Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids » Master the Code

Reading Comprehension and Your Child’s Science Textbook

colleen — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:15:15 +0000

Reading is one of the most important skills your child must learn for school. Your child learns and communicates through reading and comprehending the written word. Your child will, more than likely struggle in Math, Social Studies, and Science if they can’t read and comprehend.

Science has become a big problem with students. Tests that are given show students do not understand the Science programs the schools are using and this is being related back to the struggles with reading and comprehension.

Without the complete understanding and comprehension of text related to science, success will be hard to reach. To learn how to get the understanding and comprehension several different studies were used with children in the fourth grade and higher.

Teaching reading comprehension is a big thing and needs to happen so the scientific text will be easier to understand. With the different learning styles children have, it’s best to learn multiple strategies so the children can benefit from one that works for them. It’s a waste of time to try and teach in a way that won’t work for them.

Reading vocabulary is another important key to understanding and comprehending scientific text. Children need to know the definition of words they may not use every day or they’ll just be reading and not understand a thing. The connections between the words and the topic will be understood when the words make sense to the child.

When children use note taking when they’re learning about science and reading, it will help them to comprehend and remember things. This will help down the road when the topics come up again. It will make it easier for them to understand the new things and will help them learn things quicker and possibly retain it for a longer period of time.

Reading encompasses the need for strong cognitive skills, receptive vocabulary,fluency and concept imagery. I work with your child to strengthen the underlying capacity to learn and then bring those strong skills into the forefront of your child's consciousness to begin applying them when reading and comprehending. To help your child with vocabulary skills, I often integrate programs such as WordlyWise or Passwords Science Vocabulary upon request.

Feel free to contact me for more information and to begin transforming your child into an independent learner today!

Reading Comprehension and Your Child's Science Textbook

colleen — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:15:15 +0000

Feel free to contact me for more information and to begin transforming your child into an independent learner today!

What are Cognitive Strategies all About?

colleen — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:25:08 +0000

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

Upcoming Webinars

colleen — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 02:06:28 +0000

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:

Steps 1&2: Remembering to Track Homework and Pack Books
Step 3: Organizing the Homework Space
Step 4: Prioritizing Homework Assignments
Step 5: Chunking Out Homework Assignments
Setp 6: Timing Homework Assignments
Step 7: Completing Homework Assignments
Step 8: Initiating Homework Assignments

Reading Comprehension – Get the Picture?

colleen — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:15:29 +0000

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:

Language comprehension is the ability to understand what is heard and what is read.
Being able to image is the first step in preventing words coming into the brain and leaving without providing meaning.
Visualization helps to understand and connect the concept or gestalt with the imagery by creating movies with action in the mind.
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.
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.
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.
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.

4 Strengths Every Child Must Possess to Comprehend Successfully

colleen — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:30:05 +0000

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.

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.

2/3 of Achievement Gap Occurs During the Summer …

colleen — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 22:20:29 +0000

The Washinghton Post had a great story about summer and student's ability to regress during this time

It's called "the summer brain drain" because during those long, hot months away from school, kids supposedly forget a lot of what they had learned in class. Read More

The good news is that you can have your child avoid regression and provide a pathway or two for remediation through the Student Transformation System using the power of brain training. Your child's overall ability to learn will be assessed, strengthened and then applied to academics for success to be ahead of the game come September.

Contact Colleen for FREE 30 minute telephone consultation today!

7 Differences Between Tutoring and The Student Transformation System

colleen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:59:35 +0000

Tutoring (Similar to Sylvan and Huntington)	Brain Training using The Student Transformation System
additional academic instruction to help a student improve grades in school	intensive, specialized training program designed to make learning easier and more efficient
increases subject knowledge and related general knowledge	improves the brain’s ability to process information in any academic subject
helps student catch up after prolonged absence fills in the gaps when a student moves to a new school	uses the most up-to-date, ground-breaking strategies from cognitive neuroscience
permits student with attention deficit to complete unfinished assignments at home	improves selective attention, divided attention, and sustained attention, visual processing (i.e., reversals), auditory processing (reading and math difficulties) and memory (retaining math facts, etc.)

takes the homework load off of the parents, creating more free time and less stress for them	gets to the root of the learning problem and literally rebuilds the basic ability to learn efficiently
reinforces the reading skills and spelling rules taught in school	a new approach to reading and spelling that is retained at a subconscious level
helps student move through the school year more smoothly	gives student the ability to reach his or her full learning potential Find out more about the Student Transformation System

Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids » Master the Code

Reading Comprehension and Your Child’s Science Textbook

Related Posts:

Reading Comprehension and Your Child's Science Textbook

Related Posts:

What are Cognitive Strategies all About?

Related Posts:

Upcoming Webinars

Related Posts:

Reading Comprehension – Get the Picture?

Comprehension Program

Language Comprehension

Visualization, Imagery and Comprehension

Concept Imagery

Comprehension Must Have's

Brain Training or Reading Comprehension Program

Related Posts:

4 Strengths Every Child Must Possess to Comprehend Successfully

Related Posts:

What’s involved in Testing for Dyslexia?

Related Posts:

2/3 of Achievement Gap Occurs During the Summer …

Related Posts:

7 Differences Between Tutoring and The Student Transformation System

Related Posts: