Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids » Auditory Process Disorder

How Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids Can Help Your Child

colleen — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:23:04 +0000

I am often asked to explain what brain training means relative to helping your child be able to learn easier and more efficiently. I often find myself listing out the many benefits that your child can experience. For example, your child will be able to remember more with better imagery and recall the information faster, concepts whether imagery or auditory based will be understood, manipulated and ordered with much greater ease and organization.

Taking tests and studying will become much easier and less anxiety-driven as your child begins to transfer skills back into the classroom. Following your multi-step directions at home will be completed when asked without multiple requests to repeat the information. Your child will be able to follow along in class better and become a more active participant in the overall learning process.

Let’s not forget attending, focus and less fidgeting will be experienced. While this sounds wonderful, I do point out to parents that the joy and life-changing events do not stop there. As your child’s brain continues to dynamically change to the environment, cognitive skills and processing abilities will strengthen even more. Even though we all know that the magic pill, one-stop shopping, does not exist, brain training comes pretty close.

Why? Because, when you provide your child with a stronger foundation and capacity to learn, your child’s horizon has just expanded. Where your child may never had interest in reading before, books are now curiously interesting.

Usually, at this point in the conversation I would begin discussing the “How Can This Be Accomplished?” question. All of this wonderful changes in your child is possible because of the Theory of Neuroplasticity.

“Santiago Ramon y Cajal (a founder of modern neuroscience) expressed this theory in 1894, three years before Charles Sherrington coined the term synapse to describe the connections made between neurons. In the late 1940s the neuroplasticity model was advanced by Jerzy Konorski, who used the word plasticity to describe “permanent functional transformations,” and Donald Hebb, who ascribed testable physiologic characteristics to synaptic plasticity. However, experimental evidence that synapses are capable of long-lasting changes in synaptic strength did not come until the early 1970s, when Timothy Bliss and Terry Lomo described an increase in the synaptic strength of neurons in the mammalian hippocampus (a region of the brain critical for some forms of memory) following electrical stimulation. They termed this increase long-lasting potentiation, now referred to as long-term potentiation (LTP).” (novelguide.com, 2011)

The best part is that you can accomplish a stronger foundation and cognitive skills within 90 days in most cases. For example, I often recommend that while you are still getting “educated” on my site to start out with a home-based program that can be completed with a computer and internet connection.

BrainSkills and BrainWare Safari can begin the whole process of neuroplasticity and strengthening your child’s capacity to learn, remember and process by working the program 3x a week for 30 min. Then, if you even need more intensive brain training and help with transferring the new skills into everyday life and the classroom, you can work with me in-person.

ELS4KIDS Rhythmic Entrainment Intervention (REI) Provider

colleen — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:36:51 +0000

Get the FREE Replay of Monday, Septemeber 27th at 7pm EST when she interviewed CEO/Creator Jeff Strong of the Strong Institute (REI). Colleen and Jeff discussed REI, what is is, its benefits, who does it work for, how does it work and more.

Replay of the call is available to those that register. Once you enter your email, you will receive access to the download link of the replay.

Colleen Bain is now a provider of Rhythmic Entrainment Intervention (REI) which is a completely non-participatory program. This means you can play the cd while your child sleeps and get results, if you so choose.

REI uses Rhythms and not frequencies so it is not anything related to Tomatis or AIT. The goal is to help a person's ability to function; helping the sensory processing system better organize itself.

The program helps the brain be malleable and able to handle a variety of input. This program compliments OT, Speech Cognitive-Behavioral, and Brain training programs.

The program is also extremely helpful for children with sensory, anxiety, ADHD, oppositional and more. Read below and if you are interested in working with this program now, set up a free 30 min. consult with Colleen to see if your child qualifies.

The program protocol works with CD #1 for 3 weeks to synchronize your child's brain and prepare for CD 2. CD #1 is only 20 minutes long. Then weeks 3-8 are CD 2 which is only about 20 min. in length. I am working with a few families to help them through the REI program and gather my own data on to how much cognitive, social and other changes will be seen.

The program extends into Level 2 CDs when your child is ready. The cost is the same as program level 1 = $495.00. Some families can work with REI beyond 3 months – it really depends on the child and whether the family wants to continue or not to build beyond the initial program goals.

The REI Custom Program™ is a custom-made auditory program that you play once a day in your home. This unique program is designed to provide positive gains in the areas that are identified from your answers in the comprehensive intake form. These may include (but are not limited to):

Language and communication skills
Hyperactivity and impulsivity
Self-stimulatory and self-abusive behaviors
Oppositional behaviors
Sensory processing
Learning abilities
Attention and focusing
Social skills
Aggression
Anxiety
Mood
Sleep

CASE STUDIES FOR REVIEW

Chronic Pain Case Studies ( http://www.stronginstitute.com/resources/article/12 )
Anxiety Disorder Case Studies ( http://www.stronginstitute.com/resources/article/17 )
Sleep Disorder Case Studies ( http://www.stronginstitute.com/resources/article/18 )
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) Case Study ( http://www.stronginstitute.com/resources/article/29 )

If you are interested in getting started, contact Colleen today as your REI provider and she will help you with your intake process. There are child and teen intake forms available. Adult forms available upon request. Programs are ready for you within 2 days, generally, after the intake has been received by the Strong Institute.

P3 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

colleen — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:00:48 +0000

This week we discuss what to do if you do not know how to help your child with the subject matter causing stress. For example, with math, you may be a math wiz but your child's school is teaching math a totally different way than how you learned math. To add to this complexity, your child must show their work exactly how the teacher is teaching them.

This leaves quite a few challenges for parents, right? On one hand you are a math wiz and on the other hand, you cannot help your child due to the new math being taught in schools today.

So, here is what you can do. First watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8aW4YuFSiY&feature=related and chuckle a bit to understand it is not just you. Many parents are in the same situation. Their child is struggling but cannot be helped by a parent because the parent was not taught this method.

Next, if you are really that stuck with the new math, search youtube for your child's curriculum. The name on your child's textbook/workbook/journal will let you know what to search for on youtube. Then you can refine your search for specific concepts being taught with the new math approach.

Everyday Math Lattice Method – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29XL99qM6s
Everyday Math Division – partial quotient method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWstA8EZr2w

If after viewing the video, the math still seems way too foreign for you, let your child take a look at the video or corresponding videos. The videos may do the trick and help your child internalize the concept and process easier.

If you still have difficulty after looking at these options, I would look for a tutor that knows your child's curriculum or your child's teacher may be able to tutor before/after school.

Remember, your child could be having math difficulty because of weak cognitive skills!

Please do yourself and your child a favor and purchase the online assessment today. You will get immediate results on the screen and understand exactly why your child is struggling with homework and what options you can take to help your child overcome the weaknesses.

Even if you do not opt to overcome the weaknesses, you will be armed with many "AH HA" moments to better manage the daily homework sessions. Stay tuned for next week's continued article on homework meltdowns and strategies to overcome them.

P3 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

colleen — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:00:48 +0000

This leaves quite a few challenges for parents, right? On one hand you are a math wiz and on the other hand, you cannot help your child due to the new math being taught in schools today.

So, here is what you can do. First watch this http://youtu.be/Vetg7vWitTU and chuckle a bit to understand it is not just you. Many parents are in the same situation. Their child is struggling but cannot be helped by a parent because the parent was not taught this method.

Everyday Math Lattice Method – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29XL99qM6s
Everyday Math Division – partial quotient method http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWstA8EZr2w

If you still have difficulty after looking at these options, I would look for a tutor that knows your child's curriculum or your child's teacher may be able to tutor before/after school.

Remember, your child could be having math difficulty because of weak cognitive skills!

P2 Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

colleen — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:07:15 +0000

Last week I gave you some ideas for those families in crisis mode with dealing with homework meltdowns. The number one takeaway from last week is to be proactive, manage crisis situations and get your child's emotions down and under control.

Your child most likely will not be able to tell why they cannot do their homework and asking them, "Why can't you do this if you just learned it today in school?" will just make your child more anxious and feeling less than successful. If your child's emotions start to get out of control use the "I" statements.

As a parent, when you want to confront the situation (make it go away, right?) try working with a statement that acknowledges your child's feelings. Try using "I know doing homework that is difficult for you must not be fun. Take a 15 minute break and then we will try it again." That type of statement will bring your child's emotions down and avoid the homework meltdown. More importantly, it will let your child know that you support them.

You are saying and offering a break statement if the homework meltdown is about ready to explode and happen in real time because your child's emotions are at the tipping point. However, while your child is taking that 15 minute break, you as the parent are preparing for the homework session when your child returns.

Now you can begin to observe your child's learning preferences – styles that lead to successful learning. Doing so will lead to the phasing out of breaks because your approach to homework will not include meltdowns.

Remember, as a parent, your goal is to get your child to complete the homework. By helping your child "experience" that they can in fact do the work they are becoming more confident, stronger and as a family you are beginning to realize the power within yourselves to breakthrough (anything, really).

You will help your child experience success by completing homework using an approach that keeps their attention, for now. Remember, I am a brain trainer (a.k.a. Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapist) so I will do my best to have you help your child strengthen all cognitive skills so they can learn in a variety of ways.

Just recall how many times you "told" your child that it is okay, you can do it. Nothing proves how strong and powerful we are than when we "experience" this firsthand.

Your goal, with my help, is to discover which learning style is your child's preference for learning. Then, you will help your child "experience" just how capable of a learner they really are without much help from you.

When your child's learning style preference is discovered, then use of this style for homework along with strategies, is what your basic learning center asks thousands of dollars for from you to help your child. You can do the same thing with your children if you know how to do it.

The difference with working with me, in-person or online, is that I help "you" help your child strengthen all skills for learning and processing along with creating new pathways. Your child can learn with any style whether it be visual, auditory, etc. Your child will have the edge over other children, yes, but your child will experience a transformation.

This whole process, my passion for doing what I do, isn't about helping a child learn to learn. I do what I do because it is about helping each child and family that I work with realize that they can live their dream with a bit of hard work, support from family/friends, faith and hope.

When I take families through my process and the child comes through the other side, the child has transformed academically but more importantly an internal journey has happened. Your child will have had a breakthrough in their belief system.

That is the first step of any lifelong change. The child and family will always look back on their time with me and realize they did it, not me.

The child and family did this successful transformation. They will realize that from their heart, comes their belief and feelings which then drive their thoughts and actions in their life.

Here is something I want you to work on for those children that do not like (start to shut down and get frustrated) working with worksheets/workbooks. When your child takes out their worksheet or opens their workbook to a page for homework, let your child take a break while you "convert" this homework into their preferred learning style. Remember, this extra work goes away after brain training with me.

For children that prefer to get involved using a whiteboard, per se, this is your time to get a whiteboard for yourself and your child along with an eraser / markers. Your job is to first write out an equation from the worksheet and then request your child to complete the equation on the extra whiteboard.

You can also complete this using a computer, too. Visit http://www.imaginationcubed.com/ for a FREE online whiteboard you can use with your child via the internet.

If your child appears, through your observations, to have difficulty with recognizing operational signs, use a different colored marker for each part of your equation. Perhaps, Blue and Green for each of the addends (if addition) and red for the operational symbol "+".

The above example will work nicely for children who understand the concept being worked but may be in overwhelm and unable to work on a worksheet request. Additionally, this approach works when there are too many equations on the worksheet for your child to focus and gets overwhelmed easily.

Have fun with this and let your child be the teacher and you be the student! Let me know how this works out for you and your child!

Remember, you still have time to strengthen your child's cognitive skills. But first, find out which skills need to be strengthened. My summer sale with BrainWare Safari is still active for only a few more weeks!

Back-to-School Homework Meltdowns and How to Overcome Them

colleen — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:00:21 +0000

Well, it is almost back-to-school for our children. Some schools will be opening doors in August across our country. Others will start after Labor Day. The one thing they all have in common is homework. For those students who do get homework, this can be the most stressful time of the day. For families dealing with these students, this can be the time of day that you wish never occurred.

Moms will find themselves up against a child that presents like an oppositional one. Moms and/or dads will raise their voices, some will challenge and yet others will flat out punish their child that presents oppositional towards homework time.

Although parents can google and find hundreds of articles about homework time. All of the articles will most likely tell you how to set up an area for your child to do homework, void of distractions, be sure to have ample supplies in this area, set up a routine for your family and most of all, have patience.

What these articles won't do is help you survive and even overcome the horrid homework sessions. In fact, homework sessions will become independent and fun. Does that sound like a dream to you?

We will begin exploring homework sessions, why they are challenging for some and down right avoided – at all costs – by others. You will begin to understand and even manage your child's homework sessions to eventually lend to overcoming them.

Let's begin. This is week 1 of several week's of pertinent information that will help you, as a parent, take more responsibility towards your child's learning and homework.

For those parents in desperate need of surviving homework sessions, I want to give you some compensatory strategies to keep you moving forward and getting the homework sessions completed while you are learning how to overcome them.

Step 1: When your child begins to avoid homework and procrastinates in starting the homework until the very last possible moment, you need to understand that there is a real reason other than avoidance of homework at play here. Unless your child is perfectly fine, even gifted, and is bored with homework, your child is most likely avoiding it because it is difficult.

For now, your end goal as a parent is to get the homework completed with as little stress as possible while gathering as much information from your child as possible. You will become a detective, skilled at observing your child's mannerisms and responses when working through homework together.

For students that are older and refuse to even allow you to observe, you need to negotiate with them to get your answers. Literally offer them a free pass at something in return for writing you a list of 10 things or less that you hate about doing homework. If you get this much from them, you are off to a great start!

For younger students who will gladly let you sit with them or at least observe them attempting homework, your job is to observe and watch for the following behaviors:

For math homework
- observe if the homework is on a worksheet or in a workbook
- observe how many equations/problems are on one page
- observe when your child's frustrations start —
  - does your child get frustrated when the page is presented?
  - does your child get frustrated after starting on the page of work?
  - does your child get frustrated while involved in showing the work to solve the problem?
  - does your child get frustrated if you begin to "talk" them through the problem?
  - does your child only get frustrated on word problems (maybe trying to read/understand them)?
- For managing the frustration - observe any change in your child's behavior when you
  - only show one equation at a time by covering up the page with extra piece of paper
  - use a whiteboard to actively engage your child to solve the problem using a marker and eraser (its like playing but uses different cognitive skills)
  - use manipulative to actively engage the solving of the problem (helps your child visualize what the problem is asking)
  - use a number line on the table for those students who have not mastered number facts yet (alleviates memory and/or processing speed weaknesses)
  - provide your child with down time during the homework session (allow your child to work for 10 minutes, if possible and then break for 10 min)
For spelling homework
- observe if the spelling words are on a worksheet, word ring or in a textbook
- observe how many words your child is being requested to memorize and spell
- observe when your child's frustrations start–
  - does your child get frustrated when you start "asking" how to spell a word?
  - does your child get frustrated when looking at the list of words to remember?
  - does your child get frustrated when trying to "verbalize" the spelling of the words?
  - does your child get frustrated when "listening" to you read words and often asks you to repeat them?
  - does your child get frustrated when having to "write" the spelling words on paper?
- For managing the frustration- observe any change in your child's behavior when you
  - only show one word at a time by covering up all the other words on the page using an extra piece of paper
  - use a whiteboard to engage and play a game — play hangman, for example using the spelling words
  - use index cards and make 2 cards of the same word. let your child play matching game
  - use a computer and have your child type the correct spelling of the words
  - have your child close their eyes and use skywriting – they use their finger and point to each letter in the sky in the word in the correct order as they spell the word.
  - have your child use different colored ink for each letter of the word when writing it on paper (if allowed by teacher)
  - have your child throw a ball to you as they spell the word out loud

Just understand as a parent, there are many ways that you can manage the homework session successfully while improving your relationship with your child, too. Once you can find a way to lessen the frustration, stick with that approach for now. The homework gets done correctly and neatly while the two of you are having a blast.

It is a matter of knowing what to do and what not do under certain circumstances. It is also very important to understand what weak skills your child is suffering from so you are well prepared before homework sessions resume for the upcoming school year.

What’s involved in Testing for Dyslexia?

colleen — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:00:07 +0000

Dyslexia is thought to be a learning disability, but what you need to know is that’s not true. There is a revised definition that came from the International Dyslexia Association and they define Dyslexia as a neurologically-based disorder that interferes with the acquisition and processing of language.

Many people think there is a simple test that can be administered to your child and within a few minutes a Dyslexia diagnosis can be returned. Unfortunately that’s not the case. There are between 10 and 12 tests that must be conducted before a decision can be made.

Dyslexia is not something a school can diagnose due to the lack of training. It’s not a law that schools test for this so you may find the school will give you several excuses for not testing. You may hear them say your child is too little, they have a learning disability, it’s a medical problem, or there is nothing wrong.

With that said, it’s a good idea to find a licensed and certified Brain Trainer that can provide an online assessment for your child. The assessment will highlight all of the main cognitive domains needed for learning and reading which cover Dyslexic Symptoms.

The test will cover the following areas.

Memory (Auditory, Visual, Long and Short-Term)
Auditory Processing
Visual Processing
Phonological Awareness (Word Attack)
Auditory Blending, Segmenting and Analysis

One thing to remember is it doesn’t matter how old your child is, you need to get them the help they need now. This allows your child to move on in life with the ability to learn and function in the world.

It’s important for you, as the parents, to not give up when you feel your child has Dyslexia. That’s the worst thing you can do for your child. Give them the help they need. They’ll thank you for the rest of their life when you do.

Do you know what Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome is and who it affects?

colleen — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:00:15 +0000

Have you ever seen a person that has rapid eye movement? It looks like their eyes are jumping all over the place like they are dancing. This person may have Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome.

Opsoclonus is defined as an unusual disorder of eye movement. This is where the eyes involuntarily dart around and Myoclonus is defined as short muscle jerks and “ataxia” indicates lack of coordination. 1 in 10 million children are diagnosed with this disorder every year. The statistic support this being a rare chronic disorder.

We currently only have less than a handful of doctors looking into the cause and treatment of the disorder. We have one doctor in Illinois and another in California. there are other doctors that receive protocol from these doctors and then treat accordingly. There are other doctors that are working on their own theories of OMS, publishing studies and such. However, to this day, there is no known definitive cause and thus no known definitive cure.

There are a number of things that will bring out the symptoms in a person that has Opsoclonus-Myoclonus. Most times movement of any kind worsens the symptoms. You may see the arms, fingers, head, upper body, or eyelids jerk around. When the illness reaches its peak stage, you’ll find it’s impossible to stand or sit. Anxiety and stress are major factors and will cause the symptoms to worsen. Treatment is extremely important.

This illness affects both adults and children, but it presents itself in a completely different way. Most times in adults, they appear to have mental problems where as children will appear to have anger problems, they may be lethargic, or they may look and act like they’re nervous.

There are a number of things that can cause Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome. They can appear separately or together the causes are more specific and known. The two most common causes are infections and tumors. While there are other causes, they are very rare.

Most times when an infection is the cause, the patient may appear to have flu-like symptoms. Most times when an Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome diagnosis is given through an infection, a tumor will be diagnosed later. The tumor is a neuroblastoma. This is important to remember and the doctor should not rule out a tumor until tests are completed.

Tumors are usually found in the chest but it’s not out of the ordinary to find them in the pelvis or abdomen on occasion. Now you may wonder how a tumor in those areas can cause brain problems and that’s a good question. Research is being conducted right now, but there are a couple of thoughts on this.

One of the most commonly expressed theories is an autoimmune illness. The child with OMS receives an acquired brain injury. Why? The brain and the tumor are almost identical in tissue/cells and the immune system can’t tell them apart. The only problem with this theory is there are a number of questions regarding the presentation. The docs don't know the exact cause of the brain injury yet — how and why exactly the antibodies are traveling up the spinal cord, crossing the brain barrier and attacking the brain stem and cerebellum.

Serum antibodies would be another theory that is diagnosed through lab testing. The doctor needs to test for anti-brain antibodies and abnormal white blood cells. These tests are done through blood work and spinal fluid.

Now you may wonder since there isn’t a lot of information about this illness, how do you treat it? Depending on the location of the tumor, if it’s at all possible, it should be removed in children. Now in adults it’s not recommended because it’s possible the symptoms will get worse. The challenge with treatment protocols beyond a tumor is that insurance won't always cover the treatment and the medicine can cost upwards of 10,000 – 50,000 a month for years. Sounds crazy right? Well, it is.

There are aggressive treatment protocols available depending on how acute the OMS is within the child, the child's age, onset and more. You can get more details on treatments by visiting http://omsusa.org/.

Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome can be found in both children and adults. It causes rapid eye movement and is usually caused by an infection or a tumor. Treatment is difficult at best and needs to be thought about before a decision is made.

As a mom of a child with OMS, I am trying every day to help spread awareness to avoid a delayed diagnosis and to raise funds for research. OMS awareness is crucial so doctors will not delay in diagnosing and limit brain injury. OMS will cause cognitive issues that are able to be helped tremendously through brain training and proper methodology/pedagogy.

OMS Awareness can be found at http://rhythmoflife.homestead.com/Awareness.html.

The International OMS Support Network can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OMSFamilies

Visit our foundations for OMS Research

http://www.chaseaway.org/

http://www.omsresearch.org/

http://rhythmoflife.homestead.com/runningforzoe.html

OMS Awareness Videos

Living with OMS – Soham's journey with OMS from mehul joshi on Vimeo.

Activities – Book Through the Summer

colleen — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:00:37 +0000

Summer is a wonderful time for kids. Not only do they get a well-deserved break from their busy school schedule, but they get time to reflect, grow, and experience. Whether your child will be attending camp, staying home, or going to visit family or friends, it's bound to be memorable! To keep those memories alive forever, help him create a summer book that encourages writing practice over his three-month break.

Writing Process Review:

Brainstorming: Includes thinking, taking notes, talking to others, outlining, and gathering information.
Pre-Writing: Putting your ideas into an outline or using a graphic organizer.
Draft: The meat of the writing, in which you include the ideas and thoughts from brainstorming and pre-writing.
Editing: The re-reading of the story. Does it make sense? Are all of the details included? Is the grammar, punctuation, and format all correct?
Revising: Correcting, changing, or adding to your writing from the edit stage.
Final Copy: Writing the whole story with edits and revisions complete.

What You Need:

Rough draft paper (lots of it)
Final draft paper
Construction paper or card paper for book cover and back
Pencils
Illustration tools (they choose)
Dictionary/Thesaurus

What You Do:

Help your child pick out a quiet spot to focus on his writing. He may already have a place designated to do homework, but as it's summer, how about sitting outside under a tree?
Encourage him to brainstorm a topic he's excited about. He may choose a subject or setting that he's experiencing quite a bit this summer. Is he spending time at the beach? Summer school? Focusing on learning a musical instrument? Once he has a topic picked out, sit with him and discuss his ideas and thoughts. Be enthusiastic about his choice and encourage him to get as many ideas down on paper as possible. This is brainstorming! He can organize them later.
From this point, your child can start outlining his story and deciding what he wants to include. What happened first, next, and last? Where, and when, did the events occur? This is the pre-writing stage, so he can jot down ideas in the form of notes, or even sketches.
Next, have him write his story. Encourage him to include as much detail, description, and personal touches as possible.
When he's completed his first draft, have him read it to you. You should ask questions about the story, such as, “What happened at the lake when Joe Doe fell in the duck pond?” "Why did Jason act that way?" Encourage him to reflect on what went on behind the scenes.
Using the dictionary, thesaurus, and a good listener for grammatical structure (indent paragraphs, use of capitals, punctuation, parts of speech, and spell correctly), have your child edit this story for the final draft.
Next, have your child apply his corrections and revisions to the final draft, making it ready for publication!
Upon completion, invite your child to include some illustrations, making drawings to go with the writing or using photographs they took that go with the story. The more original and creative, the better!
Once bound, share with friends, family, and classmates upon returning for a new school year. Your child's summer book will be a great ice-breaker for making new friends and having something to talk about with old ones, too!

submitted by by Alicia Danyali
Alicia Danyali, BS Elementary Education, taught primary-level students for four years at the International School of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The last four years of her teaching career, she taught at the Washington International School in Washington, D.C. She recently completed writing a series of children's picture books and is a mother of one young son.

http://www.education.com/activity/article/Summer_Book_fifth/

Is your Child Struggling with a Learning Disability?

colleen — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:00:06 +0000

Even the brightest students and the ones that score very high on an IQ test may have problems reading. Some may thing they’re stupid because they can’t read, but if you look at the tests and their grades in other classes, you’re sure to see this is far from the case.

If you think your child has dyslexia, then you know how hard it is to have this diagnosis achieved. Most schools don’t know how to test for this and they certainly don’t know how to help children overcome this issue.

In 1925 a gentleman by the name of Samuel Orton created a system that would help these otherwise bright children become better readers. This program is still used today, but only in select schools. Most times it’s used in a one-on-one setting and in private schools.

Dr. Orton wanted to find a teaching method that would use both the right and left brain. Grace Fernald was a psychiatrist and she created a kinesthetic approach that included air writing and word tracing. While using these writing styles the child would say the words out loud.

Phonics is also something that is important in this practice. Phonics is basically sounding out the words one letter or sound at a time. Once the child has learned the sounds of each letter and combination of letters it will become easier for them to read and write.

The program is called Orton-Gillingham and Anna Gillingham helped him create the 70 phonograms that are used today. There are 44 phonemes (sounds) that make up the English language. This program helps children to learn these sounds and remember them.

There are five steps to achieving the Orton-Gillingham program are listed below.

1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Phonics
3. Syllables
4. Rules and Probabilities for sounds
5. Roots, Affixes, and Morphology

Once all of these steps have been achieved, you’ll start to see changes in your child’s learning ability. His reading skills will improve and you’ll see changes in your child’s eagerness to learn.

The Orton-Gillingham technique was such a successful program that they’ve used it as the basis for creating more programs to help many other disabilities in children.

Dyslexia is found in a large number of children, but is rarely diagnosed in a regular school setting. Most times it’s found when the parents become discouraged and take action to help their children improve. This action is usually taken through programs outside of the school. Hiring a tutor is one option and another is special programs for children with learning problems.

These children need to learn and be taught in a completely different way then other children and you don’t usually find a teacher within a regular public school that has the ability to teach in this manner.

If your child has a learning disability and you’re struggling to find the right help, consider finding someone to help you with the Orton-Gillingham program. If you don’t have a program in your community, search online for someone to help. It’s important for your child’s future that you do the research needed to find someone to help them overcome this disability.

Be sure to check out http://www.helpfordyslexicchildren.com to find out about a great reading program based on Orton-Gillingham.

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