Some children enjoy spending hours on end writing paragraphs and stories, but others absolutely dread it.‎ They may have great ideas but struggle to express them on paper. Yet as students move through school, the writing demands will only continue to increase. Help make writing fun for your child with the ideas detailed below.

Play games!
Playing word games with your child can help improve spelling, vocabulary, and overall writing skills. Try playing the popular game Scrabble, where players use letters on tiles to form words that build on each other.‎ Hangman is another fun game, where one player thinks of a word and writes a series of blank spaces on a sheet of paper, each representing a letter. The other player must guess the letters one at a time until they come up with the word (or get “hanged”). You can play story games with your child, where you provide your child with a story that contains blanks for words that they must fill in or play a dice game like “Roll a Story” where players roll a series of dice that each contain a picture and uses their imagination to write a creative story.

Psst..check out these 13 Fun Fidget Toys to Help Kids Focus- and even parents will love!

Journaling
Encourage your child to maintain a journal and write in it daily or almost daily, and you will likely see a drastic improvement in her writing skills. Start by taking your child to a store and letting her pick out a journal with cool, colorful patterns that appeal to her.‎ Then try to do something interesting each day – whether it’s taking a trip to the zoo or a park, or simply discussing a current events topic or trying a new food for dinner. Then encourage your child to write about that topic in her journal. Tell her not to worry about perfect spelling or organization; the idea is just to write freely. Later you can teach her to go back and self-check her work with an acronym like COPS, which stands for Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling, where she writes a check box next to each letter in COPS (written vertically) and checks for each element in the acronym, one by one. For starters, though, just have her focus on writing freely and creatively.

Create a Writing Jar
Create a fun “writing jar” filled with story prompts. To do so, look through newspapers and magazines with your child and cut out interesting pictures of animals, celebrities, or beautiful vacation spots.‎ You can also write down phrases on small cards, like “If I were an animal, I’d be…” or “My favorite dessert is…” and put those cards in the jar. Then have your child close his eyes, pick a card from the jar, and use it as a story prompt to create a writing piece. You may want to have him self-check his work, just like with the journal entries, using COPS as detailed above.

Write Letters
Most of us prefer to text or email friends and relatives since it seems so much faster and more efficient. Yet creating handwritten letters can improve writing skills, and it’s exciting for the recipient to receive an actual letter in the mail – a real novelty these days. Purchase colored pens or pencils, stamps, and stickers for your child, and have her write a letter to a cousin, grandparent, aunt, uncle, friend, or even pen pal, then decorate it with lots of colors, pictures, and stickers. Make it a fun, colorful activity and she will have lots of fun doing it – plus the recipient will be thrilled to receive it!

Try an App!
We all know that kids love playing on tablets or computers, so try integrating writing apps‎ and games to help improve writing skills. The app Writing Challenge for Kids includes a variety of prompts that kids can choose from to write a creative story. “Book creator” is a tool that helps students write their own books using different templates and designs. “Edublogs” is a great website that helps your child get into blogging! Kids can create their own blog on a topic that interests them and can share it with others. “Net Rover” is another website that contains lots of fun writing games for kids to play.

Writing is a wonderful opportunity for expression and a key skill that is critical for school success. Help your child improve her writing skills while having fun with these tips, and she will be well on her way to school success!

The post Improve Your Child’s Writing Skills With Helpful (and Fun) Activities appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Your child daydreams in class, forgets to turn in his homework assignments, or struggles to express his thoughts on paper when writing. He may have difficulty sounding out words when reading or completing basic math problems. If your child demonstrates any of these challenges, he may have a learning disability or ADHD. Research tells us that using a multi-sensory approach is the most optimal way to help struggling learners develop their academic skills. So how can you help your child? Try some of the ideas detailed below.

Reading Comprehension

Many children with ADHD and learning disabilities struggle to comprehend material when reading. You can help your child become an active reader and improve her reading comprehension using a multi-sensory tri-colored highlighting strategy. Start by explaining to her that when she reads, she should look for three key elements: the topic, main idea, and important details. She should first identity the topic, which is one, two, or three words describing what the passage is about, and highlight it in blue. Next, she should look for the main idea, which is what the author is saying about the topic, and highlight it in green. Finally, she should identify the important details, or salient details describing the main idea, and highlight them in yellow. Note that she should try to highlight only important information (not every detail on the page!) and only words and phrases when possible. When applying this strategy, she should read the passage first, then go back and highlight the topic, main idea, and important details using blue, green, and yellow highlighters. Becoming an active reader can help her develop stronger focusing, reading comprehension, and processing skills.

Vocabulary

Many struggling learners have a tendency to avoid reading and thus have a sub-optimal vocabulary. Help your child build his vocabulary using a multi-sensory flash card technique. Say he has a series of vocabulary words to learn for school. To use this strategy, he should take out a stack of blank flash cards and write the first vocabulary term on the front of a card. He should then flip over the card and divide it into three horizontal sections. In the top section, he should write the definition of the word in his own words. In the middle section, he should write a sentence containing the word to add context. Finally, at the bottom of the card, he should draw a picture to help him remember the definition. He should perform this exercise for each of the vocabulary terms he needs to learn, helping him to not just memorize the definitions, but to actually understand the meaning of each one and be able to use it in context.

Writing

Writing is a skill that involves multiple steps, and one that is challenging for many students. Yet learning a structured approach for written expression can help your child develop stellar writing skills. Instead of simply starting to write (or staring at a blank sheet of paper), encourage your child to follow a three-step approach: first she should brainstorm, then write, and then go back and self-check her work. For the first step (brainstorming), she should create an outline, list, or web diagram to help her organize her ideas before writing. Then she should convert this information into an organized paragraph or essay, and then go back and self-check her work. For self-checking, she can try using an acronym like COPS, which stands for Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, Spelling, where she self-checks for each element (one at a time) once she is done writing. This systematic approach can help your child improve her organization and overall written expression abilities.

Math

With math instruction becoming increasingly more language-based, many students are struggling with this skill. Help your child learn to effectively solve math word problem using the OINS strategy. When using this strategy (which stands for Operation, Information, Number Sentence, Solution Sentence), your child should start by reading the problem, then circle the relevant information, cross out the irrelevant information, and circle the key word(s) that tells him what kind of operation to use. Then he should break the problem down into four steps, and write out each step separately – O (operation), I (relevant information), ‎N (number sentence), and S (solution sentence). By breaking each problem down into these individual steps, he can learn to solve word problems in a clear and organized manner.

Students with learning disabilities and ADHD often struggle with many academic aspects of school. Without the proper strategies and support, many become disengaged, lose focus, and struggle as the demands of school increase. Try these strategies with your child to help him feel confident, engaged, and successful in school.

The post Study Skills Strategies for Your Child with a Learning Disability or ADHD appeared first on EBL Coaching.

A robust vocabulary is key for academic success

Vocabulary development is a key component of school readiness and academic success. Kids use words to communicate their feelings and express themselves both orally, and eventually, on paper. In school, they are required to listen, process information, and read increasingly complex texts. A stronger vocabulary can help them thrive with these potential challenges. While some kids develop strong vocabularies simply through exposure to language, others benefit from more direct vocabulary-building exercises. Help your child develop a stronger vocabulary with the ideas detailed below.

Read Every Night!

Reading regularly to your child is one of the best ways to develop a stellar vocabulary. Books are language-rich and often filled with new words for your child to hear and absorb. Choose books that are age-appropriate and engaging for your child. As you encounter a word your child may not know, ask her if she knows its meaning. If so, have her articulate the definition in her own words. If not, define the word for her using basic terms and give relevant examples. For example, you might come across the lines: “The girl was very gracious to her mother. She helped her set the table and clean up after the guests left.” Ask your child if she knows what the word “gracious” means. If so, have her define it; if not, explain to her that it means kind and caring, and talk about times when your child may have acted graciously. Relating the new words to her life can help her process and remember them.

Play the “New Word” Game

Play a fun, vocab-building game by choosing (or having your child choose) a word of the day. Teach him the definition of this word in a clear and simple manner. Then provide an example of how the word can be used and ask him to do the same. For instance, your word of the day might be “gigantic,” which means something very, very big. You might tell him that an elephant is a gigantic animal, and have him come up with his own example of something gigantic, like a bear or mountain. Once the definition of the word is clear, turn it into a game by seeing how many times he can use that word correctly throughout the day. You can even track his new word usage using points on a chart, and offer a fun reward for reaching a certain number of points. To take it to another level, make it a family game by having a different family member come up with the word of the day–or perhaps word of the week. Track each person’s word usage, and the family member who correctly uses the word most frequently in that period of time wins.

Teach Prefixes and Suffixes

Teaching prefixes and suffixes can help children learn and understand ‎hundreds of new words. Choose a prefix–pre, dis, non, for example–and have your child come up with as many words as she can think of containing that prefix (or suffix). Then discuss the definitions of each word and what those definitions have in common. For instance, you might focus on the prefix “pre.” Have her come up with as many words containing the prefix that she can think of, and jot them down on a whiteboard or sheet of paper. She may come up with words like predict, preview, and prevent. Then discuss the definitions with her: Predict means to say something will happen before it actually does, preview means to look at something before someone else, and prevent means to stop something from occurring before it does. What do all of these definitions have in common? They all have to do with something happening “before.” Alas, the definition of “pre” means “before.” It can be eye-opening to consider how many new words your child can learn with just a few prefixes and suffixes.

Play Vocab Games

Have fun building your child’s vocabulary by playing more traditional word games. ‎Such games might include Boggle, where letters are scrambled and players have three minutes to come up with as many words as possible, or Scrabble, where players create words using letter tiles. Apples to Apples is another great vocabulary-building game, where players match specific verb and noun phrases to adjectives, building stronger grammar skills as an added bonus. Encourage your child to play these types of games with his friends, or play them together as a family. The key is to keep them engaging and fun.

Take a Walk!

Take a walk around the block with your child and play a vocabulary-building game. Ask her to think of all of the objects she sees that start with a specific letter. You can even alternate turns. For example, choose the letter “d.” She says the word “dog.” Then you say “door,” she says “duck,” you say “dent,” and so on. You can also play a similar game with words that rhyme. For instance, as you walk, ask her to come up with objects she sees that rhyme with hat, and alternate. She might say cat, then you say bat, she says flat, and so on. In playing these games, you will strengthen her vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and overall language skills.

A strong vocabulary is a key element of academic success. Try these techniques to help your child build a stronger, more robust vocabulary while having fun and enjoying the process.

The post Tips for Building Your Child’s Vocabulary at Home 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.

Originally published on the Macaroni Kid website

For most dyslexic children, reading is an arduous task. They often struggle to sound out words and read with fluency and, as a result, find little pleasure in reading. While most children with dyslexia benefit from multi-sensory instruction from a trained professional, you can help your child develop her reading skills – and joy for reading – with the strategies detailed below.

Word Attack
Children with dyslexia typically have trouble with sounding out words – especially ones they haven’t seen before. Many students look at the beginning sound and guess at the correct word or simply skip certain words when reading. In doing so, their reading becomes inaccurate and may lead to a loss of meaning. To develop these decoding skills, your child will likely need comprehensive multi-sensory reading instruction,  but you can help reinforce these skills by encouraging him to sound out shorter words and syllabicate longer words when reading, rather than guessing. For a young child, have him trace letters in colored sand, salt, or shaving cream for a tactile experience. If your child struggles to spell a word, rather than immediately providing the correct spelling, use a set of magnetic tiles and ask him to spell the word sound-by-sound using the tiles.

Reading Fluency
Reading fluency is a key component to reading for meaning. Help your child improve her reading fluency with this four-step choral reading process:
1. Select a passage to read, slightly below your child’s approximate reading level. Have her read the passage aloud as a cold read.
2. Next, you read the same passage aloud to model appropriate fluency.
3. Your child then reads the same passage with you, keeping up with your pace.
4. Finally, your child reads the same passage out loud as a final read. Draw her attention to the difference between her first and final reads and empower her with the improvement!
Repeatedly practicing this strategy with your child will help build her confidence and fluency when reading.

Reading Comprehension
Becoming an active reader can help students improve their overall comprehension and memory skills. To build this skill, before reading a passage or text book selection, ask your child to review any headers, sub-headers, pictures, picture captions, and vocabulary words. You can also talk to him about prior knowledge he may have about the topic before reading, and have him predict what he thinks the passage will be about before he begins. Also, as he reads, have him highlight the topic (one, two, or three words describing the passage) in blue, main idea (what the author is saying about the topic) in green, and the important details (important information describing the main idea) in yellow. These active reading strategies will help improve his processing and overall reading comprehension skills.

Vocabulary
Many dyslexic children respond well to visual graphics ‎for learning new information. To help your child learn new vocabulary words, try this multi-modal approach:
Have her write each vocab word using a black marker on the front of a flash card. Then have her turn the card around and divide the back side into three horizontal sections. ‎At the top, she should write the definition of the word in her own words (not verbatim from a dictionary). She should then draw a horizontal line beneath it, and write a detailed sentence integrating the word. Finally, at the bottom she should draw a picture illustrating her sentence to help her remember the definition.
As students progress through school, the reading and language demands increase rapidly. Try these tips and strategies to help your dyslexic child feel more confident and successful in school‎.

The post How to Improve Your Dyslexic Child’s Reading Skills appeared first on EBL Coaching.

For some students, learning to read comes naturally. Through exposure to language and books, they figure out how to combine sounds to form words and recognize key sight words. Other students need a systematic approach for learning sound-letter relationships and blending.  Whether your child ultimately learns to read naturally or with a structured approach, performing exercises with him to develop strong reading readiness skills can set the stage for reading success. Try the activities below, and remember to keep them playful, fun, and engaging.

Story Telling

Reading books and stories aloud to your child can help foster a joy for reading while building  comprehension, vocabulary, listening, and fluency skills. As you read to your child, be sure to ask questions before, during, and after you read. Look at the cover together and ask him to make predictions about what he thinks the book will be about. While reading, ask questions about the plot, characters, and events that might happen next. You can also help your child connect the story to items or events in his life. For example, if there is a puppy in the book, ask if he thinks the puppy in the story looks or acts like his own. If a character in the story feels scared, ask if he’s ever felt that way and, if so, have him elaborate on those feelings. Encouraging him to articulate these connections between the plot and his own life will build comprehension, memory, and oral language skills.

Phonemic Awareness: Rhyming, Sounds, Words, and Syllables

Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, recognize, and manipulate sounds in words, and is a strong predictor of future reading success. Activities that involve rhyming, recognizing initial and final sounds, identifying words and syllables, and manipulating sounds all help build strong phonemic awareness skills. Try some of the exercises below to help strengthen these key reading readiness skills.

Rhyming

Help your child build stronger rhyming skills with a “Do These Words Rhyme?” game. To play, ask your child whether certain words rhyme, and track points for correct answers. For example, ask, “Does ‘man’ rhyme with ‘can’?” “Does ‘horse’ rhyme with ‘nose’?” “Does ‘feet’ rhyme with ‘foot’?” and so on.  If he answers correctly, he receives a point. He can then ask you (or another player) similar rhyming questions. The first player to earn 10 points wins.

You can also create a game of Memory using words that rhyme. To do so, draw pictures of various objects on flashcards– a dog, sun, bone, log, phone, etc. (one per card). Place the cards upside down on a table. The first player flips over two cards. If the words rhyme, the player made a match. If not, that player turns the cards back down. ‎Then the next player flips over two cards, and so on. The player who makes the most rhyming matches wins.

Initial and Final Sounds

Learning to recognize sounds in words is a key component of reading readiness. Engage your child in an initial and final sounds game to reinforce this skill. To play, ask your child to tell you the first sound he hears in a given word. For example, ask him to tell you the first sound he hears in pizza (/p/), rug (/r/), or chair (/ch/). If he answers correctly, he receives a point. Next, have him dictate his own words to you (or another player) and you tell him the initial sound. The first player to receive 10 points wins. You can play a similar game with final sounds. For example, ask him to tell you the final sound he hears in the word clap (/p/), door (/r/), push (/sh/), and so on.

Words and Syllables

Play a clapping game with your child to teach him to identify words in sentences and syllables in words– another important reading readiness skill. To do so, read various sentences to your child and ask him to repeat the sentence back to you while clapping one time for each word. For example, for the sentence “Clean your room” he would clap three times, once for each word. For “Eat your green apple” he would clap four times, for “Don’t forget to bring home your book” he would clap seven times, and so on. Similarly, to practice syllable identification, you can read various words to your child and have him clap one time for each syllable in the word. For example, he would clap two times for donut, four times for alligator, and three times for calendar. You can also play these games using counting chips as manipulatives instead of clapping. For each word in a sentence or for each syllable in a word, your child would place down one counting chip.

Songs

Singing songs to your child can help build vocabulary, listening, comprehension, rhyming, and sound discrimination skills, amongst other reading readiness skills. Sing songs to your child that include patterns and rhymes, such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Yankee Doodle. Rather than just singing the melody, ask your child questions about the words and stimulate discussions about the lyrics. For example, you can ask your child what a “water spout” is in Itsy Bitsy Spider or what a “dell” is in Farmer in the Dell, and explain the definitions if he doesn’t know them. Integrating discussions and activities into singing songs can help further develop language and pre-reading skills.

Be sure to keep these exercises fun, playful, and engaging. In doing so, your child will enjoy the process and develop a true zest for learning. Practicing these games and activities will ultimately make him a strong, confident, and successful reader.

The post How to Boost Your Child’s Reading Readiness Skills appeared first on EBL Coaching.