ADHD: Could My Child Have ADHD?

Posted on February 18, 2009
Filed Under Helping Parents Help Kids, Improve Your Skills, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips | 1 Comment

Attention deficit disorder in children, also referred to as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, refers to children who often have difficulty focusing their attention, listening, remembering things, staying still, and/or waiting their turn. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Addition, DSM-IV, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is a “persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that is more frequent and severe than is typically observed in individuals at a comparable level of development.” Some of the symptoms must have been present in the child prior to age seven, and some must be present in at least two settings (e.g. at home and at school). Therefore, before concluding that your child has AD/HD, parents need to consult a qualified professional.

Many parents feel that their child has ADHD, when if fact they do not. Having an attentional issue does not mean that your child has ADHD or even ADD. In fact, most people have trouble staying focused on what they are doing if the phone rings, if people are talking nearby, if traffic is rushing past the window, or if music is playing; many sounds or events can distract any person from their work. When this happens, most people may find themselves reading entire pages without having any idea what they just read. Not a clue!

If this happens to your child, it does not mean that she automatically has an attentional disorder. Actually, not only is this type of distractibility normal, it is common. In fact, it is one of the most common problems kids have when they finally sit down to study.

However, if your child is continually distracted, by even the smallest stimuli, he may have ADD. If this is accompanied by excessive activity, then he may have ADHD (an attentional problem along with hyperactivity). In either case, discuss this with your pediatrician who may treat your child, or may refer you to a neurologist or a psychiatrist. And don’t be alarmed if your child is diagnosed with ADHD or with some form of an attention deficit disorder. There are many famous people diagnosed with ADHD, and they obviously became quite successful in life even with their attentional difficulties.

ADHD Symptoms:

• Has difficulty paying close attention to details or makes careless mistakes on homework or tests.
• Has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities.
• Does not seem to listen when spoken to directly.
• Does not follow through on instructions and fails to finish schoolwork.
• Has difficulty organizing tasks.
• Avoids schoolwork for long periods of time.
• Often misplaces or loses assignments or books.
• Becomes distracted easily.
• Seems to be fidgeting all the time.
• Has difficulty remaining seated.

ADHD Treatment, Strategies and Recommendations:

• Suggest that your child write, scribble or even draw while reading. If your child enjoys writing, have her write while reading. Tell her not to get hung up on spelling or grammar here; she can even scribble. Encourage her to write down ideas in her own words This way she is always thinking about what she has to write. This helps her stay focused, and it helps her learn the material.
• Tell your child to subvocalize. When he’s reading a book or reading his notes, encourage him to read out loud. If he is in a place where he can’t talk out loud, tell him to “mouth” the words silently. His brain will “hear them.” This will help him learn the material, and it will help him stay focused.
• If appropriate, encourage your child to work in spurts with breaks. Encourage her to work in intervals of no more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time with ten-minute breaks in between. This will help her stay focused because as she is working, she’ll know there’s a break coming up. She needs to learn to treat herself well—after all, it’s hard for her to stay focused. Remind her to remind herself that when she is supposed to be working, she needs to stay on task. This means she needs to concentrate: think, read, write and talk.
• ADHD behavior charts. Your doctor may suggest using a behavior chart. Be sure to design this with your child. Together come up with your goals. Ex. I will play after school until 5:00. Between 5:00 and 6:00 I will do my homework (be sure to include breaks as recommended above). I will eat dinner between…, etc. Have fun creating your chart together. Then set up your goals. Ex. Your child receives a star, a sticker, or a check mark, for each accomplishment. When he has received five of them, he gets a toy or whatever you have decided together would be an appropriate reward. ADHD children need immediate gratification, so give rewards often. If a child has to wait the whole week for a sticker or for the reward, you will most likely lose his attention and this strategy will not work.
• Use a timer. When doing homework, it may keep him on task and moving at a good pace. Be careful though, because some children become anxious about being timed. Also, for some, timers are too distracting.
• Spread things out. Make it so he studies a little every day rather than a lot all at once. This way he will be more focused on a manageable amount of material every day. This will help prevent him from getting tired. It is difficult enough for children with ADD to stay focused; it is even harder when they become tired.
• Think before you read. Before your child begins doing homework or reading a book, tell her to start thinking about what she will be learning by reading this chapter or paper. At this point it is a guess just to get her engaged. Then have her refine her guess by reading the title of the chapter and sub-headings, looking at the pictures and illustrations and reading the captions under them. Have her attempt to answer the questions at the end of the chapter before even reading it. By now her guess about what the chapter is about should be close. Even if it is not, thinking about what it is about will help her stay focused. This strategy takes a little getting use to, but once she gets the knack of it, she’ll be surprised how helpful it will be.
• Stop and think while reading. While your child is reading the material, tell her to stop and ask herself what she just read, and to write down everything she can remember. If she can’t remember much, tell her to reread it and write down ideas as she goes along or draw pictures, graphs, charts—anything that will help stay focused and remember the information.
• ADHD medications. If various strategies are not successful, and your child is still having difficulty staying focused, your physician may recommend medication. With the proper choice and dosage, the improvement can be amazing.
• ADHD diet. Sometimes certain foods affect children in unpredictable ways. If you suspect diet might be an issue, consult your physician.

If you found this article useful, you’ll find a lot more useful information in our award winning book, “Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids.”

Linda Silbert, Ph.D. & Alvin Silbert, Ed.D.

Dyslexia: Does My Child Have Dyslexia?

Posted on February 18, 2009
Filed Under Helping Parents Help Kids, Improve Your Skills, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips | Leave a Comment

Dyslexia impacts all areas of life. Reading is one of the most important skills your child needs to master. He will need reading in every subject in school and in almost every facet of life. Yet, millions of kids have poor reading skills, which may be due to lack of practice or something more organic as in Suzy’s case; she has dyslexia. Her case is typical.

“Dr. Silbert, maybe you can tell me what’s wrong with Suzy. Does she have dyslexia or some other learning disability? She reads the word “ride” over and over again on page one. Then she turns the page and can’t remember how to read the word “ride.” She acts as if she never saw it before. She also leaves words out and puts words in. I can’t help it, but I end up yelling at her and she ends up crying. Something is wrong!”

Dyslexia is a learning disability. Those with dyslexia have some or all of these problems: decoding words, blending letters, reading fluently, reading orally, and comprehending what they have read.

Years ago, people mistakenly thought that dyslexia was caused by a visual deficiency, and that letter reversal was a symptom. They even went as far as to send their dyslexic children for eye training. Recently, brain researchers have found that dyslexia has nothing to do with the visual areas of the brain; instead, it is associated with the language areas.

Unfortunately, reading problems caused by dyslexia spill into every part of the school curriculum: social studies, science, and English – even word-problems in math. It is important to address a reading difficulty as early as possible because children may develop emotional problems as a result of frustration, disappointment, guilt, anger, and fear associated with their inability to read easily.

Fortunately, there are dyslexia tests that can be used to diagnose and identify the various types of dyslexia. Once identified, dyslexia can be remediated or compensated for. It is not uncommon for people with dyslexia to lead perfectly normal and maybe even outstanding lives. Want proof? Here are just a few of the many famous people past and present with dyslexia: Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Henry Ford, Ted Turner, Walt Disney, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, and George Washington.

Dyslexia Symptoms:

• Difficulty learning the alphabet.
• Speech and language problems.
• Difficulty rhyming words.
• Difficulty associating a sound with its written symbol.
• Skips words or puts in extra words when reading.
• Changes words when reading.
• Guesses wildly at words.
• Reads a word correctly several times on a page, but then forgets it in seconds.
• Reads slowly and with great difficulty.
• Weak vocabulary.
• Poor comprehension.
• Good comprehension, but difficulty with reading.
• Cries or becomes upset when asked to read.

Dyslexia Treatment:

• Have your child evaluated. Have your child evaluated by the school district. To do this, write a letter to the school principal, requesting that your child be tested for a learning disability. Or, if you prefer, have your child evaluated by a qualified professional outside of the school. (Under certain circumstances, the district will pay for outside testing.) Be sure to get a thorough diagnosis so that the correct remediation will be used.
• Learn about remediation options. If your child is classified as dyslexic or learning disabled, learn about classes and modifications available to her. Obtain information from your state education departments. Also, contact the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) (www.interdys.org) for advice.
• Read about dyslexia. Overcoming Dyslexia, by Dr. Sally Shaywitz, is an excellent resource.
• Explore all the electronic support systems that are now available. The IDA will be able to help you.
• Ask the school for audio books. This is a great aid for middle- and high-schoolers when reading literature, history and science books.
• Research. Go online and/or go to your library or local bookstore to find books on helping dyslexic students. Ask your child’s teachers and specialists for strategies that you can use at home and in school. For example, dyslexic children perform more successfully on written essays and oral presentations than on multiple-choice or rote-memorization exams.
• Dyslexia tutoring. Hire a qualified reading tutor, one with an Orton-Gillingham multisensory background, with whom your child is comfortable. He or she will be able to help your child and you with all aspects of reading. Visit a service such as www.StrongLearning.com to find a qualified tutor in your area.
• Play games. Help your child learn phonics by playing games such as Memory, Go Fish, War and Old Maid with the Strong Learning Phonics Card Games.
• Improve fluency. To improve fluency, read easy-to-read books with your child, one or two levels below her grade level. For example, use our Strong Learning Beginning Readers, which are written on a first to second grade reading level, with second or third graders. Another good idea is to use computerized books or read-along books and audio to help improve fluency. Also, read poems and/or plays over and over again.
• Be patient. Be sure to give your child adequate time. Those with reading problems tend to need more time than the average reader because they use different neural paths when decoding. Although they will eventually read, and may even become great readers, they will still need extra time.
• Help your child comprehend. Help your 4th through 8th grader with comprehension by working with them in an activity book such as our book, Improve Your Reading Skills.

If you found this article useful, you’ll love our award winning book, “Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids.”

Linda Silbert, Ph.D. & Alvin Silbert, Ed.D.

Key to the SAT, PSAT, and the SAT Subject Tests Part 1—Attitude, Traps, and Trust

Posted on February 9, 2009
Filed Under General Interest, Helping Parents Help Kids, Improve Your Skills, Learning Tips, Math, Teaching Tips | Leave a Comment

SAT Prep and PSAT Prep Advice

Whether your SAT test preparation consists of working on your own, in a group or class, or one-to-one with a qualified SAT tutor, the following advice will help you get the best scores possible.

SAT Prep Advice: Think of the SAT’s as just a game.

It is a mindset that helps keep the SAT’s and PSAT’s in perspective. It also helps you keep the pressure off yourself. In fact, if you think about it, doing SAT / PSAT questions is a lot like doing puzzle games, you know, like the ones on the placemats in fast food restaurants. It goes without saying that you’d rather be eating your burger than doing placemat puzzles, but other than that, they’re interesting, and maybe even fun.

Thinking of the SAT’s as a game is not quite enough; it still hurts too much when you miss what seems like a slew of questions. You need some way to protect yourself from the self-defeating thoughts that take over your thinking. The solution is to think of the SAT Game as a sport. This way, when the questions get real hard, you can consider them sporting as opposed to difficult.

Here’s how it helps. First, while winning in a sport is important, it wouldn’t be fun for you to play against a team of grade school kids; you’d always win; it wouldn’t be sporting. So, by getting into this mindset, you can let yourself welcome and embrace the challenge.

Even more importantly, this mindset helps keep you from dragging yourself down when you miss questions. Instead of being mad at yourself—negative thoughts, which drag you down, you can frame your loss in more positive thoughts, praising your opponent, the one who wrote the question. Thinking to yourself, “Good for you, you got me on that one,” is a lot less damaging to your psyche than “I’m so stupid.” It may feel even better to assign your opponent a colorful nickname, so you can think, “Your point, you nasty blankety-blank.”

Also, speaking of feeling bad, don’t believe it when you hear that the test questions are written by high school and college kids for summer jobs; that can only make you feel worse when you miss questions. Once you get into the SAT game, you’ll see that the Real SAT questions (as opposed to the non-official ones presented in many SAT prep courses and books), are far too brilliantly written.

Traps

SAT Prep Advice: Avoid the traps. Be forewarned, that just as with any sport, the opposition uses traps and tricks on occasion. Indeed, on some of the harder questions, the SAT question writers are out to get you. However, if you have the right attitude, that’s okay, it’s simply part of the sport.

Here are a few examples from the math test. The question might contain extra information that you don’t need. Many of the diagrams are not drawn to scale, which they tell you. For example, a right triangle may be drawn with nearly equal legs, which may lead you to believe falsely that they are equal in length. On rare occasions, the questions might even contain something to play games intentionally with your mind. For example, SAT questions have been known to use traps such as using the letter “d” to represent the radius of a circle instead of “r,” which is downright confusion-provoking. Again, your job is to watch for and catch the trap, and be extra careful not to let them get you. The good news for you is that the current SAT’s / PSAT’s use traps and tricks much less often than the previous versions.

Another trap consists of occasionally placing a difficult question among easier and moderate ones. That can throw you off because the order of questions generally goes from easier to difficult. So, if you are clobbered by a question, don’t give up. Skip it and go on to the next question, as it might be much easier for you.

A trap you can count on is built into the subtest that starts with multiple-choice questions and finishes with student-produced response questions. It is a test-within-a-test. That means, even though the questions are numbered sequentially, they go from easier to harder and then easier to harder again when the type of questions change. So, don’t let them psych you out by the multiple-choice questions getting difficult quickly. As soon as you reach the student produced response questions, they will get easier again. So, be prepared to skip the harder questions and go on to the easier ones, which appear in the mid numbers of that subtest.

Trust

SAT Prep Advice: Trust the questions, trust yourself.  When you do real SAT / PSAT questions, as opposed to non-official questions, you can trust them, that the questions are do-able, and you can trust yourself, that you know enough math to be able to do them. When you are stumped while doing non-official questions, you have no way of knowing if you are stumped because you don’t get it, or because the question is defective. This is the reason I encourage students to practice using real SAT / PSAT questions whenever possible. Therefore, when signing up for SAT, PSAT, or SAT subject test prep courses, be sure to ask if they use real or non-official questions. Be sure they use at least some real SAT questions. Note: SAT and PSAT are registered trademarks of The College Board.

For more ways to help your child in school, you’ll love our award winning book Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids, as well as Dr. Linda’s information packed Teleseminar / Webcasts. For more information,  please visit www.DrLindaSilbert.com.

 

Linda Silbert, Ph.D. & Alvin Silbert, Ed.D.

Homework Help!

Posted on February 4, 2009
Filed Under Helping Parents Help Kids, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips | Leave a Comment

Homework debate: Too much homework vs. Ban homework; No homework vs. Is homework beneficial?

What are parents and children to do solve the homework dilemma?

Homework has become one of the biggest issues for parents and kids. It brings with it anger, frustration, tears, fears and family disharmony. Jack, a nine year old, often spends all afternoon and evening doing homework, sometimes until eleven o’clock at night. In addition, he always needs help with it, so his mom and dad got him a homework helper from a tutoring service.

Jack’s Dad: “When I was in fourth grade I came home from school and played ball with the kids on the block. Then I ate dinner with my family, did my homework and went to sleep. I have two masters degrees; I did fine. The only thing Jack has time for is homework and dinner.”

His dad is correct questioning the volume of homework. “Is there something wrong with Jack’s teacher?” his Mom said. “My Grandmother was a teacher and she said Jack has more homework in one night than she used to give in one week.

Grandma is right. During the late fifties and into the sixties, kids in elementary school had a weekly spelling test and a test on the times tables once in a while, but that was it. They didn’t have hours of homework, piles of workbook pages, long-term projects, midterms and finals. When they got home from school, they did what children should do: play.

Homework didn’t begin until seventh grade, the first year of what was called junior high school. But, even then most kids didn’t need to carry home all their books because they got their homework done during study hall.

Even high school kids rarely had so much that they couldn’t get it done watching “Dick Clark’s American Bandstand on television.” They also had enough time to be in the school show, or in the marching band, or on a sports team without having a complete meltdown.

There is an optimum amount of homework for average children. Too little and they don’t have a chance to practice what they learned in school; too much and they click-off their brains and simply push pencils around to get it done.

• What is Quality Homework?
• What is Too Much Homework?
• Why Do Children Struggle with Homework?
• What Can Parents Do to Help?

Find the answers in our FREE “Top 25 Homework Tips” booklet. Here are a few of the tips. To download your free booklet, click here.

• Tip #1. What Is a Reasonable Amount? Many parents think that a large amount of homework is a sign of a good teacher. That is false. A good teacher helps children learn the material and provides a reasonable amount of homework while at the same time helping children to develop a love of learning. Too much homework doesn’t provide children adequate time to process and rehearse, which makes it counterproductive. However, worse than that, it turns them off to school and to learning.
• Tip # 5. How Much is Enough? Here is a general guide for the typical amount of time children should be expected to spend on homework each school day: grades K-2, 10-20 minutes; grades 3-6, 30-60 minutes; grades 7-12 will vary considerably, depending on subjects, projects due, tests, and so on, but a reasonable average is about two hours, with more on weekends, as needed, for major projects and exams.
• Tip #12. Too Difficult: If homework is continuously too challenging and difficult, then a child will try to avoid it. Contact the teacher and see if it is only your child who is finding it too difficult or if the problem is class-wide.
• Tip # 17. Too Disorganized: If your child brings home his book and forgets the assignment, or brings home the assignment and forgets the book – or if he forgets both! – instead of criticizing and punishing him, help him to develop strategies to remember what he needs. Work with him to come up with a plan. If it doesn’t work, come up with another plan. For example, obtain a second set of books to keep at home. The teacher may be able to provide this or you can purchase them discounted on line. It also helps if there is a back-up plan to get the assignments – for example, a buddy system or on-line access to the homework assignments.
• Tip # 21. Too Unmotivated: Most kids are not motivated to do homework because they simply don’t want to do it; they eventually complete it, but reluctantly. Others appear unmotivated when in fact they avoid homework to protect their egos. Here’s their logic. If they don’t try and fail, it is due to a lack of motivation. If they do try and end up failing, it could be due to a label they cannot live with: “stupidity.” If your child is unmotivated, it might help if you explain the role homework plays in the larger scheme of school and beyond.

For more ways to help your child in school, you’ll love our award winning book Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids, as well as Dr. Linda’s information packed Teleseminar / Webcasts. For more information,  please visit www.DrLindaSilbert.com.

Linda Silbert & Al Silbert

Autism Teleseminar - Webcast: Information Packed

Posted on December 9, 2008
Filed Under General Interest, Helping Parents Help Kids, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips | Leave a Comment

Dr. Linda Silbert and her guest, Michelle Dyson, an experienced mother of an child who is diagnosed with autism, recorded an information-packed one-hour Teleseminar Webcast on 12/11/08. It is available as a podcast or MP3 download.

Parents Helping Parents: “How to Find Answers to Help Your Child on the Spectrum” will help parents of newly-diagnosed children as well as parents of school-age children looking for a new perspective. They will answer such questions as:

• Where do I find the best providers in my area?
• What’s the best way to evaluate research in the news?
• What are my child’s rights under IDEA?
• How can I force my insurer to cover ABA?
• Am I doing everything I can?
• Who is going to take care of ME?

The teleseminar fee is $10. All net proceeds will be donated to Autism Speaks. For more information or to register online, visit: http://www.askdrlindasilbert.com/.

Linda Silbert, Ph.D. and Alvin Silbert, Ed.D. are the authors of the award winning book, Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids.

Additional Information

The terminology of autism can be bewildering. Some phrases include: autism spectrum, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), autism spectrum conditions (ASC), autistic interchanged with autism. In addition,

“…Autism, Asperger’s and PDD-NOS are sometimes called the autistic disorders instead of ASD, whereas autism itself is often called autistic disorder, childhood autism, or infantile autism. Although the older term pervasive developmental disorder and the newer term autism spectrum disorder largely or entirely overlap, the former was intended to describe a specific set of diagnostic labels, whereas the latter refers to a postulated spectrum disorder linking various conditions. ASD, in turn, is a subset of the broader autism phenotype (BAP), which describes individuals who may not have ASD but do have autistic-like traits, such as avoiding eye contact.

– from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_spectrum

Disjointed: Funny in Television, Not Funny in School

Posted on November 12, 2008
Filed Under General Interest, Helping Parents Help Kids, Imagination, Improve Your Skills, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips | Leave a Comment

Old timers will remember the hugely popular radio and TV show, “Children Say the Darndest Things.”

The host, the kindly Art Linkletter, interviewed one child after another. The humor results from the disjoint between children’s and adult’s thinking and their very different interpretation of words and phrases. In other words, the humor comes from the children not “getting-it.”

In entertainment field, disjointed is funny. The adult, whether it is Art Linkletter, Johnny Carson, or someone currently in the spotlight, invariably makes an exaggerated expression, one of benevolent-exasperation, and everyone laughs.

In the education field, on the other hand, disjointed is not funny. In the classroom, disjointed means confusion and possible failure. In that setting, “the child not getting it” has disaster written all over it.

An effective teacher continuously looks for this—signs, clues, expressions—of disjointedness, not to use as the basis of humor, but to use as the basis of re-explaining, using other words—or drawings—or demonstrations, so the children do get the intended message.

Parents would do well to do the same.

TIP: Be your child’s official “Un-Disjointer.”

Here’s how. Instead of asking, “How was school today?” Ask if it is okay to look at today’s class notes and handouts. In supporting fashion, showing genuine interest, look for possible key disjoints.

When you find one, ask what it means? For instance, “What does ‘armistice’ mean?” or  ‘inalienable rights,’ or ‘truce,’ or ‘Asia,’ or ‘Alaska’ or ‘renewable energy’ or ‘kilometer?” Just find these important key words and phrases in the notes or handouts.

Your child may not have a clue. Thus, without your “Un-Disjointing,” she’ll have a tough time doing the homework and studying for quizzes and tests.

Let’s look at a couple of very common disjoints.

Where is Alaska located? The disjointed answer: below and to the left of California. Why? Because that is where it appears on most maps of the U. S., in its own tidy little rectangle, right next to Hawaii.

Another disjoint involves the metric system. Kids rarely know what a kilometer is, even though they come across this metric distance repeatedly in school. (I’ll return to this in a moment).

But first, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that, on behalf of countless numbers of wonderful teachers, who have 28 children in the classroom, it’s easy to miss occasional disjointedness.

So, Mom, or Dad, or Grandma or Grandpa, as your child’s official “Un-Disjointer,” here are some specific ideas to consider using. When you find the most important disjoints, try to “un-disjoint” them as pleasantly as possible.

If there is a lot of homework, don’t get carried away with too much detail. If your child is interested, and there is enough time, consider turning it into a pleasant adventure.

As an example, let’s return to Alaska. Consider buying a globe, or using one at the library. Begin by pointing out the most prominent places, including, of course, where you live. Then locate Alaska, and while you are at it, Hawaii, too. Talk about how you might travel there, and how long it might take. Compare the distances with that of a long car trip you may have taken, as in, “our trip to Florida was 1200 miles, and it is this far on the globe, compared with ….”

As another example, let’s return to a kilometer.

A kilometer is 1000 meters (kilo means 1000). Since a meter is about one adult’s giant-step, how about taking a walk while you count together, out loud, 1000 of your giant steps (or, only 500 steps, and double back to the starting place). This one-kilometer walk is one walk you and Junior will remember forever.

Finally, don’t be afraid of not knowing—that is actually good for your child to see. Let a book or the Internet come to the rescue. Learn together with your child. Model the process of using various tools and resources.

A lot of good can come from your “Un-Disjointer” role. If you do this on a regular basis, many of those pesky school problems, like failing test grades and quizzes, may very well become a thing of the past.

If this tip is helpful, you’ll love our award winning book: Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids.

Linda Silbert & Al Silbert

Have trouble taking notes? This computer-in-a-pen can change all that

Posted on November 8, 2008
Filed Under General Interest, Helping Parents Help Kids, Improve Your Skills, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips | 2 Comments

If you or your child has as much trouble taking notes as I do, this cutting-edge new product can change your life. I’ve owned mine for two months and it has made my life a lot easier. I love using it.

By the way, I’m not one to be influenced by commercials or advertisements. A rare exception occurred when I saw an ad for the Smartpen. As I suspected, it would be able to help enormous numbers of students. I ordered it, so I could test it before recommending it to others. As I rarely take classes now, I didn’t expect it to be useful for me.

Useful? It’s far beyond useful; it’s phenomenal! Except when I go running, I never leave home without it.

For about half the cost of an IPod, your child will be able to fill in those annoying gaps in his school notes—guaranteed.

The Smartpen writes like a pen, but it does additional things, including:

1. It records the audio (up to 200 hours) and,
2. It remembers what you write!
3. It does arithmetic and advanced math, too.
4. It translates simple words to other languages.
5. It does additional fun things, including playing a magical piano with rhythm accompaniment.

Since only the first two items apply to this blog, I’ll limit myself to them.

Later, if you can’t figure out what you wrote, just tap the pen on the words you wrote, and it PLAYS BACK THE AUDIO that it recorded AT THE TIME you wrote those words!!! You don’t need anything else, it plays loud and clear, right through it’s tiny speaker or through the supplied ear buds.

And, if that isn’t enough to dazzle you—this will knock your socks off.

You place it on its little USB cradle, and a graphic image of what you wrote on the paper, and audio, show up on your computer. Now you can play the audio (and read your notes) directly on the screen. But wait, there’s more.

You can play the audio back faster or slower, too, so you can SLOW DOWN the teacher enough that you can write down the notes. Still missed something? No problem, just move the slider back a tad, and try again. And, finally, if you had no problem understanding a section of your notes, tap the words where you want to skip to, and the audio resumes FROM THAT PLACE.

Simply amazing!

If they can make something this good, maybe some day someone will come up with a “magic” device that you point at the teacher. Press the teacher-slow-down button, or the teacher-repeat-the-last-words button, and the teacher will do that, just like this real SmartPen does.

Did I hear someone say, “How about adding a “make-the-lesson-more-interesting button?”

If you are interested, here is the link to see this item on Amazon.com. By the way, I don’t work for either company and they didn’t pay me even a penny to write this.

~Dr. Al, from the team Linda Silbert & Al Silbert,
authors of the award winning book Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids

Tutoring + Coaching, Better Than Tutoring Alone

Posted on October 22, 2008
Filed Under General Interest, Helping Parents Help Kids, Imagination, Improve Your Skills, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips | Leave a Comment

Tutoring is good and Coaching is good, but Tutoring / Coaching is best. Here’s why.

Tutors usually teach, or re-teach, content. Examples include how to regroup when subtracting and how to remember the amendments to the Constitution for a test on Friday. Whenever possible, a good tutor will also attempt to make the content relevant, by connecting it with other content with which the student can personally relate.

Coaches basically help students learn how to learn. By focusing on the process of learning as opposed to re-teaching content, students learn invaluable life-long skills and strategies.

Here are some examples:

• Note-taking skills
• Organization strategies
• Reading comprehension
• Study skills
• Task analysis
• Test-taking strategies
• Motivation techniques
• Planning strategies
• Reflection techniques

Interestingly, by design, coaching leads to independence, or at least, less dependence on the coach.

In school, because of the curriculum demands, teachers usually just teach; that’s all they have time to do. Similarly, tutors tend to just teach, because that is the routine they use in their classrooms. (Interestingly, this explains why most children get so little out of the after school extra help; it is usually a repeat of the same lesson they didn’t get during class.)

Skillful, experienced educational professionals are both coaches and tutors. And, they have the judgment and experience to know the perfect amount of each to apply to each situation.

So, at times they teach, at times they coach, but most of they time they skillfully do both. This is the philosophy behind our company motto, “…tailored to your child’s needs and your busy schedule.” STRONG Learning Centers.

Linda & Al Silbert
authors of the award winning book Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids

Geometry Proofs: Junk or Gems?

Posted on October 19, 2008
Filed Under General Interest, Helping Parents Help Kids, Imagination, Improve Your Skills, Learning Tips, Math, Teaching Tips | 2 Comments

Are geometry proofs Junk or Gems?

The answer is both.

High school students taking geometry, including the new NYS Regents Geometry Course, will be doing lots of geometry proofs.

“When will I ever use this junk?” will almost certainly cross their minds.

The answer is “probably never,” which clearly favors the “junk” designation in the title.

Then why make kids go through the ordeal?

The answer is that learning to do geometry proofs is a brain-boosting activity which helps make children’s brains better, permanently better!

How?

Doing geometry proofs requires the brain to operate in new and complex ways, using seldom-used brain “real estate,” thus forming and reinforcing complex brain connections. Once developed, these neural connections remain, ready to “jump into action” in real-life situations, long after “CPCTC” has faded into mental oblivion.

Here are a few of the many thought juggling mental activities required when doing geometry proofs.

Organization. Doing proofs requires organization, requiring the brain to cultivate and improve neural paths in the executive function area. This involves sorting the given information, making diagrams, labeling, and keeping track of the progress throughout the task.

Logical thinking. Doing proofs requires logical thinking, a mental process that is rarely well developed in the younger high school students. The act of doing proofs provides a fine opportunity to develop, or improve upon, this valuable higher order thinking process.

Self-discipline. The mental and physical tasks required when doing proofs, e.g. making diagrams from sentences and symbols, planning, carrying out and coordinating all of the required activities, are unnatural, tedious, and difficult for many students. As a result, the students tend to develop a greater self-discipline.

Thus, doing geometry proofs is a “gem” of an activity because it is good for the brain; it helps make young brains better, permanently better!

So, contrary to Pink Floyd’s “Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!” philosophy, espoused in their 1979 song “Another Brick in the Wall,” leaving kid’s brains alone would be a big mistake. Doing so would seriously compromise children’s brain development.

Consider passing this message on to the kids: Hey! Kids! Don’t forget to do your math homework, especially if it includes geometry proofs.

~Dr. Al, from the team Linda Silbert & Al Silbert,
authors of the award winning book Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids

Stop Turning Kids Off to Learning—HW Answers Don’t Always Need Full Sentences

Posted on March 13, 2008
Filed Under Helping Parents Help Kids, Imagination, Learning Tips, Teaching Tips | Leave a Comment

Here is a primer on how to take fascinating subjects—that we adults are passionate about—and make them deadly dull for schoolchildren.

Assign a large number of homework questions and make children answer them in full sentences.

Full sentences? Toward what end?

Let’s say the homework question is: What is the capital city of Sweden, and, what popular singing group came from there?

A perfectly good answer is “Stockholm, ABBA.”

Here is how to ruin it. Make the children handwrite something like: The capital city of Sweden is Stockholm and the popular singing group that came from there is ABBA.

That is 18 words—when just two words and a comma will do just fine. That’s a word excess of 800% !

Is the assignment intended to nurture writing skills? Fine. Then it is incumbent on the homework assigner to limit the number of questions. The same goes if the purpose of the assignment is to provide practice in penmanship (penpersonship?).

On the other hand, if the assignment is to strengthen finger muscles and improve the cardio-vascular system and aerobic endurance, then fine, bring it on. In that case, insist that the children use a dull pencil, too; it’ll be a far better workout!

This is an appeal to all homework assigners. If you love your subject—if you are truly passionate about your area of expertise—and want the younger generation to learn to love it too, then don’t kill it.

• Screen the questions and eliminate the low quality ones.
• If the questions are all equally good, limit the number of questions. Don’t just use odds or evens, that only cuts the number in half. Consider assigning every forth question—numbers 4, 8, 12, 16,…(this is especially good for math problems).
• And, of course, allow students to answer in a word or two when that is all that is needed.

If you are a parent, pass this message (or one you write yourself) on to teachers and administrators whom you think will appreciate it. Who knows, you may become a change agent for a movement whose time has come!

~Linda Silbert & Al Silbert,
authors of the award winning book Why Bad Grades Happen to Good Kids

P.S. By the way, doesn’t the ABBA sound “shimmer?” It was electronically enhanced to have multiple versions of the same person singing or playing to create a brilliant, shimmering, sound effect.