It’s the holidays, and along with the fun comes a whole other set of stressors that may cause already inflexible children (and their families) to miss the magic. Why Does My Child Act This Way? A big snowstorm near one airport can cause flight delays and cancellations all over the country. While people got to their destinations eventually, this causes a great deal of anxiety and disruption to people’s lives, especially during the holidays. Just as air travel is dependent upon an organized system of flight patterns, our nervous system is organized around a system of reflexes. Primitive reflexes support…
Read MoreIt’s coming! It’s inevitable. So we might as well get on board and enjoy it! I love the winter holidays, but they do come with their own special set of challenges. For kids with learning challenges, the excitement of the holidays may be laced with anxiety. Schedules and activities at home and at school are different and often more frenetic than usual. This can be very unnerving to kids who depend on structure and routine to feel secure and in control. For those bright, creative, dyslexic students, the holidays open the door for all kinds of fanciful daydreams! Keeping…
Read MoreI can’t tell you how many times I hear this phrase! “We’re spending 4 hours a night in tears over homework. I’m at my wit’s end!” “I see how hard she tries, but no matter how much we study, she still fails her tests. I’m at my wit’s end.” “My son hates to read and gets stomachaches before school everyday. I don’t know what to do. I’m at my wit’s end.” Parents at their wit’s end over their child’s struggles in school feel alone. They feel like the only one. Relatives and friends often simply don’t understand. “He’ll grow out…
Read MoreI remember going to a “Haunted House” on Halloween when I was in the 6th grade. At one point, we were given peeled grapes in the dark and told that they were eyeballs. It was so deliciously creepy! What is it about that little thrill of fear that is so fun? Maybe it’s that we get to experience that little adrenaline rush while knowing deep down that the fear is temporary and not real. Fear causes our senses to elevate to high alert: Our pupils get large to take in as much light as possible. Our ears become hyper-sensitive to…
Read MoreHave you been to a pumpkin patch yet? When my kids were young, this was one of our favorite Fall activities. Such excitement and such a hard choice – picking exactly the right pumpkin! In addition to pumpkins and Breast Cancer Awareness, October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. I find that our dyslexic students are some of our most creative and talented students and at the same time, often the most angry and defeated when faced with reading and writing. In spite of good intelligence and strengths in many other areas, dyslexic students can be completely confused or overwhelmed by print. …
Read MoreDavid Letterman and Jay Leno both used to do “man-on-the-street” interviews. In spite of all kinds of documentation on the contrary, a “man-on-the-street” interview would reveal that many people equate a learning disability with low IQ. Parents with smart but struggling students see far too much evidence of their child’s ability to accept the low IQ theory. Learning Disability Defined: According to the U.S. government, “specific learning disability” means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen,…
Read MoreChris Botti is one of my favorite artists. When asked the key to success as a musician, he said, “Four things – Practice, Practice, Practice, and being friends with Sting!” It is generally accepted (and generally true), that if you want to be good at something, you have to practice, practice, practice. In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says that for someone to become really expert at something, they have to put in their ten thousand hours. When students have trouble reading, most people believe that more reading, more practice, will solve the problem. If only the student were more…
Read MoreI learned something this weekend. I was in New Hampshire and while I didn’t expect a foliage change yet, many people that we ran into were apologetic for the lack of colorful fall leaves. They sadly predicted that the leaf change this year would not be as good as expected because it is too dry. (They are apparently having their own version of a drought, which will affect the leaf change). Now I know this is going to be a bit of a stretch, but I thought about all the discouraged parents who tell me that their children are getting…
Read MoreLast week, I got to spend some time with a dear friend who is a third grade teacher. This friend was not only my college roommate, but is also a phenomenal teacher. School had already started for her and she was telling me about a little boy in her class who was the most delayed reader she had ever had in all her years of teaching. Though she has a lot of tricks up her sleeve and will do anything for her students, she did not know what to do for this one. She described him as having good understanding…
Read MoreWith Back-to-School excitement waning and the reality of the new grade level expectations kicking in, struggling students are probably starting to become apparent. The first and most obvious symptom of a learning challenge is poor attention. This may cause worried parents wonder if their child has ADHD. In our experience, attention challenges can mean many different things. Foundation for Learning and Attention Sitting in a chair, listening to the teacher, remembering and following directions, sticking with a reading or writing task through completion – these critical school skills, all require good attention. And attention requires a solid foundation of underlying…
Read More