Archive for the Barriers to Learning Category

School readiness: The importance of emotional maturity

By on February 2, 2012

    School readiness depends as much on emotional maturity as it does on scholastic ability.

    In order to be deemed cognitively school ready, children need to achieve a test age of 6  years 3 months on school readiness assessments.  Yet, I have assessed many children who have scored much higher than this and still recommended that they were not school ready based on their levels of emotional maturity.  This happens very often with children whose birthdays fall in the last quarter of the year and are having to compete with classmates who are virtually a year older and more capable, simply by virtue of their age.

    There also seems to be a commonly held myth that all children reach the same level of maturity at the same age.  Children vary greatly in their levels of emotional maturity.  This is partly influenced by parenting but also depends to a large extent on a natural developmental process and will increase with time.

    So what exactly do we look for when we assess school readiness? By no means are we expecting children to act like miniature versions of serious adults.  We still expect them to be childlike, to be more focused on fun than anything else and to be largely egocentric in their outlook, but we expect them to display some of the following traits:

    • Confidence.  Is your child confident enough to speak up in a busy classroom when he is uncomfortable or needs help? A formal schooling environment does not always allow the teacher to pay individual attention to each child and children who do not speak up may easily fall behind. Children also need to be able to let the teacher know when they need a bathroom break, are feeling ill, do not have the right tools or are being bullied.
    • Separation. Does your child separate easily from you when you drop him off in the morning or are the goodbyes long, teary affairs? Some crying in the first few weeks is absolutely normal and is even expected, but teachers simply will not have the time (and often will not have the patience) to console a tearful child all day long.
    • Responsibility for his belongings. Does your child remember to put his lunchbox back in his bag and his eraser back in his pencil case or is his teacher constantly running after him returning lost goods?
    • Concentration. Is your child able to sit still at a desk and concentrate for relatively long periods at a time?  Grade 1 teachers will allow for many short breaks during the day, but a child who is constantly getting out of his seat can be very disruptive and will soon elicit complaints from his classmates.
    • Problem solving.  Is your child able to solve the majority of basic little problems that pop up on a daily basis? For example, will he know to borrow a ruler from a friend if he doesn’t have one or ask his teacher to phone you if he’s left his lunch behind or go to look in the lost property box when he can’t find his jersey? This also relates to social interactions. “Telling on” is probably the phrase heard most often on foundation phase playgrounds and teachers expect to be asked to be both judge and jury in certain cases, but children need at least some basic skills in resolving minor conflicts.
    • Independence. Can your child complete most tasks on his own or is he constantly running to his teacher’s table for approval or intervention?
    • Persistence. Carefully designed lessons include both tasks that are easy to complete, so that learners experience a sense of accomplishment, and tasks that are challenging, to extend the learners.  Some children have a habit of simply shrugging their shoulders and repeating the familiar refrain “I can’t do it” without ever really having given the task a full go, thus never progressing to higher levels of academic work.
    As I mentioned earlier emotional maturity is, to a large extend, a natural process and needs to develop over time but there are some things that you can do as a parent to encourage emotional development in your pre-school child:
    • Encourage your child to engage with unfamiliar children and adults in safe, social environments.
    • Allow your child to do age-appropriate things for himself and refrain from interfering unless he asks for your help.  Also, when he does ask for your help, encourage him to work through the problem solving process with you by asking questions such as: How else could we do this? What do you think we need to do first / next? What could we have done differently?
    • Take a step back when your child is faced with conflict situations in peer relationships (this is very hard, but give it a try) and observe whether he is able to solve the conflict on his own.  Only get involved when someone stands to get hurt. Also, once the situation has been diffused offer solutions on how to handle similar conflicts in the future.

     

     

     

     

    This entry is filed under Assessments, Barriers to Learning, Behavioural Difficulties, Early Childhood Development, Education, Emotional Development, Social Development and tagged , .

    Kids learning to read: Pre-literacy skills

    By on February 1, 2012

      Kids learning to read …

      Learning to decode arbitrary symbols into spoken language … learning to gather information from authors who are not physically present and in some cases, might not even be alive anymore … It truly is a miracle!

      Reading is definitely no small feat and all Grade 1 teachers undoubtedly deserve heaps of praise, but learning to read starts long before Grade 1.   Al quick look at the going’s on in a pre-school classroom might look like anything but an early literacy lesson, but what you are seeing there between the chaos of little bodies and coloured toys strewn over the floor is in fact kids learning to read.

      The games they play at this age start forming connections in the brain to ease the transition to formal instruction in reading.  Here are some ways to enhance your child’s pre-literacy skills:

      • Play games like I spy.  This is a wonderful way to introduce your little one to phonics.  Remember to use the initial sound rather than the initial letter though.  In other words, say something like “I spy something beginning with a Ah/Buh/Kuh/Duh” and not “Ay/Bee/See/Dee”.
      • Play the clapping game. Choose a word, starting with short, simple little words and then slowly progressing onto longer words, and break the word up into syllables rhythmically clapping at the end of each syllable. For instance “but (clap) ter (clap) fly” or “hip (clap) po (clap) po (clap) ta (clap) mus (clap)”.  Being able to break words up into syllables aids children greatly when spelling as it helps to reveal double consonants and allows the child to focus on smaller sections of a long word at a time.
      • Develop your child’s auditory discrimination skills. Tell him that you are going to be playing a game in which you are going to try and trick him. You are going to say pairs of different words that sound the same (such as bag – bad; run – fun; tub – tug) but every now and again to trick him you are going to say the same word twice (e.g. buck – buck, pin – pin) his role is to tell you when the words are the “same” and when they are “different”.
      • Focus on spatial orientation  by getting your child to place one object under / above / next to / behind / in front of another.  This will help him with his letter recognition in that he will be able to remember that, for instance, that the letter i has a dot above it; the letter a has a line next to a circle, the letter g has a tail that curls in below a circle, etc.
      • Enhance your child’s sequencing skills by asking him to copy the way you have thread different coloured beads onto a string or to copy a pattern with pegs onto a peg board from a stimulus card.  Later this will help him to remember simple reading & spelling rules such as: in the word cat the letter c comes first, then the letter a, then the letter t.
      • Pick a word and see how many words your child can think of that rhyme with it.  This will help him identify words that start or end with the same sound.
      • Kids learn to recognise certain letters through their association with common symbols. It is often no surprise that children can easily identify the letters M and P through their association with the MacDonalds and Pick&Pay signs they spot on an almost daily basis. This is called incidental learning.  Type out words for common objects (such as wall, door, ball, mat, bat, pen, etc) in a big, grade 1 font and stick the words on the related items.  There is a chance that your child will find these words more easy to recognise when his formal instruction in reading begins.
      • Remember to point out shapes to your child.  Children are often taught letter recognition by being told that a capital A looks like a triangle with a line through it, the letter e is a half-circle with tail curving below it, the letter b begins with a line and then has a circle attached.
      Remember to always present these activities as games and make sure that you don’t put pressure on yourself to be your child’s “teacher” rather than his “mother”.  Children learn most when they’re having fun !

       

      This entry is filed under Barriers to Learning, Early Childhood Development, Education and tagged , , , .

      The great Ritalin debate

      By on January 6, 2012

        Ritalin – friend or foe?

        I am often asked to give my opinion on the use of Ritalin (and it’s counterparts) in the treatment of children with ADD or ADHD.  The question usually comes from parents whose children have recently been diagnosed, confused by the multitude of conflicting reports and opinions on the subject. Truthfully, I hate being asked this question.  I am not qualified to prescribe medication and would much rather have the professionals who are, give their answers. But I’ll tell you what I’ve seen:

        I’ve seen how it can virtually be a life-saver for those children whose incredible potential had previously been hampered by their inability to concentrate.  I’ve seen how they grow in confidence and how their self-esteem improves. How their social circle widens as their impulsive behaviour is curtailed and they are no longer constantly in trouble with the teacher.  I’ve seen them arrive in the morning neater and cleaner than in the days before Ritalin, when mom had to keep reminding them to get ready for school or to put their dirty laundry in the wash.  I’ve also seen how much neater their books and bags are from not constantly being forgotten out on the sports field or on the bus and I swear, I’ve even seen their handwriting improve in some cases.

        But, I’ve also seen the ugly side.  The listless or zombie-like expressions some children get. The irritability and aggression.  The loss of appetite. The weepiness.

        So now what? How on earth is that supposed to help you make up your mind about whether to medicate or not?

        My advice is this:

        1. Make very, very, very sure that your child is definitely suffering from ADHD or ADD before even considering medication.  Too often children are diagnosed by so called experts simply from the information given by parents on a questionnaire or by having a ten minute interview with the child.  Make sure you’ve had a complete psycho-educational assessment done to screen for any other possible causes of distractability or low academic performance and have your child examined by a neurologist, rather than a psychiatrist, if at all possible.  And get a second or even a third opinion if you don’t feel comfortable.  Medicating a child is a big decision and you need all the information you can get.

        2. Try the alternatives first if you’re not happy to medicate.  It has been my observation that the alternative treatments such as the Feingold diet, Omega-3 based supplements and other homeopathic remedies, neurotherapy, etc are not as effective as medication. But it’s still worth a shot as some children do respond really well to these treatments. And many of these treatments work wonders when used in conjunction with the correct medication.

        3. Get everyone on board.  There is a huge stigma attached to the use of Ritalin and parents are often shunned as being “bad” parents who don’t know how to handle their “spirited” child. Crap! I’d like to see how these people cope after they’ve been running around after a hyperactive, impulsive  child all day. Parenting a child with ADD or ADHD can be very difficult and you need to make sure grandparents, aunts, uncles and teachers are all on the same page as you.  Sit them down and tell them about your decision to medicate and be firm if you have to. You will need their buy-in support later to make sure that your little one gets his correct dosage at the correct time when he’s visiting.

        4. Check-in with your neurologist regularly and tell him about any concerns you may have.  The initial stages might include quite a bit of “tweeking” of the medication to find the correct drug and dosage.  This can be a little frustrating, with medication often being changed every few weeks, but is well worth it. I’ve seen children flourish when the neurologist (finally) hits on the correct dosage and medication / combination.

        5. Stick with it.  Parents, in two minds about the use of medication, are often guilty of not giving medication regularly or not giving the long-acting medications over a long enough time period to kick into effect.  Once you’ve made up your mind to give your child the medicine set your alarm to go off at the times he needs to take it and commit to giving it to him every day as prescribed.

        This is a difficult decision to make, but armed with accurate information and a supportive relationship with all involved can be a very positive experience.  Best of luck!

         

         

         

        This entry is filed under ADHD, Assessments, Barriers to Learning, Education and tagged , , .

        How is ADHD / ADD diagnosed?

        By on December 22, 2011

          How is ADHD diagnosed?

          The majority of my referrals come from teachers, suspecting that a child in their class suffers from ADHD / ADD. And although teachers are not qualified to make this diagnosis, I have to honestly admit that 90% of the time they are right on the money.  So, heed the teacher’s call. Chances are that she’s not just trying to make your child’s life difficult or that she dislikes your child, but that her concern is genuine.  Trust that she has enough experience and know-how to be able to recognize the tell-tale signs such as distractability, impulsiveness and difficulty in maintaining focused attention.

          Parents also often approach me saying that a GP or Psychiatrist has diagnosed their child as suffering from ADHD. The method of diagnosis used is usually a short interview with the child and a questionnaire completed by both the parents and the child’s teachers.  Now, although these are recognized methods of diagnosis for ADHD / ADD, I’m not entirely comfortable with using them on their own.  I would rather have the child seen to by a Neurologist who will take an EEG (Electroencephalogram) recording of the overall brain activity and analyse the data to try and detect abnormalities in the brain function.  The Neurologist will often insist on a full psycho-educational report from an Educational Psychologist.  The reason for this is to eliminate any other causes of distractability or poor academic performance, such as low IQ, poor self-esteem or learning difficulties.  In other words, during the assessment the Educational Psychologist will screen for everything other than ADHD / ADD while at the same time noting typical ADHD / ADD behaviour such as a lack of focused attention, being easily distracted, impulsively answering questions, difficulty sitting still, continuous yawning and /or continuous fidgeting.

          If you suspect that your child might be suffering from ADHD / ADD, I would suggest that you:

          1. Start by chatting to his / her teacher.  If the teacher expresses similar concerns …
          2. Take your child for a full psycho-educational assessment with an Educational Psychologist, who will (if he or she also suspects ADHD / ADD) …
          3. Refer you to a Peadiatric Neurologist, who will analyse the data from an EEG to confirm or refute the diagnosis.
          This entry is filed under ADHD, Assessments, Barriers to Learning, Education, Educational Psychologist and tagged , .

          Anel’s top 20 favourite activities to enhance fine motor development

          By on December 20, 2011

            Anel’s top 20 favourite activities to enhance fine motor development

            Colouring, drawing, cutting and tracing are all wonderful activities to enhance fine motor skills.  But many young children, especially boys, find these activities boring and often despise having to spend time sitting still at a desk completing worksheets.  There are so many other wonderful and exciting ways in which to enhance fine motor skills!  Try some of these:

            This entry is filed under Barriers to Learning, Early Childhood Development, Education and tagged , . | 1 Comment

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