Blog
“Reading Comprehension Challenges & School Bus Problems: What’s the Connection?”
When Kids struggle with reading comprehension it is interesting that there often is an overlap in "real life,” that is in the way the child interacts in their personal world. In this era of automatically labeling and pathologizing behavior as “ADHD,” this overlap is...
Overcoming Early Writing Malaise
Open-ended writing can be dreadfully difficult for school-struggling children. Many kids, especially in the early grades, find the task of writing to be overwhelming on a variety of levels. Typically, schools recommend occupational therapy (OT) to address the issue....
Shutting Down Early
“It’s getting late early.” Yogi Berra Anxiety over your child’s school-based problems can start fairly early. A mom recently contacted me after reading The Shut-down Learner. “My son is drowning in school. You think he could be a shut-down learner?” When I wrote...
Start of the School Year: The Pit in the Stomach Comes Back
At this point in the season, the pit in the stomach is reforming with back-to-school just around the corner. There are no doubts about, getting everything that your kids need to get their school year off to the best possible start can take a huge toll on your bank...
What is a Dyslexia Screening?
Dyslexia screening is a tool for identifying children who may be at risk for dyslexia (reading disability) and for gathering information to assist those children. A dyslexia screening can be performed by a range of educational professionals. Although it might be...
Reading Acquisition: Playing the Notes & the Chords
The field of learning disabilities/dyslexia can be overwhelming to parents. There is so much terminology and confusion out there, much of it is unnecessary. It is a mission of mine to try and make the obtuse clear, to put things in terms that parents can understand....
Development Rules
To finish out the week, I am going to make a simplistic point, but one that I think is often forgotten. Development rules. To illustrate, let’s forget disabilities for second. Let’s say your 7 year old is one of those Science Channel kids who knows everything about...
The Intangibles
Last night I received a very special recognition from the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper University Medical Center where our program, the Cooper Learning Center is within the Department of Pediatrics. One thing that was particularly special was that some of...
Ben Foss is prominent inventor, entrepreneur and activist who founded Headstrong Nation a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving the dyslexic community. He is also the inventor of the Intel Reader® a device CNN called “too ground breaking to ignore.” The...
Dear School Districts: I Beg of You, Please Stop Doing This
Dear School Districts: I know that you are under a lot of pressure these days. There’s tons of regulation coming down the pike – Common Core, Student Growth Initiatives, PARCC and all sorts of other initiatives. I really do try and be understanding. I used to work...
Part III: Anger: You Can’t Make Me” Depleting Emotional Fuel
Maybe I am pulling for it by writing these blogs about anger (see last two blog posts: https://shutdownlearner.com/blog), but lately I’ve had a run of angry kids. While the content varies in terms of the specifics of each case, there are commonalities: 1) The...