A Learning Styles Assessment is right for you if you answer most of these questions "Yes!"
•Are you frustrated with your child's low grades or lack of motivation?
•Is your homelife stressful due to homework hassles and poor report cards?
•Have you tried absolutely everything to help your child get higher grades?
•Do you have a bright child who seems to know information, then forgets it during the test?
•Are you truly serious about doing something different to help your child succeed?
Finding out your child's learning style with is key to helping your child really learn.
Get a free assessment of your child's learning style, and watch it raise grades and test scores! You'll find out how your child's personal learning style can create higher grades in 14 days with your free learning styles assessment!
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Modification for Classwork - Helping Kids Stay Focused
"With math homework we modify doing odds or evens if there are more than 10 questions. Also we just implemented a "dot" system. When she is doing classwork, she has to check in after doing X amount of problems and if she stays on track and finishes it in class she gets Dots. This encourages her to keep focused and helps the teacher know when she is struggling and needs help. The Dots are then sent home for us to use on assignments. We then uses the dot's on homework. One dot for one question she doesn't have to do. For example, if she has ten math questions, but earns five Dots in class, she only has five problems to do."
Even without the Dot rewards, this is a great system. For many children, the dots themselves are reward enough. Another good idea for this is to mark the intervals on the paper. If, for example, five questions are a Dot set, put a highlighted mark after question number five. The mark makes a goal, and reaching that goal gives a sense of accomplishment.
NOTE: This great hint is from a discussion on Facebook.
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Even without the Dot rewards, this is a great system. For many children, the dots themselves are reward enough. Another good idea for this is to mark the intervals on the paper. If, for example, five questions are a Dot set, put a highlighted mark after question number five. The mark makes a goal, and reaching that goal gives a sense of accomplishment.
NOTE: This great hint is from a discussion on Facebook.
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Three Most Important Ways to Take Charge of Your Child's Education
Today's blog post features a couple of things specifically for families with children or adults with ADHD. The first is an article written especially for our newsletter by Alana Morales, the author of Domestically Challenged: A Working Mom's Survival Guide to Becoming a Stay at Home Mom. In addition to being a writer, Alana is also a veteran English teacher and the mom of two ADHD kids. Despite being an English teacher, she dearly values her Psychology degree and is impressed at how often it comes in handy. You can learn more about Alana at her website, www.AlanaMorales.com.
One of the best gifts a parent can give their child is a strong educational foundation. Parenting a child with ADD or ADHD and surviving the school age years is a tough enough task as it is. One of the biggest challenges we face when parenting our kids is striking a balance between helping them develop skills to improve their academic skills and allowing them to make mistakes and then learn from them.
Here are my top three ways to take charge of your child's education:
1. Communicate with the teacher. Being the parent of a child with ADD/ADHD takes a lot of work. It is vital to your student's success for you to remain in contact with the teacher. This does not mean that you need to email the teacher daily for reports, but regular contact with the teacher will help you keep tabs on things like academic areas that need improvement, how well medications are working (or if they need dosage adjustments) and how your child is doing socially.
At the beginning of the school year, introduce yourself to the teacher (or teachers) and just let them know that you will be keeping tabs on little Johnny's progress. Many teachers will be happy to know that they have the support of someone at home.
2. See if your child qualifies for classroom accommodations.
Many parents don't realize it, but if you have a child that has ADD/ADHD and it impacts their classroom learning, they may qualify for what is called a 504 plan. At the risk of being overly simple, a 504 plan is a legal document that protects your student and stipulates that the school must make certain accommodations in the classroom to level the learning playing field.
If this is an avenue you want to pursue, the first step is to mention it to your child's teacher. The teacher will then talk to school and set up a 504 meeting. In this meeting, you will sit down with relevant school officials to determine whether your child may benefit academically from accommodations.
3. Be supportive, but don't enable.
During the school years, it will be vital for you as parents to support your child in their education. The important point to keep in mind is that supporting does not equal enabling. Enabling runs the gamut, from doing things like completing tasks for them to making excuses for their academic performance (or lack thereof).
How can you tell the difference? Look at who is doing most of the work. If you are doing more than a minimal amount, you may be enabling. If your student doesn't get something done because they mismanaged their time, that is ultimately their responsibility, not yours, and they need to be responsible for their actions. Just because they have ADD/ADHD doesn't mean that you should be there to rescue them. If they are working on a homework assignment and it takes them two hours to finish, then write a note to the teacher explaining that it was a rough night. Don't write a note asking for more time simply because they didn't start their homework right away - this is enabling.
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
One of the best gifts a parent can give their child is a strong educational foundation. Parenting a child with ADD or ADHD and surviving the school age years is a tough enough task as it is. One of the biggest challenges we face when parenting our kids is striking a balance between helping them develop skills to improve their academic skills and allowing them to make mistakes and then learn from them.
Here are my top three ways to take charge of your child's education:
1. Communicate with the teacher. Being the parent of a child with ADD/ADHD takes a lot of work. It is vital to your student's success for you to remain in contact with the teacher. This does not mean that you need to email the teacher daily for reports, but regular contact with the teacher will help you keep tabs on things like academic areas that need improvement, how well medications are working (or if they need dosage adjustments) and how your child is doing socially.
At the beginning of the school year, introduce yourself to the teacher (or teachers) and just let them know that you will be keeping tabs on little Johnny's progress. Many teachers will be happy to know that they have the support of someone at home.
2. See if your child qualifies for classroom accommodations.
Many parents don't realize it, but if you have a child that has ADD/ADHD and it impacts their classroom learning, they may qualify for what is called a 504 plan. At the risk of being overly simple, a 504 plan is a legal document that protects your student and stipulates that the school must make certain accommodations in the classroom to level the learning playing field.
If this is an avenue you want to pursue, the first step is to mention it to your child's teacher. The teacher will then talk to school and set up a 504 meeting. In this meeting, you will sit down with relevant school officials to determine whether your child may benefit academically from accommodations.
3. Be supportive, but don't enable.
During the school years, it will be vital for you as parents to support your child in their education. The important point to keep in mind is that supporting does not equal enabling. Enabling runs the gamut, from doing things like completing tasks for them to making excuses for their academic performance (or lack thereof).
How can you tell the difference? Look at who is doing most of the work. If you are doing more than a minimal amount, you may be enabling. If your student doesn't get something done because they mismanaged their time, that is ultimately their responsibility, not yours, and they need to be responsible for their actions. Just because they have ADD/ADHD doesn't mean that you should be there to rescue them. If they are working on a homework assignment and it takes them two hours to finish, then write a note to the teacher explaining that it was a rough night. Don't write a note asking for more time simply because they didn't start their homework right away - this is enabling.
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Helping an ADHD Child Remember
I Facebooked back and forth a couple of weeks ago with a mom. She told me a story that is so textbook ADHD-Inattentive, that I asked her if I could share it with you. I had planned to put it all in the newsletter, but changed my mind and have given it an entire webpage. Here's the beginning...
Tonight, I sit here feeling like I am failing as a parent of an ADHD child. My daughter is such a good kid, but her forgetfulness, impulsiveness and disorganization has become an all time high. She has just received her 3rd after school detention for the same thing-not turning in her homework. She is in middle school and they are teaching them about being more responsible to get them ready for high school next year.
They get a check every time it happens and when they reach 4 they get an hour after school. It is wiped clean every 9 weeks so the checks do not carry over. It is also per teacher as well. So now, if she receives another detention before the end of the year, she will get a Saturday detention AND lose going on their field trip to the water park.
I went through her backpack and binder tonight to find a STACK of papers that she didn't need anymore. I haven't done that in a while, thinking that she was getting better being organized. Boy, was I wrong! She has so much potential and is so smart. I don't want her to lose out on any opportunities because of something as stupid as forgetting her homework...
Read the rest of this story here!
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Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Tonight, I sit here feeling like I am failing as a parent of an ADHD child. My daughter is such a good kid, but her forgetfulness, impulsiveness and disorganization has become an all time high. She has just received her 3rd after school detention for the same thing-not turning in her homework. She is in middle school and they are teaching them about being more responsible to get them ready for high school next year.
They get a check every time it happens and when they reach 4 they get an hour after school. It is wiped clean every 9 weeks so the checks do not carry over. It is also per teacher as well. So now, if she receives another detention before the end of the year, she will get a Saturday detention AND lose going on their field trip to the water park.
I went through her backpack and binder tonight to find a STACK of papers that she didn't need anymore. I haven't done that in a while, thinking that she was getting better being organized. Boy, was I wrong! She has so much potential and is so smart. I don't want her to lose out on any opportunities because of something as stupid as forgetting her homework...
Read the rest of this story here!
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Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
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