It’s that time again when parents are reminded by relentless advertising on TV that its is time to get their children ready to return to school. I meet many parents during the course of the year and I have noticed that most of them groan when you ask if they are looking forward to the beginning of the school term, but for very different reasons. Continue reading »
One of the most important factors in preventing learning difficulties from developing in children is to ensure that from the moment of birth each child is free when awake to engage their natural-born instinct to move.
Parent often ask me what they can do at home to help their children with learning difficulties. Because we are engaged in a process of remediating the underlying causes of these difficulties, many of these children are enrolled in our Extra Lesson neuro developmental movement therapy programme . This programme removes immaturities and “roadblocks” on the neurological pathways children need for learning. The first thing they can do then is to commit to doing the home exercise programme every day. Continue reading »
In a recent workshop for RTLBs I discussed all of the different diagnosis which are given to children today with learning or behaviours difficulties. We now have ADHD, ADD, GDD, PDD, ODD and PDAD together with dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and Aspergers. The list seems to be endless and no doubt there will be more added as time goes by. However it has been my experience that these are just descriptions of symptoms. It is only in recent years that any real understanding of underlying causes has emerged.
BALANCE is a Key to Successful Learning
Vision and hearing, good fuel and hydration are obvious to most of us. However, many parents and teachers do not realise the importance of good balance to the process of thinking.
Getting ready to go back to school holds excitement and anticipation for some students and pure dread for others. Those children who have all of their “learning equipment” up and running are rested and rearing to go. But for many others, the 10 – 20 % of children with learning difficulties, the thought of school brings anxiety and stress.
As a parent your first steps are to ensure that your child’s most obvious learning equipment is in good order and functioning well. Parents should submit their children to what is effectively a learning “warrant of fitness” list before starting or entering school. Initially this should cover the following criteria:
Every parent who has ever delivered their child to school on their very first day at the tender age of 5 years will recall the myriad of emotions which flooded their parental being at that moment:
If you ask any senior teacher they will invariably tell you that there are more children today with learning and behavioural difficulties than there were 35 years ago. In those days there would be one or two children who stood out in the classroom of 30 children. Today it is common to find up to 5-10 children in a class of 30 with some form of mild to moderate learning difficulty.
