504 Accommodations: Extra Time on Tests

Learning, Learning differences, Processing Speed, Visual Processing, Writing

Brad was a third grader who has struggled with reading since first grade.  His teacher shared with his parents that he is easily distracted and although he was performing at grade level he may have an attention issue. Brad was a quiet boy who did not cause problems in class but was more of a “daydreamer”.  When interrupted during class he had a hard time refocusing quickly and often missed important information such as directions or learning facts. Most children when interrupted or distracted are able to refocus quickly thus only missing moments of instruction.

Brad’s parents took him for a Psychoeducational Evaluation that showed that Brad did indeed have ADHD inattentive type. His testing also identified areas of strengths and weakness. Brad’s main weaknesses were in auditory and visual processing and executive functioning skills. In other words, he had trouble listening, processing the information then integrating the information he had heard.

Brad’s parents took the report from the psychologist to his school and worked with the special education team to create a 504.  A 504 is part of the 1973 Federal Rehabilitation Act and is a legal document between the parents and their child’s school, which protects and provides accommodations for their child with disabilities. The laws states that a person with a documented disability is entitled to accommodations.

Some of the accommodations that Brad is entitled to are:

  •  Extra time on tests
  • extra homework support
  • tutoring
  • written directions
  • use of a computer and tape recorder in class
  • extra time for long term assignments
  • a seat in the front of the class

Brad’s progress has improved due the accommodations put in place to help him. He still struggles and requires some extra tutoring and support.  He is learning how to compensate for his weakness while taking advantage of his strengths.

How to get covered under Section 504? http://www.help4adhd.org/en-us/education/rights/504

First, your child must be determined to have a disability that substantially limits one or more major life functions, including education, learning, and behavior.  Only the school can determine if your child qualifies for accommodations.  Parents seeking to have their child receive services under Section 504 should take the following steps:

1. Submit a written request to the school asking for an evaluation to determine if there is a significant impact on your child’s learning or behavior.

2. Request a copy of your School District’s Policies and Procedures on Section 504.  This document may be referred to by various names, including Procedural Safeguards, Parental Rights or something similar. This document will inform you of your and the school’s rights and responsibilities in helping your child receive the accommodations she or he needs.

Leave a comment , , , , ,

Executive Functioning Workbook

ADHD, Behavioral Regulation, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Thinking Skills

 By Melissa Mullin, Ph.D. and Karen Fried, PysD.

Planning, organizing and following through on your plans require strong executive functioning skills. Developing these skills can take patience, guidance and practice. There are parents, teachers, executive functioning coaches and tutors who do a great job of guiding students towards mastery of their time, workload and achievement. The K & M Center has been working on building executive functioning skills in all of our students for the past 15 years.

We have found the ability to STOP and THINK, along with the ability to talk yourself through a task, helps develop executive functioning skills. The challenge for students with weak executive functioning skills is to not get lost in their own thoughts. They want to get the work done, they just aren’t able to follow the path from A to Z without getting stuck or distracted.

Picture a new high-rise building being built. First the foundation is created, then the scaffolding is built to support the structure until it is strong enough to stand on its own. When the foundation has proven to be secure, and the building structure is stabilized, the scaffolding is removed and the new building stands on its own. This analogy has long been used for learning new skills and is apropos regarding executive functioning.

Every teacher knows that the content areas like reading, writing and math need strong foundations of basic skills: phonics, fine motor skills, spelling, number sense and counting. The basic skills start to be developed in kindergarten and first grade. There is a sequential path of developing the student’s knowledge year by year and adding the new information layer by layer. Unfortunately, no sequential system exists at this time to build executive functioning skills.

Recent studies are highlighting the benefits of play in preschools in the development of executive functioning skills. However, very little research has been done on how to develop these skills in grade school children. What we do know is that not all students learn these skills automatically. Rather they need the steps broken down for them so that they can practice the skills over and over until they have been internalized. Once the skills are internalized the students own them and no longer need external guidance to complete a task.

The TLC Executive Functioning Workbook provides external scaffolding that gives support and guidance so that students can learn to internalize a system that helps them master their thoughts and therefore their behavior and workload.

I am very pleased to announce that we have finally finished the Targeted Learning Concepts (TLC) Executive Functioning Workbook so we can offer it outside our center to those of you who can benefit from what it offers.

The TLC Executive Functioning Workbook increases the student’s ability to plan, start, and finish work autonomously. It exercises the neurological activity that creates Executive Functioning by identifying the student’s aims and challenges, building thinking skills, and practicing organizational strategies. The program establishes academic independence as the student determines goals and develops the habits that will achieve them.  

Learn more

Leave a comment , , , , ,

Summer and Executive Functioning Skills

ADHD, Behavioral Regulation, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Thinking Skills, Writing

 

Summer is a great time to catch up on material your child may not have mastered during the school year. Teaching reading, writing or math concepts will have clear benefits for your child when they re-enter school in the fall. But what about something as elusive as executive functioning? Can executive functioning skills be developed during the summer?  Identifying the areas your child needs to build will guide you in deciding what type of intervention is needed and if that intervention can be done in the summer.

One great rating scale is the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function® (BRIEF®) which consists of two rating forms–a parent questionnaire and a teacher questionnaire–designed to assess executive functioning in the home and school environments. The BRIEF is divided into 2 parts:

  1. Behavioral Regulation which includes the areas of:
    • Inhibit, Shift, Emotional Control
  2. Metacognition which includes the areas of:
    • Initiate, Working Memory, Plan/Organize, Organization of Materials, Monitoring

Initiation

•

starting work

Inhibition

•

stopping off-task behavior

Shift

•

moving from one activity to another

Working Memory

•

remembering information for immediate use

Planning

•

setting goals and the steps to accomplish them

Organizing Materials

•

tracking items in work spaces

Time Management

•

allotting appropriate time for each task

Monitoring

•

judging the quality and pace of work

Emotional Control

•

regulating stress and distractibility

If your child’s executive functioning weaknesses are in the area of behavioral regulation your intervention is going to be very different than if metacognition is the area of weakness.

Dr. Judy Willis (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-based-teaching-strategies-judy-willis) identifies some wonderful strategies to build executive functioning skills. Here is an edited version of her article.

1) Provide Opportunities to Apply Learning

When you provide students with opportunities to apply learning — especially through authentic, personally meaningful activities — and then provide formative assessments and feedback throughout a unit, facts move from rote memory to become part of the memory bank.

  • The expanding of related categories of information (Piaget’s schema) through executive function activities will consolidate learning into networks. These networks can be activated when students are prompted to use new learning to solve problems or create new products. This is the transfer process that further promotes network activation with the resulting neuroplasticity to construct long-term memory. Without these opportunities for strengthening, any memories learned by rote are simply pruned away from disuse after the test.

2) Introduce Activities to Support Developing Executive Function

  • Students need to be explicitly taught and given opportunities to practice using executive functions such as how to learn, study, organize, prioritize, review, and actively participate in class.
  • Activities that can support executive function network development include comparing and contrasting, giving new examples of a concept, spiraled curriculum, group collaboration, open-ended discussions. Additionally, executive function is developed when students summarize and symbolize new learning into new formats, such as through the arts or writing across the curriculum. (See The Brain-Based Benefits of Writing for Math and Science Learning.)
  • Consider how to acquire any skills or knowledge they lack to reach desirable goals. This type of student-prompted information and skill seeking strengthens students’ attitude about the value of learning. When motivated to solve problems that are personally meaningful, students apply effort, collaborate successfully, ask questions, revise hypotheses, redo work, and seek the foundational knowledge you need them to learn. And they do this because they want to know what you have to teach.

3) Model Higher Thinking Skills

  • In planning instruction, consider how and when you will model these higher thinking skills and provide opportunities for students to activate their developing executive function networks throughout the learning process.
  • Judgment
    • This executive function, when developed, promotes a student’s ability to monitor the accuracy of his or her work, and to analyze the validity of information heard or read. opinion are examples of promoting the development of networks for judgment.
  • Prioritizing
    • This executive function helps students to separate low relevance details from the main ideas of a text or topic of study. Prioritizing is the executive function that guides students when they plan an essay, select information to include in notes, and evaluate word problems in math for the relevant data.
  • Setting Goals, Providing Self-feedback and Monitoring Progress
    • Until students fully develop these pre-frontal cortex (PFC) executive functions, they are limited in their capacity to set and stick to realistic and manageable goals. As they develop these executive functions, they need guidance to recognize their incremental progress they make as they apply effort towards their larger goals.
  • Prior Knowledge Activation and Transfer Opportunities
    • Plan activities where students can relate what they know from past experiences to their current learning and tie it to the larger concept.
  • Metacognition
    • When you plan for and teach with mental manipulation for executive function in mind, your students will come to recognize their own changing attitudes and achievements. Describe your mental manipulation, challenges, and the executive functions you used to create something new as you found the authentic active learning opportunities that activated the students’ interest, perseverance, and higher levels of thinking.
One comment , , , , , , , ,

Will My Child Always Be Dyslexic?

Dyslexia, Learning, Learning differences, Reading, Spelling, Visual Processing


Research is ongoing regarding the neuro-pathways of our brains and how they can change with time and intervention, so you will get different answers to this question depending on whom you ask. Can a dyslexic student learn to read… YES!  As someone who has remediated learning differences for over 20 years, I can confidently tell you that dyslexic children can be taught to read and spell. To provide the right assistance to your child you need to discover your child’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses.  Then you can more easily find the correct intervention that taps into the part of the brain that needs to be developed.

Brain imaging is being used to highlight the parts of the brain that are active when we do certain types of activities. Research has shown that different areas are active in the “dyslexic” brain than in the typical brain when reading.  What does this mean for “fixing” the dyslexic brain? The theory is that we should help the dyslexic readers build the same brain pathways as the typical reader, so that when reading, the two types of brains use the same pathways.

The most widely accepted definition of dyslexia as accepted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, as well as the International Dyslexia Association, states that:

  • Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin.
  • It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.
  • These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.
  • Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

What this means is that a dyslexic child’s intelligence is above his reading level and that the reason for the difference is due to difficulty sounding out and manipulating sounds. What I know from my years of teaching reading is that there can be more than a phonological deficit making reading challenging for children. Therefore to teach a child to read you need to step back to get a bigger picture of the child’s learning profile.

If we are going to use the term dyslexia to define all students who have a reading disorder it is helpful to consider the “types” of dyslexia. The goal of understanding “types” of dyslexia is identifying the underlying issues that are making reading difficult for your child.

  • Phonological/ Auditory Dyslexia:  These students can’t sound out nonsense words, they have weak sound/symbol associations. It is difficult for this student to “hear”, or discriminate, the difference in sounds. “Hat” and “bat” may sound the same. If not identified early, this type of student will learn to read by building a large sight word vocabulary.
  • Visual Dyslexia: Visual processing issues make it hard for this type of student to  discriminate between visual symbols (letters and numbers) quickly and accurately.  Letter reversals are common as are substituting one word for another. “Home” can be read as “House”.
  • Double-Deficit Dyslexia: The connection between the verbal (auditory) portion of the brain and the visual portion of the brain is weak. Tests of rapid naming pick up this visual/language loop.

Once you know the areas of weakness your child has you can select an intervention program that is designed to build the neuro-pathways your child needs to develop in order to activate the parts of the brain that make reading easy. I believe that the unusual brain pattern of dyslexics may offer more benefits and advantages than we previously believed and more conversation is taking place about the benefits of dyslexia.

So perhaps the real issue isn’t whether your child will always be dyslexic, but rather how you can help your dyslexic child to flourish in his or her educational environment and learn to appreciate his/her own learning style. Learning to view dyslexia not as a negative challenge, but rather as a predisposed mental wiring can help teachers, parents and children relax into the realization that different doesn’t mean wrong. As research continues to investigate the brain and how we learn, I am sure we will continue to develop new attitudes and teaching methods to help all types of learners access information easily.

One comment , , , , ,

Metacognition Helps Build Self Regulation and Executive Functioning Skills

ADHD, Behavioral Regulation, Executive Functioning, Learning, Thinking Skills

Metacognition is thinking about thinking, knowing “what we know” and “what we don’t know.”  This means students take time to think about what needs to be done and how to do it. These students understand how the mind works and use this knowledge to help them. They take control over their learning process.

Building Metacognition skills can help build Self-Regulation skills by helping the student focus well. Building Self-Regulation skills can then help build Executive Functioning skills, which will allow the student to plan and organize better.

Gaskins & Pressley’s chapter in Executive Function in Education, 2007 presents a curriculum that teaches metacognitive skills. They describe how a child with strong metacognitive skills approaches a task. Metacognitive Learners:

  • Continually assess what they know.
  • As they read, write and problem-solve they:
    • Predict
    • Question
    • Create images
    • Clarify
    • Summarize
  • They are persistent; if the first strategy doesn’t work they try something else.
  • Have concrete strategies for approaching tasks.
  • Know success is the result of smart effort not just working hard.

Creating a mantra that children can memorize and use when they approach a task is very helpful to building metacognitive skills. Here are 4 steps to help teach metacognition skills:

  1.  STOP
  2. THINK: What am I supposed to do? Create a plan.
  3. DO: How do I do it? Follow the plan.
  4. CHECK: Did I do it? Check the plan.

Once they have memorized and begun using the mantra. Children will be asking themselves questions and talking themselves through tasks, thereby using metacognition strategies to help build executive functioning skills and behavior regulation skills.

Here are some examples of extended questions children can begin to ask themselves.

First, STOP!

Then, THINK. Make a plan before I start the task: When I am beginning a task, ask myself:

  • Why am I doing this?
  • Do I already know something that will help me?
  • What will the finished product look like?
  • What is my first step?
  • How much time do I have?

Next DO. During the task:  When I am monitoring the plan of action, ask myself:

  • How am I doing?
  • Am I following the directions?
  • What do I need to do next?
  • Does this match what I planned?
  • Am I getting enough done in the time I am spending?
  • Is there something I don’t understand?
  • Do I need to ask for help?

Finally, CHECK. After the task: When I am evaluating the plan of action, ask myself:

  • Did the product match the picture I had for it?
  • Is this better or worse than I expected?
  • What could I have done differently?
  • Is there anything missing?

Metacognitive strategies are teaching a child to be aware of his thoughts and control them. We are therefore trying to build behavioral regulation skills and executive functioning skills, which will in turn, activate the frontal lobe and hopefully build it. Brain research has shown that activity in the brain builds synapses, so we are taking a leap of faith (based on research and experience) that this will allow the child to attend better to tasks.

This is not easy; it requires constant reinforcement. Will it be successful? That depends on how well the plan is implemented.  What I have noticed at our learning center is that we get a number of middle school boys (along with some girls) who have weak executive functioning skills. There is a developmental growth in middle school that helps develop executive functioning skills which is evident by around 9th grade. My expectation is that many students who need help with executive functioning in middle school will build (with guidance and support) the skills they need to be successful when they enter high school.

3 comments , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Finding the Right Intervention to Increase Processing Speed

ADHD, Executive Functioning, Learning, Processing Speed, Visual Processing, Writing


Finding the right intervention to help your child increase his processing speed and writing skills is worth the effort. There are multiple issues to consider, including visual processing, fine motor skills, and language organization skills. When I think of the students that have high verbal skills and slow processing speed I often use the image of a funnel. The funnel is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Like sand flowing through a funnel, your child’s thoughts flow freely at the top of funnel, but need to consolidate and get in a linear form to get out the bottom of the funnel. Strong verbal skills provide a tremendous vocabulary that enriches the ability to communicate ideas. However, the struggle for the hand to form the letters on paper causes many students to write down only the basics of their idea, or to try to write the whole idea and never finish due to fatigue.

When children with high verbal skills and slow processing speed are required to take their ideas and push them through this funnel it becomes a laborious process. The funnel represents the process of taking the mental images and ideas and translating them into words on the page. It is the translation from the language center to the motor center that creates the difficulty. If you could look at the different parts of their brain, you would find that these children would most likely have highly developed language centers along with poorly developed motors sectors. Many teachers do not understand how difficult this is for a child.

An IEP (Individualized Educational Plan) with a 504 is a good idea to consider. When the WISC-IV Verbal Comprehension Index score is significantly different than the Processing Speed Index score students can benefit from extra time on tests. The difference between the Index scores indicates that the child is able to communicate ideas verbally, but that his visual-motor processing skills are slow. Therefore, this child needs extra time on visual-motor tasks to allow him to get his ideas down on paper. I would also ask for modifications on homework and in-class writing assignments, so that the student only has to do enough to show he has grasped the concepts. Allowing the student to dictate extra practice materials is another option.

 Finding the best professional help to build processing speed and writing skills is trickier. The types of professional services you can use are:

Occupational therapy to work on building the 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.

Educational specialists, tutors or a speech and language therapist can help with organizing language and writing skills. 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.

    • Mind maps or advanced organizers such as graphical 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.
    • You can use the format from my 5 paragraph essay worksheets and modify them for writing one paragraph. Once one paragraph has been mastered, you can start on two paragraphs. The goal is to get the ideas out so that the student can look at and work with his thoughts without becoming overwhelmed.

It is important to remember that when you are building new pathways in the brain, daily practice is necessary. This means to really build the fine motor skills and/or eye muscles you need to do the exercises daily. It will only take 5 to10 minutes of daily exercises for most students to develop increased productivity within six months.

I also think educating teachers is important so they can understand what your child is experiencing. Share any articles you like that explain the issue your child is having, along with the testing results, so the teacher realizes this is not an issue of lack of effort, but a real learning challenge. Your communication with the teacher will also allow her to become part of your team. Letting teachers know that you understand that your child is struggling and that you are actively working to get help for him, will allow the teacher to know she has your support and that you don’t expect her to do all the work alone. Building a successful educational team that works and communicates together is the best intervention.

61 comments , , , ,

The Frustrated Learner

ADHD, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Math, Processing Speed, Reading, Spelling, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing, Writing

The Frustration Profile article on my blog, which is about students with high verbal skills and weak motor skills, has gotten more hits and comments than any other blog article I have written.  What I’m realizing is that all students who have learning issues or have any significant discrepancies in their learning profile, tend to become frustrated with academic tasks.

When I explain learning differences to parents I often talk about the feeling a smart student has when there are holes in his learning profile. It is like sending a child out on a field that has bear traps; you know the kind, where the hole is covered with grass so you can’t see it but when you step on it you fall in. These students can do some things really well but other tasks are hard. This type of student is constantly surprised by what he can and can’t do. This uneven cognitive foundation and constant disappointment causes children to become insecure about their abilities. So, basically all children with learning disabilities are set up to become frustrated.

The question is: how do you help these students? This is where testing and evaluations become critical.  Students who have significant strengths along with significant weaknesses are always going to have areas that trip them up. In order for these students to feel secure they need a stable cognitive baseline that they understand. This is what Mel Levine describes as “the demystification process”. The demystification process means taking the mystery out of how the brain works. The process requires you to shine a light on the child’s strengths and weaknesses. It would no longer be a mystery, for example, why math homework is difficult for a student with visual processing difficulties. You explain to him, “ You are very smart, you can do all this math in your head because of your strong working memory ability.  However, because you have difficulty with visual motor tasks, it is hard for you to write the work down. This does not mean you are dumb. It means you have an area that we need to develop”.  Then you create a plan to develop that area of weakness. This is important information for the child to understand. He needs to know that you can be smart and still struggle in school. Let me say that another way, you can struggle in school, and still be smart! How many ways can I say this so that parents, students and teachers understand? Struggling in school does not equal low intelligence.

The important factor in all of this is developing a plan that doesn’t act as a Band-Aid for areas of weakness.  The solution requires developing a plan that remediates, or builds the areas of weakness so there is no longer a significant difference between the strengths and weaknesses. If there is an area that is still weak, once remediation has been done, that is when you start with accommodations.  In other words, for the student with visual processing issues:

First: Build his visual skills.

Second: Build his fine motor skills (writing).

Last: If after you’ve done the remediation of those two areas and there are still weaknesses, and the child is now in fourth-grade, build typing skills. Then once typing skills are learned, teach them dictation skills with a voice-to-text program.

Are you noticing that this is a process?

The process requires:

  1. Identification of strengths and weaknesses.
  2. Demystification of the learning profile for parents, students and teachers.
  3. Remediation of the areas of weakness.
  4. Accommodations for any weaknesses that cannot be remediated.

When a student is frustrated it’s time to take a closer look at his or her learning profile. Frustration is the symptom; you need to find the cause. Then, you identify the best intervention possible that targets the individual student’s areas of need.

I believe every student with an average or above IQ can learn to read, write and do math. It is all about finding the right program that matches the child’s need.

5 comments , , , , , ,

Learning Differences: How Can Teachers Help?

ADHD, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Thinking Skills

What is a learning disability?

  • A discrepancy that exists between a person’s potential for learning and what she actually learns.
  • The learning problem is not due to:
  • Mental retardation
  • Lack of motivation
  • Emotional issues
  • Biological imbalances

What are the main types of learning issues?

The 3 main types are:

  • Language processing, which includes auditory processing.
  • Visual processing, which includes visual motor integration.
  • Attention deficit disorder, ADHD.

      Understanding the Symptoms of Learning Differences:

Auditory Processing

Jessica is in 2nd grade. Her parents see her as bright and friendly. Socially, she interacts well with peers and adults. Jessica’s mother became concerned when she observed her daughter in the classroom. Outside the classroom Jessica is active and outspoken, inside the classroom Jessica was withdrawn. Jessica stayed to herself and avoided interaction with teachers and peers. The teacher reported that Jessica could not learn her math facts or read. Jessica also had difficulty following simple directions and would not ask questions when she did not understand what she supposed to do. An auditory processing difficulty often means the student is unable to understand, or process auditory input at the rate it is spoken. Depending on the extent of the problem, students may miss anywhere from 5% to 50% of the information being given.

Classroom accommodations

  • Encourage participation
  • Form small groups where she feels comfortable joining in.
    • Call on her only when you know she knows the answer. Often this will be the 2nd or 3rd person to talk in the discussion as this will give her time to establish the context of the conversation.
    • Praise her for her accomplishments.
    • Have her work with a partner.
    • Find out what she’s good at and have her share that skill with the class.
    • Help her understand directions.
      • Her low reading ability limits her understanding of written corrections and her auditory processing difficulties make it difficult for her to understand oral directions.
      • Break both written and oral directions into short concise parts.
      • Teach her to number each set of written directions and underline key words, which indicate actions needed to complete the assignment.
      • Check with her directly after getting instruction is given to ensure she understands what she is to do.
      • Seat her in the front of the class so she can gain as many visual and auditory clues as possible.
      • Help her visualize what she’s reading or listening to.
      • Concretely convey objectives.
        • Provide context for new materials by building on familiar concepts.
        • Answer questions by referring back to the main idea of the topic to help facilitate the understanding of the whole concept.

Visual Motor Integration

Kevin is in the 6th grade. He is extremely verbal and is an excellent reader. He is able to verbally demonstrate his knowledge of what he has read. He performs well on multiple-choice tests. However, when asked to write a paragraph Kevin uses simple sentences and gives only brief answers. His writing is messy. He ignores margins, indents haphazardly, and has trouble anchoring his letters on the line. Kevin also has difficulty in math. His writing is so sloppy he makes careless errors due to misreading what he’s working on. Additionally, Kevin’s class notes are incomplete and often so difficult to read even he doesn’t know what they say. Lastly, Kevin’s assignment book is never filled in completely causing him to miss assignments. A weakness in visual motor integration means the student has fine motor problems, which make it hard for him to write, combined with a visual problem, which makes it hard for him to manually reproduce visually presented information. Therefore, copying from a book or the board is extremely difficult. Anything that requires fine motor skills, like writing, is challenging for a child like this. Students with a visual motor integration weakness dislike writing. They generally turn in written work that is sloppy and inferior in quality. All written work is laborious and takes an exorbitant amount of time.

Classroom accommodations

  • Give handouts, or have a partner whose notes Kevin can photocopy, rather than requiring him to copy from the board.
  • Assist in note-taking by providing an outline, which he can then fill in with the lecture information.
  • Give him a template to write paragraphs and essays.
    • The template has the indent markers and margins clearly noted.
    • Use wide ruled paper.
    • Allow the use of computer whenever possible.
    • For long assignments, that cannot be done on the computer, either shorten the assignment or allow him extra time.
    • Allow him to use graph paper for all math assignments.
    • Once you’ve demonstrated mastery of math facts allow the use of the computer.

ADHD

Katie is in 5th grade. She is bright and an evaluation of her skills indicates that she has superior verbal skills and average to superior performance skill. Katie was noted by teachers to exhibit tremendous anxiety, which inhibited her from demonstrating her ability. She is struggling in all subjects and has difficulty staying focused during lectures. She is observed to  “daydream” during independent work times. Her attentional difficulties present a problem at home and at school. Katie is unable to stay on task and is easily distracted. She often leaves the books she needs for homework at school. She also forgets to turn in her homework. Amy is in 1st grade. She is unable to remain in her chair. She calls out answers before the teacher is finished asking the question. She has a difficult time lining up and often pushes other children around her. Her writing and drawing is hastily finished, resulting in sloppy work. ADHD students are unable to remain focused and therefore miss details and make careless mistakes. They often fail to follow through on assignments and have a difficult time organizing their thoughts, as well as their work. They forget things, lose things and are easily distracted. When attention deficit has the added component of hyperactivity it makes it difficult for students to remain physically calm. They squirm and fidget. They need to get up and move around, and often talk excessively. Waiting for turns is difficult because these students to jump into games and conversations.

Classroom accommodations

  • Seat her in the front of the room.
  • Have “cue” words that you both agreed upon, these are intended to call her back when she’s daydreaming.
  • Provide structure words in your lectures that enable her to refocus and know where she is. “1st point, 2nd point, 3rd point, moving to the next idea”.
  • Provide weekly assignment sheets.
  • Use visual organizers/calendars for long-term assignments.
  • Check her assignment book, or have a partner check, to ensure she has all assigned work written down and knows which books need to be taken home.
  • Remind her to turn in homework each day.
  • If movement is a problem, discuss appropriate movements that can be done within the classroom system.
    • A wiggle seat can be helpful.
    • Timers can be very helpful, especially ones that count down.
    • Checklists and charts that can be used in the classroom and at home can be very beneficial.
    • Teach children to take control of their thinking with this mantra
STOP: “What am I doing?”
THINK: “What do I need to do? Do I have a checklist I can use?”
PLAN:  “ What are the steps needed to finish this task?”
 DO: Now you can sit down and start working!
3 comments , , , , , , ,

Middle School Students Need Strong Organizational Skills

ADHD, Behavioral Regulation, Executive Functioning, Learning

“How do I help my middle schooler who doesn’t write down assignments, hand in reports or turn in papers that need to be signed!?” asked a  mom out of frustration with her child’s recent behavior. Her daughter, Emily, was a strong student all through elementary school so she wasn’t prepared for Emily to fall behind on her work in middle school.

In our center we have a number of middle school students with executive functioning difficulties like Emily child. One great resource is the book Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, A Practical Guide to Assessment and Intervention by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare.  I like Dawson and Guare’s definition: “ Executive Functioning skills enable us to manage our emotions and monitor our thoughts in order to work efficiently. Simply stated, these skills help us regulate our behavior”.  This book will gives  a good overview of executive functioning. I think the authors’ explanation of developmental trends and brain development is wonderful. There is a good discussion of executive functioning skills and how to link assessment to intervention

Another great resource is Gaskins & Pressley’s chapter on metacognition in Executive Function in Education, 2007.   You can also read my blog article on building metacognition skills. Metacognition is thinking about thinking, and taking control over your thought processes. This is the step missing in most students with executive functioning difficulties.

So, how to help the unorganized middle school student who is  “not writing down assignments, not handing in reports, not giving notes to parents that need to be signed or not returning the signed note”?  I’ll give you an example of a plan that was made between a parent and one of our executive functioning coaches just yesterday.

  1. First, we created a motivational plan for the student. We needed to figure out something that will make him want to complete the checklist that we were going to give him. So, you need to figure out what that will be for your child, something that you can give to him every week if he completes the checklists that are created for him.
  2.  Once we had the reward system that the parents and the child were happy with, we were able to present the child with the checklist. The first part of the list included the items that needed to be in his backpack and taken to school each morning.
  3. That second part of the checklist included the items that needed to be taken out of his backpack and handed in once he got to school.
  4.  The next part of the checklist was for things that needed to be in his backpack and taken home each night.
  5. And finally, the last part of the list was the before-bedtime checklist of things that needed to be in his backpack and ready to go to school the next morning.
  6. Now the most important part of the system is that the checklist needed to be signed by both the parents and teachers daily.

The reward was given for completing these checklists on a weekly basis. It is important to figure out what percent of the time your child is completing these tasks now. If your child is currently doing these things 50% of the time, make the goal that he complete the task 80% of the time to receive the reward. You want to set the system up to succeed, so we don’t want it to be overwhelming. You actually want to make it so your child is earning the reward.

This is important: Set your child up for success by implementing a program that is broken down into steps that are achievable. So, pick one thing that you think your child can do and set that as the first goal. For many of our students, the first goal is just to get the checklist signed.

If the goal is just to have the checklist list signed daily, it means the student doesn’t have to have everything in the backpack before they take it to get it signed. The parent and the teacher should reward the child for consistently presenting the checklist for their signature. Then the parent and the teacher, can gently remind the student to either write down assignments that are missing from the worksheet, turn in assignments that are missing, or add any materials to the backpack that should be there and aren’t. Once the first goal is achieved consistently you can set the next goal.

Children with executive functioning difficulties need to have tasks broken down into manageable parts. That is the goal (being able to break tasks into small achievable steps) for parents and teachers to set in order to help these children achieve. Generally, students that are not organized tend to become overwhelmed by the prospect of the task ahead. This overwhelmed feeling is what stops them from being able to begin the task. By teaching students how to look at a task and mentally, or physically by making a list, and breaking it down, you are teaching your child executive functioning skills.

We have seen so many children with this area of difficulty that we are currently developing a workbook that parents and children can use together to build the skills. Our Executive Functioning Workbook is available through Amazon.com . The most important message is that children cannot do this alone. Building executive functioning skills need to start with an external structure guided by a coach, who can be a parent or a professional, who helps them consistently review the steps needed and follow them, until the external structure becomes an internal monologue. This internal monologue is metacognition in action. I sometimes tell parents they just need to help their children learn the mantra: “Stop, Think, Plan, Do, Check”. We find the first step to be the most difficult. Most children with executive functioning issues go straight to DO without taking time to do the other four for steps.  So, if you can help your child STOP, THINK, PLAN and CHECK you will be instilling great executive functioning skills which will help him in school and in life.

Here is an example of a checklist from our Executive Functioning Workbook.  This checklist is teaching a child to use his/her planner each day. The important thing to remember is to discuss strategies to make using the checklist successful.  That is the Stop, Think, Plan, and Do mantra. Stop: What am I doing? Think: Do I have a checklist for this? Think: Yes, I do, because I want to make sure everything I need from homework tonight gets home. Do: Get out the planner and go down the list.

I hope this helps.
3 comments , , , ,

How To Build Flexible Thinking Skills

Executive Functioning, Learning, Thinking Skills


Does your child have trouble when his routine changes?  Is it hard for him to adjust when he wants to do something one way and the teacher wants it done a different way? Does your child get upset when playing with friends and they want to alter the rules for the game they are playing? Perhaps your child needs to cultivate flexible thinking skills.

Mental flexibility, or the capacity to shift attention refers to updating or “shifting” cognitive strategies in response to changes in the environment.  There are multiple types of set shifting, but they all require the ability to let go of one idea to consider another.  Successful performance in school (or life) requires the ability to abandon an old strategy and adapt to a new rule.

For example, when a child makes a mistake, is he easily able to find it, correct it, and move on?  If she thought the dress in the story was red, can she look back and change her mental image of the dress from red to blue?  Flexible thinkers can let go of their first thought to allow a correction to be made.  Concrete learners like to memorize what they have read or learned and stick with it.  It is difficult for concrete learners to let go of what they have learned and imagine or follow logical reasoning to devise a new solution.

Some students “get stuck” and can’t shift due to the mental effort it takes to let go of the first concepts. Other students have trouble shifting thoughts because once they have an idea they are done.  “The dress is red and that is that!”  In both cases, the result is the same: they have the wrong answer.

Learning requires set shifting. When we teach a new way to do something we ask students to let go of the old way. Unlearning a habit requires set shifting. Being willing to take a risk on a new way of doing something requires set shifting.  Set shifting requires the ability to be a flexible thinker.

What can you do to build set shifting skills? Games are some of the best ways to build these skills. Remember that if this is an area of weakness for the child, he might not think the games are much fun (though they can be!) Playing these games requires coaching to build and develop flexible thinking skills. Ask questions to help the child find the answer. The child with a set shifting weakness may not know what to attend to in the game, so making a checklist or practicing the questions he should ask himself when he gets stuck, will help him when he doesn’t know what to do.

Flexible thinking means finding more than one way to do something. It means stretching what you know enough to make an educated guess that could be right (and if it’s not, that’s okay). It is about finding out what you need to know and problem solving.  Being a flexible thinker will give your child the tools they need to thrive in school now and in the future.

The Flexible Thinking Program includes many activities to build flexible thinking skills including:
  • Optical Illusions
    • Student explores the multiple illusions within one picture
    • Look at and solve the illusion
    • Discuss what is seen and what is needed to see it differently
  • Stroop material (to practice switching between attending to different aspects of a stimulus; color or word)
  • Tower of Hanoi
  • Infinity Signs (e.g. drawing figures based on different rules),
    • In air, on paper, with foot on rug, walk it, etc.
  •  Maps (finding alternate and quickest routes on a map).
      • Print out maps (street view) and have student estimate shortest distance, then draw and check on Google.

GAMES THAT BUILD FLEXIBLE THINKING SKILLS

  • Q-bitz : Anyone who has taken the WISC IQ test will recognize this game as the Block Design test. I played it with my two children last night and they had lots of fun. My son who has some mild visual issues was a bit frustrated until I showed him how to “see” the relationship between the individual blocks and the design on the cards. Once he understood that he took off. We allowed a handicap for the youngest player of a four-block head start to even out the skills difference.
  • Blik Blok provides 3-D dimensional puzzles to be solved. Visual imaging skills are important for math, writing and reading comprehension. The ability to mentally rotate and “see” how the pieces go together develops the internal visualizations skills used to imagine how to create and develop novel ideas.
  • Gobblet is a hyped up tic-tac-toe game. The goal is the same as tic-tac-toe, to get four in a row, or three in a row on Gobblet Jr. The twist is that you have 4 (or 3) sizes of pieces that can “gobble” up another piece smaller than it. This game is quick to start playing, but your skills can continue to develop as you discover more strategies to win. I think that Gobblet Jr. is best for 10 year olds and under. Gobblet is a game everyone can have fun playing.
  • Mastermind has been around for a while, but it continues to be a favorite. To win quickly, deductive reasoning skills are needed.
  • Rush Hour is a wonderful one-person game. There are a number of puzzle cards, in increasing order of difficulty, to solve.
  • Connect 4 has become a classic at our office. The challenge of winning depends on the skills of your opponent.
  • Labyrinth is one of my favorites. I love the way paths are changed when players push their cards on the board. The constantly changing mazes challenge players to re-evaluate their plan after each move.
  • Othello’s outcome can change at the last minute of the game. Othello rewards players who can think ahead and gain access to key positions on the board.
  • Pix Mix requires players to quickly see visual options available. It is fun to try to see what objects are in the holders. My family laughed out loud at some of the things we thought we saw!
  • Set requires quick thinking and visual processing. Set builds categorization skills as the players try to get rid of all of their cards by matching them to target cards.
  • Spot it requires you to be quick and fast. When you spot a card with a match you say the name of the pictures that match before anyone else does.
 
9 comments , , , , ,
1 2 3 4 5 6