How to help your child succeed in middle school

Posted on June 8, 2013 by
Communication is the key to success in Middle School

Communication is the key to success in Middle School

Last week Mrs. Smith came to visit me and discuss her daughter, Sarah. Sarah is in seventh grade and has been struggling all year. Last year in sixth grade Sarah earned all A’s and B”s on her report card.  Sarah has a history of doing well in school. At the beginning of seventh grade Sarah began experiencing difficulty in a class or two, but she promised her mother that she would work harder and handle it. All year long Sarah promised her mother that she would do better. However, Sarah was not able to take control of her schoolwork and pull up her grades.

Teacher comments on Sarah’s report cards consistently stated that she was missing homework and doing poorly on tests. Sarah’s mother trusted her because Sarah had always done well in school. Mrs. Smith did not realize until too late that Sarah needed some academic support to help her to well in seventh-grade.

This story is important. The transition between elementary school and middle school can place an extraordinary load on a child’s organizational, planning and follow-through skills. Many students have not developed, or needed, executive functioning skills prior to middle school. The tragedy of this is when you have a strong student like Sarah who suddenly fails three classes.

It is important for parents to realize what they need to do to help their children succeed in middle school. I wish that Sarah’s mother had come to us in October or November of last year and we could have set up a plan to help her get her work done and turned in on time.

Communication is the key to success.

The communication needs to be between the teachers, the parents and the child. This sounds like a simple task, but as many middle school parents know it is not. If your child is at a school where teachers have an online homework program, that they actually keep up to date, then it is important for parents and students to check that online tool and make sure the child knows what needs to be done and when it needs to be turned in.

Many middle school teachers find it difficult to keep these online homework sites updated.  Without the online homework check it can become a challenge for parents to know what assignments their child has. So what can you do?

  •  Have a meeting with the teacher
  • Find a friend who is a good note taker and is willing to help update your child on what is due
  • Have your child take a picture of the assignments listed on the board
  •  Request that the school give you weekly updates on unfinished assignments and outstanding homework
  • Check in with your child every night, go through the notebook and planner to help them get organized.
  •  Create a homework calendar where weekly and monthly assignments are written down
  • Understand that you are teaching your child the steps to success and that this is a process that will take time.
  •  Don’t wait more than a month if your child begins to struggle in school
  • Ask for help and find a system that works for your family

Middle school is a very exciting and trying time as your child goes through developmental growth, both mentally and physically. It is a time when children require more independence, however they are not always ready for parents to step back completely. This is the time period where parents transition from teacher to coach, guiding their children to develop the skills that they need to succeed.

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Executive functioning skills: How To Get Your Child To Follow The Plan

Posted on May 28, 2013 by

 

imagesThe coach comes, plans are made, checklists are created with extensive “TO DOs” and then what?  Nothing!

Students with executive functioning deficits have difficulty planning, organizing and initiating projects and homework. A tutor or coach can help students fill in their planner and breakdown their assignments to make a weekly “TO DO” plan, but they can not make the student follow the plan once they leave. Creating the plan is one thing, following the plan is another.

Parents and coaches often tell me how frustrating it can be to create a fabulous plan for the student only to find that the student didn’t follow through. Building executive functioning skills and study strategies takes time and practice. Remember back to when your child was learning his multiplication tables? What did the teacher tell you? Learn the concept, then drill and practice, drill and practice, drill and practice! Learning executive functioning skills is no different! To develop an understanding of executive functioning skills, you must first set up goals and explain how the brain works. Once the student understands what is expected, it is time to start the drill and practice, drill and practice, drill and practice!

One of the challenges many parents face is that executive functioning skills become more of a challenge in middle school. Many children are developmentally ready to become more independent and separate from their parents in middle school.  However, this is a transitional phase towards independence and many students still need their parents to help them scaffold new skills.  The executive functioning skill set is new to many middle school students.

So, what is the best way to get students to follow plan, use checklists, turn in homework, and build their independence at the same time? Most parents and executive functioning coaches / tutors face this challenging question. To help children learn new skills, you have to go back to the theory of scaffolding. Scaffolding new ideas and skills is like building a high-rise. images-1First, you build the scaffolding on the outside the building to support the framework on the inside. The scaffolding stays up until the building is stable. At that point, the foundation is strong and the scaffolding can be taken down. This is what we need to be thinking about with children. We need to create the external structure–the scaffolding–and keep it in place until they have learned the skill. Once the skill is in place the scaffolding comes down.

Checklists, charts, study plans, apps for time management and check-in’s are all very effective scaffolding tools for students. However, we are looking for the external tools that the students can rely on to help them know what to do next and when to do it. It is important to remember that they still need reminders to check their checklists, planners and homework online. I have found that it is best if these reminders are automatic and not given by parents; rather, we use the student’s iPhone, iPad or other electronic device to create reminders and email alerts. There are many tools available now to alert a child to check his or her checklists.Unknown-1

At our center, we create an alert that shows up on the child’s phone, iPad, computer, etc. reminding the students to check their planner and update their study plan. They then have another alert half an hour before bedtime to check if everything has been done and put in their backpack. These alerts can be set to automatically alert the student every day, so they don’t depend on the student remembering to make a note. Once the students setup these alerts with the tutor/coach, it is time to involve the parents.

To help parents monitor their student’s progress, the student explains the plan to the parents. The student can then share their homework plan with their parents. Once this is done, it is updated automatically, allowing parents to use their phones or computers to confirm that their child is updating the study plan. We then ask the parents to set up alerts as well. The parents’ alerts are simple: 10 minutes after the student receives the alert, the parents receive an alert reminding them to check in with the student. We let students know that they will get their alert 20 minutes before bedtime, or whatever amount of time students and parents think is reasonable, and the parents will get an alert 10 minutes after the child’s alert. This allows the students to get started before the parent is alerted to make sure all work has been done for the evening.

Designing a plan is very important, and implementing the plan is critical. It is important to work with both students and parents to create a plan that can be followed up on daily basis. Our center often uses another system—daily emails—to help students develop a daily habit of checking, updating, and completing their study plan. The academic coach can send out a checklist that the student completes each night. The student’s responses are saved and sent to the academic coach where they can be easily compiled. This provides an additional reminder and allows the academic coach to gauge the student’s progress.

In creating a system like this, it is important to remember that success will not be 100% immediately. The entire support team—the academic coach, the parents and the student–must create an achievable goal. Success breeds success. Find out what percentage of homework is being done and use that as your baseline to create a new goal. For example, if the student turns in 50% of the homework now, the new goal would be to turn in 70%. Recognition of success is important for the child to see that he or she is making progress and that this hard work is worth it.images-2

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Find your Executive Functioning Strengths and Weakness with our FREE QUIZ

Posted on March 17, 2013 by

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Executive Functioning refers to the skills that help you organize, plan and execute a task. If you would like to discover your own executive functioning strengths and weaknesses, take our free quiz and then read below to see how each skill affects your thinking.

Click here to take the quiz: EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING QUIZ. When you are done write your results on the chart below.

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Find more executive functioning strategies in the TLC Executive Functioning Workbook.



Posted in ADHD, Behavioral Regulation, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Processing Speed, Thinking Skills, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Processing speed issues are challenging at all ages

Posted on February 22, 2013 by

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Sara is now 22 years old and still struggling with processing speed issues.  Here is Sara’s story:

When I was 12 years old, I was diagnosed with slow processing speed, given a 504 plan, and told this was a part of my life that 1) would not go away and 2) I would have to get used to. I thought I was mentally handicapped. My mom is a special education teacher, and she explained to me that this did not mean I lacked intelligence, but that it took longer for me to process information. This proved true when, in seventh grade, with an influx in work and sport activity, I stayed up until 1 or 2 every night finishing my homework.

I have always been motivated to not only complete assignments, but to do the best I can on them. However, this diagnosis became an excuse for any mistakes I made – so if ever I did not understand something right away, I laughed it off to slow processing. But, inside I was an emotional wreck questioning myself and my abilities. I know you’ve worked with a lot of children who have this, so I’m sure you see when they first come in your office that their confidence is very low. Confidence has always been a struggle for me, and it wasn’t until I really pursued writing (I wrote a 250 page novel when I was 14, still hidden away on my bookshelf) that I gained a little confidence in myself. But my confidence level is a roller coaster ride, and varies all the time.

 Now that I have given you a bit of background, I would like to ask you a question. I am 22 years old, and very unhappy with my processing abilities. I recently read a book by Joshua Foer titled Moonwalking with Einstein about Foer’s yearlong journey to improve his memory that concluded in his winning the United States Memory Championship. This book was an inspiration to me because it made me finally realize that the brain can change – something no one had educated me on when I was a 12-year-old, scared, recently diagnosed kid.

I graduated from college a little less than a year ago now with a degree in English and minor in Psychology. I currently work at a publishing company in New York, and am incredibly happy with how my life has gone. I have “compensated” for my disability – as my mom always said I would, but I want more than that. I want to be able to change my processing abilities. I want to have intelligent, abstract conversations with people that don’t end with me saying, “let me think about that a little more.”

 So, finally my question is, what do you recommend I do to improve my processing abilities? I know the process will be difficult, but I also know how beneficial it will be for the rest of my life. It has taken me a lot to get to the point I am at now, admitting that I am faulted in my processing abilities, but there is hope on the horizon if there is something I can do about it. Please let me know if you have any advice for me. I would much appreciate it.

 Thank you for your time and consideration. I admire what you are doing for children and parents, and only hope that one day I can share my experiences and help out someone just like me.

Sara’s story is inspirational. While she still struggles to think quickly on her feet, she has dealt with her slow processing speed, graduated from college and landed a great job that makes her happy. What more do we want for our children? It shows that with support and guidance the diagnoses of a processing speed issue is not a reason to despair.

Sara’s mother believed in Sara and was practical and realistic in her advice. I think this is a key factor in Sara’s success. Her mother explained that being slow is not the same as being dumb. If you are reading this because your child is slow, please find out about your child’s intellectual strengths and highlight those strengths when you talk to your child. Remind him often of what he is good at. The strengths you pick need to real; children know the truth about themselves even if they can’t articulate it. So, be real and encouraging.

Now to Sara’s question, what can she do to continue to increase her processing speed? Sara is referring to cognitive processing speed, how fast she can take in and process information, organize it and then respond. This is different than visual-motor processing speed that refers to how quickly you can take in visual information and then draw or write it. Sara wants to be an active participant in a fast paced, intellectual conversation.

Processing speed (PS) training has been found to be effective in adults.  One study, Effects of Training of Processing Speed on Neural Systems investigated the effects of PS training on the PS of young adults and on neural mechanisms. The results demonstrate that PS training increased brain plasticity (the brain’s ability to change).  The results of the study also found that a wide range of cognitive interventions involving speeded training tasks led to an improvement in cognitive functioning.

It is worthwhile to note that the PS training improved PS but not working memory, reasoning, or creativity. To achieve Sara’s goal of participating in fluid conversation, she may need to build her processing speed as well as her working memory. There are programs that are designed to do just that. At the K&M Center we use:

  • Cogmed to build working memory skills
  • PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement) to build visual and auditory processing
  • Flexible Thinking Program to build cognitive flexibility

Other Programs I have not used but are available and look effective, include:

  • Brain HQ:  exercises your memory, attention, and more
  • Lumosity:  trains a range of cognitive functions, from working memory to fluid intelligence
  • Brain Training 101 Program: training exposes each student to a customized series of intense mental workouts

These training programs are designed to build neuro-pathways that help information flow around the brain faster. Studies show beneficial results. Research continues to investigate the methods, amount of time and results of processing speed interventions. It can be presumed that actively engaging the part of the brain you want to develop will strengthen it. The term “build the brain” refers to the brain as a mental muscle and we know exercising muscles makes them stronger and more effective.

Posted in ADHD, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Processing Speed, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mastering Executive Functioning Skills Requires Grit and Resilience

Posted on January 7, 2013 by

ll_main_child by Melissa Mullin Ph.D.

Executive functioning skills enable students to manage their workload and plan for the future. These skills allow students to break down a task and organize it as well as create a time lime for completion. Grit  is defined as a passion to achieve a long-term goal, along with a powerful motivation to achieve the goal. Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress. Research has demonstrated that grit may be a more accurate predictor of future success than IQ or talent.

Take a moment to think about how executive functioning and grit play an important role in learning. Executive functioning skills provide the path the student needs to tackle a task while grit provides the driving force to complete the task. Executive functioning skills are the map and grit is the motor that propels the car.

There has been a tremendous amount of information and conversation about executive functioning skills and success. Executive functioning skills are often discussed as the CEO or manager of your thought processes. Here is a quick overview of executive functioning components:

  • Initiate: start
  • Plan and Organize: stop, think and plan a strategy
  • Organize Material: materials available and organized
  • Inhibit: able to stay on task and avoid distractions
  • Emotional Control: resilient when frustrated and overwhelmed
  • Working Memory: able to hold and work on two mental concepts at once
  • Shift: can move from one activity to another easily
  • Monitor:  can check work and make changes as needed

While teaching executive functioning skills is important for any student that lacks them, a common complaint I hear from parents is that students aren’t using the skills they are taught. So, what is missing? There is the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”  I have found that executive functioning skills can be taught successfully, but for some students it takes more than teaching the skills to get the students to use them.  This brings us to grit.

Angela Duckworth was a middle and high school math teacher before she became a psychology professor. She noticed that the students who tried the hardest did the best in her class. When she became an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania,  she focused her work on a personality trait she calls “grit.” She writes that “the gritty individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or her advantage is stamina.” The research results suggest that grit may be as essential as intelligence to achievement. Take Dr. Duckworth’s Grit quiz at the end of this article to discover your child’s grit level.

Paul Tough, the author of How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, believes the most valuable thing that parents can do to help their children develop their character, and therefore “grit”—may be to do nothing. He believes that we should let our children face some adversity on their own. Children will learn to persevere when they fall down and are not helped back up. Paul Tough writes: “Overcoming adversity is what produces character. And character, even more than IQ, is what leads to real and lasting success.”

I have seen many students with learning difficulties who struggle, fail, work  hard to learn, develop a tremendous amount of grit and go on to do well very in school. I have also seen bright children with learning challenges give up and not develop grit. Building grit is not as simple as letting your child fail. Research on resilience and praise adds another dimension to this issue. Parents and educators can help build resilience, and therefore “grit” by making sure to praise effort towards a task rather than the results.

The American Psychological Association article, Using Praise to Enhance Student Resilience and Learning Outcomes , found that students whose teachers praise effort and work strategies rather than praising intelligence will:

  • Apply more, not less, effort when material is difficult for them
  • Seek challenges
  • Set higher goals for themselves
  • Look at failures as opportunities to learn
  • Increase their efforts rather than withdraw effort and attention

Learning is a complicated and individual process. Knowing what a child needs to develop to help him succeed can be difficult. The relationship between executive functioning skills, grit, resilience and praise is important when creating a holistic educational plan for students. Teachers, parents and children all need to work together to create the challenges, opportunities and supports necessary to encourage the development of a child’s potential to its maximum level.

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8- Item Children’s Grit Scale

Directions for taking the Grit Scale: Please respond to the following 8 items. Be honest – there are no right or wrong answers.

  1. New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones.*
  • Very much like me
  • Mostly like me
  • Somewhat like me
  • Not much like me
  • Not like me at all

2. Setbacks (delays and obstacles) don’t discourage me.

  • Very much like me
  • Mostly like me
  • Somewhat like me
  • Not much like me
  • Not like me at all

3. I have been obsessed with a certain idea or project for a short time but later lost interest.*

  • Very much like me
  • Mostly like me
  • Somewhat like me
  • Not much like me
  • Not like me at all

4. I am a hard worker.

  • Very much like me
  • Mostly like me
  • Somewhat like me
  • Not much like me
  • Not like me at all

5. I often set a goal but later choose to pursue (follow) a different one. *

  • Very much like me
  • Mostly like me
  • Somewhat like me
  • Not much like me
  • Not like me at all

6. I have difficulty maintaining (keeping) my focus on projects that take more than a few months to complete. *

  • Very much like me
  • Mostly like me
  • Somewhat like me
  •             Not much like me
  • Not like me at all

7. I finish whatever I begin.

  • Very much like me
  • Mostly like me
  • Somewhat like me
  • Not much like me
  • Not like me at all

8. I am diligent (hard working and careful).

  • Very much like me
  • Mostly like me
  • Somewhat like me
  • Not much like me
  • Not like me at all

Scoring:

  • For questions 2, 4, 7 and 8 assign the following points:
    5 = Very much like me.
    4 = Mostly like me.
    3 = Somewhat like me.
    2 = Not much like me.
    1 = Not like me at all
  • For questions 1, 3, 5 and 6 assign the following points:
    1 = Very much like me
    2 = Mostly like me
    3 = Somewhat like me
    4 = Not much like me
    5 = Not like me at all
  • Add up all the points and divide by 8. The maximum score on this scale is 5 (extremely gritty), and the lowest scale on this scale is 1 (not at all gritty).

Duckworth, A.L, & Quinn, P.D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (GritS). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 166-174. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Duckworth%20and%20Quinn.pdf

Duckworth, A.L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M.D., & Kelly, D.R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1087-1101. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Grit%20JPSP.pdf

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What Does It Mean To Have Weak Executive Functioning Skills?

Posted on December 6, 2012 by

Many middle school children have difficulty with executive functioning skills. What does this really mean? For many of the students that we work with at the K& M Center this means that they are missing assignments and they are not adequately prepared for tests. Students who have done well in elementary school, but now struggle with the increased demands of middle school, often have weak executive functioning skills.

So what do you do to help these students? The first step in building executive functioning skills is becoming aware of the areas that need to be developed. To help build awareness in our students we have them take our executive functioning quiz. We have posted this quiz on the K & M Center website and you are welcome to take the quiz, which is free. The results of the quiz help our students get an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Below is a sample of a student’s results.

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Looking at these results, we can learn about how the student approaches his work. The important thing to know about this quiz is it is not a definitive profile of the student, rather it is a comparison of his strengths and weaknesses. We are only looking at how this student has rated himself. It is interesting to have the parents and teachers take the quiz as well, and get their perspective on the student. Then, you can have a conversation with the student comparing how everyone sees his executive functioning skills.

The student above rates himself with strong emotional control and a good ability to shift between tasks. The student sees himself as average in working memory, inhibiting behavior, and monitoring his workload. This student has rated his areas of weakness as organizing material and initiating work. Once a student has taken the quiz, the perception of how he sees his strengths and weaknesses can be compared to how he is studying and achieving in school. This conversation between how the student perceives his study skills and how he is doing in his classes can lead to creating goals to help increase his performance in school. I have attached a page from our executive functioning workbook so that you can see a sample of what it might look like to set goals with a student.

goals sheetjpeg

 

Executive functioning is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of skills. By taking the EF quiz and discussing the results, students can focus in on the areas they want to develop. Executive functioning skills allow a student to be able to look at an assignment, read the directions, gather the materials that are needed, estimate how much time it will take, do the assignment, finish it and turn it in. It sounds so simple for those that have strong executive functioning skills, yet it is extremely difficult for any student who is struggling in this area. Remediating an executive functioning issue requires pinpointing the area of difficulty and helping the student learn the steps to follow. Executive functioning skills are not needed just for school, they are skills we all use every day. Taking the time to help a child build executive functioning skills is definitely worth the effort.

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Dysgraphia: Difficulty writing

Posted on November 9, 2012 by

Dysgraphia refers to difficulty writing.  Most people with dysgraphia have a hard time holding a pencil or pen. The awkward pencil grip can make forming letters on a page challenging.  When a student with dysgraphia is asked to copy from the board, line up math problems, or write an essay he is at a real disadvantage compared to his peers who can easily write down information on a page.

Many parents and teachers don’t realize that dysgraphia is a learning disability that does not get better as the student gets older. Here are some of the signs to watch for:

  • Awkward pencil grip
  • Messy writing
  • Letter size is inconsistent
  • Presses hard on paper
  • Spacing is inconsistent
  • Letters are not anchored on the line
  • Tires easily
  • Omits words in sentence
  • Has trouble keeping track of an idea while writing
  • A large gap exists between verbal ability to communicate and written ability to communicate.

What can be done to help a dysgraphic student?

Build fine motor skills for writing

    • The amount of effort it takes students to write makes the whole writing process laborious. The frustrating part for the students is that they have the ideas but it’s too much work to communicate them
    • I recommend the Retrain the Brain program along with Handwriting Without Tears.
    • An occupational therapist has additional tools that can be used to build the hand muscles needed for fluent writing.
    • Vision Therapy, if visual tracking is an issue.

Organize language and writing skills.

      • Educational specialists or tutors can help with this
      • The writing skills that a student with this profile needs to learn includes: pre-writing skills to help him organize his ideas before he writes and editing skills.
      • Use Speech to Text software like Dragon 

Use mind maps or advanced organizers

    • Graphic organizers  are great tools.
 In other words, we want to take the grand ideas that the student has and get them onto paper.
 This process alone will alleviate a lot of stress on the student.
    • Once the ideas are on paper, they can be numbered in the order the student wants to present them in his final paper.

Here is a great video that explains dysgraphia

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