The holidays are filled with festivities, treats, and loads of family time. However, the break from school is also a time when kids tend to do little if any academic work. As a result, the shift back to school in January can be a tough one for many students. Help your child have a successful transition back to school with the ideas detailed below.

Re-set routines

Before the holidays, your child may have finally settled on their school routine: each morning they woke up, got dressed, packed their backpack, ate breakfast, then came home from school and completed their schoolwork on a regular basis. Yet during the holidays, routines and schedules often go awry and your child may need some routine re-setting before school starts again. To help them, reset routines gradually. If they went to bed very late during holiday time, start setting their bedtime 15-20 minutes earlier each day for four or five days before school starts. You may want to also create checklists to remind them of their morning and afternoon routines before school begins. For example, a morning chart might include waking up at a certain time, brushing their teeth, eating breakfast, and packing their backpack. An afternoon checklist might include unpacking their backpack, having a snack, completing their homework, putting their finished homework in their backpack or turning it in online, eating dinner, and getting ready for bed. You might want to also try limiting screen time before school starts to help set the stage for a focused, organized return to school.

Academic activities during break

Your child may become accustomed to lazy, school-free days during the holiday break. To help them transition back into school-mode, start to integrate academic activities before school starts. For example, read with your child for 20 minutes each night and discuss the plot, characters, and setting with them. Ask them to create predictions about what they think might happen next or make inferences about certain events in the story to help engage them in the book. Older children can read independently for 20 minutes each night but ask them similar questions about their book even if you aren’t reading it with them, to make sure they fully comprehend the material. You can also do math exercises when cooking or grocery shopping with them, or have them write in a journal about their favorite activities during the holiday break. The more academic activities you can integrate now, the better!

Discuss expectations

Your child may be nervous about returning to school and may face similar jitters that they felt before the new school year started. Talk through these feelings with them. Are they nervous about their workload? Anxious about waking up early again? Worried about friendship issues? Whatever the issue is, be there for them – listen to their worries and help them come up with solutions to help ease these anxieties. You can also discuss any assignments or projects they may have coming up and help them create a plan for competing them in an organized fashion.

Executive functioning strategies

Your child likely wasn’t focusing on executive functioning strategies during the holiday break. They probably didn’t have to worry about organizing their school assignments, planning their after school activity schedule, or organizing their academic work. Help them re-integrate executive functioning strategies before school starts again. Make sure they have a dedicated homework space where they will complete their assignments each day, filled with all necessary supplies. Discuss with them what time they will work on their homework daily after school and keep that time consistent. Help them set up an assignment book, especially if they started using one at the start of the school year but then used it less and less in the fall. If they have lengthy homework assignments to complete, help them break the assignments into steps and put each step into their assignment book. For time management, have them predict how long they think each assignment will take to complete, then compare it to the actual time it takes. The more systematic executive functioning strategies you can integrate, the better, and if your child continues to struggle with these skills, executive functioning coaching can help them tremendously.

The holiday break should be a fun-filled time that all kids enjoy. Yet the transition back to school can be a tough one. Try using these ideas at home with your child to help them start the new year on a positive, organized, and successful note.

The post Help Your Child Transition Back to School After the Holidays appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Organizational System

Many students with executive functioning challenges, including those with ADHD, struggle to stay organized. An executive functioning coach can help your child set up organizational tools and systems. For example, if your child’s backpack is filled with papers and their desk at home is a mess, the coach can help your child set up a 3-tier organizational system. With this system, your child selects a working notebook (tier 1), which can be either a binder or notebook/folder for each class that they take with them to school on a regular basis. They should designate one day per week to be the “clean out my working notebook day” where they remove any papers they don’t need to be carrying with them on a regular basis and file them into an accordion file that they keep at home (tier 2). This accordion file should contain three sections for each class: homework, notes, and tests/quizzes. At the end of the semester, if your child created a great project or assignment that they want to keep for the long run, they should put it in an organized filing drawer (tier 3). An executive functioning coach can also help your child organize their electronic computer files if their school integrates more digital assignments.

Develop Time Management Skills

Children with executive functioning difficulties often struggle with time management. They may think a task will take more or less time than it actually does and may consistently turn in their homework assignments late. An executive functioning coach can help your child develop stronger time management skills. One strategy they may use is the Estimated Time (ET) verses Actual Time (AT) technique. With this strategy, the student predicts how long they think a task may take to complete. For example, they may think it will take 20 minutes to complete a math worksheet. They should write down that predicted time (ET). Then they should compare it to how long it actually took to complete the task (AT). When students with executive functioning challenges start using this strategy, there is usually a big discrepancy between the ET and AT. However, the more they use this strategy, the more realistic they become with their time, and the more those times typically start to merge.

Chunk Tasks

Students with executive functioning difficulties often become overwhelmed with long, multi-step assignments or projects. Executive functioning coaching can help them chunk tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. For example, if as student is asked to create a report about tornados, including what they are, how they are formed, how they are measured, and unique facts about tornadoes, their inclination may be to wait until the night before this project is due to work on it. However, an executive functioning coach can help them break this project into steps and put each step into their physical or electronic planner with specific deadlines for completing each step. In doing so, the project will become less overwhelming and more manageable, and the student will improve their homework completion, time management, and planning skills.

Note taking

Executive functioning coaching can also help your child learn how to take effective notes. For example, they may learn the column-style note taking method. With this technique, students learn to divide their page into two columns and write the topic of what they are reading at the top, the main ideas in the left column, and the important details that correspond to each main idea in the right column. They can even use highlighters to color-code the topic in one color, main ideas in a second color, and important details in a third color. This style of note taking can also be applied to in-class lectures.

Many students, both with and without ADHD, struggle with executive functioning skills. Executive functioning coaching can help your child build these important skills and thrive in school.

The post Can Executive Functioning Coaching Help My Child? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

As a parent, you might notice that your young child is struggling to learn the names of the letters and their corresponding sounds. They might have difficulty identifying and writing numbers. Other young children might have a quest for knowledge and yearn to learn new, more advanced academic skills. There is no official age when your child is too young for tutoring; it all depends on their individual needs and overall profile. The key to working with students as young as age 2 or 3 is to keep the sessions fun, engaging, and interactive. Tutoring can help your young child develop their academic skills in several areas.

Reading

When children are of preschool-age, the foundations of reading are being established. Learning key phonemic awareness skills can help strengthen their reading skills down the road. Tutoring can help your young child build phonemic awareness skills with targeted lessons, like the following:

The tutor might ask your child to name the first, middle, and final sounds they hear in the words mat, leg, pig, and so on. They might give the student two syllables, like “tall” and “est” and ask them what word is formed when they put the syllables together. Tutors can also work on rhyming skills by asking the student to name words that rhyme with mat, tug, pot, and other short words. From there, the tutor can work on teaching your child individual letter names using audio-visual flash cards with the letter on the front and a colorful key picture on the back. They might hold up the card to your child and say, “This is the letter a, like apple, it makes the sound /a/.” They can even take out a toy apple and ask your child to say the sound the word apple begins with. Later, once many sounds have been covered, the tutor can use magnetic tiles to work on blending sounds together to form words. The more multi-sensory and engaging the lessons are, the better!

Writing

Writing skills can also be developed at a young age. When introducing individual letter names, the tutor can also use a multi-sensory approach to teach students how to write each letter using specific formations. For example, for the lower case a, the tutor might trace the letter a in the sky, saying the formation out loud: around, up, and down. Then the child would trace the letter in the sky, first together with the tutor, then independently. Next, the tutor can take out a tray of colored sand and model tracing the letter in the sand. Then the student can do it on their own. When the child is ready, they can practice writing letters using dotted lines and eventually write them on paper without any assistance. A similar process can be used for learning to write numbers correctly: first in the sky, then in sand, then on paper.

Math 

Math concepts can be taught starting at a very young age. Tutors can use real-life scenarios to make math engaging and playful. For example, they can play “grocery store” while building math skills. The tutor can bring a set of pretend red and green apples to the tutoring session. They can tell the child that they are “buying” two red apples and three green apples. The child would take out the appropriate number of red and green apples. Then the tutor might ask the child to count all the apples and explain that two apples plus three more apples equals five apples all together. The tutor can even take out a mini whiteboard when the child is ready and write on the board: 2+3=5. The same exercises can be done with larger quantities of objects, and the tutor can teach subtraction in a similar way. For example, they might say, “If I started with three apples but ate two of them, how many apples would I have left?” Making the exercises fun and playful for the child will help them enjoy learning while building key skills.

When learning is approached in an engaging, interactive manner with shorter durations of activities, there really is no age that is too young to start tutoring.

The post Is My Child Too Young for Tutoring? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Summer is a time for fun in the sun, relaxing days, and outdoor play. Yet the school year is just around the corner and many children have trouble with the transition from a laid back summer to a more structured fall. Try some of the ideas below to help your child jump start the new school year on a positive note.

Set routines

During the summer, many kids enjoy less structured free time with fewer routines. While this can serve as a well-needed break for children, once they transition back to the school year, having structured routines typically becomes the new reality. Begin setting routines before the school year starts to avoid a challenging transition. You can start by changing your child’s sleep schedule. If they’re used to going to bed and waking up late, set an earlier bedtime two weeks or so before the school year starts and have your child follow that new time so they get used to it before school begins. You may want to also discuss with your child a morning routine that they will adhere to once the school year starts. This might include getting dressed right when they wake up, eating breakfast, brushing their teeth, and making sure their backpack is filled with everything they need for the day. You can even discuss breakfast options with them before the school year starts to avoid any delays in decision making over what to eat. The more routines you can set now, the easier the transition to the new school year will be.

Homework timing

Before the school year begins, it’s helpful to discuss with your child what time they plan to work on their homework each day. Some kids prefer doing their homework right when they get home and are still in “school mode”. Others like to have a small snack or physical activity break before beginning their work, and some enjoy working at night, after dinner. Any of these options can work; the key is setting a regular homework time and sticking with it. If there are days when you know your child will have an after school activity or event and won’t be able to complete their homework at their usual time, set an alternate time for those days so a plan is in place for the week.

Set up a study space

At the start of the school year, it’s important that your child has a designated clutter-free spot in your home for completing their homework. Ideally this should be a desk in their room, but it can also be a spot at your kitchen or dining room table if a private space isn’t available. Make sure they have all the supplies they need for completing their work at this spot, including pens, pencils, paper, scissors, and so on. If their supplies run low, refill them right away to prevent your child from wandering around your home looking for supplies mid-homework session. If their designated homework spot is on a common table, create a transportable homework bin for them containing all the necessary homework supplies that they will carry to and from their bedroom. Some kids also like having a reading nook in their room, or a designated spot devoted just to reading, separate from their homework space.

Meet your child’s teachers

If your child has historically struggled in school or has an IEP or 504 plan, make sure you communicate this information to their teachers at the start of the school year. When the year begins, try setting up a meeting with your child’s teachers and any service providers to tell them about your child, along with strategies that have or have not worked for them in the past. Additionally, set up a plan for communicating with them on a regular basis to discuss how your child is doing – perhaps once per month via email, phone, or in-person meetings. Try to be proactive rather than reactive; don’t wait until later in the year to find out your child is struggling. Stay on top of communicating with their teachers to help ensure they continue to thrive.

The transition back to school can be a challenging one, but try these ideas and your child will be on their way to a successful new year.

The post Tips to Help Your Child Get a Positive Jumpstart on the School Year by Dr. Emily Levy, Founder & Director, EBL Coaching appeared first on EBL Coaching.

For some children, the transition back to school is seamless. They look forward to the excitement of reconnecting with friends, meeting their teachers, and starting new after school activities. Yet for other students, especially those who are neurodivergent, the transition back to school can be challenging. Help your neurodivergent child start the new school year strong with the ideas detailed below.

Routines

For many children, summer is filled with free play, outdoor activities, and unstructured days. When the school year begins, however, routines become paramount. Rather than springing this transition on your child, start to integrate elements of their fall routine now, before the school year begins. You can discuss wake-up times and bedtimes with your child, both for school days and weekends. If they have been waking up closer to 9am in the summer but need to wake up at 7am during the week once the school year starts, have them set an alarm progressively earlier in the summer until they reach 7am right before the school year begins. The same applies to bedtime; if they have been going to bed later in the summer, have them start to go to sleep a little earlier each night. You can also create morning and afternoon checklists for tasks they’ll need to do once the school year begins. For example, their morning checklist might include getting dressed, brushing their teeth, eating breakfast, and preparing their backpack for school. You may want to come up with a list of menu items for breakfast and have them decide what they will eat for breakfast each day at the start of a given week, so you can prepare accordingly.  Their afternoon checklist might include having a snack when they get home, completing their schoolwork, turning in or putting away their homework in their backpack, eating dinner, and going to bed. The more structure you can integrate into your child’s day now, before the school year begins, the better!

Get organized!

Having strong organizational skills is a key component to school success, especially for neurodivergent children who may struggle with executive functioning skills. Shop for school supplies with your child as early as you can so you have plenty of time to organize them. You may want to color code items by subject. For example, you may select green for science, blue for math, yellow for social studies, and so on. For each subject, there should be a folder and a notebook in the color that corresponds to that class. Encourage your child to write down their homework daily in an assignment book when they are at school, and perhaps highlight the assignment for each subject in its corresponding color. You may want to designate one day per week as a “clean out my backpack and folders day” where your child cleans out any items or papers from their backpack that they no longer need to be carrying with them.

Distraction-free workspace

Neurodivergent students often become easily distracted when trying to complete their homework. Before the school year starts, set up a distraction-free work zone where your child will do their homework every day. This could be a desk in their room or a spot in a communal area, like a kitchen or dining room table. Make sure they have all the supplies they need for completing their homework, like pens, pencils, paper, a calculator, scissors, and highlighters. When the supplies run low, refill them right away to avoid having your child wander around in the middle of a homework session looking for more supplies. If they plan to work in a communal area, they can carry a portable supplies bin from their bedroom to their homework spot and back when they’re done, containing all the supplies they will need to complete their homework.

Connect with your child’s teachers

Most neurodivergent children have very unique needs. Before the school year begins or right after it starts, set up a meeting with your child’s teacher and their other service providers if relevant. Tell them about your child, including which techniques have and haven’t worked for them in the past, and set up a line of communication going forward. Perhaps you will check in with them once per month via email or set up regular phone calls to discuss your child’s progress. Additionally, you should consistently advocate for your child; while they may be doing well in school at one point in time, that could change quickly and their academic performance could take a downturn. Don’t wait for your child to struggle. Be proactive in helping them succeed and seeking additional support for them if needed. If the school year progresses and your child continues to struggle academically despite these interventions, you may want to consider private tutoring, which can be custom-tailored to your child’s needs and help them thrive in school.

The transition to the new school year can be challenging, especially for neurodivergent children. These strategies can help your child get excited for the new year and start school on a positive note.

The post Help Your Neurodivergent Child Prepare for the New School Year appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Internet users have been left speechless after a frustrated parent shared an image of their seventh-grade son’s word-search homework, which they described as a “nightmare.”

Posted by Reddit user u/Lily_Thief in the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, the image shows a complex word search based on Lois Lowry’s novel The Giver, with words hidden in every possible direction—forward, backward, diagonally and even reversed.

Newsweek reached out to u/Lily_Thief for comment via Reddit.

Image of a child’s word search. u/Lily_Thief

In the post, the parent wrote that their son, who has dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), struggles significantly with these assignments.

“They are easily the longest part of any of the homework that he has to do, and also likely the least educational,” the parent wrote. “Since he’s dyslexic and has ADHD, they are especially horrible, and have become a family chore.”

Despite having an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that should account for his learning needs, the parent shared that their attempts to communicate with the teacher about the issue have gone unanswered.

The parent expressed frustration with the lack of response, adding that they have reached out multiple times but never received a reply.

“He’d rather be writing essays, which also seems like it’d be a better use of his time,” the original poster wrote. “I never get a reply and at this point the school year is nearly done anyway. I’m hoping his next teacher isn’t like this. If they are I’m going to have to be more aggressive.”

Emily Levy, an expert learning specialist, told Newsweek she is strongly against using word searches in the classroom, especially when it comes to children with ADHD.

“Individuals with dyslexia often become overwhelmed by letters and words on a page,” Levy said. “The focus should be on teaching them to identify the names of letters and their corresponding sounds and how to blend those sounds together to form individual words—not searching for random words within the context of many other letters on a page.”

Levy, who is also the founder and Director of EBL Coaching (eblcoaching.com), said that word searches can make dyslexic children feel overwhelmed and frustrated and diminish their desire to learn how to read—a task that is typically already extremely challenging for them.

The post Internet Left Speechless by 7th-Grader’s Word-Search Homework: ‘Nightmare’ appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Summer is a time for outdoor play, fun in the sun, and relaxation. Yet it is also a time when many kids experience significant learning loss from a lack of consistent instruction. In fact, research tells us that students may lose two months of reading skills and three months of math skills during the summer. Help your child avoid the summer slide and jump-start the school year on a positive note with the ideas detailed below.

Create a reading plan

Reading is one of the most important tasks your child can do over the summer to prevent the summer slide. Help your child come up with a reading goal for the summer. Perhaps they’ll read one book per week or six books for the duration of the summer – there’s no exact formula or number of books that is ideal for every child. Help your child come up with a goal that is realistic for them. When they finish each book, have them put together a mini book report summarizing the book and illustrating it with colorful pictures, or ask them to create a presentation on each book, summarizing the plot and key characters as well as aspects of the book they did or didn’t like and whether or not they’d recommend it to others.

Cook with your child

Cooking with your child can be a lot of fun and it’s a great way to build reading, math, science, and even time management skills over the summer. Start by having your child read through recipes online or in cookbooks and select recipes they’d like to make. Once they have chosen a recipe, have them read it aloud to you and measure out all the ingredients they will need. If the recipe is for two people but you are a family of four, have them figure out how much more of each ingredient they will need to feed your whole family. You can even discuss how much less of each ingredient they would need if they were only cooking for one person instead of two. Build sequencing skills by having them follow the steps detailed in the recipe from start to finish. You can discuss measurement, such as how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon, and chat about how the outcome might change if they used a large casserole dish or cooking tray verses a small one. If they cook more than one dish, they will need to manage their time by cooking certain items while others simmer or bake and they’ll need to make sure items are done in the appropriate time.

Plan a vacation

Another way to build key academic skills is to let your child help plan a summer vacation. Have them start by spending time reading articles or searching the web to read about various places they can go. Give your child a budget for the trip and have them come up with specific ideas that fit into that budget. They might choose a destination they have to fly to and should look into ticket pricing, or they may choose a driving destination, like a more local beach vacation. If they choose a driving destination, have them research how much gas costs per gallon (and the cheapest places to get gas), how many miles away the destination is, and roughly how much money it will cost in gas to get there. Ask them to search for hotel options with per-night pricing, along with the cost for meals and daily activities. They should detail all of this information in a document or presentation that you can review with them. In doing this activity, not only will they learn valuable academic skills to help prevent the summer slide, but they will likely feel proud that they were able to help plan the vacation and even more excited to embark on it.

Grocery shopping

Take your child to the supermarket with you to build math skills over the summer. For young kids, have them pick out produce, like peaches and plums, and work on addition and subtraction concepts. If they grab three peaches and two plums, how many pieces of fruit did they select all together? If one peach doesn’t look good and they put it back, how many pieces of fruit do they now have? For older students, have them calculate how much an item on sale might cost. For instance, if a box of cereal is normally $4 but it is 50% off, how much does it now cost? If spaghetti sauce is buy one, get one half-off, and one jar costs $6, how much would it cost for two jars? When you are waiting in the checkout line, have your child estimate how much they think all of the items will cost, then compare it to the actual cost and see how close they were. The more you can bring math concepts into real life, the better!

The dreaded summer slide can negatively affect your child’s academic performance when they start school in the fall. Don’t let this happen to your child! Prevent the summer slide with the ideas detailed above and help your child start school feeling confident, prepared, and excited for a great year.

The post Tips for Avoiding the Summer Slide by Dr. Emily Levy Founder & Director EBL Coaching appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Multi-sensory approach

Orton Gillingham tutoring integrates a multi-sensory approach to teaching. This includes using tools such as colored sand, shaving cream, magnetic tiles, and white boards, among other related tools, as part of a structured instructional plan. For example, an Orton Gilliam tutor working on consonants and short vowel sounds with a student might start with one letter at a time and use the following multi-sensory approach: they might begin by showing the student a flash card with the letter on the front of the card (like f) and a key picture on the back (like fish). The Orton Gillingham tutor might say to the student, “This is the letter f (shows them the front of the card), like fish (turns the card around to show them the picture of the fish), it makes the sound /f/ (turns the card back to the front).” The student would repeat that sequence with the Orton Gillingham tutor and then try it on their own. Next, the Orton Gillingham tutor might move onto sky writing and model tracing the letter in the sky, saying the letter formation aloud as they trace it, like, “When we write the letter f, we move around, down, and across.” The student would perform that sky writing motion with the Orton Gillingham tutor, then independently, and then the tutor would move onto tracing the letter in colored sand or shaving cream.

The Orton Gillingham tutor would follow that same process for four consonants and one short vowel sound (card exercise, sky writing, sand or shaving cream writing), then practice blending those sounds together to form words using multi-sensory tools such as magnetic tiles and mini white boards. When the student is ready, the Orton Gillingham tutor can also have the student read word lists, sentences, and stories integrating the sounds taught.

Structured method

Orton Gillingham tutoring lessons should also be very structured. They should begin at the student’s current functioning level and then progress upwards from there in a systematic format. For example, if the student is struggling with individual letters and their corresponding sounds, the Orton Gillingham tutor should start by teaching letters and sounds, along with how to blend those sounds together to form words, as detailed above. Next, the Orton Gillingham tutor should move onto words containing blends, consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, silent e patterns, r-controlled patterns, multi-syllabic word patterns, and so on, all following a structured, multi-sensory approach. Before a new lesson is introduced in an Orton Gillingham tutoring lesson, previously taught letters, sounds, and rules should be reviewed.

Individualized instruction

Orton Gillingham tutoring lessons should be individualized to the unique needs of each student. Some students are able to move quickly through new lessons, while others need more time to absorb and practice the new concepts taught. Some students can move quickly through certain concepts but need more time grasping other concepts. The Orton Gillingham tutor should move as quickly as they can but as slowly as they need to, individualizing the instruction and providing diagnostic and prescriptive Orton Gillingham tutoring to each student.

Research-based

Research indicates that using a direct, systematic, multi-sensory approach to teaching is imperative for students who struggle with reading, including those who have a reading disability like dyslexia. Orton Gillingham tutoring provides this type of instruction to students, helping them to immensely improve their reading and spelling skills.

Orton Gillingham tutoring can truly be life-changing for students who struggle with reading and writing. It can help them develop much stronger academic skills, self-esteem, motivation, and overall success in school.

The post What is Orton Gillingham tutoring? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Math plays a key role in many aspects of our lives. It is important not just for success in school, but also for everyday skills, like shopping, eating at a restaurant, buying groceries, and cooking. Math also builds upon itself, so without solid foundational skills, it can become increasingly challenging for students to excel in math as they progress through school. Help your child develop stronger math skills with the ideas detailed below.

Grocery Shopping

A great way to build stronger math skills is through an everyday task like grocery shopping. Take your young child with you to the supermarket and ask them basic math questions as you shop. For example, if you go to the produce section, have them select three green apples and three red apples and ask them how many apples they picked all together. Explain to them the math equation: 3 + 3 = 6. Then have them put one apple back and ask them how many apples they have left, and explain that 6 – 1 = 5. For kids who are slightly older, have them compare the price of two similar products. For instance, have them choose a box of cereal, like Cheerios, and look at the price (perhaps $3.99), then have them choose a different cereal box, like Special K, and look at that price (perhaps $4.99). Ask them which cereal costs more and by how much. At the checkout counter, have them estimate how much they think all of the groceries will cost, then compare it to the actual cost. If you pay with cash, have them give the cashier a set of bills to cover the cost and ask your child to predict how much change they think they will receive, then compare it to how much they actually receive.

Baking 

Baking is another great way to help your child build stronger math skills. Start by finding a recipe, say, for chocolate brownies. If the recipe calls for one cup of flour, a half cup of sugar, one cup of cocoa powder, and a half cup of chocolate chips, have your child measure out each of the ingredient using a measuring cup before mixing them together. Ask them how much of each ingredient they would need if they doubled the recipe (multiplication) or cut the recipe in half (division). You can even show older kids equivalent fractions, like 1/2 cup of flour is the same as 1/4 cup plus 1/4 cup of flour. You can discuss geometry concepts, looking at shapes such as circles, squares, and rectangles using different types of cookie cutters and baking pans, and discuss the steps involved in baking the brownies to work on sequencing. Many math skills can be built into baking in an enjoyable, engaging manner.

Math Games

Have fun at home by playing math games! There are math board games you can buy, like Number Park, Math Blast, or Math Island, or you can make up your own games at home. For example, a simple game to work on addition involves using two dice. Each player rolls the dice and adds up the two numbers they roll, then writes down the total, representing points in the game. Then the next player takes a turn, and so on. The player who has the most points after 10 turns wins! Try the same game but with subtracting or multiplying the numbers to work on other foundational math skills. You can also play a math money game to help your child learn about coins, also using dice. Each player rolls one die and collects pennies based on what they role; for example, if they roll a four they receive four pennies. Then the next player does the same. When a player earns five pennies, they trade in those pennies for a nickel. When they earn two nickels, they trade them in for a dime. Two dimes and a nickel are traded in for a quarter, and so on. It’s a great way to learn about money while having lots of fun.

Build Foundational Skills

You can work on building foundational math skills at home in a hands-on way. For example, use mini marshmallows or chocolate chips to work on adding. Have your child select four marshmallows and another two and then count them up. You can use a mini whiteboard to turn it into a math problem and write on a mini whiteboard: 4+2=6. Do several addition problems like this before moving onto subtraction. Have your child take out eight chocolate chips and then remove four of them (or eat them!) and tell you how many chips are left. Then write on the white board: 8-4=4 to help them make the connection from concrete manipulatives to an abstract equation. You can use similar types of objects from around your home to work on multiplication and division. These are important concepts that will continue to play a role in future math work.

Many students feel intimated by math, but it is a key skill for school success. Make math fun at home and you will help your child develop these key foundational skills and strengthen their overall math abilities. If your child continues to struggle, you may want to discuss with their teacher additional support or tutoring that they might receive in school or a possible evaluation for a math learning disability. The more you can advocate for your child at school and help them at home, the more confident and successful they will be.

The post Tips for Helping Your Child Develop Stronger Math Skills appeared first on EBL Coaching.

As students move through school, the executive functioning demands increase rapidly. Their school work will typically require stronger executive functioning skills, including planning, organization, task initiation, time management and other related skill areas. Without well-developed executive functioning skills, students may have difficulty excelling in school. Help your child develop stronger executive functioning skills with the ideas detailed below.

Visual Schedules

Children with executive functioning difficulties often become easily overwhelmed with a large workload and struggle to complete all the tasks they need to do in a given day. Help your child feel less overwhelmed and more in control of their day by creating a visual schedule. Start by creating a poster for morning tasks; list each item they need to complete when they wake up, such as brush their teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, and put their belongings in their backpack, and draw a picture next to each item to visually display the task. You might even add check boxes next to each item for every day of the week so they can check off each item as they complete it. Create a similar checklist for tasks they might do when they get home from school, like have a snack, complete their homework, go to an activity, eat dinner, shower, and brush their teeth, along with the corresponding visual images. The more structure and order you can bring to your child’s day, the more you can improve their executive functioning skills.

Distraction-Free Workspace

It’s important that your child has a quiet, distraction-free workspace that they use each day for completing their homework. This might be a desk in their bedroom or even a spot on a communal table, like in a kitchen or dining room. Make sure they have all of the supplies they need for completing their homework, including pens, pencils, paper, highlighters, scissors, and so on. When the supplies run low, help your child re-stock them before they start their homework to ensure they don’t wander around your home mid-homework session searching for supplies. Also set a consistent homework time, which might be right after school or after a short snack or movement break. Try to make the time and space where your child completes their schoolwork as consistent as possible.

Time Management

Many students with executive functioning challenges struggle with time management. Help your child develop stronger time management skills with the ET/AT strategy, as follows:

Have your child choose one assignment to start with and ask them to predict how long they think it will take to complete that task, and write the ET, or estimated time. Then have them track how long it actually takes them to complete the assignment and write down the AT, or actual time. They should do this for each assignment, comparing the ET to the AT, and they will likely note that when they first start using this strategy, there will be a big difference between the ET and the AT. However, the more they practice this strategy, the more realistic they will become with their time and the more these times will start to merge.

Incremental Breaks

For children with executive functioning challenges, sitting for long stretches of time to work on homework can be extremely difficult and can feel overwhelming. As a result, they might do anything possible to avoid starting their work. Try an incremental break strategy, where your child sets a timer and works for 20 minutes, then takes a 5 minute break. Have them do this cycle three times: 20 minutes of work followed by a 5 minute break, then take a longer break, around 20-30 minutes, and then start that cycle again until they are done with their school work. This approach helps them chunk their workload into smaller increments so it feels less overwhelming and more manageable.

Working Memory

Working memory is an aspect of executive functioning that plays a role in many academic tasks. It involves one’s ability to hold and manipulate information in their mind, which can affect most aspects of school, including reading, writing, and math. You can help your child build stronger working memory skills by playing games! Try playing the game Memory, where you flip over a series of cards and each player has to match two of the same cards to make a match. This game requires your child to remember the placement of a previously turned over card while looking for a match. You can also play a family story telling game, where one family member starts a story and the next person repeats what was already told in the story and then adds the next few lines, then moves onto the next family member, and so on. It’s a great game to play with friends as well!

Executive functioning skills become increasingly important as children move through school. Help your child develop stronger executive functioning skills with these ideas and they will be well on their way to success in school.

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