How and What to do if your child is not LEARNING and DOING?

It is likely that most parents don't know that:

1. Husbands and wives in the same family learn differently from each other.
2. Siblings do not share the same learning styles.
3. Whether children do well in school depends on the "luck of the draw"- whether their learning styles match or do not match-their teachers' teaching styles.
4. "LD" does not necessarily mean that the child is LEARNING-Disabled; it could mean that the child is TEACHING-disabled.
5. How children study determines whether or not they learn. The question isn't: SHOULD children do homework? Rather, it should be: HOW should they do?
6. If, by age six, a child isn't reading, he's been taught using the wrong method.
7. When a global child fails math, the odds that his teacher analytic. Most children master most topics and most subjects. Their academic difficulties begin when their teacher does not teach according to the way they learn.
8. Some children learn best while sitting on the floor under soft light, with the television or radio on, and surrounded by food. when they are allowed to do so, they process information globally.
9. "Night owls" do not learn while the sun shines.
10. Some youngster cannot work without breaks.
11. Some youngsters cannot think without moving.
12. Some youngsters cannot learn by themselves; others cannot concentrate with an adult nearby.
13. When learning, some like it HOT while some like it COLD- environment.
14. A Child may not actually be "problem" child; he just may be nonconforming (some kids, rules are made to be broken!)
15. Some children are "punished by rewards", others are rewarded by punishment. Unfortunately, some children refuse or will NOT learn from the mistakes their parents made.

SO WHAT TO DO:

• Parents need to internalize that:
• Every child is uniquely different.
• Every child has strengths.
• Children learn best through their unique strengths; few children learn best through their weaknesses.

HOWEVER;

• without knowing it, many parents teach their children weaknesses
• Most parents have not been taught to identify their individual children strengths.
• Most children are unaware of their own strengths.

How to TEACH your CHILD at HOME?

Teaching Recipes for the HOME:

• High Confidence Diets
• Environment Boosters
• Learning Banguets

HIGH CONFIDENCE DIETS
"If we are able to make our child say and believe "I CAN DO IT", chances are that he or she actually will do it.

• Teach your child how to have a positive self-image. Hold in your mind's eye the most positive vision possible of an individual. Avoid labeling your kids. Do not call them stupid, crazy, or wild because they will later tend to hold a negative concept of themselves.

• Teach your child the value of teaching a younger child. Cross-age tutoring seems to help older children for many different reasons. For one, it requires them to review basic materials that may have been fully mastered the first time around.
• Teach your child the value of holding family meetings. A family meeting is a regularly scheduled "coming together" of all family members to discuss issues of mutual importance. Such meetings provide parents and children a venue for sharing positive experiences, expressing feelings, planning fun things to do together, establishing family rules, setting conflicts, deraling with recurring issues and problem-solving cooperative climate.
• Teach your child to follow rules, routines, and transitions
• Teach your child the use of effective communication skills. Parents of misbehaving children tend to use significantly more commanding and negative statements and fewer neutral and positive ones with their children, than do parents of the so called 'normal" children. Such negative communications rarely have the intended effect of forming better-behaved children.
• Teach your child the beauty of touch therapy. Touch appears to stimulate the rel;aese of endorphin in the brain. Endorphin is a substance with a pain-releiving effect similar to morphine. It helps dissolve tension and frees up constricted muscular energy that can then flow in a child's body more naturally. Touch is simply human energy. A brief back-rub, a kiss, a hug. Giving our children these could not possibly cost a parent anything and yet could mean a world of difference to them and their learning.
• Teach your child the value of bonding or spending time together. A positive relationship between parents and their children prepares the latter for full and active participation in the world. This relationship is forged by all the little moments spent together:moments of playfulness, creativity, respect, solving problems, wonder, silliness, curiosity and delight.
• Teach your child physical relaxation techniques. Life has never been as stressful as it is today. By teaching your child to use physical relaxation strategies, you empower him with techniques that will equip him for the rest of his life.
• Teach Your child by enhancing his self-esteem. One of the best self-esteem buliders is the use of affirmations or validating statements like; "I really love the way you smile!" or "You've got such a great sense of rhythm!" or, "Hey, you were great in yesterday's basketball game!". At its heart, self-esteem education should touch every part of a child's life, parents help a child handle conflicts, overcome obstacles, and meet challenges.
• Teach your child the proper use of TV, video games, and computers. 
• Teach your child to have positive career goals. We can help stimulate career aspirations in our children by exposing them to wide range of theses and other high-variety, high-movement vocations through trips to the library and exposure to vocation-oriented movies and television programs.
  
• Teach your child positive-talk. Self-talk represents a process whereby an individual develops key phrases that can guide him through a complex task or difficult situation. Self-talk can be used to help children organize themselves. If you want your child to clean up his room, the question "Now let's see, where do I begin?", could prompt him to iniatiate a coordinated set of actions, and might be followed by "Okay, taht's done, What do I do next,."

Special thanks and courtesy from HENRY S. TENEDERO, the author of COOKING UP A CREATIVE GENIUS.2009


NEXT ARTICLE: ENVIRONMENT BOOSTERS: A good learning atmosphere is one that is learner-oriented. It provides for the learner's comfort; it attends to the learner's needs; it caters to the learner's personal style and preferences. Stay connected!

How to Enhance your Child's Multiple Intellligences?

      There are eight category of multiple intelligences. They are: LINGUISTIC, LOGICAL-MATH, MUSICAL, VISUAL-SPATIAL, BODILY-KINESTHETIC, INTRAPERSONAL, INTERPERSONAL and NATURALIST.

LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE CHARACTERISTICS AND MANIFESTATION:

• A love for the sound and rhytm of language.
• Avid use of descriptive language
• Exceptionallly animated storytelling skills
• A vast vocabulary
• The ability to memorize text easily
• A ready grasp of the subtleties of grammar and meaning
• Spelling skills
• Facility in the use of figures of speech

How to enhance your child's linguistic intelligence?

Children who manifest this type of intelligence should be allowed regularly servings of ALPHABET SOUP:

Attend a speakers' or toastmasters club

Listen to audio recordings of literary pieces by great speakers

Play word games

Have a regular storytelling time with friends or loved ones.

Actively use one new word in conversation everyday

Be a member in a book club

Educate iothers by teaching them to read

Tape casual or formal speech and listen to the playback.

Study and read the editorial pages of the newspaper daily.

Observe unfamiliar words encountered while reading and lookup btheir definitions in the dictionary.

Update knowledge through regular visits to the library pr bookstore

Participate in a book club.

Special thanks and Courtesy from : Henry S. Tenedero who is the Author of Cooking Up a Creative Genius, 2009

How does your child learn?

I would like to think of the 5 sets of stimuli and their elements as the basic ingredients that you may use in the preparation of any dish intended to optimize the learning experiences of your child. They are:
1. What are your child's ENVIRONMENTAL PREFERENCES?
2. What are your child's EMOTIONAL PREFERENCES?
3. What are your child's SOCIOLOGICAL PREFERENCES?
4. What are your child's PHYSIOLOGICAL  PREFERENCES?
5. What are your child's PHYCHOLOGICAL PREFERENCES?

Today, let me share you the environmental preferences of your child and their benefits so as to apply with your child and he may learn the best he could:

ENVIRONMENTAL PREFERENCES
   There are four major environmental factors that affect the learning process of your child;
a. Some learn best with sounds.
b. others study under dim light
c. Some like to learn in a cool environment
d. other learn best when they study in an informal set-up.

Does your child prefer to learn with or without background Music?
Sound is an element in the home environment misconstrued by many of us parents as noise. And yet, many adolescents think and remember best when studying awith music. Your daughter may work quietly at the kitchen table with earphones plugged onto her MP3 player, or your son may work out a math problem at the living room sofa with the radio blaring out rock music. Studies have also shown remarkable changes in the learning capacity of children who are exposed to classical music. Classical music is recommended because it is considered to be generally culture- fair and value- free.
Benefits of Music and Sound to the child include:
a. stress reduction and relaxation, thereby
b. fostering creativity through brain wave activation; stimulation of imagination and thinking.
c. reduction in the number of disciplinary problems; and
d. increased ability to focus and align as a group.

Next topic: Does your child prefer to learn under bright or dim LIGHT?

How to have a Proper Classroom Setting for Special Children?

       The teacher or parent needs to organize the learning environment to ensure that the child with special needs will be truly involved in any classroom activities and accepted by his classmates. To facilitate interaction and maximum learning the following should be done:
1. Build a positive class/room climate.
2. Position the pupil's seat for inclusion
3. Build opportunities for friendship
4. Make instruction clear, and equipment and materials accesible
5. Supply the pupil with the standard books and equipment
6. Involve the pupil in all class activities possible
7. Affirm the child
8. Set rules and routines

How to Handle Children with Hearing Impairment?

Handling Children with Hearing Impairment is a tough job. Consider the following strategies on how to handle them.

• Develop an altitude of readiness to listen.
• Use auditory signals.
• Use the voice to get attention.
• Allow sufficient time for auditory processing,
• Keep within close range when speaking.
• Use normal Conversational tone of voice.
• Provide good speech model.
• Use frequent repetitions.
• Orient the child to the activity or discussion.
• Encourage the parents to expand the work of school.

Communication Tips for teachers

Investigate sound field and FM systems.
These technologies are wonderful for the classroom.

(NOTE: We have repeated here some of the "Tips for friends and family" because they are relevant, and have added quite a few more.)

• Find out what works for the student.
• Open communication is essential. Speak to him.
• Under what circumstances does he experience difficulty?
• You might find if you change a few small things it could make a world of difference.
• Keep a clear channel of communication open with the parents.
• You can learn a lot from each other.
• Decrease the distance between you and the listener.
• This is the single most effective way to increase understanding.
• Moving a little closer can make a big difference.
• Don't eat, drink, or chew gum while speaking.
• Wait until passing noises subside.
• Wait for that plane to pass overhead or for the students to settle down.
• Don't talk while children are retrieving material.
• First of all, people make noise when they gather material.
• And the HOH student cannot rummage through things and hear you at the same time because he's not looking at you.
• Be sure the listener is ready to hear you.
• He'll need a moment to focus because understanding speech requires more concentration for him.
• To see why this is so, think of listening to someone with a thick accent; it's much more difficult to understand his first few words if you are unprepared to listen. Face him so he can see your lips, your entire face, and hands and body gestures. These all provide valuable cues and can help fill in for sounds he's not getting. Try to avoid bushy mustache or other facial hair that obscures the lips. Avoid shadows. When addressing the student, say his name first.
• Lighting should be above or in front of you, never coming from behind you. Don't stand in front of the window while talking to him. As discussed earlier, he needs to observe facial and body gestures. This is particularly important if the listener is further away, as in a classroom.
• Face him and talk directly to him so the volume of your voice doesn't fluctuate. Turning away from someone while talking sharply decreases the volume. Talking into the supply cabinet is even worse.
• Don't talk while writing on the board (this is tough on all students) and try not to talk while moving around so volume level and visual cues don't fluctuate. Speak louder and enunciate clearly, but don't exaggerate sounds and don't shout. Exaggerating can distort sounds as well as the shape of the lips while speaking. Rephrase, don't repeat.
• Vary the words. Some words are more difficult to understand than others and/or may be more difficult to lip-read. Introduce topics clearly, as well as transitions.

How to know if your Child has Hearing Impairment?

  General Observations:

 
People with hearing loss may experience some or all of the following problems:
Difficulty hearing conversations, especially where there is background noise Hissing, roaring, or ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
Difficulty hearing the television or radio at a normal volume
Fatigue and irritation caused by the effort to hear
Dizziness or problems with balance

Self-Test Ask yourself the following questions.

If you answer "yes" to three or more of these questions, you could have a hearing problem and should see a doctor.

Do I have a problem hearing on the telephone?
Do I have trouble hearing when there is noise in the background?
Is it hard for me to follow a conversation when two or more people talk at once? Do I have to strain to understand a conversation?
Do many people I talk to seem to mumble (or not speak clearly)?
Do I misunderstand what others are saying and respond inappropriately?
Do I often ask people to repeat themselves?
Do I have trouble understanding the speech of women and children?
Do people complain that I turn the TV volume up too high?
Do I hear a ringing, roaring, or hissing sound a lot?
Do some sounds seem too loud?

Behavioral Checklist for Infants and Children

Important! Infants and young children with hearing problems can have difficulty developing speech and language.

Some babies are born with hearing problems. Other children are born with normal hearing and begin to have hearing problems as they grow older. You can help your child's doctor to decide if your child's hearing needs to be tested. Hearing problems can be temporary or permanent. Hearing problems can happen because of ear infections, injuries, or diseases. Read the hearing checklist. Find your child's age. Indicate "yes" or "no" for every item. After you complete the checklist, show it to your child's doctor. Ask the doctor questions. Talk about the items checked "no". If you think your child has trouble hearing, tell the doctor right away.

Birth to 3 Months
Reacts to loud sounds?
Is soothed by your voice?
Turns head to you when you speak?
s awakened by loud voices and sounds?
Smiles when spoken to?
Seems to know your voice and quiets down if crying?

3 to 6 Months

Looks upward or turns to a new sound?
Responds to "no" and changes in tone of voice?
Imitates his/her own voice?
Enjoys rattles and other toys that make sounds?
Begins to repeat sounds (such ooh, aah, and ba-ba)?
Becomes scared by a loud voice?

6 to 10 Months
Responds to his/her own name, telephone ringing, someone's voice, even when it isn't loud?
Knows words for common things (cup, shoe) and sayings ("bye-bye")?
Makes babbling sounds, even when alone?
Starts to respond to requests such as "come here."?
Looks at things or pictures when someone talks about them? 10 to 15 Months Plays with own voice, enjoying the sound and feel of it?
Points to or looks at familiar objects or people when asked to do so? I
mitates simple words and sounds?
Uses a few single words meaningfully?
Enjoys games like peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake?

15 to 18 Months

Follows simple directions, such as "give me the ball."?
Uses words he/she has learned often.
Uses 2-3 word sentences to talk about and ask for things?
Knows 10 to 20 words?

18 to 24 Months

Understands simple "yes-no" questions (Are you hungry?)?
Understands simple phrases (in the cup, on the table)? Enjoys being read to? Points to pictures when asked?

24 to 36 Months
Understands "not now" and "no more."?
Chooses things by size (big, little)?
Follows simple directions such as "get your shoes" and "drink your milk."? Understands many action words (run, jump)?

Talk to your doctor if you think your child has a hearing problem. Let him know of the following information and observations:
Whether others in the family, including brothers or sisters, have a hearing problem.
Whether the child's mother had medical problems in pregnancy or delivery (serious illness or injury, drugs or medications).
If the baby was born early (premature). Weight at birth: _______
If the baby had physical problems at birth.
If the child rubs or pulls an ear(s) often.
If the child had scarlet fever. I
f the child had meningitis.
The number of ear infections in the past year: _______
How often the child had colds, allergies, and ear infections (once a month or more often).

What are the causes of Hearing Impairment?

Causes of Hearing Impairment:

Prenatal Causes: Toxic conditions Viral diseases like mumps, influenza, German measles Congenital malformation such as lack/closure of the external canal of the ear, ossification (the hardening of soft tissue as a result of impregnation of calcium salt) of the 3 little bones in the ear and the oval window.

Perinatal Causes Traumatic experience during the delivery as pelvic pressure or injury, use of forceps (a specialized surgical instrument of different designs but always with two parts that move together to hold something such as dressings, tissues, or organs) and intracranial hemorrhage. Anoxia or lack of oxygen due to prolonged labor Heavy sedation (the use of a sedative or tranquilizing drug to induce a state of calm, restfulness, or drowsiness) Blockage of the infant’s respiratory passage Postnatal Causes Disease/ailments such as meningitis, external otitis (inflammation of the outer ear), otitis media (running, discharging ear(s) or the infection of the middle ear, and impacted or hardened earwax (cerumen) which may lead to infection.

Accidents/trauma such as falls, head bumps, over exposure to high frequency sounds and extremely loud explosions, puncturing of eardrum, difference in pressure between air outside and that one inside the middle ear due to changes in altitude and undrained water in the ear due to frequent swimming. Heredity Prematurity Malnutrition Rh factor- incompatibility of parent’s blood Over dosage of Medicine