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Three Ways to Start School Strong

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Most kids start school with the intention of having a great year but sometimes their intentions don’t match their actions and kids start to struggle.  After all, what kid wants to go to school and face hardship after hardship? Some kids struggle academically while others have social struggles.  Either way, these struggles can leave your child feeling frustrated, developing a negative school attitude, and interfering with your child’s performance. Consider these three ways to start school strong.

Know Your Child’s Teacher(s)

First, get to know your child’s teacher(s). This is especially important if your child has an IEP or 504 Plan because you want the teacher to know how to best help your child.  All parents should consider writing the teacher(s) a short letter explaining your child’s strengths and needs.  I was a classroom teacher and when I received letters from parents it helped me understand and support your child faster.  I knew if a child was a worrier, had math struggles, a history of bullying, as well as kids’ strengths.

Teachers also appreciate it when you volunteer your time or resources to help the class.  Teachers usually have copying, laminating, bulletin boards, and many other tasks that you could help them with. When you volunteer in your child’s class, you get to know the teacher and other students.  These opportunities can help you help your child by having the inside scoop.  Teachers also appreciate it when you donate materials such as copy paper, books, or supplies.  It seems in schools there is always a short supply of copy paper.

Build Your Child’s Mindset

Second, build your child’s mindset that he or she can do hard things with effort.  Teach your child to have grit which is sticking with a task until completion.  Notice the small things that your child does that took effort.  If it took effort for your child to pick up pinecones in the yard before it is mowed, comment on how he stuck with a task that was boring and took effort.  Ask him what he was saying to himself as he worked. Did he say, “This sucks” or “I can do it and I’m helping my mom.”  Hopefully the latter and then say, “Can you tell yourself that when you have a hard task in school?”

Routines Are Important

Third, create routines and seek proactive support.  Kids perform best when they have a predictable daily routine that includes being organized.  Establish a homework schedule, have a consistent place for the backpack, keep use technology to set getting ready in the morning reminders.  Having these reduces stress and saves time.  Finally, when you see your child struggle, contact a tutor, counselor, or skills coach such as www.BeyondBooksmart.com.

We can help you help find out why your child struggles and give real solutions to help. Call(561) 625 4125.

7 Steps to Help Reach His Potential

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As a parent, it’s frustrating to know (and most parents assume they know) that your child is intelligent but yet, in school, does not work up to what you perceive to be his or her potential. Parents become discouraged and call their child lazy, unmotivated, slacking, and other similar words.  When describing her son’s lower than expected grades a parent recently told me the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”   I agreed but responded with, “You can salt the hay.”  This means we can entice our children to perform better academically but ultimately the best drive to perform must come from within.  So, how do you help your child reach his academic potential?  It’s an ongoing process since your child did not spontaneously arrive at their current state overnight.  Of course, you must believe in your child, encourage and affirm their efforts, provide homework help, and be her advocate.

But how do you really help your child reach his or her academic potential?  Here are 7 steps to help you help your child reach his or her potential. 

Step 1.  Determine his or her potential through a comprehensive evaluation.  You can’t really know how hard to push your child without knowing where your child is at cognitively.  It could be like your car not performing the way you want it to and instead of looking under the hood, you just yell at it.  Open the hood, check out what’s really going on.

Step 2. Based on the evaluation, set up a realistic plan.

Step 3. Specify short and long term rewards as well as consequences.

Step 4. Explain the plan to other key players and obtain their support.

Step 5. Implement the plan.

Step 6. Evaluate the plan weekly.

Step 7. Adjust the plan based on the weekly feedback.

Repeat as needed. Often it’s helpful to have a counselor, therapist, etc. available as a
mentor to help you work through these steps. If you need ongoing help then one of my associates can help you with the process.  I can help you with the assessment to determine your child’s true potential.  It’s not as expensive as you think so call me to discuss your child.

If you like to read books to help you gain new insight, read Rick Lavoie’s book called “The Motivation Breakthrough.”  I especially like his advice on competition in schools.  You might enjoy it too.  He explains that many teachers say it’s good for school to be competitive because that’s how things are in the real world.  Rick argues that is not always the case because in the real world we only compete when we want to.  In schools a child can’t tell his or her teacher, “I’m not doing the class spelling bee.”  They are forced to compete.  He suggests parents and teachers have students compete to do their personal best rather than being the best. He has some other good points too.

 

Prepare for Your IEP Meeting or Else!

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Preparation is the key to success no matter what professional field, sport, or activity you engage in. The same holds true for IEP meetings. If you want to have a great IEP meeting then you must prepare ahead of time or else let the school tell you what is best for your child.  When I accompany parents to IEP meetings as a professional advocate I prepare ahead of time and don’t just show up to the meeting and try to wing it.  I learn about the child by talking to the parents, relatives, teachers, and reviewing pertinent records. I have to have a clear purpose for the meeting so that we can focus our efforts on getting a great IEP. 

You have to be prepared in advance since IEP meetings typically last between one and three hours. There is so much conversation and dialogue during these IEP meetings that it’s easy to lose focus of the purpose and your goal. I suggest you plan ahead so pull out a piece of paper and at the top of it write this statement down.  I believe the purpose or goal for this IEP meeting should be:___________________________.

 This clearly defined purpose will help you keep on track and ensure that the IEP members stay on task. These are common questions that you will be asked about your child during the IEP meeting. Consider these in advance so you are prepared.

What are your child’s strengths?

What motivates your child to learn?

What are your child’s areas of weakness? 

Have you found any techniques or strategies helpful in addressing your child’s weaker areas?

Do you have a goal or anything in particular that you would like your child to learn this year?

By taking the time to prepare for the IEP meeting now you are making an important stride in helping your child gets a great IEP.  At www.SeeMyIEP.com they offer parents expert IEP advice and a library of real IEP goals and IEP objectives that you can search to help you prepare for IEP meetings and get a strong IEP for your child.

Everything About Dyslexia

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All children with dyslexia can read some.  It’s surprising for some when they learn dyslexia is more of an auditory processing problem than visual processing problem.  Kids with dyslexia often don’t discriminate sounds well.  For example, say aloud the sounds /s/, /th/, and /f/ as in the words sing, thing, finger.  Those three sounds can sound similar.  This makes spelling difficult as well as reading.  The other area that kids with dyslexia have difficulty is in learning the sound to letter relationship.  For example, if I said sounds, can you write down the letters that go with the sounds?  Many kids with dyslexia can’t do this.  Furthermore, they may have difficulty with the letter to sound relationship.  So, the child with dyslexia sees the letter but does not know what sound goes with it.  He or she relies upon visual memorization of how a word looks.  That’s why some kids say the word truck or trunk when they read the word trumpet.  They over rely upon visual cues.  These kids usually “hit the wall” by fourth grade because they can’t memorize all the new vocabulary words being introduced. 

Warning signs of dyslexia in elementary students include: slow choppy reading, difficulty remembering the sounds of words, difficulty sounding out words, and poor spelling.  Warning signs of dyslexia in older students include: unable to learn a foreign language, difficulty remembering what was read, slow reading, difficulty telling important information from unimportant details, spells poorly, and when speaking, has difficulty finding the correct word.  These warning signs do not go away and get worse with age.  Children as young as age 5 ½ can be evaluated for dyslexia. 

Dyslexic children can learn to read well if they have the correct instruction.  Unfortunately, most public schools do not teach children using Orton Gillingham materials and instead use ‘whole language’ teaching.  I can evaluate your child and let you know if he or she has dyslexia and also which reading program will work best with your child.