Today I just thought I would post this great website about social thinking. There is a lot of useful information.
Category Archives: Communication
How to motivate?
Just as negative comments and experiences destroy motivation, positive comments and a series of little successes can begin to repair motivation. Encouraging words like “Wow, you put a lot of effort into your work” or “I like the way you worked on that” regularly will go a long way to acknowledge the strengths and build …
Creating an environment of success
There is motivation that comes from within and motivation generated from external rewards. Working for money is an example of external motivation. Volunteering is an example of internal motivation. We all are motivated in a variety of ways. When working with a young adult with a learning disability motivation is often a primary issue. After …
One size fits all
First, remember that no one chooses failure. As adults, we choose to work and do things in areas of competency, but as children, we are asked to be good in many different areas. Children do not have choices. We want them to read, write, do computations, and prepare for college. Our schools do not teach …
Motivation: The Circle Part I
If a young adult is not motivated in school because of prior academic experiences, who is responsible for motivating them? Should the child be responsible for self-motivating or is it the teachers’ or parents responsibility to motivate them? Day after day, some students with language based disabilities meet academic failure,”F’s” and “D’s” on assignments, demeaning …
Reading: Video games, DVDs’, and books
What about video games and videos? I loved the Leap Pad “Letter Factory” series and other DVD’s by Leap Frog, but I did not see any benefit in my child’s reading ability or knowledge that was a result of her watching those DVD’s. Although the series is well done, she did not automatically apply what …
Pushing
My biggest lesson I learned from my continued reading journey with my daughter is that I need to calm down and relax. She is reading. She has a great imagination and can visualize what is happening in a story without pictures. Visualization is an important skill that is necessary for good reading comprehension. Most of …
What did I learn teaching my daughter to read?
Of course, the reading adventure continues and my investigation also continues. After a parent teacher conference I’m told my daughter can read “J” level books, but because most of the students in the class are not on “J” level there are not many of those books in the class. I asked my daughter if she …
Continue reading “What did I learn teaching my daughter to read?”
An Early Reading Adventure: Part IV
The next technique we used to learn the sound system was music and rhythm. We tapped out the letter, sound and key word to a beat she made on her leg. Last technique and the most successful for my daughter was a technique where I used letter people and created letter relationships. I used this …
An Early Reading Adventure: Part III
While helping my daughter learn to read, I have explored the world of literacy in a much more personal way. Pre-reading activities such as reading together everyday, rhyming, story telling etc. have always been apart of our regular activities. I tried four different approaches to teach my daughter the sound system. First, we started with …