The Gift of Learning focuses on proven methods for correcting three basic learning difficulties children and adults experience, beyond problems with reading. It provides specific, additional tools to supplement the detailed instructions in The Gift of Dyslexia for addressing reading problems. Parents and teachers who have been working with students using the Davis® reading techniques will find that this new book provides additional exercises they can use to improve other basic learning skills.

Orientation for Everybody

Disorientation in one form or another is a major factor that prevents students from learning efficiently. The Orientation Counseling Procedure fromThe Gift of Dyslexia is repeated in The Gift of Learning, along with an alternate procedure called Alignment (or Focusing), which is geared for use by students who learn better kinaesthetically, or who are younger than seven or eight.

Motivation & Responsibility

The main prerequisite for success with the Davis Methods is a willingness to participate. The student must want a meaningful improvement in life skills. In the new book, Ron Davis discusses how to uncover an individual’s own perception of the problem and help the student see a potential solution that will instil motivation.

ADD and ADHD: a drug-free solution

The Davis Methods have produced dramatic improvements in attention span, behaviour, and study skills without the use of drugs. Ron Davis discusses how disorientation affects both the “hyperactive” and “daydreamer” varieties of ADD. The Energy Dial exercise is presented as a way students can adjust their energy levels to different situations.

Maths: Numbers vs. Numerals

Understanding the difference between numbers and numerals explains the link between reading dyslexia and maths problems (dyscalculia). A student can easily see that there are four of something (a number), but doesn't automatically make the connection with the symbol 4 (a single numeral). The new book presents twenty exercises, mostly done with clay models, that allow a student to learn maths in real-world terms. Then, numerical symbols and arithmetical functions are introduced one at a time until the student learns to solve problems using pencil and paper.

Legible Handwriting: Dysgraphia

Ron Davis discusses various possible causes for illegible handwriting and presents procedures to correct most of them once the student is able to achieve orientation easily. Besides pencil and paper, the exercises use clay models, "giant" writing on poster paper with a marker, and tracing paper to copy handwriting models.