ADHD / Anxiety Archives

Understanding Homesickness and the Power of Sleepaway Camp

July 19, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

In his book Homesick and Happy, child psychologist Michael Thompson discusses the importance of camp and other experiences where children spend time away from home as it relates to homesickness. Dr. Thompson explores all sorts of camps across the country with various specialties. He says, “There are eight fundamental things that parents want to do for or give their children, but cannot…”

We cannot make our children happy.
We cannot give our children high self-esteem.
We cannot make friends for our children or micromanage their friendships.
We cannot successfully double as our child’s agent, manager, and coach.
We cannot create the “second family” for which our child yearns in order to facilitate his or her own growth.
It is increasingly apparent that we parents cannot compete with or limit our children’s total immersion in the online, digital, and social media realms.
We cannot keep our children perfectly safe, but we can drive them crazy trying.
We cannot make our children independent.

I highly recommend this book to parents with children at camp, parents considering camp, camp directors, educators, counselors and camp alumni.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Digital Coaching

July 15, 2015 Leave a Comment

At My Learning Springboard, we pride ourselves on helping learners of all ages and experience levels. Whether you want to dream big with coding or inDesign, start small with Google Calendar, learn to edit video or pick the best reading apps for your child, digital coaching with our experienced tutors will help you and your family to create custom solutions for your digital needs. Or, learn to write your own technological solutions with one of our expert coding tutors!

Here are some examples of how our digital coaches can work with you:

Phone, Tablet, and Computer Set-up and Syncing

New computer? New phone? Struggling to stay on top of email communications? Our tutors are experts in iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, and PC software and can help you to get started on a new device, transfer files, sync information across multiple devices, or enhance your email management:

Email labels and filters
Calendars (including student and family calendars)
Contacts
Tasks (keep track of homework, assignments, and deadlines)

App Installation and Management

The right app can help you to manage your time, keep track of work, school, or fitness goals, and practice everything from vocabulary words to math facts. Our digital coaches can help you to set up a new device from scratch, select and customize the most effective apps for each member of your family, or just help you figure out what an “app” even is!

Photo, Video, and File Management and Organization

Now that you’ve taken all the pictures from your family vacation, what do you do with them? Work with our specialists to clean up your desktop and organize your files for easy access, and set up “Cloud” backups so you don’t have to worry about losing files if your computer crashes (Dropbox, iCloud, SugarSync, etc.).

Software Training

Create and edit your own videos, design your own website, simplify school assignments, or improve your web browsing experience by working with one of our digital coaches to learn:

Adobe Photoshop
Evernote
inDesign
Google Drive
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
Create digital student portfolios for college admissions
Web Browser and Extensions (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.)
How to launch your own website or blog

Computer Science and Programming

“I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer — because it teaches you how to think.” – Steve Jobs

Learn the essential skills of the 21st century and stay ahead of the curve with Computer Science and Programming instruction in these languages and more:

Intro to Computer Science and Programming for children (ideal for ages 8-13)
Learn about digital circuitry and electronics
Robotics (Lego Mindstorms)
Python
Java
JavaScript
C#
C
C++
PHP
R
Objective-C
TypeScript

Social Media

Blog, Tweet, Pin, learn how to post your latest song cover on Youtube, or up your social media influence with digital coaching using:

WordPress
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Pinterest
SnapChat
Youtube
LinkedIn

e-Readers and Assistive Technology

Think you know everything about your Kindle? Learn how to strategically use your e-reader and take advantage of hundreds of little-known features.

Or, work with our technology and special education teams to select, customize, and practice using assistive technology devices such as Kurzwell 300, LiveScribe, Dragon Naturally, Inspiration, and IntelliTools. E-readers and other assistive and adaptive technology tools can make an enormous difference for students with learning disabilities and reading disorders.

Contact us to work with a My Learning Springboard digital coach in one of these areas, or let us know what you want to learn and we’ll create a program for you!

Audition Success

July 9, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Imagine yourself in this situation: You’ve spent the past year or more shopping around for the school that fits you best. You’ve read promotional documents. You’ve visited campuses. You’ve seen theatres and recital halls. Perhaps you’ve met with a professor or taken a lesson with a voice coach. After a year or more of research and careful deliberation, you have your heart set on your dream school. Until now, you’ve been preparing your music, meeting with your voice teacher regularly, and feeling like you’re in good shape for audition season. But now that you’ve chosen a school and your goal is clearly defined, you begin to feel there is much more at stake.

The truth is that you’re right, but maybe not for the reasons you’re thinking. You may be thinking, “What if I’m not good enough?” or, “No matter how good I am, there will always be somebody better than me.” Though these are perfectly natural worries, they focus your attention on your weaknesses and not on your strengths.

This attitude forces you into “competition mentality:” thinking that you have to pull out all the stops, choose the most difficult repertoire so that you stand out… trying to intimidate the person who is waiting outside for their turn, listening to you through the crack in the door. You want to be sure that everyone will be impressed by all the amazing things you can do. If this is you, it’s time to look at things from a different angle.

Everyone likes to show off. If you’re a performer, it probably comes naturally to you. You’ve probably been saying, “Look what I can do!” from the time you could speak. An audition, however, is not the venue for “Look what I can do!” An audition is a venue for “Look what I can do well,” and for many of you, this is a game changer.

“Look what I can do!” puts you immediately into “competition mentality,” and leads to choosing repertoire that is “showy” but often poorly suited to your voice, your skill level, or your personality, which results in an immediate disconnect between you and the people you’re singing for, which is a bad way to start an audition.

“Look what I can do well!” puts you into “performance mentality,” replacing nervousness with relaxation and confidence. You focus on your strengths and you choose repertoire that showcases them. It clears your mind and allows you to make a genuine connection with your audience. The audition becomes a shared experience and allows you to show the panel who you are, not just what you can do.

Most people will walk into the room thinking, “Look what I can do!” If you learn how to walk into the room thinking, “Look what I can do well!” you’ll be more likely to make a great first impression that will carry through to the moment you walk out the door. You will feel proud of what you’ve done and you can go home, knowing, that whatever happens, you’ve given a successful audition.

By Alexandra Cohen-Spiegler, Private Tutor

Empathy and Understanding Other’s Perspectives

July 8, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Because children are so egocentric, it can be very difficult for them to see issues from other’s perspectives. This is important, not only for social skills development in children, but also for adult life. Teaching empathy to toddlers and preschoolers begins with teaching about feelings and teaching how to share and take turns. Reading books to children about feelings is one good way to do this. Also, talking about his or her feelings as they relate to real-world situations is effective. Asking questions like, “Are you feeling mad right now? Sad? Are you hurt?” is important. It can help a child identify and put words to their feelings. Then you can begin to translate those feelings to situations that involve others. For example, “Why do you think that little girl is crying? Does she look mad or sad? Is she hurt? Tired?” Also, encourage your children to ask other children if they are ok when they fall down or bump into them.

As they approach elementary age, asking why questions is appropriate. When they talk to you about a child at school that doesn’t listen or pushes, ask your child why they think he or she did that. Then, ask your child what they believe would have been a better choice or what he or she would have done. Discuss good choices and be sure to give positive reinforcement when your child makes good choices, shares, and uses words to describe feelings. Laying the foundation for empathy/understanding other’s perspectives early makes us more capable children, teens, adolescents, young adults, and adults. We are more effective in the work place because we are better able to problem solve, work on teams, and get along with others.

By Lauren Robinson, Elementary and Middle School Educator and School Counselor

Auditory Processing Disorder

July 7, 2015 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

In my work with children who have listening challenges, or Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), it can be difficult to understand how some kids can hear (that is, their ears themselves work fine) and how the brain can process the sounds correctly.

Auditory Processing Disorder, or, listening challenges

On November 9, 2012, The New York Times published an article called “The Science and Art of Listening” explaining exactly why listening can be so difficult for anyone — let alone children affected by auditory processing challenges!

Though the article doesn’t mention APD or listening challenges, it certainly applies:

You take in what you see at about the same rate as conscious thought. But you take in sounds about 10 times faster.
Imagine how overwhelming all these incoming sounds are for a child who can’t process them well.
“The difference between the sense of hearing and the skill of listening is attention.”
This makes me think of how kids who have APD can be misdiagnosed with an attention deficit disorder (ADD). We automatically assume a person who doesn’t, or can’t, listen is not paying attention.
“Hearing has evolved as our alarm system,” meaning we have automatic, knee-jerk reactions to certain sounds that we learn signal something important.

Perhaps that’s why kids with auditory processing challenges so often fall into heartbreaking, emotional meltdowns when they can’t understand in a noisy environment.

The best thing any parent, teacher, or caretaker can do for any child who struggles to listen is to understand how difficult listening really is. Most people can turn most environment sounds “off” (except for the alarming ones) and focus on what you need to hear without ever thinking about it. But most of us have also been accused of not listening. Perhaps we don’t always want to use the energy to focus our attention properly on someone speaking to us.

Children with APD can’t make their ears and brain work together in many situations, making them unable — not unwilling! — to listen.

All children have trouble with listening skills at time, and all children can benefit from parents and educators who help them develop them. But if you think your child struggles much more that his peers, please contact our office.

By Lois Heymann, Speech and Language Pathologist