Tag: visual processing skills

“I want to be like him!”

ADHD, Dyslexia, Executive Functioning, Flexible Thinking, Learning differences, Math, Processing Speed, Reading, Visual Processing, Writing

 

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 to be more like his friend. We discussed his strengths and weaknesses and how they affect his processing of information. In my explanation to Bryce I realized that he is not as worried about his academic levels as he is about his ability to interact with his friends. The same processing difficulties he is having learning new information in the classroom are hindering him in his social interactions.

Helping Bryce process information quickly will make all learning and social interactions easier for him. Once the brain is smoothly processing new input; social interactions along with reading, writing, and math skills will be mastered more easily.

Many students come to the K&M Center with diagnoses of a processing disorder, a developmental delay, dyslexia, processing speed issues, ADHD, executive functioning disorder, dysgraphia, language processing issues, and auditory processing issues. Each diagnosis identifies a difficulty in absorbing new information, effectively storing information and/or retrieving the desired information efficiently. The question changes from, “ How do I teach a child to read?” to “What neuro-pathways need to be developed so this child can read fluently?”

How do we build new neuro-pathways? Memory and learning are related but different and it is important to understand their relationship. Memory is dependent on learning because memory takes learned information and stores it so it can be retrieved at a later time. Learning is dependent on memory because the stored information in memory provides the framework used to create associations and inferences to further learning and strengthen memory.

The Process of Creating New Neuro-pathways:

  • The memory/learning process starts with perception and attention, which cause neurons to fire.
  • Once the neurons fire a trace memory is created and the consolidation or stabilizing of a memory begins.
    • This is considered the encoding or storage of information.
    • During this process synapses increase in strength and number.
  • When a group of neurons frequently fire together they form a pathway and the brain “re-wires” itself rearranging its organization.
    • These neural pathways are what make learning possible.

The brain is designed to process information along the path of least resistance. Pathways that are frequently used become stronger and faster, so information that is learned and practiced allows that information to be retrieved more quickly.

Frequent use of neurons builds quick, strong neural pathways. Educating students with learning disabilities requires finding activities that stimulate the desired neurons to develop new pathways. Finding the right activities for each student is the key to successful learning.

How frequently the pathways need to be stimulated is not clear. Most research indicates that intensive intervention requires 60 hours, with daily sessions.

Bryce has a unique and wonderful brain. In our discussion we talked about how every person has strengths and weaknesses that make them valuable. Bryce wants to learn and he is willing to do the work, therefore his brain will continue to build new neural pathways that will help him in his social interactions. We also discussed that he will most likely never be exactly like his friend and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Learning to accept ourselves, while continuing to improve ourselves is what makes life interesting.

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Do visual learners have more difficulty with language organization than verbal learners?

ADHD, Dyslexia, Executive Functioning, Learning, Learning differences, Processing Speed, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing, Writing

Visual-spatial learners think in images. Verbal learners think primarily in words. Visual learners see the whole picture all at once allowing them to see things from many perspectives. Verbal learners learn step by step and have a tendency towards analytical thinking. These two types of learning may also impact a child’s organization of language. 

What do I mean by language organization? I am referring to the executive functioning skill of organizing your thoughts, attaching those thoughts to words and sharing those words with others so that they can understand your idea. Therefore when I am talking about language organization I am referring to the relationship between thought and language. 

What is the relationship between language and thought? Aristotle taught that speech symbolized thought. Chomsky believed that the language environment is a key component to language development. Piaget and Vygotsky believed that a complex interaction exists between the child and the environment that is influenced by the child’s social and cognitive development. They believed that as children develop language they are building a symbol system that helps them understand the world. However, while Piaget believed that cognitive development leads to language development, Vygotsky believed language drives the development of thought.

How do these theories of language development impact students who are either visual or verbal learners? Do verbal and visual learners actually have different thought processes? If you think in pictures rather than thinking in words, are your thoughts different? Most importantly, how do these two learning styles affect a child’s ability to express himself both verbally and on written assignments?

Our educational system has embraced a verbal communication curriculum. Most teachers give verbal directions, assign books that are written in text (words) and they require most assessments be completed in written text (words). Take a minute to consider this. If you think in words, then both your input of information from the teacher and books, along with your output (what you write down) are all in your native processing mode (verbal).  If, however, your learning style is visual, when the teacher is talking or you are reading, you must translate those verbal words into pictures; and in order to write an essay you must translate your visual images into words and sequence them to communicate your ideas.

See the chart below to get a better understanding of how visual and verbal (auditory sequential) learners differ.

 Visual-Spatial Learner Chart

Copyright held by Linda Kreger Silverman, August, 1999. From Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner. Denver: DeLeon Publishing. This chart may be reproduced.

The Auditory-Sequential Learner
   The Visual-Spatial Learner
·      Thinks primarily in words
·      Thinks primarily in images
·      Has auditory strengths
·      Has visual strengths
·      Relates well to time
·      Relates well to space
·      Is a step-by-step learner
·      Is a whole-part learner
·      Learns by trial and error
·      Learns concepts all at once
·      Progresses sequentially from easy to difficult material
·      Learns complex concepts easily; Struggles with easy skills
·      Is an analytical thinker
·      Is a good synthesizer
·      Attends well to details
·      Sees the big picture; may miss details
·      Follows oral directions well
·      Reads maps well
·      Does well at arithmetic
·      Is better at math reasoning than computation
·      Learns phonics easily
·      Learns whole words easily
·      Can sound out spelling words
·      Must visualize words to spell them
·      Can write quickly and neatly
·      Much better at keyboarding than handwriting
·      Is well organized
·      Creates unique methods of organization
·      Can show steps of work easily
·      Arrives at correct solutions intuitively
·      Excels at rote memorization
·      Learns best by seeing relationships
·      Has good auditory short-term memory
·      Has good long-term visual memory
·      May need some repetition to reinforce learning
·      Learns concepts permanently; does not learn by drill and repetition
·      Learns well from instructions
·      Develops own methods of problem solving
·      Learns in spite of emotional reactions
·      Is very sensitive to teachers’ attitudes
·      Is comfortable with one right answer
·      Generates unusual solutions to problems
·      Develops fairly evenly
·      Develops quite asynchronously (unevenly)
·      Usually maintains high grades
·      May have very uneven grades
·      Enjoys algebra and chemistry
·      Enjoys geometry and physics
·      Masters other languages in classes
·      Masters other languages through immersion
·      Is academically talented
·      Is creatively, technologically, mechanically, emotionally or spiritually gifted
·      Is an early bloomer
·      Is a late bloomer

Clearly, verbal learners have an easier time in an educational environment built on verbal communication. The issue of language organization, as I’m referring to it, involves the executive functioning skills of organizing and sequencing thoughts. In the chart above, the auditory learner’s skill set assumes that there are no other learning deficits, especially any deficits with executive functioning skills. There are verbal learners who experience difficulty with organization, and therefore may have difficulty with organizing complex verbal language.

The students who are highly visual-spatial learners will need exceptional executive functioning skills to enable them to break down and sequence their ideas in a timely manner. The visual-spatial learner has to both translate pictures to words and sequence words into meaningful sentences, paragraphs and essays.

There is a relationship between visual learners and learning differences such as dyslexia, nonverbal learning disability, attention issues and language processing disorders. Looking at the chart above, you can see how language-based assessments will be more challenging for a visual learner than a verbal learner.

STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING VISUAL LEARNERS

When creating strategies for visual learners it is important for parents and teachers to understand that students with a visual-spatial learning style may take longer than other students to process new verbal information. When you consider the fact that they are translating words to images when taking in new information and translating images to words to share their ideas, it becomes easier to understand why the students need extra time in the classroom. In addition to extra time, teachers can consider ways in which they can modify or enhance their lessons with visual information. When teachers present visual information to the classroom the visual learners will quickly absorb it, while the verbal learners will be busy translating those images into words. Any form of visual support will be helpful to the visual learner. Here are some additional ideas a teacher can incorporate to help students learn better in the classroom.

  •  Before a lecture, provide students with a general outline of the material to be covered.
  •  Write directions with more than two steps on the board.
  • Use flip boards, photos, diagrams, laminated pictures, power point presentations, charts, maps, movies, filmstrips, timelines, mnemonics.
  • Provide access to computer programs that come with your textbook to provide greater visual exposure and practice.
  • Use the computer in the classroom to construct mind maps or webbing of the material.
  • Use concepts maps with key points, boxes, circles, and arrows showing the connections of information. Webbing provides the connections that visual learners must have.
  •  When doing questions and answers in the classroom, allow adequate wait time before calling on students.

It is important to remember that we need diversity in our thinking styles. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses that helped create who we are as human beings. As students grow and develop it is important for them to understand themselves, how their brain works and how valuable their type of thinking is.

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How Does A Low Processing Speed Score Affect My Child?

Executive Functioning, Learning, Processing Speed, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing, Writing

Question: My 16 year old son has just had an evaluation and he was given the following scores on the test: 
 PRI 132, VCI 130, WMI 110, PSI 76
. I don’t understand how exactly this affects him, though I do notice he is a bit slow on some activities. How does the combination of the factors above translate into his abilities?

My son also can be difficult to deal with. He often does not like to work on any work assigned to him (It’s difficult to get him to do homework), which causes him to sometimes not hand in homework assignments. He is also quite disorganized, and procrastinates often. Socially, he is withdrawn and shy, even with people he knows.  He does have a few friends, and he can be lively around them. I wouldn’t say he has any deficits in communication, as he can still communicate well, and I think he just does not prefer to communicate or is shy.

 Answer: Your child has developed a strong vocabulary and is easily able to explain his understanding of socially based concepts. Your child’ ability to quickly and efficiently process auditory information, especially verbal information, is excellent. His ability to perform visual spatial problem solving is also very strong.

However, while your child demonstrates well-developed cognitive skills his ability to process information at the level his reasoning skills suggest is compromised by several factors present in testing. First, your child’s ability to read and synthesize material in a timely manner may be affected by his weakness in visual-discrimination and processing speed. His weak processing speed impacts his ability to process visual information as quickly as his strong cognitive skills suggest. This can impact his ability to read, write and perform math problem quickly.

Taken together, the significant discrepancy  between your child’ Verbal Comprehension and his Processing Speed Indexes; along with the differences between Perceptual Organization and Working Memory Indexes and Processing Speed Index, reflects a need for extended time on academic tasks and tests. Therefore, it is recommended that your child be granted extended time on all assignments and tests, including standardized testing such as the SAT and ACT. Furthermore, Your child’s current profile confirms he has  a visual perceptual and visual motor processing deficit and accommodations are warranted to allow your child additional time, or a reduction in work on all academic tasks.

The issue of your son’s lack of desire to communicate could be due to many reasons. There is a great book out called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking 
by Susan Cain. This might be a good book for you to read to determine if your son is an introvert, which may explain his lack of interaction with people around him.

The issue of his disorganization and difficulty completing homework may be due to weak executive functioning skills. You can learn more about executive functioning at http://executivefunctioning.com.

RECOMMENDATIONS & ACCOMMODATIONS

• It is recommended that the results of his evaluation be shared with your child so he may understand his profile of strengths and weaknesses and can adjust his learning and study strategies accordingly.

• Based upon your child’s status as a student with a Learning Disability, he should be provided the following accommodations:

  • Extra time on tests (at least 50%)
  • Extended time (at least 50%) on all standardized tests including ACT, SAT and AP tests

Improve your child’s Working Memory, Attention and Executive Functioning Skills

• The CogMed program is recommended to build your child’s working memory, which will help support his attention processing.

• A program designed to improve your child’s executive functioning skills (such as the K & M Center Executive Functioning Program) is recommended.

• A program designed to increase your child’s cognitive flexibility is also recommended (such as the K & M Flexible Thinking Program)

• Teach your child to use self-talk to organize his learning and performance strategies and to focus his attention on tasks

• Build strategies to help your child analyze, prioritize, and execute specific steps in a given assignment

• Break down tasks and follows the order checking work along the way

• Teach strategies to increase engagement

Writing


• Encourage pre-writing activities such as brainstorming and outlining

• Use of Inspiration (Inspriation.com) and Dragon Speak Naturally (http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm) to help him organize his thoughts and share them.

• Re-Train the Brain (Retrainthebrain.com) can help fine motor skills to make writing easier.

Visual-Perceptual Strategies

• Use graphic organizers to depict information visually and increase his retention of ideas.

• Note-taking techniques that will present and summarize heard information visually.

• Practice exercises to sharpen his ability to attend to visual detail and to express similarities and differences between images.

Processing Speed

• Allow extra time for tests, usually time and a half

• Provide extra time for your child to complete in-class assignments

• Train your child in time management techniques to become aware of the time that tasks take.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!
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Setting Summer Goals Helps Build Executive Functioning Skills

Executive Functioning, Learning, Math, Reading, Thinking Skills, Writing

Summer is the time to relax and reflect. What went well this year? What could have been better? What can your child improve on for next year? These are good questions to discuss with your child. As you have this conversation make a list. Take a piece of paper and fold it so you have four sections: 2 columns and 2 rows. Write What I did well in  as the header of one column and What was hard for me as the header of the second column. Now on the the first row you can list the subjects, sports, friendships, and projects that went well or were challenging. The header for both columns of the second rows is: My goals for next year. Help your child make goals for both the areas they are strong in as well as the areas that need growth.

Now that you have a clear idea of the areas to focus on, what can be worked on this summer? Don’t get too academic; rather consider the underlying skills that support the areas your child wants to do better in. If writing is an issue, strengthen typing skills, find a pen pal to make writing fun, sponsor a neighborhood newsletter and have other kids in the neighborhood write articles. If math is a challenge, create a weekly cooking lesson to help with measurement, use allowance and shopping to build money skills, find a fun computer math facts site to practice math facts.

Reading can be fun over the summer. Visit your library and see if they have a summer reading club, or create your own book club. My daughter has 2 book clubs and my son just started his book club. We have 8 nine-year old boys joined together for fun and reading. Book clubs are a great way to make reading fun.

How do all these activities build executive functioning skills? Simple. Making a goal, breaking it down to achievable steps, and following through to achieve those goals is really what executive functioning is all about. In the summer, those goals can be defined by the child rather than imposed by a teacher. Learning how to make goals, plan for them and succeed in achieving them is very important to children with executive functioning issues, so make sure the summer goals are realistic. Create timelines and checklists so your child can mark off each step he makes towards his goal. Self-esteem is created by success, so orchestrate the summer to allow your child succeed!


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Excellent Reading Comprehension, But Slow Reading Rate

Learning, Processing Speed, Reading, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing

Alex* is a lovely adolescent girl who has strong verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning skills. Alex’s processing speed is excellent on tasks that only require visual perception and visual discrimination. In other words, she is quickly able to perceive and write symbols that lack linguistic meaning. Her rate of processing information is hindered when Alex is required to read and comprehend information. Alex’s reading fluency is her greatest weakness and has caused her to struggle with reading since first grade. In spite of years of intervention Alex’s reading speed continues to be significantly lower than her verbal comprehension abilities when she is reading passages under time constraints.

Alex has strong reading comprehension skills.  She has a superior ability to read words from a list, as well as read short sentences. However, Alex’s reading rate and rapid naming skills are significantly below her vocabulary and sight-reading skills. Strengthening Alex’s rapid naming skills will enable her to read more fluently.

At this time Alex is able to perform to her potential in school due to the extra time she is provided on tests. When Alex is required to read within a time limit she is severely hindered in the amount of material she can process. Without extra time, Alex is unable to read enough material to demonstrate her comprehension of the material. Alex qualifies for extra time on standardized tests, but is there anything that can be done to help her reading rate?

Here are some ideas for Alex and her family to explore:

  • Read Naturally Program to build reading fluency
  • Dynamic Reader Computer program for reading fluency
  • Use higher levels of Lindamood-Bell LIPs  program to build phonological memory skills
  • Use Rapid Naming material to integrate visual and auditory modalities
  • Use visual worksheets to build visual attention
* Note: The student profile above is a composite of students with similar learning styles.
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How to Teach Reading Skills: Teaching Tony To Read Lesson 1

Learning, Reading, Thinking Skills, Visual Processing

How Do You Teach Reading?

This is a question I get from many parents. The answer is: it depends on why the child is struggling to read. Generally I like to start by getting a reading assessment so I can pinpoint the child’s strengths and weaknesses. I look at the current reading ability along with visual, auditory and attention skills. From there I can design a reading program.

What we have noticed at our center that students generally come in with good phonemic skills, they are able to sound out letters. The issues many of our students struggle with are due to weaknesses in sound blending, visual processing, or rapid naming issues. In other words, they either have trouble smoothly putting c-a-t into cat (sound blending) or moving their eyes smoothly across the line of letters without skipping ahead, backwards or down a line. Rapid naming is another issues that impacts reading. Weak rapid naming skills means the pathway between eye (seeing the word), the language center in the brain (translates the letter symbols into sounds that combine to create a word), and the mouth (saying the word) is weak.

We have taken what we have learned over 15 years and created a beginning reading kit. To help understand the process of learning to read I have invited Christy, an educational specialist at the K&M Center, to chronicle her sessions with a beginning reader. Today’s post includes her first session with Tony (not his real name). She will continue to update his progress weekly so you can see in real time both the effort and the joy that comes from teaching a child to read.

Teaching Reading: Session One


 By Christy

Today I met Tony, an enthusiastic 1st grader who wants to read better!  After talking to his teachers I have learned that Tony is an average reader and could definitely use extra enrichment outside of school to improve his reading skills.  He is the perfect candidate for the Targeted Reading Program and I am looking forward to working with him throughout the twelve-week span of the program.

I had a great first session with Tony and we covered a lot of material that I feel is 100% beneficial in making him a stronger reader.  I introduced him to vowel pattern cards (AD) and starter cards (single consonant).  He practiced building words by using one starter card at a time and changing the vowel pattern card after reading each word that he built.  He did a great job and once he got the hang of it, was rapidly building words.

We then discussed that some words have multiple meanings.  Today I selected three words that contain multiple meanings to discuss with Tony, I asked him to tell me the meaning of each word and how many meanings he could come up with for it.  On all three words, Tony told me the first definition of a word immediately; however, coming up with additional meanings was a bit of a challenge.  Once I informed him of other meanings, a light bulb seemed to go off in his head and he was able to link the word to more than one meaning.

Tony then read two short stories for me.  Both stories he read very easily and it was nice to see him get excited about reading a story so quickly.  I can see from this session how his stories of the week are really going to increase his fluency and confidence while reading aloud.

Tony and I then worked on reading sight words.  Starting with commonly used words, he read through a list of words.  When he could not read a word we made a flashcard for it, which he can use to study from until our next session.  Tony really enjoyed making the flashcards and promised he would practice using them daily.  After we made a flashcard, I would have him study and read the word aloud and discuss any spelling rules it may have.  Then I had him write the word down on his whiteboard and then write it in the air with his finger.  Today Tony did an excellent job on all of these reading exercises.

It was great getting to meet and work with Tony today!  I can really see how the Targeted Reading Program is going to help him tremendously.  The program is really going to build upon the reading skills he already maintains and is going to make him a stronger and more confident reader.  I am really looking forward to seeing the growth that is going to occur within Tony over the next twelve weeks and am looking forward to sharing it with you as well!

BEST PRACTICE: The part of the session that really helped him

Tony was having trouble pronouncing the AD  (words that have AD in them like: sad, mad, had) pattern while reading one of his stories of the week.  As Tony read he added an extra short u sound /u/ as in up, so it sounded like sadu, hadu.  I decided to stop reading the story and focus on the AD sound blend. I placed a vowel pattern card with AD on it next to a card with a single consonant on it.  With the two cards next to each other, Tony could build words.  After building many words with the AD vowel pattern, Tony was able to drop the extra sound and read his story fluently without stopping once!

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