Homework Help: Bridging the Gap from School to Home

February 16, 2012February 16, 20122 Comments

The following are some guides and ideas that might help your child be more successful at homework. These guides of homework help could really make a difference in your child’s success in the classroom. If your child seems to get overwhelmed or forget about certain assignments, these ideas are to help your child get on the right path toward being successful in school.

Organizing homework

A good assignment book is essential for completing homework successfully. While some students buy three- by five-inch spiral pads for recording assignments, the pages are too small, the lines are too thin, and there are not visual dividers to separate assignments for children that need more help. Instead a good assignment book is eight and a half by eleven inches, with three holes for inserting it into the working notebook, neatly divided sections, and plenty of room on each page.

To help your child organize homework, you can create a homework help checklist with the following items for each subject:

I have the materials I need to do the assignment (book, notes, handouts).
I completed the assignment.
I checked the assignment to be sure it was correct.
There was no homework in this subject tonight.

By making multiple copies of the checklist, your child can use one for each subject each night – independently or with your help.

Study space

Routines about when and where homework is completed are essential. While students will not usually admit to it, they all benefit from structure for completing homework. This is especially relevant for students with learning disabilities. The structure can be imposed by you, by teachers, or as a team.

Your child should have an identified study space in the home. Preferably, the space should be used solely for school work. It can be in your child’s room, a quiet area of the living room, or even a walk-in closet. The space should be free of visual and auditory distractions (including games, TV, radio, and other children). It should have a clear work surface, good light, and a comfortable yet well-structured chair. All necessary supplies should be on hand before the child starts, including a dictionary, pencils, paper, ruler, and calculator.

On the first day of school or as soon as possible, you should establish a routine with your child for completing homework. The routine needs to reflect your child’s individual learning style. For example, some students with attention weaknesses work best if they spend no more than fifteen minutes on a subject, move to another assignment for fifteen minutes, and then return to the original assignment (rather than work continuously on the same assignment). Some students do better if they spend a half-hour after school on homework, then take a break to play or eat dinner, then complete the homework.

While the best time for completing homework differs for each student it’s important to establish it and make it a routine in order to give them the best homework help.

Communicating with teachers

Too often, teachers say that parents are not involved enough with their children’s school work and parents say that teachers do not provide enough information for them to help their children. To avoid this situation, establish communication with your child’s teachers as soon as possible – preferably before the first day of school – and maintain it throughout the year.

Ask teachers what organization structures they provide, what they expect from students, and how you can help your child organize materials and study effectively. Ask the teacher to write homework assignments, with a lot of detail, on a blackboard for your child to copy so you will know what the homework is and how it’s to be completed. Be willing to check, sign, and return a homework sheet each night to maintain communications between you and the teacher. Ask the teacher to note how long each assignment should take to complete, then note back to the teacher how long it actually took. This is essential information for the teacher to make appropriate modifications to homework assignments.

Related Websites:

Department Education: Homework

Intellectual Disability: Social and Ethical Decisions

February 9, 2012February 9, 20121 Comment

Being diagnosed with an Intellectual Disability poses a series of questions and struggles. The following takes you through the beginning life phases and the choices parents face while raising a child diagnosed with an intellectual disability.

Prenatal Period

In the prenatal period, it is important that parents are encouraged to do those preventive measures that are least invasive to the baby. For example, through informational hand outs and possible financial assistance, parents can receive information on proper ways to care for themselves and their baby. Some of the topics would include prenatal care and the importance of not drinking alcohol, excessive caffeine, doing drugs, or smoking cigarettes. If parents or the fetus are at risk, there are medical procedures that can test the child for disabilities. Often these tests include a risk for miscarriage. Parents must face whether they think that it is worth this risk. If they do decide to go this extra step and find that their child does have a disability, they must face deciding on abortion, adoption, or keeping the child.

Early Years

Early years, includes children 0-5 years old. Often this is the time that the family is adjusting to having a child with an intellectual disability. It can be full of troubling issues as the parents coup with their child’s diagnosis and perhaps the chance that their child will not live a long life. After the child is born, the parent can choose not to use radical measures to prolong the child’s life and thus deal have to deal with the death of their child. As well as this decision, there are also many more, which include is the child and family life Teaching Standard meets Exceptional Needs Standards, three children with exceptional needs, Interactions with children, Engage students in communication and literacy, Engage Students in Social Development, use of assessment, and Out of Classroom Collaboration or will the child have to be institutionalized. There are also questions about services, and the adult put into the decision making position for the individual with an intellectual disability may need to learn how to advocate for their child.

School Years

There are many things for family to face. The parent must decide at the school level what program they want their child in. Are they going to go to a private specialized school? Are they going to integrate to peer’s without disabilities programs? Or are they going to go to the public school, but still be separated? With the parents facing so many questions, they may seek assistance from teachers and/or try to find comfort in their decision from the teachers. As a teacher, it is important to respect the parents decision. Then throughout the educational process parents and individuals face more decisions with goals and their educational program.

Adulthood

Parents face many decisions when their child with an intellectual disability reaches adulthood. They may have to stop and ask themselves, if their child is ready? Do they have the skills to take on the responsibility of adulthood? Where will they live? Will they work? If so, where? How will they receive the support necessary to live a fulfilling and safe adulthood? These questions may lead the parent to feeling overly protective and/or all alone. As a teacher, it is important to provide support for families as they go through this transition. It is also important to give a realistic evaluation of the child and direct the family to the appropriate services.

Summary

Parents face many options when they have a child with an intellectual disability
Everyone involved needs appropriate information
Families need to find a place of support while making decisions and raising a child with an intellectual disability

Other Resources

Traumatic Brain Injury: A Simple Breakdown

February 8, 2012Leave a comment

A Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, includes a wide range of injuries with a broad spectrum of symptoms and possible disabilities. Many times the wider range impacts cannot be noted until later on if the accident occurs when the child is very small. The following are some basic facts about a Traumatic Brain Injury:

Definitions

An injury that is caused by an external physical force, which leads to an impairment in one or more areas of functioning and can cause delays/ difficulty with educational performance.

Causes

There are both open and closed head injuries. Open are caused by penetration of an object to the head, and closed are when a blunt stationary object hits the head resulting in the brain slamming into the cranium.

Characteristics

There is a wide range of characteristics, which may be permanent or temporary. They include:

physical and sensory change
cognitive impairments
social, behavioral, and emotional problems

Education

As each injury is different, so are the impacts and the child’s needs. It is important as an educator to truly understand each individual child, so that the child can truly benefit from their education by having an environment that catered to them. This also means being aware of any challenges the child seems to be having learning or manipulating their environment to meet their needs.

Parenting

Again each case is so individual. Listen to the doctors and your own heart. If something doesn’t seem right, pursue it. You are your child’s most important advocate. This means to educate yourself on your individual child’s needs and follow your intuition on what needs you see so that your child can get any additional help needed. This may range from physical therapy, speech, therapy, occupational therapy to help in academics.

Other Resources

Here’s a great spot on CNN about Children and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Curriculum Guides for Academic Interventions in English

February 8, 20121 Comment

This is a how-to guide that covers steps for achieving specific objectives, principles governing behavior, descriptions of effective teaching strategies, interventions, and accommodations that a special educator can use in his or her classroom. The following are curriculum guides for Academic Interventions in English, including Reading, Writing, and Spelling. It was originally generated as a curriculum guide for students with intellectual disabilities but could be used for a broader audience.

Effective Teaching Strategies

Community-based Instruction: This technique is appropriate whenever possible to allow students to practice their self-help, social, and other skills in the actual environment they will be using them and not just inside the classroom.
Authentic Instruction: This technique requires the teacher to use their knowledge of the student to make curriculum interesting, applicable, and understandable to them and their lives.
Unit Approach: This technique is used when a teacher picks a theme or core concept that they teach throughout curricular areas.
Level-to-level Planning: This technique requires that teacher assess the students and meet them directly at where his/her skill level is
Story Enhancement: This strategy is used when a teacher picks or makes a story because of how it links to the subject being taught.

Reading Methods

When teaching reading, it is essential to consider age appropriateness of curriculum, the students understanding of all alphabets (cursive and non, capital, and lower-case), the students process to read, and how to make it simple.

ITA: Initial Teaching alphabet is an alphabet consisting of 44 letters all-lowercase. Each letter represents each sound in the English language.
Basal Reading: This program is widely used, but has both pros and cons. It is based on a small group approach of relatively equally skilled students.
Edmark Program: This program is for those learning to read and is applicable to those with disabilities. It teaches sight recognition of words and emphasizes word meaning.
GIA: Goal Instruction Analysis is a highly specific strategy to find the students skill level, as well as, their needed supports and next steps.

Other Strategies

Spelling: Use process and repetition, i.e. Study the word; Say the word; Cover the word; See the word; Spell the word; Check the word; Write the word correctly
Specific Strategy (in order):

Language Concept Development is the first step toward being able to read and encompasses the student’s core speech concepts
Beginning Sight Wordis teaching a few key words that the student is confident with in order to make reading easier and efficient
Word Attack Skills includes sounding out common constants through use of flashcards and work sheets
Functional Reading Skills helps students add sight vocabulary and work toward efficient reading of material

Reading/Listening Center: Provides accessible resources for children to engage and interact with stories and books in order to increase their practice and interest
Diagnosis/prescription: It is important to understand where students are using applicable, appropriate tests. From here, the teacher can make a plan on how to teach the student.

Example Interventions

Behavior Modification- Inappropriate Disruptions: Model acceptance of the student and help him/her to find an alternative appropriate behavior to replace disturbance. Practice the new behavior through role-play with the student.
Social Interactions- Physical Interaction w/ Others: Redirect the behavior to appropriate contact, like giving a high five, and then repeatedly practice this interaction throughout various activities in various situations.
Educational Performance- Class Participation: Maintain high expectations, but modify curriculum toward interest using a different focus of the same topic.
Classroom Attitude- Demonstrates Learned helplessness: Provide numerous opportunities for the student to demonstrate the abilities that they can do successfully and structure activities that foster the student’s leadership abilities.

Another great Resource is Intervention Central

Stress and Children: The Lifelong Relationship

February 7, 2012Leave a comment

Stress and Children

I recently read an interesting article from American Academy of Pediatrics on how stress in early childhood contributes to a life of health problems. Many of us are aware of this correlation, but the article is about how it is more than a simple correlation. Instead there are lasting effects that effects the actual make up of the brain. Early experiences can influence emerging brain architecture and as a result long-term health.

Long-term effects of childhood adversity can include, poorer:

Academic achievement
Economic productivity
Health Status
Chances of dealing with stress later on in life

Although a child going through unhealthy stress is not a rat, consider this. There was a study on rats: mother’s who licked and cared for there newborn produced babies that had less exaggerated stress as adults. Compared to rats who did not care for their infants so religiously who had pups who then in-turn passed on this skill to their babies. These less cared for baby mice had worse skills for dealing with stress.

The health status of children from stressful situations where they do not have a responsive caregiver can give different physiological effects which create:

the “wear and tear” effect on multiple organs, including the brain
a change in neuronal architecture which changes learning, memory, and executive functioning in the brain
impaired memory and mood control
more anxiety
hyperactivity
Problems in development of linguistics, cognitive, and social-emotional skills
Difficulty distinguishing between conditions of safety and danger

Literally a child’s early environment get under their skin and change the very make up of the child. The relationship between stress and children can create many poor outcomes. Helping a child get through it can make all difference. This means creating the safe environment to know that the adult is there and will help them through life’s unexpected difficulties.

A Child With Needs

Early child development from a mom and professional.

Month: February 2012