Blog
Does Spelling Matter?
Georgia is a lively, spontaneous and friendly 10-year- old student entering the fifth grade. Cognitive testing placed her between the average to above average range for most of the domains assessed. Spelling and writing were a different story for her. Here are some...
Improving Reading Comprehension Through Dread
A father of a sweet 11-year-old girl came in to have her child evaluated this week. By impression and observations, the girl, Katie, was on the innocent side of life. She was still in the “Hello Kitty” phase, which was nice to see, given how fast and advanced many...
“Hmmm, Let me think about it:” An Underpinning of Reading Comprehension
So, your child is reasonably down the road with the skills of decoding and reading fluency. The next stage emphasis is typically focused on comprehension, and one of the underpinning skills of reading comprehension is the ability to apply the skill of “Hmm, let me...
‘Rubrics – Shmubrics:” Absurdities in Kiddy Land
Writing rubrics are familiar to most parents these days. The rubrics are the criteria used to assess a range of writing skills for a child. Here’s a writing rubric that was handed to me recently for David, a child who I was going to assess. On a four scale rubric,...
A Few Problems With the ‘D’ Word: That’s Right – “Dyslexia”
One of the problems with the word "dyslexia" is the rampant confusion that goes along with the it. If you ask anyone you know what they understand about dyslexia, I would predict that almost without exception, you will get something like, “Isn’t that when you read...
Lifting Dyslexic Weights
A mom came in this week to talk about young Caroline, age 7, a second grader. The mom had a stack of material to show me. There was the math worksheet filled with word problems with the red 34% at the top of the page, with all kinds of ‘X’ marks throughout....
Structuring, Cuing & Guiding
“Marlene, just doesn’t follow directions. You know when she goes into fourth grade there’s going to be no more hand-holding. ” “All the kids in the class, but Benjamin, know what to do. He really should be able to do the...
The N.F.L & 504 Plans in the Real World
Sometimes I think of school 504 meetings somewhat like what I imagine goes on in the preparation for an NFL football game. The coaches (apart from the players) come up with a game plan. Then the team has to play the game and carry out the plan. The plan may work...
Does Your Child Have “Curriculum ADHD”?
A mom came in the other day to talk about her struggling eight-year-old daughter, Jacqueline, a fourth grader. Jacqueline presented with many of the common concerns- difficulty with decoding, reading fluency, spelling and writing, feeling overwhelmed by school. I...
The Parenting Dance That We Do
The Parenting Dance That We Do Parents often need help in learning how to communicate with their child. Children with learning disabilities or ADHD can be very frustrating and difficult to manage. Negative and irritable patterns of communication often play out in a...
What’s the One Thing Struggling Kids Need?
Kids who are struggling feel like they are constantly running up hill while the other kids are on an easy downward slope. In this day and age of Student Growth Percentiles, Common Core and PARCC testing what is the one thing that the struggling kids need...