Blog
“Not Reading the Signals”
An issue often overlooked with children diagnosed as ADHD is a frequently occurring underlying variable of social judgment and difficulty with “reading” cause and effect. Difficulty with reading cause and effect impacts both social and academic functioning, such as...
“Do Your Personal Best All the Time!”
“James must try and do his personal best all the time.” This was the teacher’s evaluation comment of a child I recently evaluated. As soon as I read the comment, I felt my blood pressure rise a bit. I don’t know about you, but I have yet to have a day in my life...
“Thanks for Yelling, Mom! I see the Light!”
Recently, we talked about the notion that a child should be doing his or her homework in a more public area of the house, rather than the child’s bedroom. Let's discuss the tone of the homework activity and how you might manage it as a parent. It would be interesting...
“Go Up To Your Room and Do Your Work”: The Perils
How many households in America each night hear the refrain, “Go up to your room and start your homework?" Recognizing that each household is set up differently, it is hard to make generalizations about how and where a child should be doing his or her homework. For...
First Grade Writing Demands Overwhelming
This week I met James, age 7 and a half. In my assessment of James, I found him to be extremely bright, with excellent higher level reasoning skills and a lively spontaneous personality. His reading skills were developing nicely, matching his strong...
The School Keeps Saying “Stay Out – They Have to Do It On Their Own”
By the upper elementary school grades, the message parents often get from the school is their child needs to do schoolwork on his/her own without parental support. For many children (those that can do work on their own), that's exactly what should be happening. Such...
Kindergarten Mom: Help! My Child is Shutting Down!
Anxiety over your child’s school-based problems can start very early. A mom recently contacted me after reading The Shut-Down Learner. “My son is drowning in school. Do you think he could be a shut-down learner?” After asking a few more questions, I was struck by the...