom to choose, because we have the confidence to do so, understanding that we are the words we know. Techno Tutor is here to help us help ourselves!