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Date: 2011-11-08

Home School

How do you help your child with adhd at home? A child who has ADHD can be trying at the best times, and is especially onerous for the non-professional, and sadly, there is a severe lack of knowledge, awareness and indeed available information for the parents, 2 key topics which is often raised by parents are concerns regarding medication, as well as the suitability of homeschooling. Because children typically suffer from ADHD at around preschool age, then it is in their best interests to be homeschooled.

Homeschooling children with ADHD shouldn't be that hard. A child with ADHD can be very trying, requiring an even greater investment in energy, patience, and love both on your part as well as the child’s, and so the following is a list of tips and suggestions to make homeschooling for a child with ADHD a little easier:

1. Be Patient: Tough as it is, you have realize that homeschooling a child with ADHD will require a great deal more patience and commitment on your part, taking longer for them to settle and concentrate. If it feels like its getting too much for you, then remember two very important things 1) your efforts are for their benefit 2) a child with ADHD doesnt choose to be the way they are, or act the way they do. Accept the child unconditionally.

2. Fun time before teaching: Engage the child and make sure he is happy, content and satisfied, that he has had an opportunity to go to the bathroom, to have something to eat, and have some fun as well. This will pose less distractions and les demands on the attention of the child, meaning that they will focus more.

3. Hardest things first: start with the subject(s) the child dislikes the most, starting with the most difficult things at the start is a good idea because this is when the childs attention and focus will be at a peak. It also means that if towards the end the child has a subject they enjoy, then they will see that as a “treat”.

4. Place a priority on oral and verbal skills: most children who suffer from ADHD also suffer from other conditions and learning disorders, which impedes their learning making learning more difficult which in turn deters them from learning, and so it goes on a vicious circle. Therefore, concentrate on the oral skills first, once the child has mastered this then move onto the verbal. With the oral skills so developed, the sense of achievement should be enough for the child to be prepared to move onto more advanced things.

5. Make learning fun!: The usual implements and methods of learning wont work with a child with ADHD, you have to engage them and make learning an enjoyable and creative process. Thus adhd child home schooling isn't that bad at all.

6. Positive encouragement and praise whether on its own, or reinforced with a reward of some sort is an excellent tool to help a child with ADHD. This will allow your child to feel more confident and also have a positive goal to work towards, creating routine and this will all help encourage your child study on their own. Let them feel loved and cared for, and always be truthful.

I hope these tips are of some use, and will help you with your child.

READING and RITALIN: Too Scary to Think About – 19th Edition

A special education teacher wrote to me complaining about the abuse of Ritalin. The teacher said: “My students are on Ritalin. This is a brain shrinking, top tier heavily psychotropic drug, as you know. The authorities KNOW this is their weapon for the most intelligent boys... ”  

The teacher believes this is a high-level NWO conspiracy, which is not a road I personally like to go down. But the teacher got me thinking and worrying. What if there is a link, a connection, of some kind? 

Here are the two parts of the puzzle I’m personally convinced of: 

1) The Education Establishment in this country, for 75 years, has used unworkable methods (i.e., Whole Word) to teach reading. For many millions of children, the result is illiteracy and a collapse of each child’s confidence, with a concomitant increase in anxiety and misbehavior.  

2) Running parallel to this, a separate set of experts (the psychiatric community) diagnose millions of young children as having something called ADHD. The common treatment for this hyperactivity is Ritalin. (Interestingly, according to a government site, “This pattern of behavior usually becomes evident in the preschool or early elementary years, and the median age of onset of ADHD symptoms is 7 years,” which just happens to be the age when children, taught with Whole Word, wake up to the fact that they are falling behind their friends and seem in some way to be damaged.) 

So those are two well documented worlds. Question is, do they exist independently of each other, or is there some synergy, some cross-linkage? And is that connection, if it exists, coincidental or purposeful? 

I would like to think that these two groups of experts are separate and sincere. The thought that the two groups are actually working together (as in conspiring) is almost too horrible to think about. But isn’t it obvious that continued use of a bad method (Whole word) creates behavior that can lead to a perceived need for Ritalin? 

Here is my question: does anyone have solid evidence or personal anecdotes that can help illuminate whether there is a sinister connection between reading and ritalin? 

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Final thought: Inability to read will usually destroy a child’s sense that he is smart and in control. AT THE VERY LEAST, shouldn’t all those highly-paid medical professionals assess the reading abilities of their patients, and then demand that the education experts do more to make sure these children can actually read by the second grade?

Even if these groups are separate and well-intentioned, it seems to me you still have a serious dereliction of duty if doctors are prescribing powerful drugs to children without understanding the actual cause of their anxiety and misbehavior.

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(For more on why Whole Word causes illiteracy, see “42: Reading Resources” on Improve-Education.org.)

By edarticle.com

Signs of Autism – 18th Edition

Children with autism have strong emotions, and it can be tough for them to know how to let out their feelings appropriately

Children with ASD may fail to respond to their names and often avoid eye contact with other people.  They have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they can’t understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions, and don’t watch other people’s faces for clues about appropriate behavior.  They lack empathy.

Children with autism face enormous struggles when attempting to interact with their typically developing peers. More children are educated in integrated settings; however, play skills usually need to be explicitly taught, and play environments must be carefully prepared to support effective social interactions. This is for instance done in ABAautism treatment.

Children with autism often behave in unusual ways. Their activities are limited, and they may become very upset if there is some change in their environment or daily routine. For example, some may have temper tantrums if a piece of furniture in their room is moved or if they are put at a different place at the dinner table.

Autistic children are often withdrawn and quiet, and usually have a very difficult time expressing themselves, so much so that they rarely try. It was long believed that autism was a form of mental retardation, but this is not the case. Autistic children are often extremely bright. ABAautism treatment helps the kid to again try to express themselves and encourage to get out of isolation.

In both children and adults, the signs and symptoms of the autism spectrum disorders include problems with social skills, speech and language, and restricted activities and interests. However, there are enormous differences when it comes to the severity of the symptoms, their combinations, and the patterns of behavior.

Autistic children benefit the most from programming that introduces new materials as quickly as the child's patience and attention span will allow. Pictures may be employed in order to visually show children the action or explanation for a word.

Parents of children with autism - particularly those with newly diagnosed children - face a dizzying array of options that can be absolutely overwhelming. Parents of children with autism deserve all of the information needed to consider possible treatments carefully and to make the most informed decision for their child. As a very effective treatment method the information should include ABAautism treatment.

Most children with autism either become overwhelmed by too much sensory stimulation, or get frustrated because they crave it. Learn to read your child's needs and accommodate their environment accordingly. For instance, if your child is screaming and blocking his or her ears, create a quiet environment.

By edarticle.com

Are Our Current Bullying Programs Working in Schools? – 17th Edition

By,
Claudio V. Cerullo, Ph.D.

If there is an upside to the attention that bullying has been getting recently, it is that it seems to have
galvanized educators, parents, and community leaders to take action. The
concern about bullying has led many local and state governments across the country
to require schools to implement anti-bullying policies and programs. Unfortunately,
the time, effort, and money allocated to reducing bullying is not matched by a
corresponding level of concern for ensuring that these programs are actually
effective in reducing bullying. In fact, there have been very few formal
evaluations of bully prevention programs.

Recently, two studies in both a large urban district, and the other in a small rural district (1, 2) reviewed
the effectiveness of anti-bullying programs. Vernel and colleagues synthesized
the results of 16 evaluation studies of whole-school anti-bullying programs,
examining rates of victimization and bullying reported by children. The results
indicated that only one program yielded outcomes that were consistently
positive. The remaining programs that were evaluated yielded little or no
improvement. Similarly, Vernel and Smith (2) reviewed the outcomes of 26
programs across the state (some of which were also reviewed by Smith et al.
(1)). Only three of these programs yielded consistent reductions in bullying and
victimization, ten yielded some modest positive outcomes, and sixteen yielded
no positive results at all.

These reviews underscore several important points that should be of concern to educators, parents, and
researchers alike. The first is that there has been very little research on
anti-bullying programs generally, and more evaluation studies are urgently
needed. Second, there is currently only limited evidence that anti-bullying
programs are effective in curbing this problem. Third, the positive results
obtained in several studies suggest that prevention programs have the potential
to significantly reduce bullying, but more information is still needed to
understand how they can be improved and made more effective.

I believe that educators and parents can and should take a proactive interest in evaluating their school’s
anti-bullying program. Evaluation requires some additional time and effort but
is undoubtedly a sound investment. Here are a few of the benefits of
evaluation:

• Schools learn whether or not their programs are
       achieving desired outcomes and, by extension, if their resources are being
       wisely allocated.
• Despite the good intentions of those involved in
       implementing prevention programs, research tells us that many are not
       implemented as intended (3). Instead, interventions are commonly adapted,
       corners are sometimes cut out of necessity, and some staff members are
       disinterested or even resistant to doing their part to ensure program
       success. Evaluation allows school personnel to account for the quality of
       the program as implemented and subsequently fine-tune the implementation
       process.
• People tend to act differently when they are being
       observed (as in the context of an evaluation) and typically in a manner
       that improves their performance. Schools can take advantage of this
       so-called “Hawthorne effect” to maximize the chances of program success.
• Program evaluation represents a learning opportunity
       for schools, as the people involved learn about the program and how it
       works. This knowledge often improves the quality of program
       implementation, which in turn leads to better outcomes.
• Evaluation provides opportunities for critical,
       constructive reflection that are characteristic of schools with healthy
       climates. A positive climate in the school may be the key ingredient to
       making bully prevention programs successful (4).

The Basic Evaluation Techniques:

To streamline the work involved in
the process of examining an anti-bullying program, it is useful to set up a
committee to organize and run the evaluation. Ideally, the committee has
representation from the entire school community, including teachers,
administrators, parents, and students. The evaluation process is guided by
objectives, such as the two listed below:

1. Verify that the program is being implemented as planned: To address this objective, a
        checklist can be prepared that includes all of the activities comprising
        the anti-bullying program. Staff involved in implementing the program can
        be asked to indicate if and how often each activity is completed. This
        checklist should be filled out several times throughout the year (e.g.,
        once a month or once a semester). By aggregating this information, a good
        picture of how a program is being implemented will emerge. Schools wishing
        to investigate aspects of program implementation in more depth can also
        organize debriefing meetings with staff and students to probe the
        successes and challenges of their specific anti-bully program.
2. To determine if the program is achieving its intended results: To address the second
        objective, the evaluation committee must first decide what outcomes are
        expected from the program. Examples of possible results include: increases
        in anti-bullying attitudes, increases in positive student behavior,
        reductions in bullying and victimization, and improvement in school
        climate. It is important that the selected outcomes be feasible and
        realistic given scope and content of the program and the time allotted for
        implementation. The next step is to identify and find questionnaires that
        measure these outcomes. There are many such questionnaires in circulation,
        and often they can be procured easily for free (e.g., via the web) or for
        a modest fee from the publisher. The questionnaires should be administered
        on the following schedule:

a. Just before the program begins (pre-test)

b. Immediately after the program ends (post-test)

c. Six-months (and up to a year) after the post-test
(follow-up)

Finally, the anti-bullying school team reviews the evaluation data and makes recommendations for improving
program implementation and outcomes.

Educators and parents play the critical role in making anti-bullying programs more effective and ultimately
reducing bullying among children. Initiating local evaluation projects to
understand and improve programs is an effective way to reach the goal of making
schools safe havens for learning and healthy child development.

By edarticle.com

11 Ways to Teach Kids to Recognize and Label Their Emotions – 15th Edition

1. Use picture books as a tool for exploring emotions - Choose books that illustrate the facial expressions of the characters in the story. For older students, choose picture books with themes appropriate to young, as well as adult, readers. Read the book to students, noting facial expressions, emotions, conflicts, actions, and reactions to the characters and outcomes.  Then, teach students the vocabulary for the characters' emotions.

2. Play emotional charades! - Write many different emotions down on slips of paper and put them in a bag or hat.  Have students take turns picking an emotion to portray and acting out that feeling, without speaking, in front of the class.  The rest of the class must then guess which emotion is being portrayed.  

3. Tell them what they are feeling.  It is very important to acknowledge a youth's feelings and give them a vocabulary for those feelings.  This technique is just as valid for secondary students as young children. Help students connect how they are feeling, and consequently behaving, with labels for their emotions.  For example, when students are angry because they are not getting their way, say, "I can see that you are feeling frustrated right now." Avoid using derivatives of the word angry. Angry is overused. By labeling their emotions for them, teachers and parents can help youth learn to accurately label their emotions themselves.

4. Role-play with students - Using situations that occur in the classroom, have  two students at a time role-play how they would act in a situation in front of the class.  For example, have one student act as a bully while student acts as the victim.  After each role-play scenario, have the whole class talk about how they might feel if they found themselves in a similar situation.

5. Teach students to be aware of their body language and the message it portrays.  After students role-play a scenario, ask the audience to discuss what emotions and messages the actors' body language portrayed.  Most young people are completely unaware of what kind of message their body language is projecting By pointing it out and labeling the emotion that it portrays, students can become more aware and more in control of their body language and will learn more about labeling emotions in the process.

6. Help students understand that anger is a secondary emotion - Before a person feels angry, they experience another, often unnoticed, primary emotion, such as sadness, jealousy, surprise, or embarrassment.  When a student says they are angry, help them to identify and label the primary emotion behind that anger to better understand and deal with their emotions.

7. Teach empathy - When students are involved in a conflict, help them to understand how the other person feels.  Ask them how they would feel if they were in the other's shoes.  By helping students to identify and understand not only their own emotions, but also the emotions of others, teachers and parents can help young people to more successfully label and understand emotions in general.

8. Help students connect their emotions and their body language - Ask them to recall a situation that made them feel happy, sad, angry, or any other emotion.  Have students draw a picture of a facial expression to match the given emotion and then share the pictures with the class.  Seeing how students' pictures differ will help to determine how each student views each emotion.

9. To help students better understand their anger, ask students to write a short story - complete with illustrations - that describes a situation that made them "angry" without using the words "anger," "angry," "mad," etc.  This will help students determine the emotions that cause anger. Students may use the Moodz poster as a "emotion vocabulary list."  

10. Help students understand various emotions by asking them to write an acrostic poem in which each letter of an emotion's name would represent a reason for feeling that way.  For example, G in guilt could start the phrase "Gave away my friend's secret."

11. To help students understand situations that cause them to experience a specific emotion, ask students to think about which emotions they most commonly feel and what makes them feel that way.  If students realize that the same situation always make them feel sad or hurt, they will likely avoid that situation or learn a new way to deal with it. This will help students develop better ways to deal with conflicts and emotions.

By edarticle.com

Activities for Toddlers – Playing and Learning – 16th Edition

Youngsters learn through Activities. As a mum or dad you should use several toddler activities to support your children learn when having a good time at the same time. Each child is an active learner.

In this article I give exciting activities to aid develop your little one's emotional, cognitive, physical and social talents.

Allow me to share three favorite Activities for Toddlers.

Out of the house

Get Outside. Nature walks are fun and educational. Youngsters are very busy, so outdoor activities for toddlers are actually always in demand. These walks will make your child develop a fascination with exploration and nature. There is no need to take your toddler to some nature reserve or a zoo to discover nature. Just a stroll around your own neighborhood is really an experience.

While wandering, let your little one take a look at the different corners. Have your child collect leaves, blooms, and sticks. You can ask your little one to collect a big leaf and a tiny one, a dark green and dark one. This will help her grasp the difference between the two.

Search for insects underneath stones and leaves and help your little one examine them beneath a magnifying glass. Allow her to adopt a tree on the walk. Tell her what type of a tree it is, what happens when the leaves fall, can it get blooms, just where it happens to come from. Now let your youngster sketch the tree, the leaves along with the flowers and turf around the tree.

Baking Activities for Toddlers

Baking pursuits may very well be most liked of all toddler activities. Kids really enjoy cooking activities and so do parents. Baking is both fun as well as educational. Decide upon something which wouldn't take too long as preschoolers have got a small attention span and don’t concern yourself with how the food will taste or look.

Involve your child in measuring and mixing the ingredients. For example, tell her to get a cup of flour or an egg. Otherwise you can tell her what you do as you're mixing ingredients together. This will assist with understanding simple arithmetic skills. It will also help them develop language and reading skills. Your 3 year old toddler will love mixing flour, whipping eggs and setting the cooking timer.

Money Toddler Activities

A well liked toddler activity is most likely the money activity. Start by showing your son or daughter coins or notes. Teach her how to count out 4 dollar bills. Help your little one sketch a variety of coins by simply placing a sheet of paper over a coin and then tracing the outline by way of rubbing a pencil across the paper.

Arrange a play toy store with a cash register and gadgets to be for sale. Help the child write the price of each toy on a sticker. Next let her place the labels on the gadgets. Include your family members and her mates as shoppers.

All these activities are fun methods for teaching toddlers about money as well as its purposes. You can also work with money activities to help your children realize that they are unable to get everything they demand.

In Conclusion,

Parenting young kids is a very demanding and rewarding task. By making toddler activities fun and also educational, you help establish a distinct bond with your toddler.

By edarticle.com

The magic of Primes – 14th Edition

We all know what a prime number is. It is a number that is divisible only by 1 and itself. But do you know how fascinating these numbers are?
You could call them the building block of all numbers.

Why do I say that?
We all know numbers that are not prime numbers are called composite numbers.  But you may not know that all composite numbers can be built from prime numbers in a unique way by multiplication. In fact, this fact is called the “Fundamental Theorem of Mathematics” – that any number can be written as a factor of two or more primes in a unique way (by unique I mean there is only one way to write it as a factor of primes).

For example, take 96. If you factor it in primes, you will get 96  = 2 * 48 = 2 * 2 * 24 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 12 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 6 = 2 * 2 * 2 *2 * 2 * 3

So 96 can be represented as 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 3. There is no other way to factorize it using primes.
And this is true for all prime numbers. Isn’t it fascinating?

There are many fascinating things about prime numbers and their role as the building block for all numbers.
But let me tell you about one strange fact – there is no largest prime number. It is just not possible to have something called the “largest prime number”. A Greek Mathematician called Euclid proved it more than 2000 years ago.

There is an active search going on for finding larger and larger prime numbers. The largest one found so far is 2^43,112,609 − 1. What is that? It is 2 multiplied by itself 43 million, one lakh, twelve thousand, six hundred and nine times, and one subtracted from that number. That number is 12 million digits long.
How big is that? Let me tell you – If you could write 80 numbers in a line, and your notebook page had 40 lines, and your notebook had 50 pages,  it would take you 80 notebooks to write down this number. Of course, the search for still larger prime numbers continues.

By edarticle.com

A new form of neglect? – 12th Edition

We've all been through it: the heavy backpack.

But increasing numbers of students are now reporting consistent back pains. 

In a study led by the University of California in Riverside, 64% of students reported having back pain at some time.

Two out of every five students reported feeling pain while wearing their backpacks. Of those reporting pain, almost 90% reported the back pain being "bad" or "very bad".

The following statistics were drawn of those reporting back pain:

• 21% said their pain lasted more than six months
• about 16% said they had missed school, gym, class, or after-school sports as a result of back pain
• only about 17% said they had seen a doctor for their back pain
• most of these students said the pain was recurrent *

In response, the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA) designated the third Wednesday of each September as National School Backpack Awareness Day. AOTA also promotes public awareness of backpack injuries, as well as gives tips and strategies to avoid them.

Have you been checking the weight of your child's backpack?

* SOURCE: Siambanes, D. Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics, March/April 2004; vol 24: pp 211-271. News release, University of California, Riverside.

For comments, questions, or story ideas, email Janice Chong at contactjanicechong@gmail.com.

By edarticle.com

Is distance learning online degree a right choice for the students? – 13th Edition

Enrolling for the online degree via the distance learning has its own advantages. When you enrol in the distance learning courses, reducing the work hours or quitting the job is not an option at all. In fact it can be difficult to go back to the regular school routine in case you enrol for a regular course. It is practically impossible to attend the class on a regular basis while also juggling with the job and family.

But in case of the online degree via the distance learning mode, there is no need to attend the classes regularly. Instead you can make your own schedule and study at your own pace and comfort. You do not even need to visit the campus, instead sit at the comforts of your home and prepare your online degree course. There are many students all over the world who opts for the online degree via the distance learning courses only because it saves them a lot of time and effort alongside with providing the much needed flexibility.

In fact the flexibility is such that not only do you have all the liberty to study at your own pace and time, but you do not even quit your job at all. Instead, if you are good at multi tasking, then you can manage all three tasks like the job, studies and the family. But the only drawback that you might consider when opting for the online degree via the distance learning mode is that, the environment that the distance learning colleges create is much different than that of the regular college campuses. You can feel a little bit secluded in such environment. But if you are a disciplined person, then this would not create much of a problem as you would be able to adjust with this seclusion well.

Some people doubt that the distance learning online degree does not hold the same value as that of the regular degree courses. But that is not true at all. The curriculum followed by the online degree course is at par with the regular course and the online degree holds the same value and worth as that of the regular degree courses although it is preached via the distance learning mode. And it is also much cheaper at costing too. Apart from that, the online degree does not mention anywhere that it had been preached in the distance learning mode.

By edarticle.com