Learning Challenges Archives

Explaining Learning Disabilities to Your Child

October 31, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

By Marcia Brown Rubinstein
Original Source: Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities

AT A GLANCE

How and when to tell your child about her learning disabilities depends on your readiness as well as hers • The “right time” is sooner rather than later, never in anger, and always in an atmosphere of optimism and confidence • Encourage ongoing discussions characterized by honesty, clear communication, reassurance, and an emphasis on her unique abilities.

As a parent, you must make sure that your child has the right information at the right time so that she can navigate her world with confidence. The same is true for information about learning disabilities.

Parents often agonize about telling a child that she has learning disabilities. But can you imagine not telling your child she has asthma because you don’t want her to feel funny using an inhaler to breathe?

Learning disabilities are just as real and just as disabling as biological differences. The sooner they’re addressed, the better the prognosis for a productive future.

FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE

In the absence of an explanation, your child will assume that she is stupid if she stumbles in class, struggles with assignments, and sees that others need less assistance to learn. If you haven’t educated her about her unique learning style before that happens, you’ve waited too long.

On the other hand, if you describe all the difficulties that may develop from a particular diagnosis, you may create a self-fulfilling prophecy. She may assume that she is incapable of learning anything, so why bother trying? In that case, you have disclosed too much too soon.

Is there a perfect time to inform your child about her learning disabilities? Of course. But the perfect time is different for every child, in every family, in every culture, in every setting, in every school, for every type of intellectual range, and for every type of learning disability.

So how and when should you begin to educate your child about her learning differences? The answer is simple: When you are ready, when she is ready, when the time is right, better sooner than later, never in anger, and always in an atmosphere of optimism and confidence. Following are tips to help you through the process.

Educate yourself about your child’s diagnosis and her assets and deficits before communicating the scope of the learning disability to her. In your discussions do not lose sight of her strengths and unique abilities.

Reassure her that she’s perfectly healthy, then explain her specific learning disability in detail suitable to her age and intellect. If she has dyslexia, for example, you may want to say that her brain works differently when she reads. If she’s been mixing up letters, point it out as an example of what happens with dyslexia. With older kids, prepare material for them to read and referrals to websites that explain their specific type of LD in language they can understand.

Tell her how you’re going to get help. Reinforce the fact that you and all family members will do everything it takes to guarantee her success. Share some examples of successful people with LD.

Explain tasks she’ll find easy to complete and ones that might provide challenges. Find support professionals to cover areas you cannot manage yourself. This includes emotional as well as cognitive issues.

Maintain an ongoing discussion about your child’s future. Discuss your expectations and hopes as well as hers. Make sure she knows that she can excel as long as she works hard. Don’t downplay the fact that there will be frustration along the way. Reinforce the fact that you and other family members will do what’s needed to ensure success.

Communicate clearly. Make sure your child understands everything you’re saying. Don’t hide behind jargon and clinical terms. Translate those into language she will understand. Help her apply the information in proactive, upbeat ways.
Compliment her often and sincerely. Self-esteem and resiliency are often fragile in a child with LD. Praise her lavishly, but make sure you mean it. Never give empty or gratuitous praise.

Get involved in your child’s school. There is nothing better than your active and obvious presence. You are your child’s primary educational advocate. Make sure that the teachers and administrators know you and know that you are overseeing her entire school program. Don’t find out too late that accommodations were not carried out.

Tell your child at least once every day, “I love you.” This advice works well for kids without LD too, but for those with LD, it’s as critical as food and shelter.

There may be few things more difficult than having these important discussions with your child, but if you get stuck, keep going back to No. 9. It’s more important than all the others combined.

Language Gap Study Reinforces Importance of Early Literacy

October 25, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

A recently published New York Times article, Language Gap Study Bolsters a Push for Pre-K, points to new research showing that the Achievement Gap starts even younger than previously thought– a language gap develops in children as young as 18 months of age. The research done by Anne Fernald, a psychologist at Stanford University, demonstrated notable differences in the abilities of children of that age to identify pictures of simple words, such as “dog” or “ball.” Children of wealthier families were able to identify these words much more quickly than children from low-income homes– and by age 2, the difference in number of words known had grown to 30%.

This research reinforces and provides further insight into the conclusions drawn by a similar study of almost 20 years ago, that found a marked difference in vocabulary in children of high vs. low-income households at age 3.

This research has important policy implications, and will hopefully lead to an increased emphasis on early childhood education and support for programs that promote early literacy. Literacy experts are quick to point out that the increased emphasis should not be on vocabulary and rote memorization; instead, “[they] emphasize the importance of natural conversations with children, asking questions while reading books, and helping children identify words during playtime.”

Both studies highlight the importance of parental conversations with children; parents play a critical role in helping children to build vocabulary, comprehension, and the ability to read and write.

So how can parents have a maximum impact on their children’s language development? Amy Shapiro and Laurie Gross have written a number of blog posts here on the MLS website about the best ways to build your child’s vocabulary, citing the earlier studies done on this topic.

In Building A Strong Vocabulary they provide tips for how to incorporate a rich and varied vocabulary into a child’s daily routine, from thinking out loud around a child, to reading aloud. Check out How Big Is Your Child’s Vocabulary? for more resources and information on the subject of early language development.

By Laurie Gross, Educational Consultant and Reading Specialist.

Finding the Missing Piece for Struggling Readers

October 9, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

What is Reading?

For fluent readers, it seems almost instinctual. Words are instantly recognized; stories come to life easily. But for those just learning how to read, it is a complex process that is anything but automatic.

The process of reading involves many visual and mental processes. In order to read and understand, students need a variety of different skills. These skills begin at the most basic level of associating letter symbols with sounds. Next, readers must recognize or decode whole words and understand the meaning of the words within a sentence. Readers must then string words together to understand a complete sentence within the larger context of a paragraph.

All of these processes occur at the same time and understanding can break down at any point in the process.

How can reading problems be addressed?

Students who struggle with reading often complain that they dislike it. Young readers often mask their difficulty with it by saying things like, “Reading is boring!” “This book is too easy!” “This is a baby book!”

The latest research about struggling readers, such as dyslexic students, states that these types of students need systematic, explicit instruction in order to build their sound and symbol recognition. Orton-Gillingham based approaches such as PAF are created to to help these students build vital, basic reading skills. Many explicit literacy programs such as these use simply illustrated or unillustrated texts so that students can fully attend to the print on the page, instead of relying on pictures for help. Programs like these can turn a student’s entire school experience around by helping them to build skills and confidence to tackle these decodable texts.

While explicit instruction helps students build confidence and skills, these students need powerful literacy experiences (such as read alouds) to supplement their instruction in order to build basic motivation to learn to read. Students need to learn that reading is a pleasurable and rewarding experience, and decodable texts are sometimes not enough to teach students this valuable lesson. These students also need to be exposed to literature that is more complex, advanced and in line with their personal interests in addition to working on decodable texts. Read alouds (at any age) help build fluency, comprehension the motivation to keep progressing. Book discussions about these read alouds help students think critically and develop an interest in reading.

Many factors can contribute to reading problems including a lack of background knowledge, phonics issues, trouble with comprehension, vision problems, processing delays, lack of vocabulary, or limited sight word vocabulary, among others. The more parents and educators understand the complexity of reading, the more adept we are at targeting our support to teach children to read.

Contact us to learn more and work with Orton-Gillingham trained Reading Specialists at My Learning Springboard to set up a plan to help your struggling reader.

By Joanna Brown, Reading Specialist

Make the Most of Reading Aloud

October 4, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

As early childhood teachers we often tell parents, particularly before their child is conventionally reading on their own, that the best thing that parent can do is read TO their child. For many families, this may seem obvious and they have been doing this since their child was a toddler, if not before.

But just reading to them doesn’t take advantage of the many ways their child could be learning even more. Comprehension is the goal, and the child will be learning this process when they begin to read on their own and work towards fluency.

There are ways the reader (parent) can enhance comprehension for their young learner by doing a few specific things, before the child ever receives explicit reading instruction:

Read the book yourself first. This allows you to be familiar with the story so you can ask informed questions of your child.
Have in your mind the questions you will ask.

Have your child:

Look at the cover first and predict what the story will be about.
During parts of the book where something particularly important happens, make a prediction of what will happen next in the story. They don’t have to be right. Revisit later in the text and examine the prediction’s validity.
How will a character solve a problem?
How is the character feeling right now?
Explain/paraphrase what is happening in this part of the story.
What happened at the end of the story?

At the end:

How did a character change or grow during the story?
Summarize the story. What happened?

Try to avoid questions that only elicit a yes or no response. The questions above encourage the child to stop and really think about the text, and even empathize with the character(s). It is beneficial when using both picture books and chapter books.

The conversations that emerge will greatly enhance comprehension and understanding, and of course, the same techniques will be just as important when the child begins reading on their own. Consider making it a practice of having “book talks” when sharing stories together.

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

The Five Keys to Unlocking a Successful School Year

September 24, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Executive functioning skills are essential to succeed in life. Certain executive functioning skills, such as time management and organization, help individuals in their jobs, daily chores, and day to day responsibilities. Students with a variety of learning challenges, such as ADHD, learning disabilities, or autism spectrum disorders, may have deficits in such executive functioning skills, which can, in turn, adversely affect the school experience. Although these deficits may seem insurmountable at times, there are ways to tackle them to achieve success.

As a new school year is beginning, high school faculty and staff, parents, and students themselves, are searching for systems to put in place to develop such executive functioning skills and to maximize the classroom learning experience. To help, here are New Frontiers in Learning’s Five Keys to a Successful School Year:

Start Off (and Stay) Organized:

Having a system for keeping track of all notes, papers, grades, homework, assignment descriptions, etc. is an important start to any school year. Some students find it helpful to have separate notebooks and folders for each class. In this case, all books and folders can be color coded and labeled for easy identification. Another method of organization is to use a single binder with separate sections for each class. Each section should be labeled and should contain loose-leaf paper for note taking. All papers and handouts for the class should also be added to the section on a daily basis. Whichever method is chosen, be sure to figure out which one works specifically for the student early on and encourage them to follow it consistently throughout the year. Organizing all papers and notes daily allows students to be able to find class materials more easily.

Budget and Schedule Time:

We all face difficulties managing our time; therefore, students should set themselves up for success by using and maintaining a daily schedule. This schedule should include all class names, locations, and times, plus any other outside responsibilities that the student may have, such as work hours, sports practice, family obligations, etc. By maintaining a weekly schedule, the student can keep track of not only unchanged repeated responsibilities (i.e., class), but also any one-time obligations for each week (i.e., concert, special afterschool group study session, etc.). Further, following a daily and weekly schedule makes it much easier to see where the student can build in study and homework times, as well as study breaks. Once a schedule is made, students should be encouraged to stick to it! Having a planner that has both weekly and monthly sections allows the student to clearly see and review short and long term expectations.

Ask for Help

Many times, students with executive functioning deficits have a difficult time recognizing when they need help, as well as identifying who and/or where to turn to receive help. Students need to review the help-seeking process in the beginning of each school year: If something is confusing, if they don’t know how to start or structure a project or assignment, or if they have any other questions about class requirements, students should be reminded to ask for help! Students need to understand that asking for help will not make them look bad; rather, it will actually show their parents, teachers, and other professionals that they care about the class and want to be successful. Students should review the protocol in asking clarifying questions; some teachers use the beginning or end of the school day, while others encourage students to email them. Once students know what their individual teachers prefer, they should be encouraged to follow such systems as a resource to clear up any questions that may arise!

Write it All Down

Have you ever told yourself that you didn’t need to write something down because you would remember it, only to struggle to remember what that very thing was just minutes later? You’re not alone – it happens to everyone, especially students taking multiple classes with various responsibilities. To prevent students from forgetting key information in class, they should be encouraged to write everything down – even the things that they think they will remember later. Writing everything down can be difficult sometimes, thus an alternative for students could be to audio record their classes or to use some form of assistive technology, such as a Smart Pen.

Setting Reminders

Having a system in place to help remind students of important dates is essential. Sometimes teachers announce due dates infrequently during a course, or due dates for assignments and exams may be outlined far in advance and then not discussed again. In such cases, it may be the day of an exam or an assignment being due, and the student begins to panic because they are not prepared! To alleviate this, students need to learn to set reminders in their daily planner or on smart phones –students can set a timer to go off several times as the assignment or exam due date approaches. Utilizing reminders can also help students remember when to start studying or when to begin an assignment, preventing the anxiety associated with cramming or unpreparedness.

By Samantha Feinman, Program Director, and Casey Schmalacker, Coach, from New Frontiers in Learning