What is special education tutoring?

Special ed tutoring uses a specialized approach to teaching that is individualized to your child’s needs. Your child will likely be evaluated first to assess their academic levels and areas of difficulty. Some children need help with reading, while others need assistance with writing, math, or study skills, and some need help with a combination of these skills. It is important that special education tutoring is always customized to your child’s specific and unique needs. Dyslexia tutoring, dysgraphia tutoring, dyscalculia tutoring, and executive functioning coaching can all be helpful, based on your child’s needs.

Reading Tutoring Using the Orton Gillingham Approach

Orton Gillingham tutoring can help your child develop stronger decoding, reading fluency, spelling, and phonological awareness skills. The Orton Gillingham technique is research-based and multi-sensory and is customized to your child’s individual reading and writing levels. Your child may begin at the foundational level, learning individual letters and their corresponding sounds, and will then learn how to blend those sounds together to form words through these Orton Gillingham lessons. From there, they may move onto more complex word patterns, learning to decode and spell words with:

• blends
• consonant digraphs
• vowel digraphs
• silent e patterns
• r-controlled words
• multi-syllabic word patterns
• prefixes
• roots

With Orton Gillingham tutoring, your child will likely also be taught specific Orton Gillingham spelling rules. These may include spelling rules such as:

• the ck/k rule, which indicates that if a word ends with the sound /k/, the student should use ck if the sound comes right after a short vowel. Otherwise, they should use use k.
• the tch/ch rule, which tells us that if a word ends with the sound /ch/, the student should use tch if the sound comes right after a short vowel. Otherwise, they should use ch.
• the dge/ge rule, which teaches a student that if a word ends with the sound /j/, the student should use dge if the sound comes right after a short vowel. Otherwise, they should use ge.

Specialized Orton Gillinhgam tutoring can teach your child other similar rules to help develop their spelling skills.

Specialized Reading Comprehension Tutoring

To develop your child’s reading comprehension skills, specialized tutoring might involve teaching your child active reading strategies. For example, they might learn to identify the topic, main idea, and important details when reading and learn to highlight them using three different colors. The topic is typically one, two, or three words describing the passage, and it should be highlighted in blue. The main idea is what the author is saying about the topic, and it should be highlighted in green. The important details are salient facts or pieces of information from the passage that should be highlighted in yellow. This type of strategy used in special education tutoring can help your child become an active, rather than a passive reader, and develop stronger reading comprehension skills.

Writing Support for Students with Learning Disabilities

With specialized writing tutoring, your child can develop stronger written language skills. They should learn to brainstorm, write, and self-check their thoughts on paper in an organized fashion. With specialized writing tutoring, your child might start by learning how to write a well-structured sentence and then move on to writing simple paragraphs, extended paragraphs, and five paragraph essays. They might learn to self-check their work using a checklist like COPS, which stands for capitalization, organization, punctuation, spelling.

Math Tutoring for Students with Learning Challenges

Specialized math tutoring can help your child build stronger math computation and word problem solving skills. They may learn to break down word problems during these math tutoring lessons, moving from language to arithmetic and back to language. For example, they might learn to read a word problem, circle the key words, then then break the problem into four steps: thought, or which operation is being used; relevant information; number sentence, and solution sentence. This type of specialized tutoring is particularly helpful for students who have dyscalculia.

At EBL Coaching, for our special education tutoring, we use research-based, multi-sensory techniques, including the Orton Gillingham method, to help your child develop and strengthen their academic skills. Our specialized tutoring is highly effective in helping students feel more confident and successful in school. In our extensive experience tutoring students in NYC and NJ with learning disabilities, individualized one-on-one instruction often leads to both academic improvement and increased self-confidence.

If you are a parent looking for special education tutoring in New York City or New Jersey, contact us today at www.eblcoaching.com. We use individualized, research-based instruction that is designed for students with dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, executive functioning challenges, and other learning disabilities.

Learn more about special ed tutoring programs at ADHD Tutoring Programs – EBL Coaching and Orton Gillingham Tutors NYC and NJ – EBL Coaching

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between one-on-one special education tutoring and homework help?
Special education tutoring typically involves an individualized tutoring plan that uses research-based, multi-sensory techniques tailored to your child’s individual needs. This type of specialized tutoring can focus on one skill, like reading, or a combination of skills if your child struggles with more than one skill. Homework help typically focuses just on completing homework assignments, not on academic remediation.

Is Orton Gillingham tutoring effective for dyslexia?
Yes, absolutely. The Orton Gillingham method is a highly effective approach for helping students with dyslexia develop their reading and spelling skills. At EBL Coaching, we have done extensive Orton Gillingham tutoring and have seen students make dramatic improvements using this technique.

How do I know if my child needs specialized one-on-one tutoring?
If your child continues to struggle academically despite in school-support and is showing signs of frustration and low self-esteem, you may want to consider specialized one-on-one tutoring for them.

The post What Is Special Education Tutoring and How Can It Help Your Child? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

If your kid is gearing up for preschool, never fear! We have great tips to help you prepare them for the school days to come.

With summer winding down and fall in sight, the reality that your child will be starting preschool may be sinking in. Much of preschool involves play and loads of fun, but arming your child with early academic foundations—in an engaging and enjoyable manner—can help set her up for preschool success. Try some of the ideas below.

Sorting Objects
Sorting objects is an important skill that will be tackled in preschool, so prepare your child with some sorting activities that you can practice at home. Purchase a bag of multi-colored buttons, pom poms, or paper clips, and set out a six-cup muffin tray. Explain to your child that together you will practice putting all of the same color object into a single muffin cup. Make sure you model a few first. You should start by putting all the yellow buttons in one cup, blue ones in another, green in a third, and so forth. Then have her practice sorting on her own and praise her when she has successfully sorted all of the objects. Of course, as a bonus, this activity will reinforce color recognition, so you may want to review colors if need be before beginning this exercise.

Counting and Number Recognition
Counting and number recognition are also important early-learning skills. Strengthen these skills by integrating counting exercises into your everyday life. For instance, if you are at the supermarket, ask your child to count the number of apples or oranges as you put them into a plastic bag. When you remove items from your shopping cart and load them onto the checkout belt, have your child count each one to work on one-to-one correspondence. He can count the number of clothing items you put in the washing machine, papers you need to complete for work, keys you have on your key ring, and so on. To add some number recognition practice, try playing a “game” where you label individual cups 1-10, with one number on each cup. Ask him to go around your house and find one item to put in the “1” cup, two items to put in the “2” cup, and so on. The more fun and engaging you can make these activities, the better!

Letter Recognition
While your child will likely learn more about letters once the school year begins, you can give her a prelude with some fun letter recognition games. Purchase a bag of plastic or foam letters and put them in a bowl. Write out the alphabet on a sheet of construction paper, then point to a letter and ask your child to “scoop up” that letter using a ladle or spoon. You can also try using chocolates for another fun letter game. To play this game, write two sets of single letters on small white stickers (two A’s, two B’s, etc), then attach them to the bottom of Hershey Kisses or other chocolates. Together, you can play a game of Memory. First you flip over one chocolate and identify the letter, then flip over another chocolate and try to find the letter match. Your child goes next, then you, and so on. The first player to find the most letter matches wins!

Problem-solving
Problem-solving is a skill that will continue to play a role throughout your child’s academic career, so it’s helpful to start building this skill at a young age with some fun activities. Try playing “Guess the Item” with your child, where you give her a set of clues and she needs to try to identify the object. For instance, you might say, “I’m thinking of something that’s furry and has four legs and a tail,” and ask her to guess the object (dog) or “I’m thinking of something that’s long and thin, has an eraser at the top, and as a point at the end” and ask her to guess the object (pencil). If she struggles to guess the object, give her clues: For example, “you can write with it or sharpen it” for a pencil, or “it often wags its tail or drinks water out of a bowl” for dog.

Following Directions
Your child will need to follow a lot of directions once he starts preschool so try some exercises at home to improve this skill. You can play the traditional “Red Light, Green Light” game with your child, but with an added twist. Like the classic game, green means go and red means stop, but try throwing in some additional colors for added following directions practice. For instance, you may tell him that blue means bark like a dog, white means scratch his head, and pink means hop on one leg. Throwing in some of these other colors as directives will teach him to listen carefully and follow the directions appropriately. Simon Says is another fun game you can play to build this skill. Your child must listen to the “commands” and follow the directions accordingly.

With preschool around the corner, your child is about to endeavor on an exciting academic journey. Teach her some key skills before the school year begins to help make the transition to school smooth, engaging, ‎and successful.‎

The post Skills To Develop Before Starting Preschool appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Many top American leaders argue that our students are not adequately prepared to enter the workforce when they graduate. Success in top jobs of today and jobs of tomorrow demand proficiency in problem solving, innovation, and creative solutions. Yet our students as a whole are simply not ready for these evolving demands.

STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, is an educational movement that is hoping to solve this crisis and prepare our youth for the future. STEM does not simply teach math and science skills in isolation; rather, it integrates multiple disciplines, encouraging students to face and attempt to solve real life problems through projects, hands-on experiences, and higher order thinking.

What exactly is STEM education, and why is it so important?

Sample STEM Lesson

Let’s start by taking a look at a sample STEM lesson. One middle school classroom in Maryland used STEM instruction to help students understand experimental design as well as kinetic and potential energy. The challenge was to try to figure out how to make an amusement park ride (the Pirate Ship) go faster using a pendulum. The students watched You Tube Videos to observe the ride, had group discussions about the challenge, and came up with interesting observations and questions. In groups, they created hypotheses and constructed their own pendulum models. They calculated the speed of their pendulums, studied the effects that various factors had on the speed on their pendulums, and compared their results to those of other groups. Then they analyzed how their results could affect real life operations, like roller coasters and bowling. In doing so, the students were engaged, active participants, and learned to think creatively, work collaboratively, and problem solve – ‎all, you guessed it! – important skills for career success.

‎Why is STEM education so important? There are so many valuable skills students can learn from STEM education. To name just a few:

Problem Solving

STEM education doesn’t simply focus on banal, uninteresting-to-most science concepts. Instead, it emphasizes real world problems and challenges, integrating technology and hands-on learning in attempt to solve them. ‎Students might focus on environmental challenges, for instance, such as excess water use in homes or protecting nearby wildlife. With each challenge, they must truly understand the problem, often using multi-sensory tools like videos, computers, and ipads, and via group discussions and team exploration. They then come up with innovative ways to solve these problems and understand the results and implications – in turn, setting themselves up for real life problem solving.

Instills Creativity

With STEM, students must think creatively in order to come up with solutions to problems. They must go beyond “obvious” solutions and delve into deeper, more complex ones, like ideas for surviving without consistent sunlight. ‎Like so many creative fields, there may not be a concrete right or wrong answer for many of these challenges, but there is so much to learn in coming up with possible solutions.

‎Gets Kids Interested in Science!

Research tells us that by the time students reach fourth grade, 1/3 of them have completely lost interest in science. ‎By integrating creative thinking, team partnerships, problem solving, and hands-on activities to solve real life issues, students come to understand and enjoy learning about science. Rather than focusing on arguably less exciting “classic” math and science concepts, STEM integrates fun and engaging projects, like coming up with new cookie recipes, designing a chair, or building a marble run – activities that can excite and empower children.

Innovation, creativity, and problem solving are skills that are critical for future success. STEM education emphasizes these principles and more, while engaging children and making them excited and well-prepared for the future.

The post How to Get Kids Interested in STEM appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Originally published on the Macaroni Kid website

It’s the night before the big state exam, and your third grader is engulfed in fear. The test is new, harder, and computerized. He’s not sure how he will perform or whether he’ll even finish the test. He is about to take the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC exams‎.

While past exams included more straight forward questions, a PARCC math question might look something like this:

Yes, these questions are hard – or harder, at least, than the traditional plug and solve types of questions that students answered on standardized exams of the past. Yet the English and Math PARCC tests are different – they involve more problem solving and critical thinking, and, unlike prior standardized exams,  are considered predictors of career and college readiness for students in grades 3-11.

Unlike the previously administered NJ ASK, which apparently identified students who were struggling but didn’t give enough information on which skills they hadn’t mastered‎, and the HSPA for high school students, given in 11th grade but assessing material learned in 8th and 9th grade, the PARCC exams are designed to be more interactive, efficient, and flexible measures of future success.

These exams have sparked great controversy with both parents and teachers, and many parents elected to have their child “opt out” from taking the test. However, for those who did take the exams in 2015, the results are finally in. ‎Many parents are not quite sure how to interpret the results. What exactly do these scores mean?

For starters,‎ parents should look at their child’s performance level on the report sent to them, given on a scale of 1-5, which indicates whether their child is meeting grade level expectations. Students who scored 4 or 5 are considered to be meeting expectations. Those who scored a 3 are approaching expectations, but don’t fret just yet – they still may be on track according to officials, despite this seemingly low score.

The previously administered NJ ASK tests gave students an individual score, which was compared to an average score, and placed into one of three groups: advanced, proficient, or partially proficient (in need of intervention). Because the PARCC tests are longer and assess a wide variety of skills, the report provides a more specific explanation to parents of the various skills tested and how their child performed in each one, compared to the school, state, district, and PARCC averages. Look closely at these reports: they are more detailed than the ones from previous state exams, elaborating on how students performed on specific skill sets. Based on these results, teachers can analyze which skills their class performed better or worse on and adjust their instruction accordingly.

Ultimately, with the help of the PARCC results, parents should be able to identify their child’s academic weaknesses and work in collaboration with teachers to better address any areas of concern. While the PARCC exams continue to spark controversy and are considered to be more challenging tests for most students, the results can provide helpful information that can be used to identify struggling kids and fine tune the classroom curriculum. By reading the results and understanding the specific strengths and weaknesses of your child within given skills, you can work with your child’s teacher to individualize and maximize ‎his education.

The post Interpreting Your Child’s PARCC Scores appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Tips and tricks to help visual learners capitalize on their strengths

In theory, visual learners should thrive on the Common Core standards. These standards emphasize skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking–areas that are typically strengths of visual learners–and place less emphasis on rote memorization and straightforward calculations. Yet while visual learners often ace  these “right-brain,” Common Core-like tasks, they tend to have difficulties with the more linear aspects of school, such as memorizing information, spelling words, and making lists. Despite the shifting trend in teaching, these “left-brain” tasks continue to be integral components of school instruction. Help your visual learner excel in school with the ideas detailed below:

Teach Visualization Techniques

When visual‎ learners read, they tend to process and remember information better when they can “see” or visualize it. ‎To teach this visualization skill, have your child read a basic sentence out loud, such as “Three boys sat at the campfire.” Ask him to try to form a picture of this sentence in his mind, then ask prompting question to help him elaborate upons his image, such as: Who? What? Where? What color(s)? How many? How big/small?‎ You can also ask your own elaboration questions, such as, in this case, where he thinks the boys were and how they knew each other. You can ask him to describe the colors and sounds in his image, what the boys were doing at the campfire (Roasting marshmallows? Telling ghost stories?), and perhaps ask him to describe physical descriptions of each boy. The more vivid an image he can create in his mind, the more likely he will be to remember the information. Later, try this same exercise with full paragraphs and stories.

Highlight Information

To further help your child process information, encourage her to use color-coded highlighting techniques when reading both expository and narrative texts. For example, for expository text, teach her to highlight the topic (one, two, or three words describing the passage) in blue, the main idea (what the author is saying about the passage) in green, and the important details (important information describing the main idea) in yellow. She should read the passage first, then go back and highlight the key information. For narrative text, create a color-coded key before she reads, which correlates story elements to specific colors, then have her highlight new characters in, say, orange, new places in yellow, and plot events in pink. This organized, color-coded highlighting system will help her to learn and retain information that she reads.

Color Code Belongings

To help your visual learner better organize‎ his belongings, help him create a color-coded system for his school materials. For instance, he might choose green for science and use a green folder, green notebook, and green index tab in his binder, all for science. He can even use green flash cards for studying science. Likewise, he may choose blue for math, yellow for English, and so on.‎ The key is consistency.

‎Learn Vocab!

As students read, they inevitably come across vocabulary words they may not know. ‎Rather than skipping over or guessing at these unknown words, try this visual-based flash card strategy. To start, have him write the word on the front of the card and the definition (in his own words) on the back. Under the definition on the back side, he should draw a picture to help him remember the meaning.  For example, if the word is pinnacle, he can write the word on the front and the definition on the back, and then perhaps draw a picture of a mountain with a pin sticking out of it at the top. Alternatively, he can look for photos in magazines that represent the word, like benevolent (he finds a picture of someone acting sympathetic and friendly) or collaborate (he finds a picture of two people working together).

Visual Note-taking

Teach your child to create visual diagrams for both independent and in-class note-taking. To do so, for independent note-taking, first have him identify the topic of the passage he will be reading about (i.e., Word War I). Have him draw a circle in the middle of a sheet of paper and write “World War I” inside the circle. Next, have him identify the important details describing the topic and write them in his own words inside circles that branch out from the topic. Then he can create sub-branches, or circles that branch out of the important detail circles, containing information that supports the important details. He should continue creating this type of visual “tree” until he has finished reading the passage or textbook section. He can then color code the topic bubble in the middle using one colored highlighter, the important details using a second colored highlighter, and the supporting details using a third color. He can use this same type of visual note-taking diagram for taking in-class notes.

Visual learners often bear many strengths–they are typically creative, artistic, and perceptive. Yet, in school, lessons are not always catered to visual learners. Teach your child these strategies and encourage her to use them consistently; she will soon become a confident and successful student.

The post Help Your Visual Learner Succeed In School appeared first on EBL Coaching.

For many fourth grade students, the thought of enduring a three-day-long statewide math exam gives them more jitters than a trip to the dentist. Most would rather wash dishes every night than endure this dreaded test. Yet for any fourth grade student attending a New York public school, this test is mandatory.

The right test taking strategies, however, can help put this anxiety to rest.

The New York State Fourth Grade Mathematics exam, given over a three-day period from March 6-8, helps determine whether students are meeting grade level learning standards. The test consists of three types of questions: multiple choice, short open-ended, and long open-ended. These questions are designed to test students’ content abilities and thinking skills.

To perform well on this exam, students should become comfortable with the format of this test and the different types of questions that may be asked. They can then learn strategies for how to best solve each of these kinds of questions. In particular, students may see the following problems on the test: Representation, Communication, Reasoning and Proof, and Problem Solving.

Representation

Representation problems typically involve pictures, charts, graphs, figures, or patterns. They ask students to create a drawing to describe a mathematical concept or to choose a drawing from a series of choices which best represents a given concept. To best solve these problems, students must learn to identify key words. Certain key words, such as “draw”, “create”, “label”, and “shade”, help students identify Representation problems. An example may be as follows:

Jack’s garden is a rectangle that is 40 feet long and 65 feet wide. Draw a rectangle to represent the garden. Label the length of each side.

The student should underline the word draw, since that is the key word which indicates that this problem requires the student to draw a representation of the figure.

Communication

Communication problems ask students to communicate an idea or concept. They may ask a student to explain how they came up with an answer or why their answer must be true. Students may be asked to express a mathematical concept in their own words using proper mathematical terminology. To develop proficiency with these types of problems, students should practice communicating mathematical ideas in their own words prior to the test. A sample problem may be as follows:

Two lines are perpendicular. What must be true about them?

To properly answer this question, students must be able to express the definition of perpendicular lines in their own words and relay the properties associated with this mathematical concept. The more practice expressing different concepts, the easier these questions will be.

Reasoning and Proof

Reasoning and Proof problems involve logical thinking. Students must use reasoning skills to prove whether a given statement is true or false. For example:

Richard makes 24 pounds of peanut brittle. He decides to put an equal amount of brittle into 5 boxes. He thinks each box will hold 5 pounds. Is his estimation reasonable? Explain why or why not.

A good strategy for answering Reasoning and Proof questions is to begin with a general statement. This statement should briefly describe the answer, such as “Richard’s estimation is reasonable.” Next, students should provide evidence of their answer. For example, “24 rounds up to 25, and 25 divided by 5 is 5. Thus, Richard’s estimation is likely to be true.” Parents can give students sample questions like this one and can replace the numbers in each problem for extra practice.

Problem Solving

Problem Solving questions ask students to analyze a scenario and come up with a solution. They involve more than just recalling a concept or crunching numbers. Rather, students must think, plan, and solve. Specifically, students should use the ORAS strategy, as detailed below:

Operation: Students should decide if the problem requires a specific operation or a combination of a few operations. For example, the problem may require addition, multiplication, or both. Students should indicate the relevant operation(s) with the proper symbol(s).

Relevant Information: Students should underline any numbers that are relevant to solving the problem. They should also cross out any numbers that are irrelevant to solving the problem.

Arithmetic Sentence: Students should create an arithmetic sentence that can be used to solve the problem.

Solution Sentence: Students should come up with a solution to the problem as a full sentence in their minds.

For example:

Lisa and her two friends went to a candy store. The price of gummy bears was $3 per pound, the price of chocolate squares was $5 per pound, and the price of butterscotch candies was $2.50 per pound. Each of them wanted two pounds of gummy bears and two pounds of chocolate squares. In total, they had $50. How much money did they have left over for drinks after purchasing their candy?

Students should use the ORAS strategy detailed above to solve this problem. They should make sure to cross out the $2.50, a number that is irrelevant to solving the problem. Parents can create similar problems to the one detailed above and create four lines underneath each problem for each step in the ORAS strategy, so that students can practice problem solving at home.

The fourth grade mathematics test can indeed cause anxiety and lead to sleepless nights. Yet the right strategies and lots of practice can help ease these fears and make the test day more welcoming.

The post Get Ready for the 4th Grade NYC Math Test! appeared first on EBL Coaching.