MyLearningMatters.com

Prepare your child for the demands of writing through this fun
and engaging class. Utilizing fun, “hands-on” techniques developed
by a leading occupational therapist, this class is designed to
develop good writing habits and enhance fine motor skills.
Children learn to write the alphabet from A-Z using “block” or
“snail tails” printing. Using a combination of the “First Strokes”
curriculum, multi-sensory techniques, Brain-Gym, and rhythm and
timing exercises, children will learn to write within the handwriting
lines, with size and form consistency, proper sequencing, and no
reversals. This class includes mini-lessons for parents on things
that you can do at home to reinforce the good habits.
This is writing as you have never seen it before and it works!

At least 20% of all children face daily learning struggles such as those listed below.

short attention span
difficulty staying focused
poor spelling
messy handwriting
difficulty following directions
confuses similar sounding words
poor short-term or long-term memory
tires easily
clumsiness
uncoordinated body movements
difficulty with puzzles
slow reaction time
receptive language delays
reading difficulties
easily over stimulated
sings out of tune
difficulty completing homework struggles with motor planning
limited participation in conversations
trouble initiating or completing projects
slower mental processing speed
easily distracted
trouble finding the right words
difficulty with fine motor skills
gross motor delay
poor balance
difficulty with sequencing
poor self image / low self-confidence
low frustration tolerance
tense / anxious
limited understanding of personal space
believes that most people speak too quickly
struggles using scissors, folding paper
expressive language delays

If your child’s cognitive or perceptual skills have not reached their potential,
then learning becomes difficult—and everyday school subjects like math and reading become
a challenge. At Learning Matters there are no learning disabilities, only learning blocks or abilities
that need further development.

Learning Matters identifies and provides proven methods for developing the underlying cognitive
and perceptual skills that are crucial for learning through a comprehensive LEARNING PROFILE.
The Learning Profile is based on up to 57 cognitive, auditory, visual, and motor tasks.
The profile provides information about underlying skills, such as; the ability for memory,
comprehension, visual, auditory, and motor skills, and is the basis for each child’s individualized
program designed to eliminate learning difficulties.

The Learning Profile includes a complete evaluation of cognitive, sensory-motor, and
perceptual skills. Based on the information from the evaluation and the information provided
from parents and teachers, you learn what may be affecting your child’s ability to
learn, or perform optimally. An educational consultant at Learning Matters will explain your
child’s profile through a detailed consultation. The Learning Profile includes a recommended
program for training based on your child’s needs.

The Learning Profile provides you with information on your child’s learning style and can
be an effective tool in helping other professionals, such as your child’s teacher; learn ways
to work with them more effectively.

By Jennifer Stenlake

It is that time of year again! The students and teachers are counting down the days until school is out. We all have visions of relaxing on the beach, sleeping in, spending time with friends, vacationing, fresh air, and freedom. According to research, however, taking too much of a break from learning has a negative effect on students. While most of us look foreword to this more “relaxed” season of the year, it truly poses a problem for our student’s brains. What happens over the summer to the learning of our children?

“One hundred years of research confirms that all young people are at risk of losing ground academically over the summer months,” says Ron Fairchild, Executive Director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. All young people experience learning losses when not engaged in educational activities during the summer.

According to Dr. Harris Cooper, Professor of Psychology at Duke University and the director of the program in education, test scores were, on average, at least one month lower when students returned to school in the fall than when they left in the spring.

“The areas that kids most forget are the things that they learn through repetition and practice, such as; spelling words and math computation,” says Cooper. Research points to the fact that all young people are at risk of losing more than two months in math computation skills, regardless of where they are in the socioeconomic spectrum. All students tend to fall behind in math and spelling because they have fewer opportunities to practice these skills during the summer.

In other words, kids (and adults too) need to keep their brains stimulated to avoid a permanent brain vacation. How can we keep our children’s brains engaged to ensure they are moving forward and not backwards? We need to acknowledge summertime as a tremendous educational opportunity. If your child is struggling in a particular area in school, use this time to get them caught up. If you are fortunate and your child doesn’t have an area that needs remediation, use this opportunity to enrich and support their strengths. And it’s easy to do! Below you will find a detailed action plan to keep all the brains in your family firm and fit. Remember learning can and should be fun. They won’t even know they are learning.

By Jennifer Stenlake

“As many as 10 percent of school age children may suffer from poor working memory,” British researchers said in a report released early last year. Despite these numbers, the problem remains rarely identified. Read the Full Report What is active working memory? Imagine it is your day for carpool. You pick up the four children you are responsible for and they all begin to speak at once. Two of them are having their own conversation; the other two are speaking with you. All the while their favorite radio station blares in the background. You are able to easily process all of this information and, on auto-pilot, distribute them to their appropriate places. Now imagine that you don’t know where one of them lives, you get lost. What do you do next? Most of us would immediately turn down the radio and ask the kids for silence. There is a need for fewer stimuli in order for your brain to process this new information of finding your way in unfamiliar territory. Doctor Mel Levine describes active working memory as the place where an idea or set of ideas retrieved from long term and short term memory are held while developing, elaborating, clarifying, or using them. Active working memory is like RAM in the computer. Until it is written to the hard drive, it is subject to displacement by new incoming information. Even if the new information is not a priority, the memory required to process it displaces the more important working information.

How do deficits in active working memory manifest themselves in the classroom? Some common warning signs that could indicate the presence of working memory problems: a) difficulty following directions abilities) problems understanding extended verbal sentences abilities) difficulty staying on topic in conversations d) difficulty with multi-step math problems e) problems with reading comprehension. If you suspect that you, or your child, may have working memory problems, an assessment may be necessary to distinguish between weaknesses with working memory and other learning difficulties. At Learning Matters, we comprehensively test each child to identify specific memory and brain function strengths and weaknesses. From the results of this individualized assessment, we develop specialized brain exercise and training program using the strengths of each child’s learning abilities to build up and develop the weaknesses into strong areas. This creates a more complete learning experience for each child in our program.

Here are some compensation strategies to help a child with active working memory difficulties:

1) Ensure your child has achieved automaticity in the following areas; math facts, writing mechanics; such as spelling, capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure, and grammar. If the ingredients of the task are easy and fully automatic for your child, they won’t have to think about it and valuable space is freed up in active working memory. Once the retrieval of units of information is automatic, the brain has energy to work with it in a new way.

2) Use visual and/or graphic organizers to help them get their thoughts together and organized. Examples could include a: Venn diagram, comparison boxes, vertical sequential organizer, or a general story map. Recommended Software

3) Active working memory craves peace of mind. Create a place free of clutter and distractions for your child to study and concentrate.

When a student appears to have a shortage of active working memory, parents and teachers need to check out the possible causes. Could it be attention? Could it be that the child had to work so hard on one aspect of the task that the other components are getting shortchanged in memory? Could the child be sad or preoccupied with anxiety? It is important to determine if there are working memory limitations so that the appropriate intervention can be implemented. If you suspect that your child has active working memory difficulties, please contact Learning Matters at 949-388-8501 jen@MyLearningMatters.Com.

Portions of this article were taken from, A Mind At A Time, Mel Levine, M.D

It is well documented how much ground a child can loose during summer vacation.  I trust that all of you have worked out a summer learning plan.  I would like to take this opportunity to offer an additional suggestion taken from one of my favorite brain experts Dr. Mel Levine.

A child’s natural strengths and affinities are a key part of his unique mind.  Every kid should be an expert on a particular subject.  Affinities should seed passions, intimately felt connections with the subject matter.  (Note:  An affinity is not a recreational activity.)  Every student should select (or be helped to select) a topic upon which they can become “the world’s leading expert.”  Summer would be an excellent time to start this project.  We are in the process of deciding on our subject in our home right now.  Some of the ideas are as follows; history of rock music, reptiles, recycling, dinosaurs, and Origami.   So let’s just suppose we decide on recycling.  Here are some activities that my son would complete around the subject of recycling; a) several art projects(using recycled objects); b) read all the relevant books and articles in the library; c)a science project; d) teach others about recycling e) video about recycling f) short story  around the subject.

Spend a fair amount of time narrowing down your subject.  You child is going to spend a tremendous amount of time, becoming the “world’s leading expert.”  Make sure you see the sparkle in their eye when they talk about it, and keep brainstorming and talking until you find a subject they can get really excited about. Adults do not get to select the child’s affinity, so we have to be attentive and open minded.

Expertise kindles intellectual self-esteem; it helps kids feel smart.  It also instills a sense of what it is like to be thorough, to dig into knowledge in depth.  Depth of knowledge has huge benefits to a developing mind.  For example, one of the best ways to learn to read well is to read about something you know a lot about.  The same boost pertains to writing, organizational skills, and many of the brain functions that are needed for success in life.

This idea is taken from Dr. Mel Levine A Mind at a Time