Month: January 2015

ADHD Larry and His Weekly Report Card

I met a mom and her kid this week,  a wiry nine year old giving the teacher the usual amount of stuff typically attributed to ADHD.  You know, calling out when he is not supposed to; talking too much; rushing through his work – those sorts of things.

It sounded like the teacher was getting more and more frustrated and starting to reevaluate her career decisions.

As the kid (we’ll call him Larry) was busily building some Lego figure while his mom talked to me, I could see he had a certain gleam in his eyes, laughing at some of the jokes I was making with the mom as we talked.

The mom explained, “Well, Larry is doing better now that he is on a weekly behavior report card.”

I said to the mom (to make Larry laugh), “You know, I bet my wife would like to put me on a weekly behavior report card.  There would be lots of ‘needs improvements’  if I were being watched closely.  I think I would be getting weak marks for things like, “not hanging clothes consistently…didn’t put the dishes away in a timely manner…forgot to shut the lights off at night…tracked snow in the house…not meeting potential.”

“It’s tough being a kid,”  I continued.   “They watch your every move, right Larry?  Good thing I don’t have one of those weekly behavior charts. ”

Larry laughed enthusiastically, nodding in agreement.

I was just trying to normalize things for Larry, make him not feel so bad.

I think it worked since he was cracking up while engaged with the Legos.

I was hoping that the mom didn’t think I was undermining Larry and his weekly behavior chart.

She didn’t.  She got it. She knew I would be getting a bad report card too!

 

 

Dyslexia Screening & Other Updates

Hi Gang:

A little news and updates:

Dyslexia Screening Book Released

I’m excited to announce the release of my new book, “Dyslexia Screening: Essential Concepts For Schools and Parents.” In paperback, the book is available through www.shutdownlearner.com and will soon be available as an e-book on Amazon and Barnes and Nobel.

I’ve had nice comments about the book:

“Dyslexia Screening:  Essential Concepts for Schools & Parents is a perfect compendium that enables educators to take a proactive stance in the early identification and remediation of dyslexia.  Steven G. Feifer, D.Ed., ABSNP – 2009 National School Psychologist of the Year”

“Dyslexia Screening:  Essential Concepts for Schools & Parents really helped our district get a handle on dyslexia – what it is, how to detect it and what to do about it, especially as we needed to implement the new state law.”  Patricia Moulton, M.S.W. Special Education Coordinator, Brooklawn School District”

“I wanted to let you how much I enjoyed your book. I especially appreciated that you point out the qualitative observations that should take place during assessment that can be so incredibly crucial. For example, using marks to show that a student took a long time to decode a word, even if they decoded it correctly was valuable. Your book will be a great resource for teachers/districts who are so reluctant or so nervous to identify struggling students.  Kelli Sandman-Hurley, Ed.D.  Dyslexia Training Institute

School Struggles: Radio Show on The Coffee Klatch Network

I’ve had some great guests on “School Struggles,” on the Coffee Klatch Network. Some of the more recent ones include:

·    Kelli Sandman-Hurley & Tracy Block-Zaretsky, co-founders the Dyslexia Training Institute. The title of the talk was, “Dyslexia Intervention: What Every Parent Should Know.”

·  Susan Zimmerman, author of “7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help your kids Read It and Get It.” We discussed, “Helping Your Kids with Reading Comprehension.”

·  Dr. Ellen Braaten, author of “Bright Kids Who Can’t Keep Up,” spoke in a two-part interview about the effects of processing speed in the classroom and at home.

· Nationally known parenting expert,  John Rosemond, the author of numerous books spoke about his most recent, “Helping Your Child Succeed in School.”

·   Ben Foss, spoke about his book, “The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: a Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence

·   Special education attorney, Dennis McAndews, discussed the development of IEP’s, 504 plans and what parents need to know about these.

Mark the Date:

4/25 The Cooper Learning Center will be hosting their second annual “Facets of Dyslexia” conference. For more information go to: http://www.cooperlearningcenter.org.

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