At some point in your life, you’ve probably played the game “I Spy.” It’s perfect for boring waits at the grocery store, or long car rides. But with a little tweaking, the game can also help kids practice a key first grade concept…syllables. Here’s how to play:

What You Need:

* Hat

* Paper, ripped into small strips

What You Do:

1. Start the game with a little refresher. Tell your child that just as music can be divided into beats, words can be divided into syllables. Spend a few minutes talking about a few multi-syllable words, clapping at each syllable to show your child where the “breaks” are.

2. Let 'er rip! With your child’s help, tear a piece of paper into a bunch of small strips. On each piece of paper, write a number from 1-4. When you’re finished, throw them all into the hat.

3. Time to play! The first player picks a slip of paper from the hat. Just like in “I Spy,” he must come up with an object for the other player to guess. But in this version of the game, he must come up with an object with the number of syllables on the slip. For example, if he picked the number 2, he might choose “table” or “teaspoon” or “stapler.” With children this age, the number of syllables itself probably isn’t enough of a hint to keep the game from getting frustrating, so give clues that incorporate other hints as well, for example, “I spy something black with two syllables” or “I spy something you eat on that has two syllables.”

As your child gets the hang of it, don’t be afraid to throw a bit more challenge into the hat. Or, hat aside, just ask your child to think of a word with five syllables, or even six! He’ll look at your refrigerator in a whole new light.

by Kathy Meindl

Kathy has taught first grade, kindergarten, and fourth/fifth grade for 8 years in Tucson, AZ. She holds a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership.

© Copyright 2006-2010 Education.com All Rights Reserved.

http://www.education.com/activity/article/syllableispy_first/?cid=50.200

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Cognitive functioning is managed by cognitive processes. Learning more about cognitive strategies is gaining popularity which goes back to 1956 when Bruner, Goodnow, and Austin discovered it.

Everyone uses cognitive strategies on a regular basis because it’s a part of our normal routine. Cognitive strategies help us with our behavior and thinking so it doesn’t matter if we’re a regular person, one with special talents, or one with a brain injury we use these strategies every day. This means no matter what we’re doing everything is controlled strategically.

We learn both formally and informally when it comes to certain strategies. Without this ability we would not be able to learn what we need to on a daily basis. We wouldn’t be able to learn certain characteristics and have memories of things. When we have these strategies we have the ability to remember long and short term things that will help us with everyday life.

We use cognitive strategies all the time whether we realize it or not. Most things we do are automatic and we know what we’re doing so it’s something we could do with our eyes closed and we don’t even have to think about it. That’s where the cognitive strategies that we’re not aware of come in and the kind of cognitive strategy is when we’re learning something for the first time or we struggle with something that takes a lot of concentration to accomplish.

Our experiences, age, and maturity level are a part of the strategies we use on a regular basis. With that said, it’s unlikely you’ll see the same decisions made or thoughts shared from an adult and a 12 year old child. Their entire thinking process is different and that’s true when you think about the cognitive strategies that are used. Now that doesn’t mean that’s always the case, because it’s possible their decisions could be the same depending on the situation, but most times they’re not.

The effects you see with decisions that are made could be different from one person to another or from an adult to a child. Even though it could be the same decision the effects they’ll have on each individual could and should be different. You see this when a decision is made and then later on down the road the effects are visible. This could be education or job related.

We all know the decisions we make now affect our future and the things that happens and those come from cognitive strategies we use and decisions that are made. Some could be good and some could be harmful depending on what they are and how we deal with them. It’s possible for a child to learn something incorrectly and not even realize it, and then they go back to use it again and find out they didn’t do it correctly and they fail a test or a class. That’s where it could be harmful.

Cognitive strategies are all around us. We use them all the time no matter what we’re doing. They vary depending on the person and what’s going on and no two people are alike and will have the same strategies. What we need to know here is cognitive strategies are a part of everyday life no matter if we want it them or not.

This is why I created my Student Transformation System.  It is pertinent for success that a child’s cognitive functions be strengthened.  This provides the child with an increased capacity to learn.  However, stronger skills and new pathways are not the whole solution. 

It is imperative that your child’s cognitive strategies to approaching homework, studying, note-taking, comprehension and more are observed and improved upon when necessary.  Take all of this improvement and align it with the classroom, teacher, yourself, your child and anyone else involved and we manage to get everyone on the same page relative to your child’s overall performance and next step vision/plan for continued success.

Be sure to check out my latest reading comprehension program which is individualized to meet your child’s unique needs and can be implemented online.  Feel free to schedule you’re a 30 minute consultation with me where we can discuss your child’s needs, create a vision and plan for success.

COGNITIVE STRATEGIES.(2006). In Encyclopedia of  Special Education: A Ref erence f or the Education of  the Handicapped and Other Exceptional Children and Adults. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com
/entry/wileyse/cognitive_strategies

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Homework Tips and Strategies:  8 Steps to Success  Register Now for the replay of the call completed on 1/27/11

Purchase the Ebook today which contains all the information from the webinar and the 6 weeks of article series all in one place.  Plus you get forms to use with your child today.  You get the parent-child contract, timing worksheet, track and pack and prioritization list.  All 30 pages of information for only $19.95.

During this call, we discussed the Theory of Neuroplasticity and the following 8 Steps:  

1. Steps 1&2: Remembering to Track Homework and Pack Books

2. Step 3: Organizing the Homework Space

3. Step 4: Prioritizing Homework Assignments

4. Step 5: Chunking Out Homework Assignments

5. Setp 6: Timing Homework Assignments

6. Step 7: Completing Homework Assignments

7. Step 8: Initiating Homework Assignments

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Comprehension Program

Language Comprehension

Language comprehension is the ability to associate and make sense of both written and oral language. The ability to comprehend language finds its foundation within cognitive skills.  Auditory and Visual Processing, to name a few, are big factors in one's ability to understand both written and oral language.

What I have found in my working with students thus far is that strengthening one's cognitive skills is the main focus to help a child increase their capacity to learn. However, just as important is the necessity to "teach" the student how to use their newly strengthened skills.  Hence the creation of my Student Transformation System which trains your child's brain and then teaches how to use the new skills and transforms your child into an independent learner. T

herefore, strong language comprehension skills require a strong cognitive foundation and in most cases, teaching an approach to task on how to comprehend. I have found that students who come to me because of weak reading comprehension, will complete intensive braining training and post-assess with huge gains in their cognitive skills.  Job well done!

However, although a student will objectively measure with huge increases in their underlying cognitive skills, some students are still very weak in reading and overall language comprehension. They may still struggle with higher order thinking skills such understanding the main idea,  inferencing, predicting and may not understand what is being asked of them on tests or through oral requests.   I wanted to know why ?

Visualization, Imagery and Comprehension

Intensive Brain training does a great job in strengthening visual processing, visualization, symbol imagery and beginning concept imagery. Symbol imagery is the static representation of sounds and letters in words, numerals in numbers and facts from stories.  Children with weak symbol imagery are often tagged as dyslexic.  Symbol imagery, by the way, is worked proficiently, in my professional opinion, through Master the Code.  Concept imagery is the big picture and requires trainers to help students first visualize the parts and then understand the whole.  Brain training does this especially well when working with a trainer in person who can adapt to meet the student's specific needs in this area.

I began to understand the importance of using the stronger visualization and imagery skills to prevent words from just going in one ear and out the other. For example, when I would work with a student on reading comprehension, I would make sure the student could visualize. 

However, I never connected the visualization to language in general.  Although a student could read and spell for me very well after working through the brain training, they still were not seeing a full movie in their mind when they read. They were unable to fast forward or rewind through the facts in order to predict or infer. When I would ask for information about what do you think will happen next?  The student would reply, "I don't know?"  What I should have been asking all along was, "what would you picture or see happening next?"  Perhaps then, the student would have replied, "I don't see anything?"  Ah then I would have realized sooner than later that although my students have the skill to image and visualize with action, they just don't know what to do with the skill!

So, what happened to these students you may ask?  They all received the help they needed through my referrals to other learning centers. The really crazy thing in all of this is that I had the program that I was referring them to receive from someone else.  My students parents knew I had this program because I would tell them and they would request to have me take their child through the program.  I would reply, "no." I just never connected the program to actually working because I was still convinced all you needed was brain training to be able to comprehend and help in "how" to comprehend (process of comprehension like cause and effect, etc.).

Concept Imagery

My three plus years of intensive brain training work has taught me a tremendous amount of knowledge, research and understanding. Reading and comprehension has always been my specialty, my niche, if you will.  I have come to understand and experience that concept imagery is ability for a student to understand the whole by first seeing its parts.  Even then, the student must be able to "visualize" the concept imagery into action. For example, a student may read the cow jumped over the moon. Even though I have the student at the point of imagery to see a cow and then see a moon, the student may only see a moon with a cow on top of it.  Instead, I want the student to see a moving film in the mind so the cow is seen running and then leaping into the air with the goal of jumping over the moon.

Why? Because once I can bring the newer, stronger sensory processing skills forward into action, the student will now begin to form movies, not just a picture, for what is being heard or read.  This will prevent words from going in one ear and out the other. The brain will be able to take advantage of working memory, processing speed and more to make this become automatic. The student will then begin to grasp and understand the concept or gestalt of the imagery that is being created in their mind.

The end result is a child who will begin to understand directions, jokes, remember what is being read, understand what is being read, and more.  This same student would be able to finally … wait for it …. conquer the open-ended question!  Remember those from school?  Some children dread the open-ended question or OEQ!  These same children, if not visualizing an image into action and grasping the concept/gestalt have nothing from which to pull from in order to give a prediction or inference.

Comprehension Must Have's

The new program that I am offering will help students be able to improve in their ability to image concepts and visualize them into action.  Like I said before, I had the full program already and in fact I have recently received professional development training for the program.  I have listened to the requests of my clients and I already a few students working through the program.  The wonderful thing is because the children have brain training the program time is dramatically reduced for seeing any benefit. 

While working with students, I watch to see if there is a change with their eyes.  For example, if I asked you to list the books you have on a bookshelf in your home, you most likely would look up or to the right – change your eye focus from me to begin "visualizing and looking for the answers."

However, I know you are visualizing but I don't know what you are visualizing until you verbalize it to me. This is important because if the print reads "a big plant" but you verbalize "a plant about as big as a tea cup"  well – we have to discuss your perspective a bit.  You may end up missing the big picture because your parts are not fully correct. 

Understand? In brain training I do visualize and verbalize with my students to ensure they are imaging and visualizing. I still find it necessary though to integrate this skill into reading and comprehension exercises using a structured and systematic process approach.The advanced students of this program do continue with training to use their skills to begin strengthening their written expression when writing essays and open-ended questions.

Brain Training or Reading Comprehension Program

Bringing it all together now, I want to make sure that you understand the importance of first having your child's cognitive skills strengthened. Your child needs to have the capacity to visualize and image before they can even put this into action to learn language and reading comprehension.   Even where brain training (this refers to in person training) works abstract imagery such as being able to image a picture and visualize into action a "brave" person, this skill needs to be exercised and integrated into the everyday of written and expressive language.  In my opinion, a combined approach of brain-training and V/V are necessary. Take away points from this article are as follows:

1. Language comprehension is the ability to understand what is heard and what is read.
2. Being able to image is the first step in preventing words coming into the brain and leaving without providing meaning.
3. Visualization helps to understand and connect the concept or gestalt with the imagery by creating movies with action in the mind.
4. Concept Imagery (understand the gestalt) allows for higher order thinking skills such as predicting, inferencing, etc. to take shape and become successful tools for your child.
5. Brain training is a necessary step in remediating comprehension issues.  Have your child go through my Student Transformation program using either BrainSkills or BrainWare online to develop the cognitive skills needed for imagery and visualization.  You can also work in person using PACE and Master the Code.  Not sure on where to start? I will always recommend your first step is to assess your child's cognitive skills online for only $29.95.
6. If your child has language comprehension issues (understanding reading or what is being said) I will recommend that we work your child through the brain training and overlap the Comprehension program.  The program has been adapted to work successfully online.
7. If you still have questions, you can schedule a free 30 minute consultation. I provide new clients with a free 30 minute consultation to help answer questions and when appropriate we build a vision and plan.

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One of the most common concerns that a parent will present to me is their child's weak comprehension skills.  When we talk together, we cover many areas of concern where each variable plays an important role in impacting their child's specific challenges.  However, in general, I will always review the 4 strengths every child must possess in order to comprehend successfully. 

The first strength, as you can probably guess, is strong cognitive skills.   Strong cognitive skills, in this case, means making sure, through assessment, that your child has the skills needed to remember and recall.   This translates into having the ability to visualize pictures in their head in order to capture the story for retelling.  It means making sure your child's ability to process the words and sounds they are reading without errors so they are reading and "hearing" the correct word. 

Having strong cognitive skills for reading comprehension means making sure your child has several strong foundational strengths.  This means having the ability to attend to the content, can process at a speed necessary so their short-term memory can make sense of the information; your child's memory areas (visual/auditory/working) are strong and large enough to hold the incoming information for recall and processing and that your child can make sense (understand) of what is being read.  Phew, that is a lot to digest.  All of these skills lay the foundation for reading comprehension.  There are other cognitive skills that play into comprehending well but the above skills are crucial. 

Once your child's cognitive skills are strong, your child now has the "ability" to comprehend.   This still doesn't mean, necessarily that your child knows how to comprehend yet.  That is why my Student Transformation System not only strengthens your child's ability to learn but also makes sure your child has the basics on how to learn.

The second strength every child must possess is the ability to decode what is being read.  Your child needs to be secure in sound-to-code and code-to-sound.  Why?  If your child cannot decode a word to read it, most likely they are skipping over it entirely.  This alone will leave your child with only parts of the story for recall.  Worst case scenario is that the word or words that they skip over or decode incorrectly may be the adjective or verb that is leading to a climax or the main idea of the story.  The sentence won't make a lot of sense with words missing so when your child reaches for the recall, it will be choppy at best.  When I work with your child, I make sure they are able to decode/encode successfully.

The third strength every child needs for successful comprehension is the ability to recognize those words that cannot be decoded through strategy.  Some reading programs have pages and pages and pages of these words which will require your child to have strong memory skills (auditory/visual/working and long-term memory) to retain and recall these words.  Processing skills and speed along with attention need to be strong for the memory to be successful.  When I work with your child, all these skills are strengthened.  I use Master the Code which only has literally one page of words that are exceptions.  Once your child has these irregular or sight words integrated into their memory and can recall them, you need to make sure they understand them.

The fourth strength I always talk about with a parent is the ability to understand language.  Your child's purpose for reading may start out for entertainment reasons but as he/she gets older the purpose becomes more towards gaining information to learn.  Your child needs to be able to read to learn; to gain benefit from the words and content.  To be able to do this task, your child needs to understand the language, not just read decode it correctly.  

Your child's expressive vocabulary, the words and meanings understood when your child is speaking or writing may be strong.  However, a crucial piece for comprehension is your child's receptive vocabulary skills. Receptive vocabulary refers to your child's ability to understand the meaning of the words that are spoken verbally.  This counts for the words given to your child when reading content from a teacher's notes, test questions or when participating in a discussion in class.  If your child doesn't understand the meaning of the word than there is a good chance your child will not know what is being asked by the teacher.  This is when your child can answer a literal factual question and get it right but when the data is presented along with words your child is not familiar with then they get the answer wrong.  When I work with your child, we work through the first three steps and then touch upon this step using receptive vocabulary interventions.  I will assess your child's receptive vocabulary skills and together we create a road map for success.

The above 4 strengths are required for your child to comprehend successfully.  Each step is a small jaunt towards a bigger life-long journey.  Set up your free 30 minute consult with me today and we can begin to pinpoint what is sabotaging your child from learning and comprehending. 

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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.

1. Everyday Math Lattice Method – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29XL99qM6s  
2. 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.
 

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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://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.   

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.

1. Everyday Math Lattice Method – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29XL99qM6s  
2. 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.
 

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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!

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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:

1. 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)

2. 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. 

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. 

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• 4 Strengths Every Child Must Possess to Comprehend Successfully