Things to consider when choosing a school
When it comes to choosing the right school for your mainstream child, these are some of the things to consider: 1. What does your gut say? (It might sounds flaky, but I consider your first instinct when it comes to schools to be the most important. Parents usually know their children better than anyone and know […]
Pencil grip development and why it matters
As part of my assessments I routinely check fine motor control and pencil grip and often while reporting to a parent that their child’s pencil grip is inferior I am asked: “What does it really matter? What difference does it make how my child holds his / her pencil?” We’ve all heard of the brilliant […]
Kids learning to read: visual figure-ground perception
Visual figure ground perception refers to the ability to distinguish a figure or object from it’s background and is a vital element to reading. This ability enables emerging readers to focus on words and letters and ignore background prints or blots and smudges on a page. Practice this skill by letting your emerging read information […]
How to support your ADHD child
The most hotly debated topic around ADHD is usually whether to medicate or not. And even though this is a very serious question, which needs careful consideration I would like to step beyond the Medication vs Alternative treatment debate for a bit. Let’s put the medication debate behind us for a bit and consider some […]
Signs and symptoms commonly associated with Dyslexia
There are about 27 accepted definitions of Dyslexia and experts cannot seem to agree on exactly what this learning disorder is and how it presents itself in young children. There are dozens of Dyslexia Tests on the market, but not one single universally accepted test to try and identify this learning disorder. For this reason […]
Intellectually gifted children with learning difficulties
It’s seems completely contradictory for a child to be intellectually gifted and have a learning difficulty at the same time, right? Yet, experts estimate that about 2% – 5% of gifted children have learning difficulties. Gifted children with learning difficulties are referred to as being twice exceptional (abbreviated as 2e) and may suffer from any […]
How to identify intellectually gifted children
In my practice I find that there is often a lot of confusion about exactly what the term “gifted” means. Many will use the term loosely to describe children with high intellectual potential, but it is important to note that children may be gifted in a variety of ways. Some are extraordinary sportsmen, while others […]
More maths concepts for preschoolers
In a previous post (Kids learning to do maths: Early numeracy skills) I mentioned how important is to use mathematical terms as you go about your everyday tasks as a way to introduce maths concepts for preschoolers. Many math and science geniuses maintain that maths is just a language and when you understand the terms and you […]
How parents can get involved in their child’s education
Research has shown that parental involvement is vital to children’s academic success. Here are some of the ways in ways in which parents can get involved and show interest in their child’s school career: One of the easiest ways in which to show an interest in your child’s education is to establish a daily family routine […]
The importance of parental involvement in children’s school achievement
We all generally agree that schooling and education are vitally important to a child’s success in later life, but few people realise that children still spend the majority of their time outside of school. Parents thus play a very big role in shaping their children’s beliefs and attitudes towards school and schoolwork. Research has shown […]