When there’s inequity in learning, it’s usually baked into life, Harvard analysts say. Source: The Costs of Inequality: Education Is the Key to It All – US News Language is the key to academic success. A few students from backgrounds with limited resources do well often because they love reading and in that way acquire the …
Category Archives: Communication
Discovering What Works: Managing homework battles
My daughter is now in the 8th grade. Our “homework battles” are primarily behind us, but not forgotten.  I wish I could say it just took time. That would negate all the wonderful help she’s received.  Managing homework battles takes a thoughtful, comprehensive approach.  It requires perseverance, patience, and sometimes skilled help to address the underlying …
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Homework Battles: What is the problem?
Homework battles, whether once a week or every day, fighting your child to complete their homework is a dreaded chore.
Mindblindness vs Context blindness
Replacing the generic term of “mindblindness,” often used to refer to people on the autism spectrum, with a more specific term such as “context blindness” has been proposed by Peter Vermeulen, PhD.  Simon Baron-Cohen created the term “mindblindness,” to refer to the deficit  people on the autism spectrum have in reading others mental states. This term …
“Your Fantastic Elastic Brain”: Motivating Children and Teens with Speech and Language Disorders
Struggling to motivate children and teens with speech and language disorders is an on going concern. Many learn to navigate around their deficit using strategies, but others avoid learning risks at all cost. Â In therapy using interesting games is a popular motivator, but using these tools does not teach students how and why they should …
Researching Homework Problems
Parenting is a hard job. When your child begins to have difficulties with homework, parents often panic. Is it my fault? What can I do? Our minds, race. Will they ever learn to read?  How come I have to keep repeating myself so much? Why won’t he sit down and just do his work? Why …
Identifying speech and language challenges
Sometimes children and adults come to me using strategies and tools that do not address their learning problem. What is the result? frustration! If your child struggles with homework because of speech and language challenges finding the right help is critical. How do you find the right intervention to align with your child’s speech and language …
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Not Qualified for Services: Twice Gifted Students
Twice gifted students with learning problems can go through their entire academic career struggling with school work, but unable to receive services. Â The struggle is primarily encountered on the home front. Â Frustrated children and parents, battle through homework and self-esteem issues that leave everyone exhausted. Often twice gifted students’ strengths effectively hide their weaknesses. As …
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Language Challenges Uncovered: The Foundation for Academic Achievement Part 2
If language is the foundation for academic achievement then what do language challenges look like in everyday life? There are many areas that can impact language including word finding, auditory processing, comprehension and As a speech therapist one of the most telling signs of word finding problems in children and adults is the frequent use …
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Language: The Foundation for Academic Part 1
The foundation of language chart above provides a simplified view of language development to show how early language development supports future academic achievement. Because we so often take language for granted and schools often downplay the impact of speech and language challenges after the third grade, it is  easy not to realize, that even small speech …
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