Iconix

Vision is the operating system of human consciousness, not to be confused with eyesight. We think in pictures, whole meaningful images from which we derive plans for action. Thought is vision and, vision is thought. Vision is the planning stage of behavior. If visually skilled enough, we predict, plan, and choose well. Iconix is a network of doctors, teachers, and parents whose mission is to help children learn to see, so they can predict, plan, and choose well.

Language is not thought, rather it is a description of, or transport system for vision. Traditional public and private schools have tried all manner of language-based instruction, while failing to appreciate its very purpose.

Iconix teaches photographic imagery and eidetic thinking skills that guide behavior in the physical and social world. Those same visual skills are also the basis of success in reading, writing, math, and extemporaneous speech.

The Iconix diagnostician is most interested in the thinking that precedes observable behavior. Our diagnosticians are best described as diagnosticians of thinking. One must change thinking to change behavior. Of course, thinking is invisible, so we must interpret thinking by behavioral observation. Nowhere is thought more evident than in the behavior of the eyes. Iconix diagnosticians are expert observers of the eyes, and the visual functions associated with them.

There is no purposeless behavior. Actions arise from innate reflexes, subconscious habituated pattern, or conscious choice, but never without purpose. Iconix diagnosticians understand discovering purpose of behavior is key. The big question is always the same, what are you doing in there? Our first job is to understand thinking, the invisible precursor of overt behavior. The wise diagnostician begins with a rather passive “watch and wonder” approach. We watch the subject behave and wonder about the invisible thinking that underpins it. We look at posture, gait, balance, muscle tone, and most particularly ocular behavior for clues about brain development, attention and thinking strategy.

The most revealing observations involve voluntary and involuntary movements of the eyes. The eyes are the mobile part of the brain. Iconix diagnosticians carefully observe the eyes to “see” the mind at work. The eyes reveal the mind. We watch our subjects as they look out their eyes. Vision is an efferent or outward process. While it is true that exogenous light is captured by the eyes, it is but a fraction of the endogenous light energy that flows form our consciousness through the brain to our eyes. We look out our eyes searching the world for patterns of meaning. How one looks reveals how one thinks.

Recognition of meaningful patterns is the mark of intelligence. Pattern recognition is a skill unto itself, that skill is called subitizing. This strange word comes from the Latin root subito, which means sudden recognition. It is a skill that can and should be taught as it is fundamental to all learning. Visual pattern recognition is our most powerful learning skill. The more patterns we recognize the faster and better we learn. The eyes react in certain ways when patterns are recognized. Iconix diagnosticians are expert in spotting ocular behaviors that reveal the mind.

Pattern recognition skills emerge hierarchically. One recognizes patterns in the present, then recalls patterns previously recognized, and finally learns to visualize potential patterns to predict and choose action. Expanding pattern recognition prepares each child to master the truly miraculous skill of seeing through time and space. Literally freeing the mind from Newtonian constraint.

Visualization, the vehicle of prediction, is thus the most precious of human skills. It is the skill that separates man from beast. It is the skill that allows choice and the culpability that comes with it. The learned ability to create lighted scenarios in the mind is the defining feature of each of us and is the vehicle by which our destiny is determined. We are and we become that which we envision.

Most educators and schools emphasize language, failing to realize that education is truly mastery of the visual mind. Visualization is the culminating skill of brain development. Children learn to see, plan and act through naturally rambunctious play. They need no training to play. Play is learning’s magic elixir.

Iconix uses natural play to teach predictive organization in space and time, one might say executive function. We use play to read the mind of others to learn social and relationship skills. The purpose of language is the transmittal of imagery. Visualized images form the basis of extemporaneous speech, reading, writing, and mathematics.

We understand and base our instruction on the hierarchical development of visual thought. Aligning instruction with developmental hierarchies yields better outcomes. It is an exciting time, as we are amid an explosion of brain science that has transformative potential for our educational woes. Old ideas like innate learning styles are not correct. One leans to learn. The good news is one can learn to learn differently. New brain science renders compensatory education obsolete. Visual learning is the powerful secret sauce of successful students, sub-vocalization the strategy of mediocrity, and sequential thought, the grist of struggle. Iconix has developed a program to help all students harness the power of photographic memory through pattern recognition within play to help students learn at the speed of sight.

Let’s consider the epigenetic fact that behaviors arise when the environment demands a response. The developing child calls on resources and skills developmentally available to meet demand. It is therefore important to understand the sequences and hierarchies of brain development to discern what behaviors might arise from demands at various stages of development. The brain matures, inside out, bottom to top, and back to front. The neonate first learns to move and respond to sensation, then seeks pleasure and emotionally responds to stimuli from the environment and from enteric signals inside the body. Finally, and much later, vision becomes the dominant sear of attention. Iconix diagnostic protocols probe each child’s development to assess their attention, behavior and learning patterns against experience and timing of maturation. Behavior is controlled first by reflexes, then pursuit of satiation and emotional bonding, and much later with the emergence of visual skill, choice. It is an epigenetic fact that behavior arises in response to environmental demand. The developing child calls on resources and skills developmentally available to meet demand. It is therefore important to understand the sequences and hierarchies of brain development to discern what behaviors might arise from demands at various stages of development.

Symbolic demand prior to visual development is an invitation to maladaptation. Vision must be deemed competent and dominant before introducing textual language. Until that time, the prescription is play, albeit strategic.

Play is the greatest learning behavior of all time.

Iconix instructors learn to plan so that students may play to learn.