Blog
“We’re Not Doctors…We Think You Should See a Neurologist”
Oliver, age 8, has difficulty behaving in his third grade class. They were told by the school, "We're not doctors, so we don't know why he's doing these things, but we think you should see a neurologist." The last statement is code language. Here's the translation -...
Stories from the Dyslexia Front
Story I So, second grader, Nicole, was writing some things to her mom in class. She started a poem to her mother, “Rosis ar red vilits ar blae, but nan is as swet as you.” She went on to tell her mom that she was having “fune at...
Avoiding the New School Year Blues
Its that time again. That little knot in your stomach is forming with the start of the new school year and you are reading various articles on the top tips for your kid having a great year. Heres my number one tip - resolve to stay calm. School problems result in a...
Organizing the Disorganized: The 10% Parent Involvement
As we go into the school year and that pit in your stomach starts to form there are certain areas of chronic concern, such as homework completion that increase the sense of queasiness. Usually the difficulty with homework is accompanied by the ongoing sense of...
A Few Points in School Struggling Land
Out there in school struggling land there are some common themes that I find myself saying over and over to parents to help them understand their kids better. Here are a few: Smooth Road and Rough Road Kids: Generally speaking kids are on one side or the other...
Common Core State Standards: (Lots of Luck)
Most of you probably remember a few years back when all of the buzz was No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Schools scrambled to meet the expectations of NCLB. Fast forward to 2013. No one seems to be talking about NCLB anymore. Its been put away in one of the many dustbins...
Homework Avoidance: That Pit in the Stomach Returns
It would be interesting if we could take a psychological temperature reading across the country while homework is being conducted, typically from four in the afternoon to about 9 oclock at night. My sense is that, in many households, the temperature rises steadily...
Going Old School: Looking in the Dustbins of the Education Attic
Having been in this business of education, psychology and school struggling for some time, there are a few “old school” concepts that I think still apply and are important for parents to keep in mind. These old school concepts reside in the dustbins of the...
Dyslexia: More Than a Score
***Note: (This blog was published some time ago, but due to a problem with the website it needed to be reposted. It has been revised.) I had the good fortune to recently take part on a panel during a symposium on dyslexia sponsored by the grassroots...
Keeping In Touch With Shut-Down Learner, School Struggles & “Dr. Selz”
If you receive this blog you may not know of other ways of staying in touch with “The Shut-Down Learner,” and Dr. Richard Selznick (“Dr. Selz”) updates. Here are a few: Facebook: Join “The Shut-Down Learner”...
Lost Opportunities
So much of a child’s world can be framed in an ongoing series of different skills. For example, some kids have the “skill of” saying hello and greeting someone for the first time. Others may have the “skill of” manners in...