Insights from an Educational Psychologist and mom
Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together: Executive Functioning, Self-Regulation, and Social-Emotional Skills by Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. What do students need so they can effectively plan and complete work? Executive functioning skills, a set of skills that work together to help students … Continued
A concerned mother reached out to me regarding her son’s evaluation results and his writing skills. Her bright son, Max*, has strong verbal comprehension, visual-spatial, and fluid reasoning skills. However, his working memory and processing speed skills are in the … Continued
Does your child struggle to process information quickly? Have you witnessed your child trying to explain what he means only to “talk around” the idea, leaving you to guess what the idea is? He knows what he wants to say, … Continued
All students must memorize information. The benefit of using flashcards is students can quiz themselves on the material. Quizzing has been demonstrated to help students retain information. Mixing up the cards helps students work actively and flexibly with the material. Quizlet is a great … Continued
Understanding students educational needs and will help teachers create productive classroom accommodations. There are many types of learning challenges and each type requires different classroom accommodation. Some of the most common learning issues are auditory processing (which impacts reading and spelling), visual-motor … Continued
Starting a task requires strong initiation skills. Students who struggle to begin their work may have weak executive functioning skills. Initiation of task is a key executive functioning skill and utilizes other executive functioning skills such as planning and organization. … Continued
Bright Kids Who Can’t Keep Up by Ellen Braaten, Ph.D. and Brian Willoughby, Ph.D. (2014) is the first book I have found that gives both an overview of processing speed and advice to help parents and schools provide intervention. The … Continued
Working memory skills are used for all learning tasks. A child with weak working memory skills has to work harder than other students to keep information in mind, as rather than being able to both hold and process the … Continued
Bryce wants to be like his friend who is excellent at soccer, can memorize anything quickly and always has a witty comment to share. So he asked me to explain how his brain works and what he can do … Continued
